Anastasio De Filiis
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Anastasio de Filiis (
Terni Terni ( ; ; ) is a city in the southern portion of the region of Umbria, in Central Italy. It is near the border with Lazio. The city is the capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera (Tiber), River Nera. It is northeast ...
1577 -
Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
1608), together with Prince
Federico Cesi Federico Angelo Cesi (; 26 February 1585 – 1 August 1630) was an Italian scientist, naturalist, and founder of the Accademia dei Lincei. On his father's death in 1630, he became briefly lord of Acquasparta. Biography Federico Cesi was ...
, the Dutch physician
Johannes van Heeck Johannes van Heeck, (Deventer 2 February 1579 – presumably Sant'Angelo Romano c.1620), (also known as Johann Heck, Joannes Eck, Johannes Heckius, Johannes Eckius and Giovanni Ecchio) was a Dutch physician, naturalist, alchemist and astrologer. ...
and Francesco Stelluti, was one of the four founding members of the
Accademia dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...
. He wrote a number of works on natural science and tables of astronomical observations which have since been lost.


Family background

The de Filiis family were related to the family of the Cesi. In the mid-fifteenth century, Carlo de Filiis de Caesis, Count Palatine, moved from Cesi to Terni and secured from the
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...
the right to be mayor and notary of the town for himself and his successors. Anastasio's father, Paul de Filiis, was the standard-bearer of the city, but nothing is known of his mother. Anastasio was the oldest of three brothers, one of whom, Angelo (1583-1624), became librarian of the Accademia dei Lincei and wrote a dedicatory preface to
Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
's ''
Letters on Sunspots '' Letters on Sunspots'' (''Istoria e Dimostrazioni intorno alle Macchie Solari'') was a pamphlet written by Galileo Galilei in 1612 and published in Rome by the Accademia dei Lincei in 1613. In it, Galileo outlined his recent observation of dark ...
''. Nothing is known of the other brother, Valentino.


Activities with the Lincei

In 1603, together with Prince Cesi and his other friends, he co-founded the Accademia dei Lincei. He chose 'Eclipsatus' as his club pseudonym, an eclipsed moon as his personal emblem, and '' 'spero lucem' '' ('I hope for light') as his personal motto. This was perhaps a reference to the fact that he was the least educated of the four, and indeed did not even speak Latin, which was essential for any kind of scholarly work. He relied on his friends for accounts of material they had read, but Cesi encouraged him by emphasising the importance of close observation of phenomena around him, rather than reliance on written material. Despite his lack of Latin, he was also made secretary to the Academy, responsible for recording all its proceedings in the ''Gesta Lyncaeorum''. Because of his interest in astronomy and in the construction of mechanical devices, Cesi asked him to make an
astrolabe An astrolabe (; ; ) is an astronomy, astronomical list of astronomical instruments, instrument dating to ancient times. It serves as a star chart and Model#Physical model, physical model of the visible celestial sphere, half-dome of the sky. It ...
, which he finished on 22 October 1603. Like other early members, Anastasio de Filiis was forced to leave Rome in the years following the founding of the Lincei because of pressure from the Duke of Acquasparta, father of Prince Cesi, who suspected the four young men of indulging in magical practices and immoral behaviour. Among them, Anastasio was the one with whom the Duke was least at odds, and it was through him that the Duke was able to keep track of his errant son. The correspondence between the four young men reveals that in those years (1603-1606), the de Filiis often moved around, living alternately in Terni and Rome. Even when away from Rome, Anastasio continued to act as secretary of the Academy. In 1606, perhaps drawing on the lessons of Giambattista della Porta, he left for Naples, where he died in 1608.


Works

Of his works, which were among the lost manuscripts of the Biblioteca Albani, only two titles are known: '' 'De arcanis naturalibus' '' and '' 'Novae saecundorum motuum tabulae ab Eclipsato Lyncaeo delineatae' ''.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Filiis, Anastasio de 1577 births 1608 deaths 16th-century Italian scientists 17th-century Italian astronomers Members of the Lincean Academy