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Giovanni Arduino
(16 Oct 1714 - 21 Mar 1795)
Italian geologist known as the father of Italian geology, who introduced the terms Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary in 1760 to classify four broad divisions of the Earth's visible rock surface, each successively younger in geological age.
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Science Quotes by Giovanni Arduino (7 quotes)
…cabinet naturalists [who] of nature saw almost nothing but what [that] is conserved in museums.
— Giovanni Arduino
Arduino had an aversion to those authors inclined to empiricism and speculation, instead of field research. From Due Lettere del Sig Giovanni Arduino, lvi, 61. As quoted and cited by Francesco Luzzini, Lettere di Giovanni Arduino (edited by Ezio Vaccari) - Book Review (Jan 2011), published in Studi Veneziani (2010), LX, 294. As given by Google Translate, from the original: “naturalisti da gabinetto”, che “della naturaquasi altro non viddero che ciò [che] conservasi ne’ musei.”
[Fossils found in the Secondary formation are] unrefined and imperfect [species and the species in the Tertiary formation] are very perfect and wholly similar to those that are seen in the modern sea. [Thus] as many ages have elapsed during the elevation of the Alps, as there are races of organic fossil bodies embedded within the strata.
— Giovanni Arduino
Quoted in Francesco Rodolico, 'Arduino', In Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970), Vol. 1, 234.
From whatever I have been able to observe up to this time the series of strata which form the visible crust of the earth appear to me classified in four general and successive orders. These four orders can be conceived to be four very large strata, as they really are, so that wherever they are exposed, they are disposed one above the other, always in the same order.
— Giovanni Arduino
Quoted in Francesco Rodolico, 'Arduino', In Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970), Vol. 1, 234.
I have always loved to begin with the facts, to observe them, to walk in the light of experiment and demonstrate as much as possible, and to discuss the results.
— Giovanni Arduino
Quoted in Francesco Rodolico, 'Arduino', In Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970), Vol. 1, 234.
I shall conclude, for the time being, by saying that until Philosophers make observations (especially of mountains) that are longer, more attentive, orderly, and interconnected, and while they fail to recognize the two great agents, fire and water, in their distinct affects, they will not be able to understand the causes of the great natural variety in the disposition, structure, and other matter that can be observed in the terrestrial globe in a manner that truly corresponds to the facts and to the phenomena of Nature.
— Giovanni Arduino
'Aleune Osservazioni Orittologiche fatte nei Monti del Vicentino', Giomale d’Italia, 1769, 5, 411, trans. Ezio Vaccari.
So far as I have been able to observe thus far, the series of strata which compose the earth’s visible crust, seem to me to be divided into four general or successive, orders, without taking into consideration the sea. These four orders can be thought of as being four enormous strata ... which, wherever they are found, are seen to be placed one above the other, in a consistently uniform manner.
— Giovanni Arduino
'Lettere Seconda ... sopra varie sue Osservazioni fatti in diverse parti del Territorio di Vicenza, ad altrove, appartenenti alIa Teoria terrestre, ed alIa Mineralogia') Nuova Raccolta di Opuscoli Scientificie Filologici, 1760,6,158, trans. Ezio Vaccari.
With the sole guidance of our practical knowledge of those physical agents which we see actually used in the continuous workings of nature, and of our knowledge of the respective effects induced by the same workings, we can with reasonable basis surmise what the forces were which acted even in the remotest times.
— Giovanni Arduino
Quoted in Francesco Rodolico, 'Arduino', In Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970), Vol. 1, 234.
See also:
- 16 Oct - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Arduino's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
