Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'STORIA DELLE SCIENZE E DELLE TECNICHE'

This dissertation looks at the narrative of science and technology promoted by national level public institutions which work in the field of science communication and public understanding of science. Focus is on India and specifically on the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM hereafter), which is a centrally funded organization under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It is in charge of creating a large number of science centres around the country and also managing several of them. The organization has a clearly defined set of goals and objectives, the most prominent one of which is the ‘promotion of scientific temper’ (a recurring theme dealt with in the chapters), and is in charge of carrying out multiple programmes of public engagement with science, the details of which can be found in the annual activity reports. These constitute a part of the primary literature used in the dissertation. Interviews carried out with highly involved stakeholders (like the NCSM management), field notes gathered during museum visits and other publications of NCSM and contributions of NCSM professionals to academic discourse constitute the other primary sources.

Il presente lavoro di ricerca propone una revisione del corpus greco dei manoscritti alchemici conservati presso le biblioteche italiane attraverso la realizzazione di un nuovo catalogo, aggiornato ed elaborato secondo le recenti norme di catalogazione. Tale progetto risponde alla necessità di un completo riesame dell’attuale catalogo dei codici alchemici italiani curato da Carlo Oreste Zuretti e pubblicato a Bruxelles nel 1927 (Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs, II). L’inadeguatezza e insufficienza di tale sussidio emerge soprattutto nella descrizione dei singoli esemplari, specie per quanto riguarda gli aspetti codicologici e paleografici. Il nuovo accurato studio che ha coinvolto ciascun manoscritto mira alla realizzazione di un esaustivo strumento di lavoro in grado di coniugare gli aspetti materiali, scrittori, testuali e storico-culturali degli esemplari esaminati. Le nuove acquisizioni emerse dallo studio dei codici consentono di delineare meglio la storia della circolazione dei testi alchemici greci e dei loro lettori.
This work proposes a revision of the Greek corpus of alchemical manuscripts preserved in Italian libraries through the creation of a new and updated catalogue, compiled according to recent cataloging standards. This project responds to the need for a complete revision of the current catalogue of Italian alchemical manuscripts edited by Carlo Oreste Zuretti and published in Brussels in 1927 (Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs, II). The insufficiency of that work emerges in the description of individual items, especially with regard to codicological and paleographic aspects. The new careful study involving each manuscript aims at the realization of a comprehensive working tool capable of combining the material, scriptural, textual and historical-cultural aspects of each codex.

Questo lavoro verte sulla ricostruzione del pensiero dell’antropologo e psicoanalista Georges Devereux (1908-1985), attraverso un approccio storico-biografico e all’interno di una prospettiva che si discosta da quella tradizionale in cui Devereux è considerato il “padre dell’etnopsichiatria”. Intento principale della tesi è presentare un inedito Devereux epistemologo delle scienze dell’uomo, ricostruendo le tappe del suo percorso scientifico e rintracciando radici e storia dei principali concetti del suo sistema teorico nel contesto storico-culturale nonché nel quadro epistemologico in cui hanno preso forma. Le fonti principali di questa ricostruzione sono i materiali d’archivio del cospicuo Fondo Devereux, custodito all’Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC), nonché i dossier conservati all’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Seguendo la ricerca di Devereux in fieri, attraverso le carte d’archivio, scritti inediti e scritti più o meno celebri, questo lavoro propone, in sostanza, di leggere dietro la nascita di questa “nuova scienza” (l’etnopsicoanalisi), il tentativo di fondare una nuova epistemologia e un nuovo metodo di osservazione per i saperi sull’uomo. Instaurando un dialogo tra fisica quantistica, antropologia e psicoanalisi – a partire dai concetti di complementarità e controtransfert – Devereux suggerisce, infatti, un nuovo approccio allo studio dell’uomo che, rifuggendo da riduzionismi o determinismi, sia il più possibile esaustivo e, prendendo in carico la soggettività del ricercatore, sia più efficace e realistico. La complessità e l’importanza del suo contributo teorico senza dubbio travalicano i confini dell’etnopsichiatria, perlomeno come oggi la intendiamo, e il percorso di Devereux, nella sua pluridisciplinarità e internazionalità, offre uno sguardo sul panorama intellettuale del ventesimo secolo che ha visto la nascita delle principali branche delle scienze umane, il loro sviluppo in tradizioni differenti, la progressiva specializzazione e frammentazione, ma anche tentativi, tenaci e difficili, di un dialogo.
This work focuses on the reconstruction of the thought of the anthropologist and psychoanalyst Georges Devereux (1908-1985), through a historical-biographical approach and within a perspective that differs from the traditional one according to which Devereux is considered the “father of Ethnopsychiatry”. The main aim of the thesis is to present an unprecedented Devereux “epistemologist of the human sciences”, by reconstructing the steps of his scientific path, the roots and the history of the main concepts of his theoretical system within both the historical-cultural context and the epistemological framework where they took shape. The main sources for this work are the archive material of the Devereux Fund, held by the Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC), and the dossiers held by the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Following the Devereux’s research in fieri – through archive material, unpublished writings, famous works and less known ones – this work basically proposes to read, behind the origin of this “new science” (Ethnopsychoanalysis), the attempt to found a new epistemology and a new method of observation for human sciences. By establishing a dialogue between Quantum Physics, Anthropology and Psychoanalysis – starting from the concepts of complementarity and countertransference – Devereux suggests, indeed, a new approach for human studies which can be as comprehensive as possible, more effective and realistic. With no doubt, the complexity and the importance of his theoretical contribution go beyond the boundaries of Ethnopsychiatry, at least as we intend it today, and his multidisciplinary and international path offers an insight on the intellectual background of the 20th century, which witnessed the birth of the main branches of human sciences, their development in different traditions, their progressive specialization and fragmentation, but also constant and serious efforts for a dialogue

Questo lavoro verte sulla ricostruzione del pensiero dell’antropologo e psicoanalista Georges Devereux (1908-1985), attraverso un approccio storico-biografico e all’interno di una prospettiva che si discosta da quella tradizionale in cui Devereux è considerato il “padre dell’etnopsichiatria”. Intento principale della tesi è presentare un inedito Devereux epistemologo delle scienze dell’uomo, ricostruendo le tappe del suo percorso scientifico e rintracciando radici e storia dei principali concetti del suo sistema teorico nel contesto storico-culturale nonché nel quadro epistemologico in cui hanno preso forma. Le fonti principali di questa ricostruzione sono i materiali d’archivio del cospicuo Fondo Devereux, custodito all’Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC), nonché i dossier conservati all’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Seguendo la ricerca di Devereux in fieri, attraverso le carte d’archivio, scritti inediti e scritti più o meno celebri, questo lavoro propone, in sostanza, di leggere dietro la nascita di questa “nuova scienza” (l’etnopsicoanalisi), il tentativo di fondare una nuova epistemologia e un nuovo metodo di osservazione per i saperi sull’uomo. Instaurando un dialogo tra fisica quantistica, antropologia e psicoanalisi – a partire dai concetti di complementarità e controtransfert – Devereux suggerisce, infatti, un nuovo approccio allo studio dell’uomo che, rifuggendo da riduzionismi o determinismi, sia il più possibile esaustivo e, prendendo in carico la soggettività del ricercatore, sia più efficace e realistico. La complessità e l’importanza del suo contributo teorico senza dubbio travalicano i confini dell’etnopsichiatria, perlomeno come oggi la intendiamo, e il percorso di Devereux, nella sua pluridisciplinarità e internazionalità, offre uno sguardo sul panorama intellettuale del ventesimo secolo che ha visto la nascita delle principali branche delle scienze umane, il loro sviluppo in tradizioni differenti, la progressiva specializzazione e frammentazione, ma anche tentativi, tenaci e difficili, di un dialogo.
This work focuses on the reconstruction of the thought of the anthropologist and psychoanalyst Georges Devereux (1908-1985), through a historical-biographical approach and within a perspective that differs from the traditional one according to which Devereux is considered the “father of Ethnopsychiatry”. The main aim of the thesis is to present an unprecedented Devereux “epistemologist of the human sciences”, by reconstructing the steps of his scientific path, the roots and the history of the main concepts of his theoretical system within both the historical-cultural context and the epistemological framework where they took shape. The main sources for this work are the archive material of the Devereux Fund, held by the Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC), and the dossiers held by the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Following the Devereux’s research in fieri – through archive material, unpublished writings, famous works and less known ones – this work basically proposes to read, behind the origin of this “new science” (Ethnopsychoanalysis), the attempt to found a new epistemology and a new method of observation for human sciences. By establishing a dialogue between Quantum Physics, Anthropology and Psychoanalysis – starting from the concepts of complementarity and countertransference – Devereux suggests, indeed, a new approach for human studies which can be as comprehensive as possible, more effective and realistic. With no doubt, the complexity and the importance of his theoretical contribution go beyond the boundaries of Ethnopsychiatry, at least as we intend it today, and his multidisciplinary and international path offers an insight on the intellectual background of the 20th century, which witnessed the birth of the main branches of human sciences, their development in different traditions, their progressive specialization and fragmentation, but also constant and serious efforts for a dialogue

Nel 2019 si celebra il 50° anniversario dell’allunaggio e questa ricerca vuole analizzare come la conquista della Luna non sia stata solo un traguardo tecnico e scientifico, ma anche un evento di rilevante portata storica e culturale. La scelta di questa ricorrenza è stata strategica e mirata ad un’attualizzazione e contestualizzazione di questo tema attraverso diversi ambiti. Il lavoro parte dalla fascinazione letteraria e cinematografica e approda, attraverso il genere fantascientifico, ai così detti ‘Anni della Luna’. La trattazione procede con l’analisi della storia del viaggio verso il satellite a partire dalle ceneri della missilistica di guerra e si concentra sui processi decisionali, propagandistici e soprattutto sullo slancio tecnologico che hanno permesso al programma Apollo di raggiungere uno dei traguardi più ambiziosi della storia dell’umanità. Nell’intento di documentare come lo sbarco dell’uomo sulla Luna sia stato un evento mediatico senza precedenti, sono stati presi in esame gli articoli pubblicati sui due quotidiani più diffusi e i due principali settimanali italiani nel biennio 1968-1970. Questi, insieme a una serie di interviste realizzate a professionisti che lavorarono alle dirette e alle trasmissioni, o che se ne occuparono negli anni successivi, ha permesso di verificare come la stampa e la televisione si approcciarono all’evento. La nuova necessità di informazione e documentazione ha gettato, proprio allora, le basi della comunicazione scientifica e ha dato vita alla prima generazione di giornalisti scientifici e divulgatori. Questa analisi è stata un ulteriore campione per confermare la ‘dimensione popolare’ di questo evento, in quanto l’interesse e la quantità di fascinazioni che hanno alimentato l’immaginario collettivo, configureranno un vero e proprio caso di pop science. Tra le eredità degli anni d’oro della space age, sono stati ricordati i brevetti, l’inizio delle collaborazioni internazionali, ma anche il caso mediatico del complotto lunare e le nuove frontiere dell’esplorazione spaziale.
In 2019 we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing and this research aims to analyse how the conquest of the satellite has been a technical and scientific goal and has had a great historical and cultural relevance. The choice of this event has been strategic for an actualization and contextualization of this theme through different areas. This work originates from the literary and cinematographic fascination and spreads, through the science fiction genre, to the so-called ‘Moon Years'. The discussion proceeds with the analysis of the history of the conquest starting from the ashes of the war and it focuses on decision-making, on propaganda and on the technological push that allowed the Apollo program to achieve one of the most ambitious goals in the history of humanity. In order to document the media event, we have examined the articles published on the two top newspapers in the world and the two main Italian weekly magazines from 1968 to 1970. This documentation, together with a series of interviews conducted with professionals who worked on these themes, allowed to verify how the press and television approached the missions. The new need for information and documentation has laid the foundations for scientific communication and created the first generation of scientific journalists. The interest and the curiosity that the event has aroused in collective imagination confirm the 'popular dimension' of the Moon landing. That is why it can be considered as a case of pop science. Among all the legacies of the golden years of space age, we have also mentioned the patents, the beginning of international collaborations, along with the spread of the Moon landing conspiracy theories and the new frontiers of space exploration.

