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Scientific Report 2007-2009
History of Physics and Physics Education
H1. The early history of experimental physics at la Sapienza
(1746-1930)
and the development of physics in Italy after WWII
While the history of physics teaching at La Sapienza in
post-unitary Italy is relatively known and there are several
contributions on this subject, we have very scarce
and fragmentary historical data related to the Papal
States. Years ago I began to reconstruct this history
from the concrete evidence preserved in the Museum of
the Department of Physics (i. e. the oldest instruments
kept in the Museum), from the small Archive of the Museum
and from the documents in the Amaldi papers.
A charming but very incomplete story came out which
claimed closer attention, also based on input from scholars
trained in the humanities who in the meantime had
conducted a thorough research about the teaching of natural
philosophy and mixed mathematics at the Sapienza;
these courses are indeed the cultural roots of the course
of physics in the modern sense.
It thus begun a long and patient research, particularly
in the Archivio di Stato in Roma, which houses a
rich collection of documents on the history of the Roman
University, and this research led to clarify many
unknown aspects. The questions to be answered concern
the long process of the detachment of physics from
the natural philosophy, the introduction of the first experimental
practices in teaching, the establishment of
the first chair of experimental physics at La Sapienza in
1746, and the first teachers (F. Jacquier, G.M. Fonda,
B. Gandolfi, S. Barlocci) up to Paolo Volpicelli, which
represents the transitional figure from the Papal Government
to the new unified Italy. All along the research
the comparison is considered with the Collegio Romano
and the Accademia dei Lincei, trying to reconstruct the
process of dissemination of physics. In this case the keystone
for the understanding of the evolution of physics in
Rome, no longer seen as the esoteric science of some isolated
scholar but as a productive part of society, is the
contribution of F. Scarpellini. Thanks to his activity
physics was seen at last, from the time of the Enlightenment
onwards, as an applied science bearer of progress.
Scarpellini is the most important popularizer, between
the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, of the experimental
practice in physics, astronomy and mathematics,
both for civilian and military purposes.
Along with the first chair of experimental physics at
the Sapienza was created in Rome the new profession
of the macchinista. In this connection the research has
better outlined the hitherto almost unknown story of
an important family of scientific instrument makers, the
Luswergh, which accompanied the teaching of Physics at
the Sapienza until the middle of the nineteenth century.
From 1872 on, the management of the Istituto Fisico by
Blaserna and later on by Corbino, as is well known, sets
down the conditions for the rise of the Roman school
of physics. Referring to this period a few minor histories
have been investigated, bearing some relevance to
the history of the emerging electrotechnics, of paleomagnetism
and of the early studies of cosmic rays.
The prosecution of the historical investigation on
Italian physics in the period following the second world
War is a line of research started several years ago, which
has already led to several results. Focusing on Edoardo
Amaldi as the key figure ( a choice dictated, beside his
eminent role in the organization of physics in Italy, by
the availability of the huge documentary source of his
personal archive, deposited at the Physics department
in Rome), the research aims at a further refinement
of the overall picture of the development of physics in
postwar Italy. An intrinsic part of the research work is
the localization, collection and proper arrangement of
archival sources. Thanks to the work done in past years
in this respect, already now the Physics department in
Rome can easily claim to host the largest repository
of personal papers of 20th century Italian physicists.
New sources of the same kind are in the process of
being acquired and catalogued (papers of G. Gentile jr.,
G. Careri, C. Salvetti, V. Somenzi). The exploitation
of these sources will allow to throw further light on
key historical issues, such as the development of the
Italian nuclear project in the fifties and sixties, and
its relations with the research in fundamental nuclear
physics, alongside with the institutional aspects of the
question, which have already been the subject of an
early investigation in the volume on the history of
INFN published in 2001. A consistent fraction of the
results of these enquiries will find its place as part of the
reconstruction of the historical development of physics
in Rome, which is the subject of a book to be completed
shortly.
References
1. G. Battimelli, Giornale di storia contemporanea, n. 2
(2007)
2. G.Battimelli, in C. Gillispie, Complete Dictionary of
Scientific Biography, Cengage Learning, New York (2008)
3. G. Battimelli, in F. Ferroni, The legacy of Edoardo
Amaldi in science and society, Società Italiana di Fisica,
Bologna (2009)
4. M.G. Ianniello, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani,
Treccani, Roma (2008).
Authors
G. Battimelli, M.G. Ianniello
Sapienza Università di Roma 172 Dipartimento di Fisica