Fabrizio Baldassarri
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fabribald.bsky.social
Fabrizio Baldassarri
@fabribald.bsky.social
RTT/Ass.Prof. Roma3- early modern natural philo - #DescartesLab - sciences, medicine, and plant philo🌱💭/plant studies🌿🔬MSCA Ca' Foscari/Indiana U - Warburg/I Tatti fellow / #ConEnvHIst - Seminar EM Plant Knowledge #VegSciLif #plantstudies
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15.1.2021-14.1.2024 Today is my last day as a MSCA fellow. I am thankful to CaFoscari and BloomingtonHPS IU that hosted me, to my supervisors and all people who have supported my research - I look forward to new adventures🎑 and to new research projects!🌿🌾🍍#vegscilif #histsci #manipulatingflora
On Monday, February 2nd, I present with Simone Guidi Rule 11 of the Regulae ad directionem ingenii - I discuss the second part of it, so to say, where #Descartes offers some insights on #enumeration --- which I have already presented in my talk on Rule 7

Here the program:
www.sns.it/it/evento/re...
January 30, 2026 at 12:59 PM
a great discussion of Raphaele Andrault's book Le fer ou le feu (2024) - it's a great focus on pain as a crucial element to convey a philosophical investigation. #histsci #histmedicine are important in #histphilo #descartes
we presented it in @descarteslab.bsky.social #DescartesLab
January 22, 2026 at 10:44 AM
In the second book of his De motu animalium, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli provides a strong mechanization of plant life, as in chapter 13 he discusses "On Plant Generation and Vegetation", somehow reducing plants to hydraulic machines - or a thermometer raising sap/liquors #plantlife #histsci
January 15, 2026 at 9:38 AM
#bluestorians #SkyStorians #histsci #histphilo I discuss of Descartes's rule 7 - moving from this article and from the chapter on Descartes's natural philosophy - I believe that this rule reveals his methodological application of inductive knowledge to nature works.hcommons.org/records/1f48...
January 13, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Fabrizio Baldassarri
#PrincetonBucharestSeminar in Early Modern Philosophy, the 25th edition. This time, focus will be devoted to errors, falsehood and forgeries. Apply until January 15.

#earlymodern #histsci #histphilo #17thcentury #errors

organizers are @rodolfogarau.bsky.social Dana Jalobeanu and Dan Garber!
January 11, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Join us next Tuesday in Rome, at University of Rome 3, for the final meeting of the Prin Comunicare e Rappresentare le scienze della terra nell'Italia moderna with several colleagues. #histsci #17thcentury #earthstudies
January 10, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Fabrizio Baldassarri
#IThinkThereforeJanuary26
#Descartes month schedule:
🧠
Jan.12 - Seminar Regulae (online) - Organized by Iacopo Chiaravalli, Igor Agostini, Alfredo Ferrarin - time: Italy

6:00 pm – F.Marrone: Regula V
7:00 pm – D.Arbib: Regula VI
📚
www.sns.it/it/evento/re...
René Descartes, Regulae ad directionem ingenii. Reading Seminar – Séminaire de lecture | ScuolaNormaleSuperiore
The seminar will consist of a commented reading of the entire text of Descarte's Regulae ad directionem ingenii. The first meeting will take place on Monday, November 24, 2025 at 5:30 PM (CET). All ot...
www.sns.it
December 23, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Happy for this book review of my "René Descartes's Natural Philosophy and Particular bodies" written by Andrea Strazzoni In the latest issue of the Rivista di filosofia #descartes #17thcentury #histsci #histphilo #physics
the review is here: www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1413/...
December 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
It's today! #DescartesJanuary26 in Italy starts with this pre-event in Venice on the #Regulae #Descartes
Then:

Jan12: online event on Rules 4 & 5 of the Regulae
Jan19: in Pisa & online on Rules 7, 8 & 9
Jan21-23: in Torino, #DescarteForum
Jan27: #DescartesLab on ontology

🐻 with us #histphilo
#Cartesian event in Venice, organized with the #DescartesLab collaboration, on the recent edition of #Descartes's Regulae ad directionem ingenii. The event is blended.
#histphilo #histsci #earlymodernbooks #17thcentury #epistemology
We are pleased to support #DescartesAge #DescartesLaboratory
December 19, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Kärin Nickelsen has written a generous book review of my volume: 🌳Plants in the 16th and 17th century (🌿 www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi... ) - you may find it on Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 🌱
elibrary.duncker-humblot.com/.../vol-52-2...
@historychroniq.bsky.social
December 16, 2025 at 8:18 AM
I think therefore #January2026. A very #Cartesian month. More soon

