Neri the Scholar

 

Francesco Bartolozzi, Laurentian Library in the 18th cent.

(click to enlarge).

Whether one's chosen field was medicine, law, religion or alchemy, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, books played as important a role in education as they do today. The schooling of Florentine priest and glassmaker Antonio Neri was no exception. The details of his training at seminary remain elusive, but there is no mistaking that his introduction to alchemy occurred well before his ordination as Catholic Priest around 1598. [1] Since his father was the celebrated physician to Grand Duke Ferdinando, there is a good chance that Antonio had access to wide variety of Medici resources, not the least of which was the famed Laurentian Library, designed by Michelangelo and run by Neri family friend Baccio Valore. [2]  

But we need not look as far as the Laurentian, which was only a ten-minute walk from the Neri household. Closer to home, in fact inside his home, there was the extensive library of his own father. At the turn of the century, it contained 477 volumes, spanning poetry, philosophy, the Greek classics, medicine, pharmacology, surgery, religion, even grammar. [3] We know this thanks to an inventory taken at the time of the physician’s death, leaving a list of titles that has survived the ages, even if the volumes themselves have long been dispersed or lost. At the time, outside of the royal family, it was probably one of the largest collections of books in private hands in Florence. Neri’s father had himself been in charge of the revision of the Ricettario Fiorentino, [4] the gold standard of doctors and apothecaries throughout Europe for medicinal prescriptions, published in 1597 and again without revision in 1623.

Antonio Neri is known best as an artisan who worked with his hands. No evidence has been found to place him at a specific monastery or university classroom. Nevertheless, what emerges from the details that we do have is a picture of a man who was steeped in a literary, scholastic tradition from an early age. His Mother’s father, Ser Francesco, held a degree in law as did her grandfather and great-grandfather. [5] Antonio’s father held a degree in medicine from the “Studio Fiorentino,” the forerunner of what today is the University of Florence.[6]  In addition, it would be reasonable to assume the household library included titles once owned by his grandfather Jacopo, a noted barber-surgeon who was known among the literati. It has been speculated that Jacopo’s best friend in the world [7] was poet Lodovico Domenichi, who wrote of his friend in a sonnet:

Marvel about you the people do,
Over how, one might say, almost stupidly,
So many lecturers and scholars admire you. [8]

Domenichi who had been appointed court historian by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, goes on in the sonnet to name a list of mutual friends that includes poets, playwrights and intellectuals of the day.

In a similar way —that is through legal records—we know the contents and titles of the alchemical library of Neri’s sponsor, Don Antonio de’ Medici at the time of his death in 1621. These included several manuscripts by Neri himself, as well as his book on glassmaking. [9] However, one title did escape the attention of the bean-counters; sixty years after Don Antonio’s death, at the death of his son, Giulio, a handwritten book of recipes by Neri was found along with a box of elixirs. “Among them there was a booklet, entitled: Material of all the compounds of Priest Antonio Neri; there is a red dustcover, which says “experiments.” [10]

In his twenties, after a couple of years of making glass in Florence, Neri moved to Pisa where he assisted at the Medici’s furnace run by Niccolò Sisti. Pisa was home to a thriving university, with ample study possibilities, and Neri was proving himself a life-long researcher. From Pisa, in early 1604 he embarked on a seven-year long residence in Antwerp, where he stayed with his friend Emmanuel Ximenes. Ximenes was one of the wealthiest men in Flanders and maintained an extensive library in his palace. He owned many volumes devoted to the chemical arts. [11] In fact, his collection of books was probably the largest in the entire region. [12] Here too, the full list of books is preserved in an inventory compiled after the death in 1617 of Emmanuel’s wife, Isabella da Vega. 

Upon Antonio’s return to Italy, he published his glassmaking recipes in L’Arte Vetraria and then appears to have focused his attention on chemistry and medicine. In the last manuscript he is known to have written, within a year of his death, he writes of a recipe copied “from an old book, here in Pisa” in 1613. 


[1] In his manuscript Tesoro del Mondo devoted to “all of alchemy” (Neri 1598-1600) Neri self-identifies as a priest.
[2] Bartolomeo di Filippo di Niccolò Valori [il giovane] (1535–1606). He was keeper of the Laurentian, steward of the Medici herbal (simples) garden and an early director of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. He was a personal friend to Antonio Neri’s father and godfather to his first child (Antonio’s older sister) Lessandra.
[3] Bec 1984, pp. 299–310.
[4] Neri, Benadù, Rosselli, Galletti 1597, 1623.
[5] Ser Francesco di Ser Niccolò di Ser Antonio Parenti (1519 - ?)
[6] Fathers medical degree ref.
[7] . Garavelli 2004, p. 82, n. 186.
[8] Domenichi 1555, Stanza 7.
[9] Covoni 1892.
[10] Ibid p. 193.
[11] Duverger 1984.
[12] Dupré, Lüthy 2011, p. 272; Göttler, Dupré 2009.
* this post first appeared here on 31 Dec 2014.

Neri the Scholar

Francesco Bartolozzi, Laurentian Library in the 18th cent.

(click to enlarge).

Whether one's chosen field was medicine, law, religion or alchemy, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, books played as important a role in education as they do today. The schooling of Florentine priest and glassmaker Antonio Neri was no exception. The details of his training at seminary remain elusive, but there is no mistaking that his introduction to alchemy occurred well before his ordination as Catholic Priest around 1598. [1] Since his father was the celebrated physician to Grand Duke Ferdinando, there is a good chance that Antonio had access to wide variety of Medici resources, not the least of which was the famed Laurentian Library, designed by Michelangelo and run by Neri family friend Baccio Valore. [2]  

But we need not look as far as the Laurentian, which was only a ten-minute walk from the Neri household. Closer to home, in fact inside his home, there was the extensive library of his own father. At the turn of the century, it contained 477 volumes, spanning poetry, philosophy, the Greek classics, medicine, pharmacology, surgery, religion, even grammar. [3] We know this thanks to an inventory taken at the time of the physician’s death, leaving a list of titles that has survived the ages, even if the volumes themselves have long been dispersed or lost. At the time, outside of the royal family, it was probably one of the largest collections of books in private hands in Florence. Neri’s father had himself been in charge of the revision of the Ricettario Fiorentino, [4] the gold standard of doctors and apothecaries throughout Europe for medicinal prescriptions, published in 1597 and again without revision in 1623.

