Atomi, provvidenza, segni celesti. Il dialogo epistolare fra Campanella e Gassendi

An exchange of letters took place between Campanella and Gassendi in the 1630s, before the two eventually met in person in Provence, at the residence of their common friend Fabri de Peiresc, at the beginning of November 1634. The two scholars built a friendship and they held one another in high esteem, notwithstanding Campanella's criticism of atomistic doctrines, which he considered insufficient to provide an exhaustive explanation of the formation and organisation of natural beings. This criticism was also reflected in the field of celestial events: while Gassendi firmly refused to attribute any special meaning to unusual astronomical events, Campanella held that physical explanations should not preclude the possibility of these events being also signs of divine language, and as such heralds of messages that required interpretation.