Join us online on January 27 for the next #DescartesLab event (in English) - email us for info or link!
📣 #bluestorians the next meeting of the #DescartesLab is on Jan.27, 2026, at 3.00 pm (CET time) - we discuss ontology in the seventeenth century with the lastest book of Alice Ragni!
The meeting is in English! #17thcentury #histsci #histphilo #ontology #Descartes #Cartesianis email us for contact
December 15, 2025 at 6:16 PM
In the last class of my course on #environmentalhistory #conenvhist, I discuss disasters and human intervention/role in causing them and role in re-constructing the environment. Discussion will concern #LisbonEarthquake and Lydia Barnett's gorgeous book #AftertheFlood - #histsci #histenvironment
December 15, 2025 at 10:18 AM
This week, I teach natural and human diversities. Claims that human changes also followed the climate are in Montaigne's Essais 2.12, but if you read until the end, you note the comparison between humans👪and plants🌳- both change while changing places. #climate #conenvhis #envhist #histsci
December 8, 2025 at 9:48 AM
in a time of revival of #DescartesMethod #Descartes #Regulae, I am happy to point out to an article I wrote years ago on the connections between the Regulae and his early 1630s correspondence - it's here: #method #intuition #deduction #histsci #experimentation works.hcommons.org/records/1f48...
December 2, 2025 at 11:06 AM
I have submitted 3 panels for next #HSS26 #ESHS26
1. on agriculture/gardening
2. on mathematical instruments applied to practices of navigation and carpentry
3. on the interactions between practices and science in various fields #pragmaticturn #tradingzones
Looking forward to stimulating discussion
📣CFP HSS-ESHS 2026 joint conference - 13-16 July 2026 in Edinburg. Here attached, a proposal for a panel on "Artisans, Practitioners, and Instruments in the Making of Premodern Science" - share or send me an abstract #practices #labor #artisans #artifacts #instruments #hss
Image from Agostino Gallo
December 1, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Preparing (very slowly) my next class on water - a great metaphysical subject, but this class is for historians of environmental humanities - and I should resort to the work of Andrea Bacci #bacci #waterscapes #conenvhist #EnvironmentalHumanities #histsci
November 29, 2025 at 5:18 PM
CfP on artisans, practitioners, and instruments in the making of premodern science - I have two nice panels, but would be happy to include something more either on agriculture or mining. If you plan to attend @historyscience.bsky.social #ESHS #Edinburgh26 #histsci #artisan #practitioners #science
📣CFP HSS-ESHS 2026 joint conference - 13-16 July 2026 in Edinburg. Here attached, a proposal for a panel on "Artisans, Practitioners, and Instruments in the Making of Premodern Science" - share or send me an abstract #practices #labor #artisans #artifacts #instruments #hss
Image from Agostino Gallo
November 25, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Fabrizio Baldassarri
📣CFP HSS-ESHS 2026 joint conference - 13-16 July 2026 in Edinburg. Here attached, a proposal for a panel on "Artisans, Practitioners, and Instruments in the Making of Premodern Science" - share or send me an abstract #practices #labor #artisans #artifacts #instruments #hss
Image from Agostino Gallo
November 13, 2025 at 6:01 PM
On rural observator - the experience of rustics in Robert Plot's The Natural History of Stafford-Shire #environment #historyofwinds #naturalhistory #health #air #conenvhist #histsci #histphilo #histmed
November 18, 2025 at 11:17 AM
one of the central questions of my article, in which I explore the ascent of sap, is to focus on the ways premodern scholars interpreted this motion either as passive or active. This has crucial consequences on their definition of plant life #plantlife #vegscilif #histsci #ascentsap #17thcentury🌿
November 17, 2025 at 11:37 AM
My special issue on gardens and plants as laboratories of premodern science is out on @royalsocietypublishing.org #notesandrecords #nrrs #histplants #histsci #vegscilif #envhist with articles by me, Luzzini on minerals, @johedesan.bsky.social on Guy de La Brosse, Jalobeanu on Bacon, and Benharrech🌱
November 17, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Fabrizio Baldassarri
#Cartesian event in Venice, organized with the #DescartesLab collaboration, on the recent edition of #Descartes's Regulae ad directionem ingenii. The event is blended.
#histphilo #histsci #earlymodernbooks #17thcentury #epistemology
We are pleased to support #DescartesAge #DescartesLaboratory
November 14, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Francis Bacon on the ways burning of heather in Sussex produced winds that damaged the vines of Bordeaux #pollution #environment #agriculture #vine #vino #conenvhist #environmentalstudies #envhist #histsci #Bacon #air
November 14, 2025 at 4:58 PM
📣CFP HSS-ESHS 2026 joint conference - 13-16 July 2026 in Edinburg. Here attached, a proposal for a panel on "Artisans, Practitioners, and Instruments in the Making of Premodern Science" - share or send me an abstract #practices #labor #artisans #artifacts #instruments #hss
Image from Agostino Gallo
November 13, 2025 at 6:01 PM
book launch of my🌿"Filosofia e scienza delle piante nel Seicento"🌱- in Rome at La Sapienza, with the participation of Riccardo Pozzo - on November 13, at 2,15 pm (CET)

I am very happy for this - I will present a paper on #plantsandmetaphysics #histsci #plantstudies #histplants 🌳
November 11, 2025 at 11:12 AM