Antonio Neri is known best as an artisan who worked with his hands. No evidence has been found to place him at a specific monastery or university classroom. Nevertheless, what emerges from the details that we do have is a picture of a man who was steeped in a literary, scholastic tradition from an early age. His Mother’s father, Ser Francesco, held a degree in law as did her grandfather and great-grandfather. [5] Antonio’s father held a degree in medicine from the “Studio Fiorentino,” the forerunner of what today is the University of Florence.[6]  In addition, it would be reasonable to assume the household library included titles once owned by his grandfather Jacopo, a noted barber-surgeon who was known among the literati. It has been speculated that Jacopo’s best friend in the world [7] was poet Lodovico Domenichi, who wrote of his friend in a sonnet:

Marvel about you the people do,
Over how, one might say, almost stupidly,
So many lecturers and scholars admire you. [8]

Domenichi who had been appointed court historian by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, goes on in the sonnet to name a list of mutual friends that includes poets, playwrights and intellectuals of the day.

In a similar way —that is through legal records—we know the contents and titles of the alchemical library of Neri’s sponsor, Don Antonio de’ Medici at the time of his death in 1621. These included several manuscripts by Neri himself, as well as his book on glassmaking. [9] However, one title did escape the attention of the bean-counters; sixty years after Don Antonio’s death, at the death of his son, Giulio, a handwritten book of recipes by Neri was found along with a box of elixirs. “Among them there was a booklet, entitled: Material of all the compounds of Priest Antonio Neri; there is a red dustcover, which says “experiments.” [10]

In his twenties, after a couple of years of making glass in Florence, Neri moved to Pisa where he assisted at the Medici’s furnace run by Niccolò Sisti. Pisa was home to a thriving university, with ample study possibilities, and Neri was proving himself a life-long researcher. From Pisa, in early 1604 he embarked on a seven-year long residence in Antwerp, where he stayed with his friend Emmanuel Ximenes. Ximenes was one of the wealthiest men in Flanders and maintained an extensive library in his palace. He owned many volumes devoted to the chemical arts. [11] In fact, his collection of books was probably the largest in the entire region. [12] Here too, the full list of books is preserved in an inventory compiled after the death in 1617 of Emmanuel’s wife, Isabella da Vega. 

Upon Antonio’s return to Italy, he published his glassmaking recipes in L’Arte Vetraria and then appears to have focused his attention on chemistry and medicine. In the last manuscript he is known to have written, within a year of his death, he writes of a recipe copied “from an old book, here in Pisa” in 1613. 


[1] In his manuscript Tesoro del Mondo devoted to “all of alchemy” (Neri 1598-1600) Neri self-identifies as a priest.
[2] Bartolomeo di Filippo di Niccolò Valori [il giovane] (1535–1606). He was keeper of the Laurentian, steward of the Medici herbal (simples) garden and an early director of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. He was a personal friend to Antonio Neri’s father and godfather to his first child (Antonio’s older sister) Lessandra.
[3] Bec 1984, pp. 299–310.
[4] Neri, Benadù, Rosselli, Galletti 1597, 1623.
[5] Ser Francesco di Ser Niccolò di Ser Antonio Parenti (1519 - ?)
[6] Fathers medical degree ref.
[7] . Garavelli 2004, p. 82, n. 186.
[8] Domenichi 1555, Stanza 7.
[9] Covoni 1892.
[10] Ibid p. 193.
[11] Duverger 1984.
[12] Dupré, Lüthy 2011, p. 272; Göttler, Dupré 2009.
* this post first appeared here on 31 Dec 2014.

Neri the Scholar

Francesco Bartolozzi, Laurentian Library in the 18th cent.

(click to enlarge).

Whether one's chosen field was medicine, law, religion or alchemy, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, books played as important a role in education as they do today. The schooling of Florentine priest and glassmaker Antonio Neri was no exception. The details of his training at seminary remain elusive, but there is no mistaking that his introduction to alchemy occurred well before his ordination as Catholic Priest around 1598. [1] Since his father was the celebrated physician to Grand Duke Ferdinando, there is a good chance that Antonio had access to wide variety of Medici resources, not the least of which was the famed Laurentian Library, designed by Michelangelo and run by Neri family friend Baccio Valore. [2]  

But we need not look as far as the Laurentian, which was only a ten-minute walk from the Neri household. Closer to home, in fact inside his home, there was the extensive library of his own father. At the turn of the century, it contained 477 volumes, spanning poetry, philosophy, the Greek classics, medicine, pharmacology, surgery, religion, even grammar. [3] We know this thanks to an inventory taken at the time of the physician’s death, leaving a list of titles that has survived the ages, even if the volumes themselves have long been dispersed or lost. At the time, outside of the royal family, it was probably one of the largest collections of books in private hands in Florence. Neri’s father had himself been in charge of the revision of the Ricettario Fiorentino, [4] the gold standard of doctors and apothecaries throughout Europe for medicinal prescriptions, published in 1597 and again without revision in 1623.

Antonio Neri is known best as an artisan who worked with his hands. No evidence has been found to place him at a specific monastery or university classroom. Nevertheless, what emerges from the details that we do have is a picture of a man who was steeped in a literary, scholastic tradition from an early age. His Mother’s father, Ser Francesco, held a degree in law as did her grandfather and great-grandfather. [5] Antonio’s father held a degree in medicine from the “Studio Fiorentino,” the forerunner of what today is the University of Florence.[6]  In addition, it would be reasonable to assume the household library included titles once owned by his grandfather Jacopo, a noted barber-surgeon who was known among the literati. It has been speculated that Jacopo’s best friend in the world [7] was poet Lodovico Domenichi, who wrote of his friend in a sonnet:

Marvel about you the people do,
Over how, one might say, almost stupidly,
So many lecturers and scholars admire you. [8]

Domenichi who had been appointed court historian by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, goes on in the sonnet to name a list of mutual friends that includes poets, playwrights and intellectuals of the day.

