David Freedberg

David Freedberg, professor of art history and director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia, will offer a University Lecture on Tuesday, April 23, at 8:00 p.m., in Low Rotunda.

In his lecture, Freedberg will present, for the first time, the visual and documentary evidence for the natural historical researches and breakthroughs of the closest friends of Galileo. Chief amongst these was Federico Cesi, the founder (in 1603) of what is commonly regarded as the first modern scientific society, the Accademia dei Lince - of which Galileo was the sixth member. The argument will revolve around the tension between pictorial representation and geometry in the modern study of nature. It will also describe a set of pioneering developments in the relationship between classification and biological reproduction in the age before Linnaeus.