Eulogy of Mr. d'Alembert

Abstract

Reproduction of the first Italian edition (Milan, Galeazzi, 1786) of the "Eulogy of Mr. d'Alembert" of the Milanese mathematician and astronomer Paolo Frisi (1728-1784), who studied and trained on the scientific writings of the co-director of the "Encyclopédie", with whom entertained a dense correspondence that testifies to their custom and their friendship, sealed in several Parisian meetings. In the "Eulogy", warmly composed shortly after hearing the news of d'Alembert's death (29 October 1783), the Milanese enlightenment reconstructs minutely and with extreme precision the succession of the works and publications of the great encyclopedist, placing it in the history of the revolution scientific after Galileo and Newton, and formulating sober and balanced judgments also on dalembertian philosophical and literary writings, such as the "Discours préliminaire" (1751), the "Essai sur la société des gens de lettres et des grands" (1753), the "Analyse de l 'Esprit des lois (1755) and "Sur la destruction des jésuites en France (1765).