In a similar way —that is through legal records—we know the contents and titles of the alchemical library of Neri’s sponsor, Don Antonio de’ Medici at the time of his death in 1621. These included several manuscripts by Neri himself, as well as his book on glassmaking. [9] However, one title did escape the attention of the bean-counters; sixty years after Don Antonio’s death, at the death of his son, Giulio, a handwritten book of recipes by Neri was found along with a box of elixirs. “Among them there was a booklet, entitled: Material of all the compounds of Priest Antonio Neri; there is a red dustcover, which says “experiments.” [10]

In his twenties, after a couple of years of making glass in Florence, Neri moved to Pisa where he assisted at the Medici’s furnace run by Niccolò Sisti. Pisa was home to a thriving university, with ample study possibilities, and Neri was proving himself a life-long researcher. From Pisa, in early 1604 he embarked on a seven-year long residence in Antwerp, where he stayed with his friend Emmanuel Ximenes. Ximenes was one of the wealthiest men in Flanders and maintained an extensive library in his palace. He owned many volumes devoted to the chemical arts. [11] In fact, his collection of books was probably the largest in the entire region. [12] Here too, the full list of books is preserved in an inventory compiled after the death in 1617 of Emmanuel’s wife, Isabella da Vega. 

Upon Antonio’s return to Italy, he published his glassmaking recipes in L’Arte Vetraria and then appears to have focused his attention on chemistry and medicine. In the last manuscript he is known to have written, within a year of his death, he writes of a recipe copied “from an old book, here in Pisa” in 1613. 


[1] In his manuscript Tesoro del Mondo devoted to “all of alchemy” (Neri 1598-1600) Neri self-identifies as a priest.
[2] Bartolomeo di Filippo di Niccolò Valori [il giovane] (1535–1606). He was keeper of the Laurentian, steward of the Medici herbal (simples) garden and an early director of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. He was a personal friend to Antonio Neri’s father and godfather to his first child (Antonio’s older sister) Lessandra.
[3] Bec 1984, pp. 299–310.
[4] Neri, Benadù, Rosselli, Galletti 1597, 1623.
[5] Ser Francesco di Ser Niccolò di Ser Antonio Parenti (1519 - ?)
[6] Fathers medical degree ref.
[7] . Garavelli 2004, p. 82, n. 186.
[8] Domenichi 1555, Stanza 7.
[9] Covoni 1892.
[10] Ibid p. 193.
[11] Duverger 1984.
[12] Dupré, Lüthy 2011, p. 272; Göttler, Dupré 2009.
* this post first appeared here on 31 Dec 2014.

Neri the Scholar

Francesco Bartolozzi, Laurentian Library in the 18th cent.

(click to enlarge).

Whether one's chosen field was medicine, law, religion or alchemy, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, books played as important a role in education as they do today. The schooling of Florentine priest and glassmaker Antonio Neri was no exception. The details of his training at seminary remain elusive, but there is no mistaking that his introduction to alchemy occurred well before his ordination as Catholic Priest around 1598. [1] Since his father was the celebrated physician to Grand Duke Ferdinando, there is a good chance that Antonio had access to wide variety of Medici resources, not the least of which was the famed Laurentian Library, designed by Michelangelo and run by Neri family friend Baccio Valore. [2]  

But we need not look as far as the Laurentian, which was only a ten-minute walk from the Neri household. Closer to home, in fact inside his home, there was the extensive library of his own father. At the turn of the century, it contained 477 volumes, spanning poetry, philosophy, the Greek classics, medicine, pharmacology, surgery, religion, even grammar. [3] We know this thanks to an inventory taken at the time of the physician’s death, leaving a list of titles that has survived the ages, even if the volumes themselves have long been dispersed or lost. At the time, outside of the royal family, it was probably one of the largest collections of books in private hands in Florence. Neri’s father had himself been in charge of the revision of the Ricettario Fiorentino, [4] the gold standard of doctors and apothecaries throughout Europe for medicinal prescriptions, published in 1597 and again without revision in 1623.

Antonio Neri is known best as an artisan who worked with his hands. No evidence has been found to place him at a specific monastery or university classroom. Nevertheless, what emerges from the details that we do have is a picture of a man who was steeped in a literary, scholastic tradition from an early age. His Mother’s father, Ser Francesco, held a degree in law as did her grandfather and great-grandfather. [5] Antonio’s father held a degree in medicine from the “Studio Fiorentino,” the forerunner of what today is the University of Florence.[6]  In addition, it would be reasonable to assume the household library included titles once owned by his grandfather Jacopo, a noted barber-surgeon who was known among the literati. It has been speculated that Jacopo’s best friend in the world [7] was poet Lodovico Domenichi, who wrote of his friend in a sonnet:

Marvel about you the people do,
Over how, one might say, almost stupidly,
So many lecturers and scholars admire you. [8]

Domenichi who had been appointed court historian by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, goes on in the sonnet to name a list of mutual friends that includes poets, playwrights and intellectuals of the day.

In a similar way —that is through legal records—we know the contents and titles of the alchemical library of Neri’s sponsor, Don Antonio de’ Medici at the time of his death in 1621. These included several manuscripts by Neri himself, as well as his book on glassmaking. [9] However, one title did escape the attention of the bean-counters; sixty years after Don Antonio’s death, at the death of his son, Giulio, a handwritten book of recipes by Neri was found along with a box of elixirs. “Among them there was a booklet, entitled: Material of all the compounds of Priest Antonio Neri; there is a red dustcover, which says “experiments.” [10]

In his twenties, after a couple of years of making glass in Florence, Neri moved to Pisa where he assisted at the Medici’s furnace run by Niccolò Sisti. Pisa was home to a thriving university, with ample study possibilities, and Neri was proving himself a life-long researcher. From Pisa, in early 1604 he embarked on a seven-year long residence in Antwerp, where he stayed with his friend Emmanuel Ximenes. Ximenes was one of the wealthiest men in Flanders and maintained an extensive library in his palace. He owned many volumes devoted to the chemical arts. [11] In fact, his collection of books was probably the largest in the entire region. [12] Here too, the full list of books is preserved in an inventory compiled after the death in 1617 of Emmanuel’s wife, Isabella da Vega. 

