ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Shifting Perspectives in Historiography of Science under the Fascist Rule 1

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

Like other self-proclaimed revolutionary regimes, fascism attached great importance to the historical dimension. In the realm of history of mathematics, the list of initiatives and events include: a large set of historic works focused on Italian mathematicians and Italian contributions to mathematics published by E. Bortolotti, G. Loria and others in the 20’s and 30’s; ambitious editorial projects, such as the national editions of the works of the ‘great Italian Masters’; the creation of institutes specifically devoted to history of science; some exhibitions of Italian mathematical achievements; the celebrations of Archimedes, Leonardo, and Galileo, etc. Constructed in order to promote and claim to foreigners that Italian mathematics was provided with a glorious past, a lively present and a glorious future, these initiatives played a significant role in the process of patrimonialization of Italian mathematical knowledge. However, they increasingly moved in an atmosphere of scientific nationalism, and mobilized problematic historiographic categories like those of primacies, Schools, Italian genius, etc. Consequently, during the Twenties and Thirties the historiographical perspectives gradually shifted, alternating reconstructions historically and philologically well-founded with narratives characterized by fictitious mechanisms of construction and reconstruction of national identities, traditions and icons in Italian mathematics.
Moving at the crossroads of different methodological perspectives (history of mathematics, history of international relations, cultural history, and history of museology), this symposium intends to investigate a series of initiatives in history of mathematics aimed at patrimonializing, celebrating, and inserting the exact sciences into the public space, which were organized and implemented during the fascist rule.
The Session is sponsored by the Società Italiana di Storia delle Matematiche.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Luigi Ingaliso, University of Catania

Commentator

• Daniele Cozzoli

Individual Presentations

• Ettore Bortolotti, or the History of Mathematics from a Nationalistic Perspective - Veronica Gavagna, University of Florence

• Mathematics, discipline, and nation-building: The case of E. A. Weiss - Nicolas Michel, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Institut Camille Jordan

• A cosmopolitan outlook against autarky: Enriques, Castelnuovo and the National Institute for the History of Science (1923-1938) - Elena Scalambro, Università degli Studi di Torino

• L’Unione Matematica Italiana and the creation of the series "Opere Scelte dei Matematici Italiani" - Arrigo Pisati

Session Organizers

• Maria Giulia Lugaresi, University of Ferrara

• Erika Luciano