The subject of this research, the medicalization of the gendered body, is a shifting object. It has changed its medical name from Intersex to DSD (Disorders -or Divergence- of Sex Development), since the beginning of this research project. Loosely speaking it addresses the gendered components of the body, and their subsequent consideration. Drawing closer, it addresses how modern medicine treats people who manifest variations of one of the gendered components of the body, inserting their bodies into pathological categories now called DSD. This shifting terrain of different modes of viewing the gendered body has grown to include many variations, no longer solely interested in the mythical hermaphrodite. The locus of this investigation is in the interaction between these patient groups and doctors in Italy.
Tratta dell’intreccio fra genere e medicalizzazione del corpo a partire da uno studio sull’intersessualità, ovvero sui “disturbi della differenziazione sessuale” (DSD). Si tratta di un insieme di sindromi legate allo sviluppo divergente di una delle componenti del sesso biologico. Per la prima volta in Italia, si fa il punto sulla natura, la storia, le rappresentazioni di questa condizione, si esamina il corpo di genere (gendered body), la sua medicalizzazione, s’indaga l’autopercezione dei soggetti in questione.

The subject of this research, the medicalization of the gendered body, is a shifting object. It has changed its medical name from Intersex to DSD (Disorders -or Divergence- of Sex Development), since the beginning of this research project. Loosely speaking it addresses the gendered components of the body, and their subsequent consideration. Drawing closer, it addresses how modern medicine treats people who manifest variations of one of the gendered components of the body, inserting their bodies into pathological categories now called DSD. This shifting terrain of different modes of viewing the gendered body has grown to include many variations, no longer solely interested in the mythical hermaphrodite. The locus of this investigation is in the interaction between these patient groups and doctors in Italy.
Tratta dell’intreccio fra genere e medicalizzazione del corpo a partire da uno studio sull’intersessualità, ovvero sui “disturbi della differenziazione sessuale” (DSD). Si tratta di un insieme di sindromi legate allo sviluppo divergente di una delle componenti del sesso biologico. Per la prima volta in Italia, si fa il punto sulla natura, la storia, le rappresentazioni di questa condizione, si esamina il corpo di genere (gendered body), la sua medicalizzazione, s’indaga l’autopercezione dei soggetti in questione.

The present study aims at assessing the innovation strategies adopted within a regional economic system, the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, as it faced the challenges of a changing international scenario. As the strengthening of the regional innovative capabilities is regarded as a keystone to foster a new phase of economic growth, it is important also to understand how the local industrial, institutional, and academic actors have tackled the problem of innovation in the recent past. In this study we explore the approaches to innovation and the strategies adopted by the main regional actors through three different case studies. Chapter 1 provides a general survey of the innovative performance of the regional industries over the past two decades, as it emerges from statistical data and systematic comparisons at the national and European levels. The chapter also discusses the innovation policies that the regional government set up since 2001 in order to strengthen the collaboration among local economic actors, including universities and research centres. As mechanics is the most important regional industry, chapter 2 analyses the combination of knowledge and practices utilized in the period 1960s-1990s in the design of a particular kind of machinery produced by G.D S.p.A., a world-leader in the market of tobacco packaging machines. G.D is based in Bologna, the region’s capital, and is at the centre of the most important Italian packaging district. In chapter 3 the attention turns to the institutional level, focusing on how the local public administrations, and the local, publicly-owned utility companies have dealt with the creation of new telematic networks on the regional territory during the 1990s and 2000s. Finally, chapter 4 assesses the technology transfer carried out by the main university of the region – the University of Bologna – by focusing on the patenting activities involving its research personnel in the period 1960-2010.

The present study aims at assessing the innovation strategies adopted within a regional economic system, the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, as it faced the challenges of a changing international scenario. As the strengthening of the regional innovative capabilities is regarded as a keystone to foster a new phase of economic growth, it is important also to understand how the local industrial, institutional, and academic actors have tackled the problem of innovation in the recent past. In this study we explore the approaches to innovation and the strategies adopted by the main regional actors through three different case studies. Chapter 1 provides a general survey of the innovative performance of the regional industries over the past two decades, as it emerges from statistical data and systematic comparisons at the national and European levels. The chapter also discusses the innovation policies that the regional government set up since 2001 in order to strengthen the collaboration among local economic actors, including universities and research centres. As mechanics is the most important regional industry, chapter 2 analyses the combination of knowledge and practices utilized in the period 1960s-1990s in the design of a particular kind of machinery produced by G.D S.p.A., a world-leader in the market of tobacco packaging machines. G.D is based in Bologna, the region’s capital, and is at the centre of the most important Italian packaging district. In chapter 3 the attention turns to the institutional level, focusing on how the local public administrations, and the local, publicly-owned utility companies have dealt with the creation of new telematic networks on the regional territory during the 1990s and 2000s. Finally, chapter 4 assesses the technology transfer carried out by the main university of the region – the University of Bologna – by focusing on the patenting activities involving its research personnel in the period 1960-2010.

Throughout the twentieth century statistical methods have increasingly become part of experimental research. In particular, statistics has made quantification processes meaningful in the soft sciences, which had traditionally relied on activities such as collecting and describing diversity rather than timing variation. The thesis explores this change in relation to agriculture and biology, focusing on analysis of variance and experimental design, the statistical methods developed by the mathematician and geneticist Ronald Aylmer Fisher during the 1920s. The role that Fisher’s methods acquired as tools of scientific research, side by side with the laboratory equipment and the field practices adopted by research workers, is here investigated bottom-up, beginning with the computing instruments and the information technologies that were the tools of the trade for statisticians. Four case studies show under several perspectives the interaction of statistics, computing and information technologies, giving on the one hand an overview of the main tools – mechanical calculators, statistical tables, punched and index cards, standardised forms, digital computers – adopted in the period, and on the other pointing out how these tools complemented each other and were instrumental for the development and dissemination of analysis of variance and experimental design. The period considered is the half-century from the early 1920s to the late 1960s, the institutions investigated are Rothamsted Experimental Station and the Galton Laboratory, and the statisticians examined are Ronald Fisher and Frank Yates.

Throughout the twentieth century statistical methods have increasingly become part of experimental research. In particular, statistics has made quantification processes meaningful in the soft sciences, which had traditionally relied on activities such as collecting and describing diversity rather than timing variation. The thesis explores this change in relation to agriculture and biology, focusing on analysis of variance and experimental design, the statistical methods developed by the mathematician and geneticist Ronald Aylmer Fisher during the 1920s. The role that Fisher’s methods acquired as tools of scientific research, side by side with the laboratory equipment and the field practices adopted by research workers, is here investigated bottom-up, beginning with the computing instruments and the information technologies that were the tools of the trade for statisticians. Four case studies show under several perspectives the interaction of statistics, computing and information technologies, giving on the one hand an overview of the main tools – mechanical calculators, statistical tables, punched and index cards, standardised forms, digital computers – adopted in the period, and on the other pointing out how these tools complemented each other and were instrumental for the development and dissemination of analysis of variance and experimental design. The period considered is the half-century from the early 1920s to the late 1960s, the institutions investigated are Rothamsted Experimental Station and the Galton Laboratory, and the statisticians examined are Ronald Fisher and Frank Yates.

This thesis is about plant breeding in Early 20th-Century Italy. The stories of the two most prominent Italian plant-breeders of the time, Nazareno Strampelli and Francesco Todaro, are used to explore a fragment of the often-neglected history of Italian agricultural research. While Italy was not at the forefront of agricultural innovation, research programs aimed at varietal innovation did emerge in the country, along with an early diffusion of Mendelism. Using philosophical as well as historical analysis, plant breeding is analysed throughout this thesis as a process: a sequence of steps that lays on practical skills and theoretical assumptions, acting on various elements of production. Systematic plant-breeding programs in Italy started from small individual efforts, attracting more and more resources until they became a crucial part of the fascist regime's infamous agricultural policy. Hybrid varieties developed in the early 20th century survived World War II and are now ancestors of the varieties that are still cultivated today. Despite this relevance, the history of Italian wheat hybrids is today largely forgotten: this thesis is an effort to re-evaluate a part of it. The research did allow previously unknown or neglected facts to emerge, giving a new perspective on the infamous alliance between plant-breeding programs and the fascist regime. This thesis undertakes an analysis of Italian plant-breeding programs as processes. Those processes had a practical as well as a theoretical side, and involved various elements of production. Although a complete history of Italian plant breeding still remains to be written, the Italian case can now be considered along with the other case-studies that other scholars have developed in the history of plant breeding. The hope is that this historical and philosophical analysis will contribute to the on-going effort to understand the history of plants.

This thesis is about plant breeding in Early 20th-Century Italy. The stories of the two most prominent Italian plant-breeders of the time, Nazareno Strampelli and Francesco Todaro, are used to explore a fragment of the often-neglected history of Italian agricultural research. While Italy was not at the forefront of agricultural innovation, research programs aimed at varietal innovation did emerge in the country, along with an early diffusion of Mendelism. Using philosophical as well as historical analysis, plant breeding is analysed throughout this thesis as a process: a sequence of steps that lays on practical skills and theoretical assumptions, acting on various elements of production. Systematic plant-breeding programs in Italy started from small individual efforts, attracting more and more resources until they became a crucial part of the fascist regime's infamous agricultural policy. Hybrid varieties developed in the early 20th century survived World War II and are now ancestors of the varieties that are still cultivated today. Despite this relevance, the history of Italian wheat hybrids is today largely forgotten: this thesis is an effort to re-evaluate a part of it. The research did allow previously unknown or neglected facts to emerge, giving a new perspective on the infamous alliance between plant-breeding programs and the fascist regime. This thesis undertakes an analysis of Italian plant-breeding programs as processes. Those processes had a practical as well as a theoretical side, and involved various elements of production. Although a complete history of Italian plant breeding still remains to be written, the Italian case can now be considered along with the other case-studies that other scholars have developed in the history of plant breeding. The hope is that this historical and philosophical analysis will contribute to the on-going effort to understand the history of plants.