Upon Antonio’s return to Italy, he published his glassmaking recipes in L’Arte Vetraria and then appears to have focused his attention on chemistry and medicine. In the last manuscript he is known to have written, within a year of his death, he writes of a recipe copied “from an old book, here in Pisa” in 1613. 


[1] In his manuscript Tesoro del Mondo devoted to “all of alchemy” (Neri 1598-1600) Neri self-identifies as a priest.
[2] Bartolomeo di Filippo di Niccolò Valori [il giovane] (1535–1606). He was keeper of the Laurentian, steward of the Medici herbal (simples) garden and an early director of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. He was a personal friend to Antonio Neri’s father and godfather to his first child (Antonio’s older sister) Lessandra.
[3] Bec 1984, pp. 299–310.
[4] Neri, Benadù, Rosselli, Galletti 1597, 1623.
[5] Ser Francesco di Ser Niccolò di Ser Antonio Parenti (1519 - ?)
[6] Fathers medical degree ref.
[7] . Garavelli 2004, p. 82, n. 186.
[8] Domenichi 1555, Stanza 7.
[9] Covoni 1892.
[10] Ibid p. 193.
[11] Duverger 1984.
[12] Dupré, Lüthy 2011, p. 272; Göttler, Dupré 2009.
* this post first appeared here on 31 Dec 2014.

The Neri Godparents

Guido Reni (1575–1642)

St Joseph with the Infant Jesus (c. 1635)

Not too long ago, the life of seventeenth century Florentine glassmaker Antonio Neri was regarded as a blank slate, an enigma of history. Some reports described him as a poor itinerant, assuming (perhaps correctly) a vow of poverty in connection with a mendicant order of the Catholic Church; he was, after all a self-described priest. Recent research has begun to bring him into sharper focus.

We now know that he was born into a patrician family, and probably enjoyed a very comfortable childhood. When Antonio was around age thirteen, his famous father, Neri Neri, was appointed personal physician to the newly crowned Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici. His grandfather was a close friend to historian and poet Lodovico Domenichi. (In fact, Antonio’s second given name is Lodovico). 

Even with all the new material that has come to light, there is still much that is unknown about Antonio Neri, his family and their daily life. A window of sorts into that life can be opened by looking at some of the characters chosen as godparents for Antonio and his siblings, details that have been preserved in the city baptistery records.

The first-born child of Neri Neri and Dianora Parenti was Antonio’s older sister Lessandra. She claimed Baccio Valori as her godfather. The Valori family had a long, tragic history with the Medici. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all close Medici supporters, yet each ended up exiled, imprisoned, or executed after relationships soured. On one hand he was faithfully employed by the Medici, yet he reportedly spent a good deal of his time collecting letters and papers documenting his family’s close support of Girolamo Savonarola, the firebrand Dominican priest who lead Florence in the late 1490s, after the Medici had been temporarily expelled from the city.   

Lessandra’s godmother was Marietta Gaetani, also from a noble family, which included dukes, cardinals and popes. They played prominent roles in the politics of Pisa, Rome and Naples for several centuries. Marietta’s father owned the house from whose tower Galileo showed the moons of Jupiter to Grand Duke Cosimo II in 1610. 

Antonio’s oldest brother was Jacopo, named after his still living grandfather, barber-surgeon Jacopo Neri. His godmother, Margherita di Braccio Alberti, (née Margherita di Neri Ardinghelli) was the wife of a Florentine senator and the niece of a Cardinal.  

Of all the Neri godparents, Jacopo’s godfather was perhaps the most notable. Antonio Altoviti was the very controversial archbishop of Florence. It is an understatement to say that the relationship was tense between him and the first Grand Duke, Cosimo I de’ Medici. Nevertheless, he did eventually gain the trust of Cosimo’s inner circle; in 1567 Altoviti was involved in negotiations to bring Venetian glass workers to Tuscany, an agreement the grand duke very much wanted. 

It is impossible to gain full appreciation of a man through a single anecdote, but we can get a flavor. In 1569, shortly after occupying his post for the first time, Altoviti introduced a new ritual to the Florentine Church. On Holy Thursday, the Bishop would wash the feet of twelve of the city’s poor residents rather than of twelve canons (as done previously) and he would give them generous alms. On 13 December 1573, Altoviti became godparent to Jacopo. But Jacopo would never learn what it was like to have the Archbishop as his spiritual guide. Two weeks after his birth, on the 28th of that month, Altoviti convened a special post-Christmas meeting of regional bishops. It was during this synod that he suddenly and unexpectedly died at the age of fifty-two. Within a few years, the boy would join him.

While these names do not tell us anything directly about the Neri family, they certainly provide us with insight into the people they befriended and trusted. In the next post we will take a look at a few more of the Neri children’s godparents.

Neri the Scholar

Francesco Bartolozzi, Laurentian Library in the 18th cent.
(click to enlarge).

