Occupation Polymath Name Francesco Stelluti | Role Polymath | |
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Born 12 January 1577 Fabriano, Italy Parent(s) Bernardino Stelluti and Lucrezia Corradini Died November 1652, Fabriano, Italy | ||
Francesco Stelluti (12 January 1577 – November 1652) was an Italian polymath who worked in the fields of mathematics, microscopy, literature, and astronomy. Along with Federico Cesi, Anastasio de Filiis and Johannes van Heeck, he founded the Accademia dei Lincei in August 1603. In 1625, he published the first accounts of observations using a microscope (specifically, the optical microscope), and his Persio tradotto in verso sciolto e dichiarato ("[Works of Aulus] Persius [Flaccus] translated into light verse and annotated [lit. 'declared' in the sense of 'remarked/commented upon']"), published in Rome in 1630, is the first book published in codex form to contain images of organisms viewed through the microscope.
Earlier he and Federico Cesi had printed in broadsheet (or broadside) form the work Apiarium in 1625, marking the first published microscopic revelations of biological structures.
Subsequently, in 1637 he published a work on fossilised wood, apparently also with the aid of magnifying instruments.