La tesi riflette sulla necessità di un ripensamento delle scienze antropologiche nel senso di un loro uso pubblico e del loro riconoscimento al di fuori dell’accademia. Viene introdotto il dibattito sulla dimensione applicata dell’antropologia a partire dalle posizioni in campo nel panorama internazionale. Negli Stati Uniti la riflessione si sviluppa dalla proposta della public anthropology, l’antropologo pubblico si discosta dalla tradizionale figura europea di intellettuale pubblico. Alla luce delle varie posizioni in merito, la questione dell’applicazione è esaminata dal punto di vista etico, metodologico ed epistemologico. Inizialmente vengono prese in considerazione le diverse metodologie elaborate dalla tradizione dell’applied anthropology a partire dalle prime proposte risalenti al secondo dopoguerra. Successivamente viene trattata la questione del rapporto tra antropologia, potere coloniale e forze armate, fino al recente caso degli antropologi embedded nello Human Terrain System. Come contraltare vengono presentate le diverse forme di engagement antropologico che vedono ricercatori assumere diversi ruoli fino a casi estremi che li vedono divenire attivisti delle cause degli interlocutori. La questione del ruolo giocato dal ricercatore, e di quello che gli viene attribuito sul campo, viene approfondita attraverso la categoria di implication elaborata in contesto francese. Attraverso alcune esperienze di campo vengono presentate forme di intervento concreto nel panorama italiano che vogliono mettere in luce l’azione dell’antropologo nella società. Infine viene affrontato il dibattito, in corso in Italia, alla luce della crisi che sta vivendo la disciplina e del lavoro per la costituzione dell’associazione nazionale di antropologia professionale.
The thesis reflects on the need to rethinking the anthropological sciences in the direction of a public use and of a public recognition for this disciplines by the world outside academy. The debate is introduced from the different positions shared in the international context about the use of applied anthropology. In the United States the reflection is developed by the proposal of public anthropology, that has some differences respect the traditional figure of the European public intellectual. The dissertation highlight the various positions about ethical, methodological and epistemological standpoint application of anthropology. First of all, different methodologies developed from the tradition of Applied Anthropology are taken into account, from the first proposals dating back to the second postwar period. Secondly the analysis focus on the relationship between anthropology, colonial power and the armed forces until the recent case of anthropologists embedded in the Human Terrain System. Different forms of anthropological engagement shows researchers involved in different roles up to the extreme case in which they becoming activists in the same causes of their partners. The issue about the role played by the researcher, and the role that the fieldwork attribute to him, is deepened through the category of implication drawn up in the French context. Through some fieldwork experiences, concrete forms of intervention in the Italian overviews are presented to shift the focus on the anthropologists’ action possibility in the society. Finally, the dissertation present the Italian ongoing debate about the crisis that the discipline is passing through, and the resulting work in progress for the constitution of a national association for professional anthropology.

La tesi riflette sulla necessità di un ripensamento delle scienze antropologiche nel senso di un loro uso pubblico e del loro riconoscimento al di fuori dell’accademia. Viene introdotto il dibattito sulla dimensione applicata dell’antropologia a partire dalle posizioni in campo nel panorama internazionale. Negli Stati Uniti la riflessione si sviluppa dalla proposta della public anthropology, l’antropologo pubblico si discosta dalla tradizionale figura europea di intellettuale pubblico. Alla luce delle varie posizioni in merito, la questione dell’applicazione è esaminata dal punto di vista etico, metodologico ed epistemologico. Inizialmente vengono prese in considerazione le diverse metodologie elaborate dalla tradizione dell’applied anthropology a partire dalle prime proposte risalenti al secondo dopoguerra. Successivamente viene trattata la questione del rapporto tra antropologia, potere coloniale e forze armate, fino al recente caso degli antropologi embedded nello Human Terrain System. Come contraltare vengono presentate le diverse forme di engagement antropologico che vedono ricercatori assumere diversi ruoli fino a casi estremi che li vedono divenire attivisti delle cause degli interlocutori. La questione del ruolo giocato dal ricercatore, e di quello che gli viene attribuito sul campo, viene approfondita attraverso la categoria di implication elaborata in contesto francese. Attraverso alcune esperienze di campo vengono presentate forme di intervento concreto nel panorama italiano che vogliono mettere in luce l’azione dell’antropologo nella società. Infine viene affrontato il dibattito, in corso in Italia, alla luce della crisi che sta vivendo la disciplina e del lavoro per la costituzione dell’associazione nazionale di antropologia professionale.
The thesis reflects on the need to rethinking the anthropological sciences in the direction of a public use and of a public recognition for this disciplines by the world outside academy. The debate is introduced from the different positions shared in the international context about the use of applied anthropology. In the United States the reflection is developed by the proposal of public anthropology, that has some differences respect the traditional figure of the European public intellectual. The dissertation highlight the various positions about ethical, methodological and epistemological standpoint application of anthropology. First of all, different methodologies developed from the tradition of Applied Anthropology are taken into account, from the first proposals dating back to the second postwar period. Secondly the analysis focus on the relationship between anthropology, colonial power and the armed forces until the recent case of anthropologists embedded in the Human Terrain System. Different forms of anthropological engagement shows researchers involved in different roles up to the extreme case in which they becoming activists in the same causes of their partners. The issue about the role played by the researcher, and the role that the fieldwork attribute to him, is deepened through the category of implication drawn up in the French context. Through some fieldwork experiences, concrete forms of intervention in the Italian overviews are presented to shift the focus on the anthropologists’ action possibility in the society. Finally, the dissertation present the Italian ongoing debate about the crisis that the discipline is passing through, and the resulting work in progress for the constitution of a national association for professional anthropology.

En este estudio se documentan diversos casos de grupos de investigación dedicados a la biotecnología, que provienen de Puebla (México) y Bolonia (Italia). En ambas localidades tal disciplina es un campo relativamente nuevo cuyos grupos de investigación surgieron en los años noventa. Aunque la biotecnología tuvo su origen y mayor desarrollo en las universidades norteamericanas durante los años cincuentas del siglo XX, en países con menor desarrollo como México e Italia su incorporación a la academia y a la industria ha seguido caminos peculiares. Los casos de Puebla y Bolonia permiten observar la forma en la que se ha desarrollado la biotecnología en contextos diversos, así como los factores que han influido para facilitar y limitar su desarrollo. En ambas localidades, la biotecnología agroalimentaria se encuentra en el mismo nivel de desarrollo, es decir, no existen desarrollos de start-ups o licencias de patentes, pero sí existen otros modos de colaboración universidad-industria no documentados (consultoría, investigación colaborativa, formación de recursos humanos y divulgación del conocimiento). Tales formas de colaboración, poco evidentes, representan las fuentes de la innovación tecnológica y son comunes a la mayoría de las universidades. La combinación de estas fuentes de innovación son las que hacen posible las formas avanzadas de colaboración, esperadas por las políticas públicas, dirigidas a la innovación y el desarrollo socioeconómico (spin-offs y licencia de patentes). Asimismo, en ambas localidades existen casos que involucran al capital social y la divulgación del conocimiento como drivers trascendentales para la transferencia tecnológica. De este modo, hemos documentado diversos procesos de innovación que implican la conformación de alianzas, a partir del esfuerzo realizado por los investigadores, que dan cuenta de una institucionalización creciente de la investigación tecnológica en ambas localidades; así como de importantes perspectivas de mayor colaboración universidad-industria.
This study aims to describe different research group cases, focused on biotechnology, both in Puebla (Mexico) and Bologna (Puebla). In both places, such discipline is a relatively new field of study with networks of researchers from the 1990’s. Even though biotechnology originated and developed in American universities during the 1950’s, countries such as Mexico or Italy have incorporated it in the academy and the industry following peculiar paths. By means of these cases, it has been possible to analyze biotechnology evolution in different contexts, as well as the conditions which have facilitated or limited its development. Both in Puebla and Bologna, agro-food biotechnology is at the same level: with no start-up projects, or patent licenses but with other non-documented collaborative university-industry efforts (consultancy, collaborative research, human resources professionalization and knowledge dissemination). Such less evident collaborative types are the sources of technological innovation common to the majority of the universities. The combination of these sources represents the advanced forms of collaboration expected by the public policy aimed to the innovation and socioeconomic development (spin-offs and patent licenses). Furthermore, in both contexts, there are cases involving social capital and the dissemination of knowledge such as drivers, essential for the technology transfer. We have documented different innovation processes that imply the consolidation of alliances, achieved by the effort of researchers, which also evidence the growing institutionalization of technological research in both places; with an important perspective of greater university-industry collaboration.

The application of the recombinant DNA technologies to modify plant genomes became an issue of public controversy in the United States, a dispute which culminated during the last years of the century and continued unabated into the next. Scholarship which examines public perceptions of genetic engineering focuses almost exclusively on the reception of rDNA technologies, ignoring the rich history of interactions between the American society and organisms with hereditary traits modified by botanists, plant physiologists, and geneticists prior to the emergence of laboratory methods for genetic recombination. Examining three historical episodes which prompted the American society to confront the concept of mutation, in the present dissertation I explore the historical development of public attitudes to the possibility of modifying hereditary traits of living organisms. On the pages of this dissertation, I argue that tracing the history of public discourses revolving around biological mutation – in the form of species transmutation, the theory of mutation, and genetic mutation – allows access to the discursive space where such early interactions took place. Each chapter of the dissertation unveils the historical and discursive circumstances which lead the American media to associate the quality of “unnaturalness” with modified organisms in the public sphere. Consequently, the dissertation aims to demonstrate that the discourses employed by the media and social movements campaigning against genetic engineering in the 1990s – still reverberating among the American public – relied on essentialist assumptions about the natural environment which had circulated in the American press centuries before the emergence of rDNA technologies.

The goal of this thesis is to understand the impact that the transition from analogue to born-digital sources will have on the way historians collect, analyse and select primary evidences. This thesis aims in particular at addressing the simultaneous scarcity and abundance of digital materials and at dealing with these issues by combining the historical method with methodologies from the fields of internet studies and natural language processing. The case study of this work is focused on recollecting sources on the recent past of Italian academic institutions, with specific attention to the University of Bologna. The dissertation is organised in three main parts. Part I offers an extensive overview of the academic background where this thesis is settled. Next, the so-called scarcity issue is addressed, by considering university websites as primary sources for the study of the recent past of academic institutions. With a combination of traditional sources and methods together with solutions from the field of internet studies, Part II presents how the digital past of the University of Bologna has been reconstructed. The collected resources allowed to address the second issue, namely the large abundance of born-digital sources. Part III focuses on collecting, analysing and selecting materials from large collections of academic publications. In particular, it is remarked on the importance of adopting methods from the field of natural language processing in a highly critical way. This point is stressed by presenting a case-study focused on identifying interdisciplinary collaborations through the analysis of a corpus of Ph.D. dissertations. Based on the case-studies presented, the final part of the dissertation describes how this work intends to be a contribution both to the research in digital humanities and in historiography.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the position of communication and science academic libraries supporting chemistry and chemical engineering research at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in South Africa, and the University of Bologna (UNIBO) in Italy. Structured interviews were conducted with a total of 42 participants which comprised of Chemistry researchers, Chemical Engineering researchers, PhD students and librarians supporting Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments at CPUT and UNIBO. The main findings were: • ‘Library as space’ still remain an imperative at both institutions in the digital age. • There is a clash between the academic library promoting the Open Access movement and researchers being under pressure to publish in high impact factor journals. • Heavy workloads and staff capacity issues in both case studies was revealed as prohibiting factors among librarians and researchers to keep up with trends. • That the utilisation of social media and Web 2.0 tools for research is a direct result of researchers being prosumers, was found not to be the case. • The communication gap that exists came out strongly in both case studies. • There is a need for librarians to shift the focus more towards supporting postgraduate students with research. Therefore the research communication framework is recommended for both higher education institutions to create a better research environment. Overall the enthusiasm revealed by librarians to keep relevant to provide state of the art research support services which speaks to the trends show promise for the future role of the academic librarian. Further qualitative research in the area of research support services across all disciplines will make a stronger contribution in the field of Library and Information Science.

