De Motu Animalium

This happens because simple anatomists and common philosophers are not very solicitous, nor do they care to perceive the idiom in which the Author of Nature is accustomed to write in this sensible Code. Such an idiom, I say, and the characters by which the Creator of Things speaks in his works, are Geometric Configurations and Demonstrations. This the divine Plato expressed clearly; when asked what God was doing, he replied Γεωμετρεῖν τὸν Θεὸν God geometrizes, that is, that God practices geometry. This most illustrious sentiment, excellently interpreted by learned men, seems able to be adapted to our undertaking.

For since animals are bodies, and their vital operations are either motions or cannot be performed without motion, and since bodies and motions are the subject of Mathematics, such scientific contemplation will be entirely Geometric. Likewise, the operations of animals are produced by causes, instruments, and mechanical principles, namely: the balance, the lever, the pulley, the drum, the wedge, the screw, etc. And since the scientific knowledge of these is entirely Geometric, it will be true that God exercises geometry in the construction of the organs of Animals, and we need geometry in the perception of them, which is the unique and adapted science, so that the divine Code written in Animals may be read and perceived.

You, however, LADY, after you have enriched your mind with the treasures of the sciences through the sharpness of your intellect and assiduous study, also possess

Lucretius, book 2

You wished for me (though unworthy), holding the torch and pointing the way, to look into the Sanctuary of the divine volume exposed to our eyes; namely, you wished for Γεωμετρεῖν τὴν Χριστῖναν Christina to geometrize, and to contemplate the geometry that the Divine hand delineated in the sensible and animal World, which declares the existence, eminence, and goodness of the Divine author. If, thereafter, it was granted to me to perceive even the smallest part of those Geometric principles that were expressed by Divine Wisdom in the structure and operations of Animals, the Republic of Letters must acknowledge this from YOUR beneficent and Heroic hand. Of whom I, with my studies, am the most obedient client and servant. Farewell. Rome, from the House of the Piarist Schools of St. Pantaleon, the Kalends of December, 1679.

FLESH