“Before the explosion of the novatores’ ideas”: Sforza Pallavicino lyncaean

Sforza Pallavicino (1608-1667) was among the last learned men to be co-opted to the first Academy of the Lynceans, on the 27th January 1629, along with the nobleman and traveler Pietro della Valle and the learned librarian Lucas Holstein. And yet, after the founder and patron of the Academy, Federico Cesi died, on August 1630, Pallavicino was the only one among the fellow Lynceans to be considered to succeed him as Prince of the group. The essay suggests an unusual reading of the events that led to the end of the Academy in 1630, which the author supposes to be connected to the choice of the three last Lynceans. In particular, it explains Pallavicino's candidacy to the leadership as the result of the strategy pursued by his mentor Giovanni Battista Ciampoli to make the Academy the stage for his own pro-Galilean battle in the Roman Curia.