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The Italians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were quite capable of building structures of the largest and most imposing kind by the simplest means. It was at this time that the form of scaffolding, fastened together by ropes which has been used in European countries ever since came into existence. Michelangelo declared that he could build anything that he could plan, and it needs only a glance at some of the finished structures to realize that this was no idle boast. The story that is told of him with regard to St. Peter’s when the Pope insisted that Michelangelo should take over the completion of the Basilica may be anecdotal, but it expresses exactly Michelangelo’s confidence in his own constructive ability. The Pope said that he wanted to have in St. Peter’s a great Christian monument more imposing than any which the imperial Romans had left at the height of their power, and Michelangelo is said to have declared that he would put the Pantheon on top of the Colosseum thus combining the two greatest Roman monuments. That is literally what St. Peter’s is, and the dome of it is one of the greatest monuments of constructive ability that has ever been raised.

Nearly all the inventions in art come from the Italians. Fresco painting was developed by them and they worked on the materials for colors. Oil painting probably was originated in the Netherlands, but was magnificently developed in Italy. What they accomplished for color work of all kinds can only be properly appreciated if the whole round of the arts and crafts in which color is used is studied. What the Venetians did in the enduring coloration of glass has remained unrivalled in the history of the world. It is no wonder that the Venetian painters accomplished so much in colors. The illumination of books, the dyeing of textiles, the use of color in needlework and in decorations of all kinds, all these we owe more to the Italians than to any other nation, and their taste in color composition in contrast was unfailing. It is almost literally true that some of these wonderful inventions of the medieval period in Italy must be counted among the “lost arts.” They knew how to burnish gold leaf as applied to manuscript so that it maintains its brightness in a way that we can not do at the present time, and some of their colors for illumination work, notably their blues, retain their pristine beauty though ours so soon fade. Italian glass coloration had secrets in the older time that had been lost, and have not as yet been recovered in spite of extensive experimentation in the modern times.

To Galileo is usually attributed the invention of the telescope. Some serious doubts have been thrown on his priority in the use of the telescope, and perhaps the original idea is due to a Hollander. There is no doubt at all however, that Galileo had never seen a telescope as made by anyone else, that at most he had heard in a general way of what had been done in the Netherlands when on the strength of his knowledge of optics he took two lenses, arranged them so as to give magnification and apparent approximation of distant bodies. He must above all be given due credit for the invention, because he worked out all the problems in the practical application of this new instrument to astronomy, while those who anticipated him scarcely dreamt of its possibilities in this way. Before his time the telescope had been scarcely more than a toy; in his hands it became a great scientific instrument, by which the distant portions of the universe were brought so close to man that his study of them was greatly facilitated.

The story with regard to the microscope is very similar to that of the telescope. The compound microscope was in vented in the Netherlands, but an Italian, Father di Torre, showed how much could be accomplished by means of the simple microscope when skillfully made. He employed globules made by fusing the ends of thread of spun glass as lenses. Later on many of the improvements that made the compound microscope the marvelous instrument that it is at present came from the Italians. Professor Amici of Modena made the first attempts at the achromatization of microscopic objectives and laid down the theory by which this might be successfully accomplished. To Amici also we owe the introduction of the immersion system in microscopic observation. He pointed out that “the introduction of a drop of water between the front surface of the objective and either the object itself or its covering glass would diminish the loss of light resulting from the passage of the rays from the object or its covering glass into air and from air into the front glass of the objective. It was found on applying this principle of the immersion lens that not only was the great loss of light obviated, but further the immersion system allows of a greater working distance between the object and the objective than can be attained with a dry or air objective having the same angular apperture; and this increase affords not only a greater freedom of manipulation, but also a greater range of penetration or focal depth, and the observer is rendered much less dependent upon the exactness of his over correction. In a word these two suggestions of Amici, achromatization and lens immersion have done most to make the compound microscope the practical scientific instrument it now is, especially as regards the use of the higher powers.