Maria Montessori è una delle pedagogiste italiane più conosciute e celebrate in tutto il mondo. Come è noto, il suo pensiero ha avuto una diffusione che per rapidità e ampiezza geografica si può senza dubbio definire straordinaria. Fu Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all’educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini, pubblicato in Italia nel 1909, a portare la Montessori alla ribalta della scena mondiale. Dal 1912, le traduzioni si moltiplicarono, fino a coprire, prima della fine della prima Guerra mondiale, il panorama europeo e americano. Inoltre, i corsi internazionali per la formazione d’insegnanti stranieri (il primo fu organizzato in Italia nel 1913), permisero la diffusione del metodo anche in India, in Sud America, in Australia e in Asia. La mia ricerca si concentra sull’analisi comparata delle prime traduzioni del Metodo, in particolare l’edizione americana (1912), l’edizione inglese (1912), l’edizione svizzera (1912) e l’edizione francese (1916), calate nel contesto storico, sociale, cultura e pedagogico di riferimento. Per meglio comprendere le modalità di diffusione dell’opera, ho scelto di dare ampio spazio anche alle figure che hanno circondato Maria Montessori e si sono operate per diffondere e promuovere tanto l’opera quanto la filosofia della pedagogista nelle realtà elencate. Il progetto ha voluto mettere a fuoco il processo di costruzione di un lavoro scientifico e culturale costantemente influenzato da una pluralità di culture, tradizioni, lingue e voci differenti, nonché il faticoso impegno dell’autrice di difendere il proprio pensiero da qualsiasi intromissione esterna volta a snaturarlo.
Maria Montessori is one of the most famous and celebrated Italian pedagogists in the world. Due to its speed and geographical extent, the spread of her scientific pedagogy can surely be described as extraordinary, even more since we talk about a woman’s work in the beginning of the twentieth century. It was Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all’educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini, published in Italy in 1909, that brought Montessori to the forefront of the world scene, allowing her to be acclaimed internationally as one of history’s great pioneering educators. Since 1912, the number of translations multiplied, to the point of covering, before the end of the First World War, the European and American scene. In addition, international courses for the training of teachers (the first was organized in Italy in 1913), allowed the spread of the method in India, South America, Austrialia and Asia. My research focuses on the comparative analysis of the Metodo’s first translations, in particular the American edition (1912), the English edition (1912), the Swiss edition (1912) and the French edition (1916), placed in the historical, social, cultural and pedagogical context of reference. Furthermore, great part of the research is dedicated to the many figures who surrounded Maria Montessori and worked as hard as she did to help in the spreading of both her thought and book internationally. Indeed, editors, translators, journalists and intellectuals, as well as politicians and ambassadors played an essential role in her successful career. The project aimed to focus on Montessori’s process of building a scientific and cultural work constantly influenced by a plurality of different cultures, traditions, languages and voices, as well as on the hard work of the author to defend her philosophy from any external interference aimed at distorting it.

La thèse se propose d’offrir la première traduction française des livres VI à VIII du traité des Simples de Galien portant sur la flore à intérêt pharmacologique. Afin de comprendre l’esprit et le but de l’œuvre, nous avons situé le médecin dans son contexte historique et culturel, le IIe siècle de notre ère, et nous avons fourni les données fondamentales de sa biographie et de sa production littéraire et, plus particulièrement, des textes pharmacologiques. Nous avons également étudié le rôle des plantes médicinales dans la médecine d’époque romaine, ainsi que les sources de l’œuvre, en particulier Dioscoride. Malgré le succès du traité au cours des siècles qui ont suivi, il n’a pas fait l’objet d’études approfondies et l’édition la plus récente demeure celle de K. G. Kühn du XIXe siècle. Une édition critique s’impose et c’est dans cette perspective que nous avons entrepris de dresser la liste définitive des manuscrits transmettant le texte galénique. Nous espérons que ces recherches permettront de comprendre un peu mieux l’importance des simples dans la pharmacologie de Galien et qu’elles seront un point de départ pour d’autres travaux sur le traité des Simples.
The aim of the thesis is to provide a French translation of Galen’s treatise On Simple Drugs, books VI to VIII, which focuses on plants of pharmacological interest. To understand the nature and the aim of the work, I related the physician to his historical and cultural contexts, the 2nd century AD, and I also provided some essential information about his biography and his literary production and, especially, about his pharmacological texts. I also studied the role of plants in medicine in the era of Roman empire and the sources of the work, especially Dioscorides. Despite the importance of the treatise over the subsequent centuries, it has not been studied in depth and the most recent edition is still K. G. Kühn’s one, dating back to the 19th century. Therefore, a critical edition is necessary. That is why I tried to establish a list of the manuscripts which transmit the Galenic text. Hopefully, this research will help better understand the importance of simple drugs in Galen’s pharmacology and it will represent a starting point for new researches on Galen’s treatise On Simples Drugs.

Attraverso uno studio di caso, centrato su Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier (1758-1836), la tesi tratta di pratiche legate all’annotazione e, più in generale, alla registrazione di informazioni su supporti cartacei tra gli anni ’70 del Settecento e gli anni ‘30 dell’Ottocento. Nota oggi come moglie e collaboratrice del chimico Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), di cui avrebbe promosso le teorie attraverso un’attività di traduttrice e illustratrice, Paulze-Lavoisier è qui presentata nella veste di “secrétaire”, ossia di figura incaricata di mettere per iscritto osservazioni di varia natura. Ci si concentra, in particolare, sui Registres de laboratoire di Lavoisier, 14 quaderni petit in-folio a cui sono affidati i resoconti di esperimenti condotti a Parigi tra il 1772 e il 1788 e che rilevano in misura significativa della mano di lei. Oggetto finora di una storia del pensiero scientifico, interessata alle “idee” in essi contenute, i Registres sono da noi riletti alla luce di un approccio “materiale”, attento alle pratiche e alle condizioni della loro compilazione e del loro riutilizzo nel tempo. Si indagano quindi le funzioni di questi quaderni rispetto alla pratica sperimentale, ricostruendo al contempo i tratti e le evoluzioni del ruolo di segretaria affidato a Paulze-Lavoisier. Il focus su Paulze-Lavoisier permette da un lato a sollevare nuove domande in merito al rapporto tra scrittura delle note, genere e sociabilità ma anche, ad un altro livello, alla cosiddetta “invisibilità” degli assistenti; dall’altro offre la materia per una storia lunga dei Registres, che dai primi gesti in essi da lei operati agli inizi degli anni ’70 del Settecento arriva fino alle manipolazioni a cui sono sottoposti, per sua volontà, nei primi decenni dell’Ottocento.
Taking Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier (1758-1836) as a primary case study, this dissertation examines note-taking practices and information management during the long eighteenth-century (1770-1830 circa). Known as the wife and scientific associate of the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), and more notably, as a translator and illustrator of chemical texts on her own right, Paulze-Lavoisier is here presented as a secretaire and namely as someone whose main charge was to store and exchange information by means of writing. I focus, in particular, on the so-called Registres de laboratoire: 14 notebooks containing the accounts of numerous experiments performed by Lavoisier and his associates in Paris between 1772 and 1788 and annotated thoroughly by Paulze-Lavoisier. In contrast to previous historiography, I reassess the meaning of the Registres in the light of the practices by which they were compiled, consulted, and preserved. By tracing Paulze-Lavoisier’s interventions and exploring the material and social conditions in which they were made, I show the role of scribal practices in Lavoisier’s working routine and, at the same time, I retrace her trajectories as a secrétaire. In the last part of the dissertation, I explore the fate of the Registres after Lavoisier’s death in 1794, when Paulze-Lavoisier’s work as a secrétaire took new directions. The broader aim of the thesis is to raise new questions relating to the relationships between note-taking practices, gender, and sociability as well as to the social construction of scientific authority, and the social visibility of scribal helpers and assistants before and after the French Revolution.

This dissertation presents a systematic and analytic overview of most of the information related to stones, minerals, and stone masonry which is found in the corpus of Plutarch of Chaeronea, combined with most of the information on metals and metalworking which is connected to the former. This survey is intended as a first step in the reconstruction of the full landscape of ‘chemical’ ideas occurring in Plutarch’s writings; accordingly, the exposition of the relevant passages, the assessment of their possible interpretations, the discussion on their implications, and their contextualization in the ancient traditions have been conducted with a special interest in the ‘mineralogical’ and ‘metallurgic’ themes developed in the frame of natural philosophy and meteorology. Although in this perspective physical etiology could have come to acquire central prominence, non-etiological information on Plutarch’s ideas on the nature and behaviour of stones and metals has been treated as equally relevant to reach a fuller understanding of how Plutarch conceptualized and visualized them in general, in- and outside the frame of philosophical explanation. Such extensive outline of Plutarch’s ideas on stones and metals is a prerequisite for an accurate inquiry into his use of the two in analogies, metaphors, and symbols: to predispose this kind of research was another aim of the present survey, and this aim has contributed to shape it; moreover, a special attention has been paid to the analysis of analogical and figurative speaking due to the nature itself of a large part of Plutarch’s references to stones and metals, which are either metaphorical, presented in close association with metaphors, or framed in analogies. Much of the information used for the present overview has been extracted —always with supporting argumentation— from the implications of such metaphors and analogies.

