Italian contributions to the Enlightenment are most often discussed in
terms of the slow acceptance of Newtonian science (Ferrone) or the obstacles to
change within a quaint museum of antiquated states (Venturi). This case study
of an important naturalist attempts to identify the paths to change between tradition
and revolt, in fields of natural knowledge that are sometimes less regarded in
the context of an international movement of intellectual emancipation. In spite
of an early attachment to some form of physico‑theology, Antonio Vallisneri,
professor of medicine at the University of Padua from 1700 to his death in 1730,
made a number of innovative contributions to biological description and natural
history which placed him among the forerunners of Georges Buffon. Heir to the
empirical approach enshrined in the work of Marcello Malpighi, for the most
part he attempted to avoid much of the philosophical and theological speculation
raging between deists and atheists. However, the implications of his work,
including activity as a science communicator to wider audiences, pointed to a
reassessment of the importance of accurate natural knowledge in the ongoing
reform of public instruction and cultural institutions then occurring in the
major cities of Italy and abroad, an important plank in the Enlightenment
program in the years leading up to the French Encyclopédie.