From flesh to fossils – Nicolaus Steno’s anatomy of the Earth

Abstract

AbstractThis paper concerns the Danish anatomist Nicolaus Steno’s years in the service of the Medici Court and argues that his studies of the Earth in Canis cacharia dissectum caput from 1667 and De Solido intra solidum contento dissertationis prodromus from 1669 must be interpreted within this context and in relation to the epistemological approach of the historia-genre present in many early modern medical textbooks. The use of historia enabled Steno to produce knowledge that was both useful as a Medicean instrument of power and allowed him to produce a truthful geological thesis without referral to Aristotelian causes. Traditionally, Steno’s geological work has been interpreted teleologically, as a break from contemporary natural philosophy and as an example of a foresight which would not be appreciated properly until several hundred years after his death. Challenging the untenable presentist interpretation, this paper argues that Steno’s work on the transformation of the Earth must be understood as inherently connected to the Medici court and their experimental academy – the Accademia del Cimento.