Whether one's chosen field was medicine, law, religion or alchemy, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, books played as important a role in education as they do today. The schooling of Florentine priest and glassmaker Antonio Neri was no exception. The details of his training at seminary remain elusive, but there is no mistaking that his introduction to alchemy occurred well before his ordination as Catholic Priest around 1598. [1] Since his father was the celebrated physician to Grand Duke Ferdinando, there is a good chance that Antonio had access to wide variety of Medici resources, not the least of which was the famed Laurentian Library, designed by Michelangelo and run by Neri family friend Baccio Valore. [2]  

But we need not look as far as the Laurentian, which was only a ten-minute walk from the Neri household. Closer to home, in fact inside his home, there was the extensive library of his own father. At the turn of the century, it contained 477 volumes, spanning poetry, philosophy, the Greek classics, medicine, pharmacology, surgery, religion, even grammar. [3] We know this thanks to an inventory taken at the time of the physician’s death, leaving a list of titles that has survived the ages, even if the volumes themselves have long been dispersed or lost. At the time, outside of the royal family, it was probably one of the largest collections of books in private hands in Florence. Neri’s father had himself been in charge of the revision of the Ricettario Fiorentino, [4] the gold standard of doctors and apothecaries throughout Europe for medicinal prescriptions, published in 1597 and again without revision in 1623.

Antonio Neri is known best as an artisan who worked with his hands. No evidence has been found to place him at a specific monastery or university classroom. Nevertheless, what emerges from the details that we do have is a picture of a man who was steeped in a literary, scholastic tradition from an early age. His Mother’s father, Ser Francesco, held a degree in law as did her grandfather and great-grandfather. [5] Antonio’s father held a degree in medicine from the “Studio Fiorentino,” the forerunner of what today is the University of Florence.[6]  In addition, it would be reasonable to assume the household library included titles once owned by his grandfather Jacopo, a noted barber-surgeon who was known among the literati. It has been speculated that Jacopo’s best friend in the world [7] was poet Lodovico Domenichi, who wrote of his friend in a sonnet:

Marvel about you the people do,
Over how, one might say, almost stupidly,
So many lecturers and scholars admire you. [8]

Domenichi who had been appointed court historian by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, goes on in the sonnet to name a list of mutual friends that includes poets, playwrights and intellectuals of the day.

In a similar way —that is through legal records—we know the contents and titles of the alchemical library of Neri’s sponsor, Don Antonio de’ Medici at the time of his death in 1621. These included several manuscripts by Neri himself, as well as his book on glassmaking. [9] However, one title did escape the attention of the bean-counters; sixty years after Don Antonio’s death, at the death of his son, Giulio, a handwritten book of recipes by Neri was found along with a box of elixirs. “Among them there was a booklet, entitled: Material of all the compounds of Priest Antonio Neri; there is a red dustcover, which says “experiments.” [10]

In his twenties, after a couple of years of making glass in Florence, Neri moved to Pisa where he assisted at the Medici’s furnace run by Niccolò Sisti. Pisa was home to a thriving university, with ample study possibilities, and Neri was proving himself a life-long researcher. From Pisa, in early 1604 he embarked on a seven-year long residence in Antwerp, where he stayed with his friend Emmanuel Ximenes. Ximenes was one of the wealthiest men in Flanders and maintained an extensive library in his palace. He owned many volumes devoted to the chemical arts. [11] In fact, his collection of books was probably the largest in the entire region. [12] Here too, the full list of books is preserved in an inventory compiled after the death in 1617 of Emmanuel’s wife, Isabella da Vega. 

Upon Antonio’s return to Italy, he published his glassmaking recipes in L’Arte Vetraria and then appears to have focused his attention on chemistry and medicine. In the last manuscript he is known to have written, within a year of his death, he writes of a recipe copied “from an old book, here in Pisa” in 1613. 


[1] In his manuscript Tesoro del Mondo devoted to “all of alchemy” (Neri 1598-1600) Neri self-identifies as a priest.
[2] Bartolomeo di Filippo di Niccolò Valori [il giovane] (1535–1606). He was keeper of the Laurentian, steward of the Medici herbal (simples) garden and an early director of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. He was a personal friend to Antonio Neri’s father and godfather to his first child (Antonio’s older sister) Lessandra.
[3] Bec 1984, pp. 299–310.
[4] Neri, Benadù, Rosselli, Galletti 1597, 1623.
[5] Ser Francesco di Ser Niccolò di Ser Antonio Parenti (1519 - ?)
[6] Fathers medical degree ref.
[7] . Garavelli 2004, p. 82, n. 186.
[8] Domenichi 1555, Stanza 7.
[9] Covoni 1892.
[10] Ibid p. 193.
[11] Duverger 1984.
[12] Dupré, Lüthy 2011, p. 272; Göttler, Dupré 2009.
* this post first appeared here on 31 Dec 2014.

Donato Altomare

Donato Altomare, engr. C. Biendi,  from

 "Biografia degli uomini illustri del regno di Napoli,"

In sixteenth century Europe, it was not easy being a physician if your philosophy of medicine deviated from the norm. In those days, the 'norm' was to treat all diseases solely based on elementary properties or "humors" as they were called. Successful treatment, according to theory, depended on the restoration of balance between the four humors which were in turn associated with air, water, earth and fire. For example, symptoms that included a burning fever called for a diametrically opposite treatment than for a patient with chills. Sometimes these procedures worked, other times not so much. These principles were very old; they had been established centuries earlier in the writings of Hippocrates and Galen and the wisdom of the ancients was not generally questioned. The medical establishment was locked into these concepts and to deviate was to risk severe criticism from one’s professional peers. 

An early maverick was one-time mining physician Paracelsus. Today he is known as a pioneer of sorts; he focused his attention on practical solutions that worked in the field rather than on dogmatic theories. He insisted on basing his treatment, not blindly on a set of rules, but on close observation of his patients and of nature. Increasingly, his peers considered him a dangerous crackpot and a liability for his unorthodox treatments. He spent the last part of his life running from one town to another, trying desperately to stay ahead of his detractors. The fact that he was also outspoken about his belief of an impending apocalypse did not help his case. He died in 1541 and his ideas about chemistry and medicine did not start to gain traction until about fifty years later, when among many others, alchemists Antonio Neri and his sponsor Prince Don Antonio de' Medici became devotees.

