La chimica e le tecnologie chimiche nel Veneto dell '800 (review)

This volume collects the proceedings of the seventh seminar on the history of science and technology in nineteenth-century Veneto; previous seminars have dealt with medicine, agronomy, mathematics, architecture, geology, and biology. Both the seminars and the proceedings are an initiative of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, an institution founded by Napoleon at the beginning of the nineteenth century and then refounded in 1838 by the emperor of Austria, Ferdinand I.

In a century marked by a series of decisive events—the fall of the Republic of Venice, the reign of Napoleon, the Restoration, the Risorgimento, and the unification of Italy—a rich picture of the Italian situation can be extrapolated from the great variety of the contributions here. The essays tell us about the despotic attitude of the professors of chemistry, and their academic battles; the parochial scope of their interests, and their scant attention to international developments in the discipline; the gap between the world of science and civil society; the failed connection with economic reality; the neglect of artisanal and industrial techniques; and the instrumental and ideological use of chemistry for political purposes. To all of this can be added the problem of the political and geographic fragmentation of Italy at the turn of the eighteenth century, and the divisions among Italian scientists torn between the ideals of cosmopolitanism and the search for a national identity. By and large, the contributors are agreed on the strongly political character of Italian chemistry. Conferences that were organized periodically throughout the Italian peninsula during the Risorgimento were opportunities to exchange political information more than they were scientific forums.

As Luigi Cerruti points out in his opening essay, chemistry in nineteenth-century Italy was characterized by a contrast between an interest in advanced theories (sometimes to the point of abstrusity and speculative eccentricity) and the persistence of backward practices. At times, however, Cerruti's analysis becomes a rather fastidious survey of the academic shenanigans underlying the establishing of chemistry as a university discipline. Admittedly, the distribution of academic power is something that can hardly be ignored in a study of how university teaching and research affected the progress of chemistry. Indeed, famous and important professors did practice academic nepotism widely. Nevertheless, it should be asked whether, behind Cerruti's fuss about concorsi and ministerial appointments, there is not at work a projection of contemporary worries and frustrations onto the past. In this respect, Ferdinando Abbri does well to avoid reducing the developments of Italian chemistry to the form of the discipline's university institutionalization. In his essay, he argues that the Veneto was characterized by a certain liveliness in chemical investigations. After all, it was no accident that Lavoisier's chemical revolution and antiphlogistic chemistry were well received in the Veneto.

Angelo Bassani focuses his essay on the university of Padua and the establishment of its chair of chemistry. In the Italian university curriculum, chemistry emerged as an autonomous discipline relatively late; in Padua, the degree of chemistry started in 1835. The beginnings of academic chemistry in Italy are to be found in a cluster of variously interrelated disciplines, such as botany, materia medica, mineralogy, metallurgy, hydrology, agronomy, and military engineering. As one might imagine, chemistry was still by and large subordinated to medicine, and medical professors continued to look down upon such figures as distillers of waters and spirits, manufacturers of paints, glazers, and enamelers. The disjunction between academic learning, applied chemistry, and crafts was accentuated by economic underdevelopment.

Another group of papers concentrate specifically on the medical applications of chemistry. Giuliano Dall'Olio...