Restoro d'Arezzo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ristoro or Restoro d'Arezzo was an Italian monk of the thirteenth century, author of the Composizione del Mondo^[1] of c. 1282.

This is the first astronomical work to be written in Italian (Tuscan).^[2] It contains also, as its title (The Composition of the World) suggests, geological theories: these covered the internal structure of a spherical shell Earth, fossils, and erosion, amongst others.

It has been claimed that Dante was familiar with Ristoro’s work.[2]. Dante in the Quaestio de Aqua et Terra dated to 1320 did consider related matters.^[3]

[edit] References

Alberto Morino (editor) (1997), La composizione del mondo, Restoro d'Arezzo

[edit] Notes

^ Called a ‘vernacular astronomy primer’.[1]
^ In fact the first scientific work in Italian; see the external link. Also it is the first Italian prose work.
^ There has been some past scholarly controversy over whether this work really is by Dante.