Paracelsus is an extreme example, and perhaps the best known, but he was far from alone in a rising tide of debate about the nature of disease. A much lesser known example, one that peripherally involved Neri's own father was that of Neapolitan physician Donato Altomare who was a university professor in the middle of the sixteenth century. He was hounded out of Naples and forced to relocate in Rome after favoring the opinions of leading Arab physicians over established theory, but philosophically, he was still very much in the mainstream of promoting the ideas of Galen and Hippocrates. The old ideology was held so tightly, that even a slight deviation could leave a career in ruins. Ultimately, Altomare found favor with fellow Neapolitan Pope Paul IV, rehabilitated his reputation and was allowed to return to his hometown, but criticism persisted. One of his most vocal detractors was a classmate of his own son, named Salvo Sclano. 

In 1585, a book on a variety of topics in medical theory was published by one of the leading doctors, Antonio Alvarez, personal physician to the Viceroy of Naples. In Epistolarum et Consiliorum Medicinalium pars prima, Alvarez invited a number of well-respected peers to contribute chapters in the form of letters. The book is most noted for the final chapter in which Alvarez mounts a spirited defense of the above-mentioned Donato Altomare and against his nemesis Sclano.

Antonio Neri's father, Neri Neri, has a detailed chapter in Alvarez's book. The elder Neri was the personal physician to the grand duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando de' Medici. In his piece, he wrote on the treatment of what was known as "left side paralysis," usually the result of a stroke, which often left patients physically debilitated and unable to speak. This same malady befell a close Neri family friend in the 1560's. Poet and historian Lodovico Domenichi spent the end of his life unable to speak, but still attended by his best friend, Antonio's grandfather, Jacopo Neri. The medical problem was correctly identified as originating in the brain, but the prescribed treatment was, shall we say, less than optimal. An incision was made in the rear of the patient's head at the base of the skull. Wires or small beads were inserted to keep the wound open. The theory was that deep pathogens were drawn out of the body, as evidenced by the large discharge of puss that resulted. 

The fact that Neri Neri contributed to the book is an indication that he was in sympathy with Alvarez's defense of Altomare. It is interesting that while he was quietly championing the minor revision of  main-stream Galenic medicine, his son Antonio would go on to champion the far more radical teachings of Paracelsus. While the majority of Antonio's writings deal with medical cures, nowhere does he discuss the theory of "humors" or Galenic medicine, although he also does not speak out against it. In his own quiet way, Antonio Neri was helping to sever ties to the old ways of medical practice. In the future, the emphasis of medical science would be squarely focused on careful observation of nature.

*  This post first appeared here as "Physician Steel Thyself" on 30 July 2014. 

The Neri Godparents

Guido Reni (1575–1642)

St Joseph with the Infant Jesus (c. 1635)

Not too long ago, the life of seventeenth century Florentine glassmaker Antonio Neri was regarded as a blank slate, an enigma of history. Some reports described him as a poor itinerant, assuming (perhaps correctly) a vow of poverty in connection with a mendicant order of the Catholic Church; he was, after all a self-described priest. Recent research has begun to bring him into sharper focus.

We now know that he was born into a patrician family, and probably enjoyed a very comfortable childhood. When Antonio was around age thirteen, his famous father, Neri Neri, was appointed personal physician to the newly crowned Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici. His grandfather was a close friend to historian and poet Lodovico Domenichi. (In fact, Antonio’s second given name is Lodovico). 

Even with all the new material that has come to light, there is still much that is unknown about Antonio Neri, his family and their daily life. A window of sorts into that life can be opened by looking at some of the characters chosen as godparents for Antonio and his siblings, details that have been preserved in the city baptistery records.

The first-born child of Neri Neri and Dianora Parenti was Antonio’s older sister Lessandra. She claimed Baccio Valori as her godfather. The Valori family had a long, tragic history with the Medici. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all close Medici supporters, yet each ended up exiled, imprisoned, or executed after relationships soured. On one hand he was faithfully employed by the Medici, yet he reportedly spent a good deal of his time collecting letters and papers documenting his family’s close support of Girolamo Savonarola, the firebrand Dominican priest who lead Florence in the late 1490s, after the Medici had been temporarily expelled from the city.   

Lessandra’s godmother was Marietta Gaetani, also from a noble family, which included dukes, cardinals and popes. They played prominent roles in the politics of Pisa, Rome and Naples for several centuries. Marietta’s father owned the house from whose tower Galileo showed the moons of Jupiter to Grand Duke Cosimo II in 1610. 

Antonio’s oldest brother was Jacopo, named after his still living grandfather, barber-surgeon Jacopo Neri. His godmother, Margherita di Braccio Alberti, (née Margherita di Neri Ardinghelli) was the wife of a Florentine senator and the niece of a Cardinal.  

Of all the Neri godparents, Jacopo’s godfather was perhaps the most notable. Antonio Altoviti was the very controversial archbishop of Florence. It is an understatement to say that the relationship was tense between him and the first Grand Duke, Cosimo I de’ Medici. Nevertheless, he did eventually gain the trust of Cosimo’s inner circle; in 1567 Altoviti was involved in negotiations to bring Venetian glass workers to Tuscany, an agreement the grand duke very much wanted. 

It is impossible to gain full appreciation of a man through a single anecdote, but we can get a flavor. In 1569, shortly after occupying his post for the first time, Altoviti introduced a new ritual to the Florentine Church. On Holy Thursday, the Bishop would wash the feet of twelve of the city’s poor residents rather than of twelve canons (as done previously) and he would give them generous alms. On 13 December 1573, Altoviti became godparent to Jacopo. But Jacopo would never learn what it was like to have the Archbishop as his spiritual guide. Two weeks after his birth, on the 28th of that month, Altoviti convened a special post-Christmas meeting of regional bishops. It was during this synod that he suddenly and unexpectedly died at the age of fifty-two. Within a few years, the boy would join him.

While these names do not tell us anything directly about the Neri family, they certainly provide us with insight into the people they befriended and trusted. In the next post we will take a look at a few more of the Neri children’s godparents.

* This post first appeared here in a slightly different form on 16 April 2014.

Neri the Scholar

Francesco Bartolozzi, Laurentian Library in the 18th cent.
(click to enlarge).

