Organising, Enhancing and Spreading Italian Science. Mathematics in the Learned Journals of the 18th Century Printed in Venice

This essay illustrates the motivations and the strategies, put into effect by the editors, collaborators and publishers of 18th-century periodicals, published in Venice, in organising, enhancing and spreading advanced scientific knowledge and research in Italy, especially in the field of mathematics. Taking into consideration the history of the Giornale de’ Letterati d’Italia (1710-1740), the Supplementi al Giornale de’ Letterati d’Italia (1722-1726 Supplementi), the Raccolta di Opuscoli Scientifici e Filologici (1728-1757) and the correspondence between mathematicians, scientists, and editors, it examines the motivations and strategies of the founders and the printers, the structure, the styles and the editorial policy, the attitudes and behaviours of the editors, the intellectual and material resources made available and the meaning of patronages and dedications, the choice of the collaborators and authors, and the network in the various regions of the peninsula. The aim is to evaluate the impact which these journals had on Italian scientific publishing, the readership they addressed, the relationship with censorship, the editorial choices when faced with the controversies that arose, the importance of the numerous biographical-panegyrics of authors both dead and living and the significance of the self-reviews. At last it discusses the reasons for the cultural and publishing success in avant-garde mathematical research, the benefits and services given to the society of the time, but also the drawbacks for some authors in diffusing their results in Europe, the crises and the decline until final closedown of the Giornale and the Supplementi, the launch of new testate and the influence of these periodicals on some learned journals founded subsequently in order to see their legacy on Italian scientific culture in the second half of the 18th century.