The origin of the idea of rationality as a fundamental model of human behaviour (the concept of homo oeconomicus) that was introduced during the neoclassical revolution in economics and that implied the mathematization of economics thereby adopting the mathematical scheme of and borrowing some fundamental conception from classical mechanics, as well as the crisis of this rationality model that followed in the latest decades are here discussed. The origin of the least action principle in 18th century is first described. The least action principle was the basis that lead to the development of Lagrangean dynamics in classical mechanics that, on its turn, entered economics in 19th century as a fundamental method to describe the behaviour of a postulated rational agent and was the basis for the development of mainstream economics in 20th century. The epistemologically unjustified transfer of concepts from mechanics, in particular in Walras’ work, is stressed. In the second half of 20th century experimental psychology slowly entered economics and several paradoxes in the real agents’ choices were shown giving strong evidence of rationality’s axioms violation in the real behaviour of people. By mid-20th century, quantum mechanics had already developed a highly effective mathematical apparatus to describe the wave-particle behaviour of quantum objects and in particular the phenomenon of probability interference that is clearly shown in the double-slit experiment with single electrons, as well as with photons. Probability interference is peculiar to quantum mechanics and is extraneous to the Kolmogorov axiomatic theory of classical probability. The recent idea of applying the quantum mechanics concepts and formalism, including quantum probability interference and superposition of states, to the description of mental processes is discussed. The aim of this new field of research, which is developing along the lines of the centuries-old question of the mind-body relation, is to create a general framework where cognition might be modeled. Quantum cognition is therefore introduced as a possible answer to the rationality violation paradoxes shown by experiments on ambiguous figures recognition and on the effects brought about by conjunction and disjunction of concepts.

Modern medicine has been shaped, more and more, to become a purely scientific activity, based on rigorous and objective evidences following the physical-mathematical model dominant in modern science. This mechanistic model, applied to medicine, and the advancements of scientific knowledge and technology have obfuscated the importance of dialogue and of the subject in the care relationship. Through an integration of the Evidence Based Medicine and Narrative Based Medicine the physician may, in clinical practice, explore biological data and the subjective dimension of the patient as a whole. This approach toward a medical judgment might be able to reconcile scientific thought and philosophy of care, turning the technical gesture into a practice of good medicine.

La tesi ricostruisce la vita e l'opera dell'antropologo e psicologo comparato Tito Vignoli, attivo a Milano tra Ottocento e Novecento. La prima parte è dedicata alla formazione di Vignoli, la seconda ai percorsi della sua maturità, ovvero al suo evoluzionismo, alla sua antropologia, alla sua psicologia e al ruolo da lui avuto nelle istituzioni culturali e scientifiche milanesi.

Pascal’s intellectual contribution was recognised throughout the centuries: from the Enlightenment up to present day philosophy, his thought influenced countless philosophers and scientists, while the beauty of his prose has been universally admired and exalted by scholars of language and literature. Due to the complexity and subtlety of his philosophy and the wide range of his studies, different readings of his works have tried to reduce the complexity of his thought either to a despondent skepticism or to a lofty fideism, and his figure to that of the philosopher, or that of the scientist or even that of the theologian, but the true genius of Pascal’s contribution is its delicate, internal dialogue of doubt and faith, of indetermination and certainty, of the esprit de finesse and the esprit de géometrie.

In this work I examined the life of Joseph Priestley and I reviewed the story of the dissenting academies and of the Lunar Society of Birmingham and the heritage left by its incredible members. I will presented a case study of practical education in the Lunar Society and Joseph Priestley’s educational works in order to analyse his great role as a leading educationalist of his time. The pragmatic and truly liberal approach to education I was able to highlight helped me to draw a lesson of modernity from their ideas and to project them on the works of John Dewey and place them in the modern debate on science education and citizenship.

The relationship between science and theology in Galileo’s work is usually studied with reference to the Copernican letters and the so-called ‘Galileo affair,’ ended with Galileo’s abjuration in 1633. This dissertation tackles the same subject, but from a different angle. Galileo’s approach to the creation theme does indeed allow us to inquiry into the relationship between science and theology while keeping Biblical exegesis and Galileo’s trial on the background. The dissertation is divided into two parts: (1) “Creation,” and (2) “Cosmogony.” In the first part, a series of primary sources are considered (Benedetto Castelli’s letter to Galileo of April the 1st, 1607; a few unpublished folios from the reportationes of Muzio Vitelleschi’s course on natural philosophy held at the Roman College in 1589-90; some passages of Galileo’s Juvenilia) which help us gauge, albeit indirectly, Galileo’s attitude toward the possibility of demonstrating creatio de novo (the beginning of the world) and creatio ex nihilo (the existential dependence of creatures on God). Although some initial supporters of Galileo sought to demonstrate creatio de novo through his definition of motion, he never welcomed their attempt. He probably agreed with Castelli that the demonstration of creatio de novo was beyond the reach of his science and, in general, of human knowledge (a position that, for the sake of convenience, I have referred to as ‘agnosticism’). As regards creation out of nothing, at Galileo’s time this notion was usually treated in light of a metaphysical understanding of the relationship between God and creatures – a relationship which entailed an understanding of God as primum ens (first being). This notion is also used in the Juvenilia, namely, a series of pages reporting standard arguments of Scholastic philosophy, which Galileo copied from other sources. I have interpreted the total absence of the idea of God as primum ens in the original writings of Galileo as a sign that Galileo was not interested in the problem of creatio ex nihilo, nor did he consider its metaphysical solution. In the second part, I have argued that Galileo was interested in the cosmogony problem, namely, he tried to understand how God imposed order on the primeval chaotic universe. Cosmogony was refuted in the Aristotelian tradition on the basis that motion and gravity cannot be conceived of out-side the orderly framework of the universe. In this view, mechanics leans on cosmology, and vice versa. Galileo separates the two, but through cosmogony he tries to reconcile his cosmological views (initially geocentric, then heliocentric) with his understandings of motion and gravity. Thanks to Copernicus, he is able to ‘mathematize’ the cosmogony problem. Thus, the solution to this problem becomes an important scientific task, one that allows Galileo to advocate the relevance of his science on a universal scale.

Il presente elaborato è dedicato ad una ricostruzione dell’evoluzione del pensiero alchemico in Francia all’indomani della riforma lavoisieriana e dei relativi rapporti con il mondo della ricerca scientifica e gli ambienti della speculazione esoterica. Suddiviso cronologicamente in cinque parti, esso è così ripartito: - Cap. 1 (1750-89). Di carattere metodologico, riguardante il ruolo dell’alchimia nell’attuale storiografia della scienza (ca. 1950 - oggi), in rapporto all’evoluzione del concetto stesso di storia della scienza alla luce del passaggio storico da alchimia a chimica nel corso del XVIII secolo. In questo capitolo vengono chiariti i tre punti focali oggetto di indagine: sopravvivenza di idee afferenti alla speculazione alchemica nella ricerca chimica ottocentesca; evoluzione della disciplina alchemica (da ricerca filosofico-esoterica a disciplina con velleità scientifiche); ruolo e percezione dell’alchimia nella storiografia della chimica (ca. 1830-90); - Cap. 2 (1789-1844). Dedicato ad una breve trattazione dei pregiudizi di ordine logico ed epistemologico osservabili nella ricerca scientifica post-newtoniana e loro conservazione nella ricerca chimica post-lavoisieriana. Segue da una ricostruzione della dinamica storica che, attraverso scoperte successive, ha permesso il ripresentarsi di ipotesi, nell’ambito della ricerca chimica, riguardanti la trasmutazione dei metalli; - Cap. 3 (1803-51). Incentrato sull’analisi delle opere di argomento alchemico prodotte in Francia durante la prima metà del XIX secolo, con due approfondimenti relativi a: - ricerche volte alla classificazione del sapere dalle quali scaturì la nomenclatura delle “scienze occulte”, - breve profilo storico delle correnti di pensiero che ebbero un ruolo nella formulazione del pensiero occultista (mesmerismo, spiritualismo, spiritismo) - Cap. 4 (1845-94). Suddiviso in tre parti: - Tentativi di convalida sperimentale della trasmutazione - Codificazione e istituzionalizzazione dell’occultismo come disciplina votata all’unione di scienza e credenza religiosa in un paradigma epistemologico condiviso - Analisi degli autori della ‘nuova alchimia’, i quali estesero il ricorso al principio di autorità alle scoperte coeve al fine di mostrare un’illusoria complementarità fra scoperte della ricerca fisico-chimica e la speculazione occultista (ruolo centrale degli studi sull’etere); - Cap. 5 (1892-1926). Capitolo monografico dedicato all’ultimo esponente dell’alchimia intesa come scienza occulta, François Jollivet-Castelot (1874 - 1937), con particolare enfasi sulla sua attività di laboratorio riguardante la trasmutazione dell’argento in oro (1920-6). Conclusioni circa il successivo ritorno dell’alchimia allo stato di disciplina iniziatica a contenuto simbolico.
This dissertation aims at reconstructing the evolution of alchemical thinking in France after Lavoisier’s reform and of the relationships between alchemy, scientific research and esoteric speculation. The dissertation follows a chronological order and is composed of five chapters. - Chap. 1 (1750-89) explains the methodology followed in this research, dealing in particular with the role of alchemy in the recent historiography of science (c. 1950-today), analysed with the evolution of the concept of ‘history of science’ itself in light of the historic transition between alchemy and chemistry during the 18th century. In this chapter, three main research questions are detailed: survival of ideas mutated from alchemy in the chemistry research of the 18th century; the evolution of alchemy from esoteric and philosophical research to a scientific discipline; the role and perception of alchemy in the historiography of chemistry (c. 1830-90). - Chap. 2 (1789-1844) is devoted to a brief excursus of logical and epistemological prejudices that can be found in the scientific research after the 17th century Scientific Revolution and their permanence in the chemical research after Lavoisier. This is followed by the reconstruction of the historical process that led to the reappearance in the chemistry field of ideas and hypothesis in regards to the transmutation of metals. - Chap. 3 (1803-51) is focused on the analysis of alchemical works produced in France during the first half of the 19th century with two in-depth analyses of: researches aimed at the categorization of human knowledge from which the category of ‘occult sciences’ emerged; brief historical profile of the ideological currents that played a role in the shaping of occultism (mesmerism, spiritualism, spiritism). - Chap. 4 (1845-94) is organized in three sections: attempts to validate transmutation through laboratory experimentation; classification and officialization of occultism as a discipline devoted to unifying science and religious believes in a cohesive and shared epistemological perspective; analysis of authors of ‘new alchemy’ who carried forth the use of the principle of auctoritas to contemporaries discoveries to prove a perceived and illusionary complementarity between discoveries made in physics and chemistry research and occultist speculation (particularly in regards to research concerning ether theories). - Chap. 5 (1892-1926) is devoted to the last French representative of alchemy as an occult science, François Jollivet-Castelot (1874 - 1937), with particular attention to his laboratory activities in regards of the transmutation of silver into gold (1920-6). The chapter ends with remarks on the subsequent return of alchemy to the status of initiatory discipline with strong symbolic content.