Whether one's chosen field was medicine, law, religion or alchemy, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, books played as important a role in education as they do today. The schooling of Florentine priest and glassmaker Antonio Neri was no exception. The details of his training at seminary remain elusive, but there is no mistaking that his introduction to alchemy occurred well before his ordination as Catholic Priest around 1598. [1] Since his father was the celebrated physician to Grand Duke Ferdinando, there is a good chance that Antonio had access to wide variety of Medici resources, not the least of which was the famed Laurentian Library, designed by Michelangelo and run by Neri family friend Baccio Valore. [2]  

But we need not look as far as the Laurentian, which was only a ten-minute walk from the Neri household. Closer to home, in fact inside his home, there was the extensive library of his own father. At the turn of the century, it contained 477 volumes, spanning poetry, philosophy, the Greek classics, medicine, pharmacology, surgery, religion, even grammar. [3] We know this thanks to an inventory taken at the time of the physician’s death, leaving a list of titles that has survived the ages, even if the volumes themselves have long been dispersed or lost. At the time, outside of the royal family, it was probably one of the largest collections of books in private hands in Florence. Neri’s father had himself been in charge of the revision of the Ricettario Fiorentino, [4] the gold standard of doctors and apothecaries throughout Europe for medicinal prescriptions, published in 1597 and again without revision in 1623.

Antonio Neri is known best as an artisan who worked with his hands. No evidence has been found to place him at a specific monastery or university classroom. Nevertheless, what emerges from the details that we do have is a picture of a man who was steeped in a literary, scholastic tradition from an early age. His Mother’s father, Ser Francesco, held a degree in law as did her grandfather and great-grandfather. [5] Antonio’s father held a degree in medicine from the “Studio Fiorentino,” the forerunner of what today is the University of Florence.[6]  In addition, it would be reasonable to assume the household library included titles once owned by his grandfather Jacopo, a noted barber-surgeon who was known among the literati. It has been speculated that Jacopo’s best friend in the world [7] was poet Lodovico Domenichi, who wrote of his friend in a sonnet:

Marvel about you the people do,  

Over how, one might say, almost stupidly, 

So many lecturers and scholars admire you. [8]

Domenichi who had been appointed court historian by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, goes on in the sonnet to name a list of mutual friends that includes poets, playwrights and intellectuals of the day.

In a similar way —that is through legal records—we know the contents and titles of the alchemical library of Neri’s sponsor, Don Antonio de’ Medici at the time of his death in 1621. These included several manuscripts by Neri himself, as well as his book on glassmaking. [9] However, one title did escape the attention of the bean-counters; sixty years after Don Antonio’s death, at the death of his son, Giulio, a handwritten book of recipes by Neri was found along with a box of elixirs. “Among them there was a booklet, entitled: Material of all the compounds of Priest Antonio Neri; there is a red dustcover, which says “experiments.” [10]

In his twenties, after a couple of years of making glass in Florence, Neri moved to Pisa where he assisted at the Medici’s furnace run by Niccolò Sisti. Pisa was home to a thriving university, with ample study possibilities, and Neri was proving himself a life-long researcher. From Pisa, in early 1604 he embarked on a seven-year long residence in Antwerp, where he stayed with his friend Emmanuel Ximenes. Ximenes was one of the wealthiest men in Flanders and maintained an extensive library in his palace. He owned many volumes devoted to the chemical arts. [11] In fact, his collection of books was probably the largest in the entire region. [12] Here too, the full list of books is preserved in an inventory compiled after the death in 1617 of Emmanuel’s wife, Isabella da Vega. 

Upon Antonio’s return to Italy, he published his glassmaking recipes in L’Arte Vetraria and then appears to have focused his attention on chemistry and medicine. In the last manuscript he is known to have written, within a year of his death, he writes of a recipe copied “from an old book, here in Pisa” in 1613. 


[1] In his manuscript Tesoro del Mondo devoted to “all of alchemy” (Neri 1598-1600) Neri self-identifies as a priest.
[2] Bartolomeo di Filippo di Niccolò Valori [il giovane] (1535–1606). He was keeper of the Laurentian, steward of the Medici herbal (simples) garden and an early director of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. He was a personal friend to Antonio Neri’s father and godfather to his first child (Antonio’s older sister) Lessandra.
[3] Bec 1984, pp. 299–310.
[4] Neri, Benadù, Rosselli, Galletti 1597, 1623.
[5] Ser Francesco di Ser Niccolò di Ser Antonio Parenti (1519 - ?)
[6] Fathers medical degree ref.
[7] . Garavelli 2004, p. 82, n. 186.
[8] Domenichi 1555, Stanza 7.
[9] Covoni 1892.
[10] Ibid p. 193.
[11] Duverger 1984.
[12] Dupré, Lüthy 2011, p. 272; Göttler, Dupré 2009.

Physician 'Steel' Thyself

Donato Altomare, engr. C. Biendi,  from
 "Biografia degli uomini illustri del regno di Napoli,"

In sixteenth century Europe, it was not easy being a physician if your philosophy of medicine deviated from the norm. In those days, the 'norm' was to treat all diseases solely based on elementary properties or "humors" as they were called. Successful treatment, according to theory, depended on the restoration of balance between the four humors which were in turn associated with air, water, earth and fire. For example, symptoms including a burning fever called for the diametrically opposite treatment from chills. Sometimes these procedures worked, other times not so much. These principles were very old; they had been established centuries earlier in the writings of Hippocrates and Galen and the wisdom of the ancients was not generally questioned. The medical establishment was locked into these concepts and to deviate was to risk severe criticism from one’s professional peers. 

An early maverick was one-time mining physician Paracelsus. Today he is known as a pioneer of sorts; he focused his attention on practical solutions that worked in the field rather than on dogmatic theories. He insisted on basing his treatment, not blindly on a set of rules, but on close observation of his patients and of nature. Increasingly, his peers considered him a dangerous crackpot and a liability for his unorthodox treatments. He spent the last part of his life running from one town to another, trying desperately to stay ahead of his detractors. The fact that he was also outspoken about his belief of an impending apocalypse did not help his case. He died in 1541 and his ideas about chemistry and medicine did not start to gain traction until about fifty years later, when among others, alchemists Antonio Neri and his sponsor Prince Don Antonio de' Medici became devotees.

