ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Italian Geology and the Geology of Italy: Earth Sciences and Nation-Building in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Italy

• In Event: The Plural Worlds of Earth Science: Visual, Material, and Institutional Transformations Across Disciplines, Scales, and Territories 1

English Abstract

This paper examines how Italian scientists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reflected on Italy’s scientific past and how such reflections intersected with the broader process of nation-building. The analysis focuses on the contributions of two Italian geologists, Antonio Stoppani (1824-1891) and Giovanni Capellini (1833-1922). In several of his writings, Stoppani maintained there was a relationship between Italian contributions to geology and the distinctive physical and geological features of the peninsula, arguing that Italy’s geological diversity had historically offered ideal conditions for field research and had enabled Italian scholars to play a prominent role in the development of the discipline. For Stoppani, the geological features of the nation served not only as objects of scientific study but also as symbolic resources capable of reinforcing national identity. As director of Bologna’s Geological Museum, Capellini devoted significant effort to the musealisation of the material legacy of earlier Italian and Bolognese geologists—most notably the naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, celebrated as the father of geology. Capellini also promoted major scientific congresses and events that contributed to showcase Italian geological research to an international audience. These two cases are part of a broader process of nation-building in which the scientific sphere played a central role. In this context, earth sciences were particularly significant, since more than other disciplines they were used as a rhetorical tool to provide solidity and legitimacy to the material and symbolic foundations of the newly unified nation.

Author

• Zoe Lauri, University of Bologna