Emanuele Tesauro’s Cannocchiale Aristotelico (CA, eng. "Aristotelian Spyglass) stands as a masterpieces of Baroque literature, an "istraforo di perspettiva" ("a kaleidoscope of perspectives")—as Tesauro himself might say—through which to approach the aesthetic sensibility of his time. However, critical interpretations have often overlooked its deep connection with the rhetorical-poetic tradition of the late Renaissance, that questions the possibility of considering poetry and artistic imagery in general as forms of knowledge rather than mere illusion.
This research aims to reinterpret the CA through these unexplored lenses, positioning its poetic solutions within the broader debate on the truth of poetic images. Could the break between Tesauro’s concept of Argutezza (wit) and Renaissance aesthetics be understood as the result of an epistemological redefinition of poetic imagery? Furthermore, what is the role of modern science and Galileo, whose telescope (cannocchiale) serves as the title of Tesauro's work? Could the galileian scientific conception of sensitive images have influenced the poetical solutions of the CA? By addressing these questions, this study reframes the CA as a crucial intersection of Baroque poetics and scientific thought. More broadly, it sheds new light on the contemporary obsession with images, spectacle, and the interplay between wonder and technology, offering historical insight into today’s "Neo-Baroque" culture of immersive imaginative suggestions.