Paracelsus is an extreme example, and perhaps the best known, but he was far from alone in a rising tide of debate about the nature of disease. A much lesser known example, one that peripherally involved Neri's own father was that of Neapolitan physician Donato Altomare who was a university professor in the middle of the sixteenth century. He was hounded out of Naples and forced to relocate in Rome after favoring the opinions of leading Arab physicians over established theory, but philosophically, he was still very much in the mainstream of promoting the ideas of Galen and Hippocrates. The old ideology was held so tightly, that even a slight deviation could leave a career in ruins. Ultimately, Altomare found favor with fellow Neapolitan Pope Paul IV, rehabilitated his reputation and was allowed to return to his hometown, but criticism persisted. One of his most vocal detractors was a classmate of his own son, named Salvo Sclano. 

In 1585, a book on a variety of topics in medical theory was published by one of the leading doctors, Antonio Alvarez, personal physician to the Viceroy of Naples. In Epistolarum et Consiliorum Medicinalium pars prima, he invited a number of well-respected peers to contribute chapters in the form of letters. The book is most noted for the final chapter in which Alvarez mounts a spirited defense of the above-mentioned Donato Altomare and against his nemesis Sclano.

Antonio Neri's father has a detailed chapter in Alvarez's book. Neri Neri was the personal physician to the grand duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando de' Medici. In his piece, he wrote on the treatment of what was known as "left side paralysis," usually the result of a stroke, which often left patients physically debilitated and unable to speak. This same malady befell a close Neri family friend in the 1560's. Poet and historian Lodovico Domenichi spent the end of his life unable to speak, but still attended by his best friend, Antonio's grandfather, Jacopo Neri. The medical problem was correctly identified as originating in the brain, but the prescribed treatment was, shall we say, less than optimal by current standards. An incision was made in the rear of the patient's head at the base of the skull. Wires or small beads were inserted to keep the wound open. The theory was that deep pathogens were drawn out of the body, as evidenced by the large discharge of puss that resulted. 

The fact that Neri Neri contributed to the book is an indication that he was in sympathy with Alvarez's defense of Altomare. It is interesting that while he was quietly championing the minor revision of  main-stream Galenic medicine, his son Antonio would go on to champion the far more radical teachings of Paracelsus. While the majority of Antonio's writings deal with medical cures, nowhere does he discuss the theory of "humors" or Galenic medicine, although he also does not speak out against it. In his own quiet way, Antonio Neri was helping to sever ties to the old ways of medical practice. In the future, the emphasis of medical science would be squarely focused on careful observation of nature.

The Godparents

Guido Reni (1575–1642)
St Joseph with the Infant Jesus (c. 1635)

It was not too long ago that the life of seventeenth century Florentine glassmaker Antonio Neri was regarded as a blank slate, a complete mystery. We now know that he was born into a patrician family, and probably enjoyed a very comfortable childhood. When Antonio was around age thirteen, his famous father, Neri Neri, was appointed personal physician to the newly crowned Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici. His grandfather was a close friend to historian and poet Lodovico Domenichi. (In fact, Antonio’s second given name is Lodovico). 

Even with all the new material that has come to light, there is still much that is unknown about Antonio Neri, his family and their daily life. A window of sorts into that life can be opened by looking at some of the characters chosen as godparents for Antonio and his siblings, details that have been preserved in the city baptistery records.

The first-born child of Neri Neri and Dianora Parenti was Antonio’s older sister Lessandra. She claimed Baccio Valori as her godfather. The Valori family had a long, tragic history with the Medici. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all close Medici supporters, yet each ended up exiled, imprisoned, or executed after relationships soured. On one hand he was faithfully employed by the Medici, yet he reportedly spent a good deal of his time collecting letters and papers documenting his family’s close support of Girolamo Savonarola, the firebrand Dominican priest who lead Florence in the late 1490s, after the Medici had been temporarily expelled from the city.   

Lessandra’s godmother was Marietta Gaetani, also from a noble family, which included dukes, cardinals and popes. They played prominent roles in the politics of Pisa, Rome and Naples for several centuries. Marietta’s father owned the house from whose tower Galileo showed the moons of Jupiter to Grand Duke Cosimo II in 1610. 

Antonio’s oldest brother was Jacopo, named after his still living grandfather, barber-surgeon Jacopo Neri. His godmother, Margherita di Braccio Alberti, (née Margherita di Neri Ardinghelli) was the wife of a Florentine senator and the niece of a Cardinal.  

Of all the Neri godparents, Jacopo’s godfather was perhaps the most notable. Antonio Altoviti was the very controversial archbishop of Florence. It is an understatement to say that the relationship was tense between him and the first Grand Duke, Cosimo I de’ Medici. Nevertheless, he did eventually gain the trust of Cosimo’s inner circle; in 1567 Altoviti was involved in negotiations to bring Venetian glass workers to Tuscany, an agreement the grand duke very much wanted. 

  It is impossible to gain full appreciation of a man through a single anecdote, but we can get a flavor. In 1569, shortly after occupying his post for the first time, Altoviti introduced a new ritual to the Florentine Church. On Holy Thursday, the Bishop would wash the feet of twelve of the city’s poor residents rather than of twelve canons (as done previously) and he would give them generous alms. On 13 December 1573, Altoviti became godparent to Jacopo. But Jacopo would never learn what it was like to have the Archbishop as his spiritual guide. Two weeks after his birth, on the 28th of that month, Altoviti convened a special post-Christmas meeting of regional bishops. It was during this synod that he suddenly and unexpectedly died at the age of fifty-two. Within a few years, the boy would join him.

While these names do not tell us anything directly about the Neri family, they certainly provide us with insight into the people they befriended and trusted. In the next post we will take a look at a few more of the Neri children’s godparents.