La specificità dell'acquisizione di contenuti attraverso le interfacce digitali condanna l'agente epistemico a un'interazione frammentata, insufficiente da un punto di vista computazionale, mnemonico e temporale, rispetto alla mole informazionale oggi accessibile attraverso una qualunque implementazione della relazione uomo-computer, e invalida l'applicabilità del modello standard di conoscenza, come credenza vera e giustificata, sconfessando il concetto di credenza razionalmente fondata, per formare la quale, sarebbe invece richiesto all'agente di poter disporre appunto di risorse concettuali, computazionali e temporali inaccessibili. La conseguenza è che l'agente, vincolato dalle limitazioni ontologiche tipiche dell'interazione con le interfacce culturali, si vede costretto a ripiegare su processi ambigui, arbitrari e spesso più casuali di quanto creda, di selezione e gestione delle informazioni che danno origine a veri e propri ibridi (alla Latour) epistemologici, fatti di sensazioni e output di programmi, credenze non fondate e bit di testimonianze indirette e di tutta una serie di relazioni umano-digitali che danno adito a rifuggire in una dimensione trascendente che trova nel sacro il suo più immediato ambito di attuazione. Tutto ciò premesso, il presente lavoro si occupa di costruire un nuovo paradigma epistemologico di conoscenza proposizionale ottenibile attraverso un'interfaccia digitale di acquisizione di contenuti, fondato sul nuovo concetto di Tracciatura Digitale, definito come un un processo di acquisizione digitale di un insieme di tracce, ossia meta-informazioni di natura testimoniale. Tale dispositivo, una volta riconosciuto come un processo di comunicazione di contenuti, si baserà sulla ricerca e selezione di meta-informazioni, cioè tracce, che consentiranno l'implementazione di approcci derivati dall'analisi decisionale in condizioni di razionalità limitata, approcci che, oltre ad essere quasi mai utilizzati in tale ambito, sono ontologicamente predisposti per una gestione dell'incertezza quale quella riscontrabile nell'istanziazione dell'ibrido informazionale e che, in determinate condizioni, potranno garantire l'agente sulla bontà epistemica del contenuto acquisito.
The specificity of the acquisition of content through digital interfaces condemns the epistemic agent to a fragmented interaction, with respect to the huge informational bulk today available through any standard implementation of the man-computer relationship, and invalidates the applicability of the standard model of knowledge as justified true belief, by repudiating the concept of rationally founded belief, to form which would instead require the agent to be able to have precisely the conceptual resources and computational time inaccessible. Thereby the agent, bound by the ontological limitations belong to cultural interfaces, is forced to fall back on ambiguous, arbitrary and often more casual than he takes into account, selection and management information process that produce real epistemological hybrids (by Latour) made of feelings, program outputs, unfounded beliefs, bits of indirect testimonies and of a series of human-digital relationships that give rise to escape in a transcendent dimension belonging to anthropological area of the sacred. Starting from this analysis the work deals with constructing a new epistemological paradigm of propositional knowledge obtained through a digital content acquisition, based on the new concept of Digital Tracings, defined as a process of digital capture of a set of tracks , ie meta-information of a testimonial kind. This device, once recognized as a communication process of digital contents, will be based on the research and selection of meta-information, ie tracks, which allow the implementation of approaches derived from analysis of decision-making under bounded rationality, which approaches, as well to be almost never used in this context, are ontologically prepared for dealing with uncertainty such as that came into the informational hybrid and that can provide the agent on the epistemic goodness of acquired content.

La specificità dell'acquisizione di contenuti attraverso le interfacce digitali condanna l'agente epistemico a un'interazione frammentata, insufficiente da un punto di vista computazionale, mnemonico e temporale, rispetto alla mole informazionale oggi accessibile attraverso una qualunque implementazione della relazione uomo-computer, e invalida l'applicabilità del modello standard di conoscenza, come credenza vera e giustificata, sconfessando il concetto di credenza razionalmente fondata, per formare la quale, sarebbe invece richiesto all'agente di poter disporre appunto di risorse concettuali, computazionali e temporali inaccessibili. La conseguenza è che l'agente, vincolato dalle limitazioni ontologiche tipiche dell'interazione con le interfacce culturali, si vede costretto a ripiegare su processi ambigui, arbitrari e spesso più casuali di quanto creda, di selezione e gestione delle informazioni che danno origine a veri e propri ibridi (alla Latour) epistemologici, fatti di sensazioni e output di programmi, credenze non fondate e bit di testimonianze indirette e di tutta una serie di relazioni umano-digitali che danno adito a rifuggire in una dimensione trascendente che trova nel sacro il suo più immediato ambito di attuazione. Tutto ciò premesso, il presente lavoro si occupa di costruire un nuovo paradigma epistemologico di conoscenza proposizionale ottenibile attraverso un'interfaccia digitale di acquisizione di contenuti, fondato sul nuovo concetto di Tracciatura Digitale, definito come un un processo di acquisizione digitale di un insieme di tracce, ossia meta-informazioni di natura testimoniale. Tale dispositivo, una volta riconosciuto come un processo di comunicazione di contenuti, si baserà sulla ricerca e selezione di meta-informazioni, cioè tracce, che consentiranno l'implementazione di approcci derivati dall'analisi decisionale in condizioni di razionalità limitata, approcci che, oltre ad essere quasi mai utilizzati in tale ambito, sono ontologicamente predisposti per una gestione dell'incertezza quale quella riscontrabile nell'istanziazione dell'ibrido informazionale e che, in determinate condizioni, potranno garantire l'agente sulla bontà epistemica del contenuto acquisito.
The specificity of the acquisition of content through digital interfaces condemns the epistemic agent to a fragmented interaction, with respect to the huge informational bulk today available through any standard implementation of the man-computer relationship, and invalidates the applicability of the standard model of knowledge as justified true belief, by repudiating the concept of rationally founded belief, to form which would instead require the agent to be able to have precisely the conceptual resources and computational time inaccessible. Thereby the agent, bound by the ontological limitations belong to cultural interfaces, is forced to fall back on ambiguous, arbitrary and often more casual than he takes into account, selection and management information process that produce real epistemological hybrids (by Latour) made of feelings, program outputs, unfounded beliefs, bits of indirect testimonies and of a series of human-digital relationships that give rise to escape in a transcendent dimension belonging to anthropological area of the sacred. Starting from this analysis the work deals with constructing a new epistemological paradigm of propositional knowledge obtained through a digital content acquisition, based on the new concept of Digital Tracings, defined as a process of digital capture of a set of tracks , ie meta-information of a testimonial kind. This device, once recognized as a communication process of digital contents, will be based on the research and selection of meta-information, ie tracks, which allow the implementation of approaches derived from analysis of decision-making under bounded rationality, which approaches, as well to be almost never used in this context, are ontologically prepared for dealing with uncertainty such as that came into the informational hybrid and that can provide the agent on the epistemic goodness of acquired content.

The relation between the dynamical reversibility and the thermodynamic irreversibility is analysed from a historical, theoretical and epistemological point of view. The current approaches to the problem are confronted and criticized. The first aims at a reduction of the thermal phenomena to the mechanical reversible properties of elementary constituents of bodies. The other introduces at the microscopic level some irreversible intrinsic hypothesis by which to deduce the macroscopic irreversibility. However, these approaches fail to deduce the thermodynamic irreversibility independently on the recourse to a subjective interpretation of the probabilities involved in the thermal (objective) phenomena. Moreover, recent works show that the thermodynamic irreversible phenomena are independent on the microscopic properties of bodies. The reduction of the macroscopic level to the microscopic one seems to be impossible. The statistical description must have the same objectivity of the dynamical one and the complementarity idea is the best tool for the construction of a scheme that allows the existence of a plurality of descriptions. The complementarity between dynamical and statistical description of macroscopic bodies, that depends on the number of microscopic constituents must not be confused with the similar relations proper of quantum mechanics (see Heisenberg's uncertainty relations) and statistical thermodynamics (Landau's uncertainty relations for the fluctuations of macroscopic quantities). These two last relations operate at the microscopic and at the macroscopic levels, respectively, whereas the dynamical-statistical complementarity is a meta-relation between the two levels of description. From these considerations some epistemological consequence are drawn: 1] Physical phenomena request a plurality of levels of description in order to take into account the emergence and the disappearance of physical properties into the transition from one level to another. 2] Both reductionist and systemic modes of thought are necessary for our description of experience. 3] Our criteria of rationality must be generalized in order to take into account the evolutionary development of our concepts and conceptual structures.

La presente ricerca propone una rilettura della questione epistemologica e dello statuto della scienza nel pensiero di Jung, all’interno della generale ricomprensione dell’opera junghiana dopo la pubblicazione del Rotes Buch – Liber novus. L’impianto del lavoro è quindi storico, per i motivi succitati, ma anche teoretico nello stesso tempo, poiché mira a illuminare precisi nessi teoretici al fine di far emerge la risposta di Jung a una serie di domande che attraversano tutta la sua riflessione: è possibile chiamare scienza lo studio della psiche? È lecito rintracciare “un punto archimedeo della psiche”, che ne assicuri la scientificità? Quali sono i criteri euristici ed epistemologici perché si dia scienza di quel contingente fatto di immagini che è la psiche? Il presente lavoro traccia un percorso che dagli anni di apprendistato giovanili, passa attraverso l’esperienza del Rotes Buch, e arriva fino ai testi della maturità. Tra questi particolare attenzione è stata data al saggio del 1952 sulla Synchronizität, vero e proprio laboratorio di quel concetto di scienza che Jung sta elaborando: una scienza empirica, fedele a quei fatti unici e irripetibili che vengono per forza di cose trascurati dalla scienza su base statistica. È questa la posta in gioco nella domanda di senso sulla natura ultima di una scienza della psiche. Come può darsi scienza degli scarti, delle eccedenze, delle pure contingenze infinitesimali? Dinnanzi a simili manifestazioni della realtà l’unico atteggiamento possibile è, secondo Jung, quello dell’empirico, che sta con ciò che accade senza discostarsene. Solo nella misura in cui ci fosse “un punto archimedeo della psiche”, forse, questa scienza della trasgressione, della pura contingenza potrebbe avere un ancoramento esterno. La tensione verso questo “punto archimedeo” ha guidato tutta la costruzione dell’epistemologia e della psicologia complessa di Jung. Attraverso questa prospettiva si comprende come il paradosso dell’empirismo di Jung stia proprio nella natura dell’esperienza psichica: si tratta di un empirismo di dati strutturalmente duplici e ambigui, data la natura intrinsecamente simbolica della psiche. Un empirismo del paradosso, potremmo dire, o del doppio.
The present research offers a re-reading of the epistemological question and of the status of science in Jung's thought, within the general re-reading of his work after the publication of Rotes Buch - Liber novus. For such reason, the work plan is historical; but it is also theoretical, since it aims at illuminating precise theoretical links, in order to highlight Jung's answers to a set of questions that cross his whole production: can the study of the psyche be called ‘science’? Is it legitimate to trace “an Archimedean point of the psyche”, so as to ensure the scientificity of such study? What heuristic and epistemological criteria can produce a science of such contingent set of images as the psyche? The present work traces a path from Jung’s apprenticeship, through the Rotes Buch experience, until his mature production. Among his later texts, particular attention is devoted to the essay on Synchronizität (1952), where Jung elaborates on his very concept of science, i.e., an empirical science, faithful to the unique and unrepeatable facts which are inevitably overlooked by statistical science. This is what is at stake in the question of what the ultimate meaning of a science of the psyche may be. How can one theorize a science of what is discarded, surplus, or pure infinitesimal contingency? In front of such manifestations of reality, the only possible attitude is, according to Jung, an empirical one, which stays close to what is happening without departing from it. Only to the extent that there is “an Archimedean point of the psyche”, perhaps, this science of transgression, of pure contingency might have external anchoring. The tension towards this “Archimedean point” has guided the whole construction of Jung’s epistemology and complex psychology. Through this perspective, one can understand how the paradox of Jung's empiricism lies precisely in the nature of psychic experience: it is empiricism based on structurally dual and ambiguous data, given the intrinsically symbolic nature of the psyche. It is empiricism based on paradox, one could say, or on the double.

