Blessed Nicolaus Steno

Convert, Bishop, anatomist, geologist and saint, Blessed Nicolaus Steno is considered one of the founders of modern anatomy and the Father of Stratigraphy, also one of the founders of modern anatomy. Denmark (1638-1686)

“Steno’s general philosophy of science is one of the clearest formulated philosophies of modern science as it appeared during the seventeenth century. It includes (1) separation of scientific methods from religious arguments; (2) a principle of how to seek “demonstrative certainty” by demanding considerations from both reductionist and holist perspectives; (3) a series of purely structural (semiotic) principles developing a stringent basis for the pragmatic, historic (diachronous) sciences as opposed to the categorical, timeless (achronous) sciences; and (4) “Steno’s ladder of knowledge,” by which he formulated the leading principle of modern science, i.e., how true knowledge about deeper, hidden causes (“what we are ignorant about”) can be approached by combining analogue experiences with logic reasoning.” (On the origin of natural history: Steno’s modern, but forgotten philosophy of science, Jens Morten Hansen, Geological Society of America, 1 Oct 2008). Steno’s clear philosophy of science applied equally to anatomy, geology and theology. It is no coincidence that his greatest scientific theories were simultaneous with his theological conversion to Catholic Faith.

Steno began his career as a Lutheran physician. By 1662, he had discovered the excretory duct of the parotid gland (salivary gland in front of ear), which is today known as Stensen’s duct. He was the first to claim the heart is simply a muscle, nothing more. By 1666, he was professor of anatomy at the University of Padua, but soon moved to Florence to be the physician of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de’ Medici, a supporter of arts and science whom Steno had met in Pisa. Steno went to Rome and met Pope Alexander VII and Marcello Malpighi, whom he admired. On his way back in June, 1666, he watched the Corpus Christi procession in Livorno: “I was in Livorno for the Corpus Christi feast and when I saw the consecrated wafer carried through the town with such great display of magnificence, this thought arose in me: either this consecrated wafer is a simple piece of bread and those who show so much veneration for it are fools or it is the true body of Christ and why then do I not venerate it myself?” (Nicolaus Steno: Biography and Original Papers of a 17th Century Scientist, edited by Troels Kardel, Paul Maquet, p. 156).

Just four months later, in October 1666, the Grand Duke tasked Steno to dissect a great white shark. As he worked, Steno was struck by the shark teeth’s resemblance to stony objects, called glossopetrae – literally ‘tongue stones’.  He contemplated the Eucharist. He contemplated the shark’s teeth and the glossopetrae.  He contemplated the contraction and expansion of muscles. His mind was a whirl. But things began to coalesce.

By April 1667, he used geometry to show a contracting muscle changes its shape but not its volume. On November, 3, 1667, Steno joined the Catholic Church.  By July 4, 1668, he had written his manuscript explaining how solids (like shark’s teeth) could be found encased in other solids, published under the title De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus, or Preliminary discourse to a dissertation on a solid body naturally contained within a solid. He laid out the laws of stratigraphy, becoming the first man to use solid geometry as a way to measure time. He also showed that crystals would have constant interfacial angles, a fact now known as Steno’s Law. (The Abyss of Time: Unraveling the Mystery of the Earth’s Age,  Claude C., Jr. Albritto,, 1980, p. 39) He then turned his attention to the greatest science: theology. By 1675, he felt the call to the priesthood. He was ordained by Easter. Within three years, he was titular bishop, stationed in Hannover, where he lived a life of poverty so extreme, he gave even his pectoral cross and bishop’s ring for the poor.

According to Hansen (2009, p. 21), to his death, Steno considered scientific knowledge to be the highest praise to God. Bishop Steno is largely forgotten because he wrote in a beautiful and poetic Latin. His last major scientific work,  a comprehensive lecture entitled Prooemium, was not translated into English until 1994. Because he worked in Italy and converted to Catholicism, even his own countrymen ignored his accomplishments. It was only after Alexander von Humboldt rediscovered his work in 1830 that Charles Lyell, along with other famous geologists, came to regard Steno as the standard authority. With regards to his anatomical results, Steno has always been considered one of the founders of modern anatomy. In 1881, the Second International Geological Congress proclaimed him the Founder of Geology. In January 2012, he received a Google doodle in honor of his 374th birthday.