One of the most studied topics of the history of Modern Physics is the transition between the 19th century newtonian world-view and the 20th century physics based on the development of relativity theories and quantum mechanics. After Kuhn’s definition of “scientific revolution” and “normal science”, several scholars considered the creation, development and reception of special and general relativity theories a scientific revolution. In particular, this thesis refer to Renn’s writings, which defined “relativity revolution” the process that led to ‘the introduction of fundamentally new concepts of space, time, matter and radiation’ in 1905, and was completed with Einstein’s creation of the theory of general relativity in 1915. One of the main features of the relativity revolution was the explicit dismissal of the luminiferous ether as the real support of the light and/or electromagnetic waves. The conceptual changes linked to the relativistic physical theories (including the refusal of the ether) caused several kinds of controversies within the national scientific communities. Some scientists opposed Einstein’s theories on the basis of epistemological analysis and metaphysical conceptions of reality. This field of study is considered to be part of the historiographical context of the “reception of relativity” and the few scholars who concerned themselves with the analysis of this framework underlined the existence of national differences in the reception of the physical meanings and epistemological features of the relativistic theories. The thesis is a part of this (not developed) historiographical context, and it approaches some specific experimental issues whose features has never been analysed in their complexity. At the beginning of the 20th century (in the period of relativity revolution) two ether-drift experiments were performed, which created a debate on their relevance and meaning within the framework of relativity theories: the discovery of the Sagnac effect (Paris, 1913) and Miller’s repetition of the Michelson-Morley experiment (Mount Wilson, CA, 1921-26). Both Sagnac and Miller interpreted their experiments as a confutation of the principles on which special relativity theory was based. They were not alone in the anti-relativistic interpretation of their findings. A minority of scientists are still claiming that these discoveries were fundamental and that they were discarded (or put aside) without acceptable explanations. Even though the controversy about these events is now at the fringe of the development of physics, these two cases could represent interesting examples of the national differences in the reception of relativity and the indissoluble link between theory and experiments in the interpretation of observational results. Moreover, the use of these experiments by dissident authors created a break between the “standard history” and the “unorthodox history” that needs to be analyzed in detail. The aim of the thesis is to address the historiographical lack on these experiments with a comparative analysis of their history from their immediate reception in the national scientific community in which they were performed until their eventual inclusion in the development of normal science. The choice of a comparative analysis using the spatial unity of nation is justified by the historiographical tradition involved in the studies of the reception of relativity. Apart from the ether context in which these experiments were made, their results have very different scientific meanings. The Sagnac Effect is a fringe shift at the first order in an interferometer set in uniform rotation with respect to the fringe position for the stationary one. The result obtained by Sagnac in 1913 was accepted and the Sagnac effect is used nowadays in aero-spatial navigation and in the synchronization of GPS. Thus the historiographical questions about this experiment are related to the interpretations of the effect within the debate between ether theories and relativity theories. According to the historian of Physics J. Stachel the uniform rotation constitute a “missing link” between special relativity theory and general relativity theory. In this passage the German mathematician T. Kaluza derived the formula of the Sagnac effect in the development of relativity programme in 1910, before the discovery of the effect. In this way, the effect was included in the relativity revolution without any ad hoc hypothesis. The situation was very different in France, where the effect was used by anti-relativistic scientists until P. Langevin published a paper in which he derived the Sagnac formula within the general relativistic framework. Miller’s experiments were a repetition of the Michelson-Morley experiment. They showed a positive result, that is a slight fringe shift periodic with respect to the sidereal time. Miller interpreted his data as a demonstration of the earth’s absolute motion through the ether, which has the value of 10 km/s at the top of Mont Wilson. Contrary to the Sagnac effect, Miller’s results were eventually discarded by the scientific community for several reasons. One of the main reasons was that between 1926 and 1930 some researchers repeated the MM experiment, but no one found the same effect. This lack of confirmation and the non-existence of an ether theory that could compete with special relativity theory made Miller’s result an enigmatic one. Thus it became of little interest to the scientific community, until 1954 when Shankland and three colleagues reanalysed the data and found a possible explanation in a temperature effect. The scientific community regarded this explanation as the conclusion of the matter without any debate, but some contemporary anti-relativists contest Shankland’s methodology. The comparative analysis realized in the thesis was based on different questions: How the national scientific communities reacted to the claims of Sagnac and Miller? In which way these results were included in the development of physical theories in the ‘20s? What was the approach of leading theorists to these experiments? When and how did the MM experiment end? When and why was Miller’s result discarded? When and why was the Sagnac effect included in the relativistic research programme? Which role (if any) did sociological elements play in the US and French reactions to these experiments? How was Langevin’s derivation received by French scientific community? Why did Shankland decide to perform the difficult re-analysis of Miller’s data? How did Shankland’s re-analysis find a possible solution? Other questions could also be asked in relation to philosophical and methodological analyses of this history: Which were the common and the conflicting features amongst the different repetitions of the same type of experiment? Which behaviour could be called rational and which could be called irrational in the history related to these experimental results? The comparative analysis was made on the scientific papers as well as on private documents of the principal actors involved in the events. In particular, the use of private documents has permitted to underline some sociological elements that played a relevant role in the history. The analysis of differences and analogies between the two cases in their national context at the beginning of the 20th century highlight the deep break that there was between the followers of relativity and the physicists of the “old school”. Moreover the thesis highlight some epistemic factors that played an important role in the accumulation of consensus on relativity during the 20th century.

“Ja, Gestigkeit ist (hier) alles!” – “Yes, (here) the spirit is everything!” - is the fleeting and surprising joke that in September 1927 Sigmund Freud addressed to Binswanger when, in the face of a substantial failure of the analytical treatment of a common patient, he had to agree on the need to think of the action of a "spiritual" component (in the sense of a possible transcendental subjectivity) in the dynamics of psychoanalytic insight. In the background of this observation, this contribution aims to attempt, through the use of the philosophical-psychological category of Geistigkeit (and Geist in general), to be a sort of "dialectical mediation" between classical psychoanalysis (Freud) and psychiatric phenomenology (Binswanger), whose resolution – far from being considered complete – seems to find in Jung and his analytical psychology a privileged term of reference.

The widespread interest in meteorology is mostly driven by the fact that weather affects our daily life, extending its influence beyond the mere economical impact. Despite this strong attention to meteorology it is seen quite differently from other scientific activities like, for instance, classical physics to which it is generally, although often unappropriately, associated. This work tries to highlight the peculiar epistemologic approach to modern meteorology, through the analysis of the phylosophical and historical paths that have brought about that approach. The perception of meteorology as an atypical science it is also due to an uncomplete, and in some cases even wrong, communication process of weather forecasts. In this study the main criticalities regarding this communication process are highlighted through two case studies: the hurricane Charley twhich hit Florida in 2004 and the intense precipitation that affected the southern part of Sardinia in 2008. The evidences drawn from the two case studies are then supported by an extensive analysis that has involved professional forecasters of 19 different public Meteorological Offices in Italy and a significant sample of italian and spanish users. The two groups were surveyed on the meaning they associate to the typical expressions used in the wetaher reports, about the comprehension of non categorical, i.e. probabilistic, forecasts and, finally, on the role of media in the communication process. The results clearly show the issues and problems still open and help to lay down some proposals to improve the quality of the communication techniques, in order to make weather forecasts more effective for the users.

The thesis deals with E. Cartan's contributions to the theory of continuous groups of transformations from the early 1890's up to the early 1910's. The analysis is focused on both finite and infinite continuous groups. First, Cartan's doctoral dissertation, in which he provided a rigorous classification of what nowadays we would call simple complex Lie algebras, is taken in. A detailed survey of the theory of infinite continuous groups as developed by Sophus Lie, Friedrich Engel, Paolo Medolaghi and Ernst Vessiot follows. The second part of the dissertation concentrates upon Cartan's contributions to the subject. The analysis of the relevant works is preceded by a historical study of the genesis of Cartan's integration theory of general Pfaffian systems (nowadays known as Cartan-Kaehler theory), in which, for the first time, due attention to the work of the German mathematician Eduard Ritter von Weber is paid. Special emphasis is put on the structural aspects of Cartan's highly innovative approach. At the same time, the role played by group theory in the development of 20th century differential geometry is underlined in respect to Cartan's method of moving frames.

Botanists need access to historical collections of dried plants (herbaria) in order to precisely clarify the identity of taxa described by authors of the past. These studies involve the formal process of typifcation, prescribed by the Code of nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, which requires the actual specimens originally used for the descriptions to be identified and designated as types, so to permanently atach them to their scientifc name, and serve as absolute reference. With over 600 newly described taxa and almost 1,000 newly established names, Roberto de Visiani (Šibenik 1800 - Padova 1878), was one of the most important scholars to direct the Botanical Garden of Padova, a position he held from 1837 to his death. During this time, he transformed it from a mere tool for the teaching of medicine to a modern institution open to the community. He was the author of numerous important works of taxonomy, mostly focussed on the vascular flora of his homeland, Dalmatia. After his death, he left in Padova not only a large collection of about 12,000 specimens, but also thousands of leters he received, manuscripts, and other unpublished material, which have remained almost entirely unstudied, despite his having lived, worked, and left a mark during one of the most defining times for the Garden itself, the University, and the scientific community at large. In the study of the work of 19th century botanists, scientific, historical, and geographical issues are intimately intertwined, but have rarely been considered together, with the widely cross-disciplinary, author- and collection-centric approach that we argue is the best means to solve questions of historical botany. To verify and showcase its efficacy, we set the following goals: 1) to correctly identify and formally designate type material in Visiani's collections, reconstructing the history of botanical explorations in the western Balkans, and his network of relationships and exchanges; 2) to analyse Visiani's work and to reconstruct his scientific standing at the national and international level; 3) to add value to Visiani's collections and archive by making them more accessible to the public. A large amount of diverse materials has been used. One very important source of in formation has been Visiani's Herbarium Dalmaticum, conserved in Padova and we catalogued in 2011-2013. All of Visiani's published works on foristics have been collected and studied, and are analysed in great detail, with special attention dedicated to his masterpiece Flora Dalmatica, and to the four smaller publications he co-authored with Serbian professor Josif Pančić. A more general overview is given for his contributions to other fields. All of Visiani's unpublished material available at the Ancient Library of the Botanical Garden has been digitised and organised. Over a third of the more than 2,000 letters that are conserved in his correspondence have been transcribed. We have also retrieved and transcribed the letters he sent to his best friend, famous lichenologist and palaeobotanist Abramo Massalongo, conserved at the Civic Library of Verona, and those sent to botanist Josif Pančić, conserved at the Botanical Institute of Belgrade. Beyond letters, other unpublished documents, particularly lists of plants, manuscripts for both published and unpublished works, and the rare travel diaries have been analysed. The study of these materials has led to the publication of seven scientifc papers, with forty-one type designations in total, plus detailed notes for seventeen other names. A draf treatment of the 275 names newly published in Flora Dalmatica is presented. Publication will require the input of a Croatian taxonomist. Two other papers in preparation are presented. The data from the herbarium and Visiani's published works have been integrated in a geodatabase managed through QGIS, which allows to investigate them through powerful querying. This instrument is used to produce maps to accompany the detailed chronology of the botanical exploration of Dalmatia and neighbouring regions during Visiani's lifetime that has been put together from all the different sources, as well as to check the correspondence between the herbarium and the published records. Visiani's network of relations and exchanges is clarified, with a discussion on his assistants, gardeners, colleagues, friends, co-authors, and the many plant collectors that provided him with specimens, many of whom were minor figures about whom little to nothing was known from literature. Particularly interesting are the role played by Antonio Bertoloni at the start of Visiani's career, the contribution by Muzio Tommasini to the publication of Flora Dalmatica, Visiani's troubled relationship with its editor Friedrich Hofmeister, and his the very close friendship with Massalongo. Visiani's scientific ideas are discussed in detail. Visiani had a positivistic view of science, and considered experimentation the main road to knowledge; he was not influenced by romantic ideas as many other botanists were at the time. His approach to systematic botany was typical of the first half of the 19th century: he focussed on the careful description of species and the exploration of a regional flora, and was always a strenuous defender of Linnaean practice, for which he was sometimes criticised late in his life. His methods and ideas arguably influenced the school of botany in Padova up to the mid 20th century. While we confirm Visiani's opposition to the unripe pre-Darwinian evolutionary hypotheses, we argue he was not a dogmatic fixist, and pose he may even have converted to evolutionism late in his life. His concepts, methods, and choices in taxonomy and nomenclature, whose understanding is crucial for the typifcation of his names, are clarified and described in detail. A detailed personal biography of Visiani is presented, dealing with topics such as his origins, studies, professional life, travels, character, religion, political ideas, material legacy. As for his stance towards the process of unification of Italy, his position is discovered to have been cautiously anti-Austrian. We argue this may be explained partly with his own ambiguous national identity, and partly with his prioritising the safety of his academic position. Visiani's work as director of the Botanical Garden is reconstructed largely thanks to the analysis of unpublished materials. We detail expenses, works, the growth of living and non-living collections, and his efforts to engage the public. Botanical results are being made available to the community through specialist publications. Unpublished material by Visiani is being made freely available online on the PHAIDRA platform by the University's Library Centre. Publishing of the correspondence between Visiani and Pančić, and Visiani and Massalongo is being discussed. The GIS system will be made available to the Herbarium of Padova; the collected data could be made available to the public with the development of a web application. We conclude that a cross-disciplinary, author- and collection-centric approach in questions of historical botany is highly effective.
I botanici hanno la necessità  di poter accedere a collezioni storiche di piante essiccate (erbari) allo scopo di chiarire precisamente l'identità  dei taxa descritti da autori del passato. Questo genere di studi comprende il processo formale di tipificazione, prescritto dal Codice di nomenclatura per alghe, funghi e piante, che richiede che i campioni originali utilizzati per le descrizioni siano identificati e designati come typi, così che possano essere permanentemente collegati al nome scientifico e servire da riferimenti assoluti. Con oltre 600 taxa nuovi descritti e quasi 1000 nuovi nomi istituiti, Roberto de Visiani (Sebenico 1800 - Padova 1878) fu uno dei più importanti studiosi a dirigere l'Orto Botanico di Padova, ruolo che svolse dal 1837 fino alla morte. Durante il suo incarico, Visiani trasformò l'orto da un semplice strumento per l'insegnamento della medicina in un'istituzione moderna e aperta alla comunità . Fu autore di numerosi importanti lavori di tassonomia, concentrati soprattutto sulla flora vascolare della sua terra di origine: la Dalmazia. Dopo la sua morte, lasciò a Padova non solo una vasta collezione di circa 12.000 campioni, ma anche migliaia di lettere ricevute da altri studiosi, manoscritti e altro materiale inedito, che sono rimasti quasi del tutto inesplorati, malgrado sia vissuto, lavorato e lasciato la sua impronta in uno dei periodi più fondamentali per il Giardino stesso, l'Università  e la comunità  scientifica più in generale. Una grande varietà  di materiali sono stati utilizzati. Una fonte di informazioni particolarmente importante è stato l'Herbarium Dalmaticum di Visiani, conservato a Padova e catalogato nel 2011-2013. Tutti i lavori di floristica di Visiani sono stati raccolti e studiati e sono analizzati in grande dettaglio, con particolare attenzione alla sua opera magistrale Flora Dalmatica e ai quattro più piccoli lavrori preparati in collaborazione con professore serbo Josif Pančić. Un trattamento più generale è riservato alle sue altre opere. Tutto il materiale inedito disponibile presso la Biblioteca Antica dell'Orto Botanico è stato digitalizzato ed organizzato. Oltre un terzo delle oltre 2000 lettere conservate nella sua corrispondenza sono state trascritte. Abbiamo inoltre recuperato e trascritto le lettere spedite da Visiani al suo amico più intimo, il celebre lichenologo e paleobotanico Abramo Massalongo, conservate presso la Biblioteca Civica di Verona, nonché quelle spedite al botanico Josif Pančić, conservate all'Istituto di Botanica di Belgrado. Oltre alle lettere, sono stati analizzati altri documenti inediti, soprattutto liste di piante, manoscritti di opere edite ed inedite e rari diari di viaggio. Lo studio di questi materiali ha portato alla pubblicazione di sette articoli scientifici, con quarantuno designazioni di typi in totale, più note dettagliate per altri diciassette nomi. Si presenta inoltre una bozza di trattamento nomenclaturale sui 275 nomi pubblicati in Flora Dalmatica, la cui pubblicazione richiederà  il contributo di botanici croati. Si presentano infine altri due articoli in preparazione. I dati ricavati dall'erbario e dai lavori inediti di Visiani sono stati integrati in un geodatabase gestito tramite QGIS, che consente di studiarli tramite query avanzate. Questo strumento è stato utilizzato per preparare le mappe che accompagnano la dettagliata cronologia dell'esplorazione botanica della Dalmazia e delle regioni vicine durante l'epoca di Visiani che è stato possibile ricostruire unendo dati da tutte le fonti studiate, nonché quelle utilizzate per verificare la corrispondenza tra l'erbario e le segnalazioni bibliografiche. La rete di relazioni e scambi di Visiani è chiarita, sono trattati i suoi assistenti, giardinieri, colleghi, amici e coautrori, nonché i molti semplici raccoglitori di pianti che gli fornivano i campioni, molti dei quali sono figure minori sulle quali poco o niente è reperibile in letteratura. Particolarmente interessanti si sono rivelati il ruolo giocato da Antonio Bertoloni all'inizio della carriera di Visiani, il contributo di Muzio Tommasini alla pubblicazione di Flora Dalmatica, il difficile rapporto di Visiani con il suo editore Friedrich Hofmeister e la sua stretta amicizia con Massalongo. Le opinioni scientifiche di Visiani sono discusse nel dettaglio. Visiani ebbe una visione positivistica della scienza e considerò l'esperimento la strada maestra verso la conoscenza; non fu influenzato dagli ideali romantici del tempo. Il suo approccio alla sistematica fu quello tipico della prima metà  del XIX secolo: si concentrava principalmente sull'accurata descrizione delle specie e sull'esplorazione di una flora regionale e rimase sempre uno strenuo difensore delle pratiche linneane, il che gli costò alcune critiche in tarda età. Il suo metodo e le sue idee influenzarono fortemente la scuola di botanica di Padova fino alla metà  del XX secolo. Nonostante sia confermata l'opposizione di Visiani alle acerbe ipotesi evolutive pre-Darwiniane, riteniamo che fosse un fissista dogmatico, e ipotizziamo che si possa essere convertito all'evoluzionismo nei suoi ultimi anni. I suoi concetti, metodi e scelte in tassonomia e nomenclatura, la cui comprensione è fondamentale per la tipificazione dei suoi nomi, sono chiariti e descritti in dettaglio. E' presentata una dettagliata biografia personale di Visiani, che tocca i temi delle sue origini, studi, vita professionale, viaggi, carattere, religione, idee politiche, eredità  materiale. Per quanto riguarda la sua posizione sul processo di unificazione nazionale italiano, la sua posizione si potrebbe ritenere cautamente anti-austriaca. Riteniamo che ciò si possa spiegare parte con l'ambiguità  della sua stessa identità  nazionale, parte con il suo chiaro desiderio di salvaguardare la propria posizione accademica. I risultati botanici del lavoro vengono restituiti tramite pubblicazioni specializzate. Il materiale inedito di Visiani è in fase di caricamento in formato digitale e gratuito sulla piattaforma del Centro di Anteneo per le Biblioteche, PHAIDRA. Si sta vagliando la possibilità  di pubblicare la corrispondenza tra Visiani e Pančić e tra Visiani e Massalongo. Il sistema GIS sarà reso disponibile all'Erbario di Padova; i dati raccolti potranno essere resi disponibili tramite lo sviluppo di un'apposita piattaforma in rete. Concludiamo che un approccio multidisciplinare, centrato sull'autore e la collezione, è particolarmente efficace nel risolvere problemi di botanica storica.

This research presents in a different way the new science of motion described in Galileo’s Discourses (1638) and in Evangelista Torricelli’s Geometrical Work (1644). We will focus on how the local motion has been mathematized at the beginning of the modern mechanics in order to analyse its conditions and main features. The local motion, which had been a topic of natural philosophy, became a topic of modern kinematics that is a science. We will show that the new structure of speed has been a crucial event that led the naive notion of speed of the ancient tradition to the technical notion of continuous magnitude. The nature of continuity is closely connected to infinity and an analysis of this link is the peculiar way of reading those two texts.
Questo lavoro di ricerca intende dare una diversa lettura alla Nuova scienza del moto elaborata da Galileo Galilei nei Discorsi (1638) e da Evangelista Torricelli nell’Opera geometrica (1644). L'attenzione è rivolta al processo di matematizzazione che subisce il moto locale nel momento in cui nasce la meccanica moderna, per analizzarne le condizioni di realizzazione e le caratteristiche principali. Il moto locale, una questione dibattuta all’interno della filosofia naturale, diventa cinematica, cioè scienza. Si mostrerà che la strutturazione di un nuovo concetto di velocità è l’evento decisivo che porta l’accezione ingenua e intuitiva della tradizione, ad assumere l’accezione tecnico-operativa di grandezza continua. La natura della continuità è inscindibile dalla nozione di infinito e l’analisi di questo legame è la chiave di lettura proposta.