HISTORY OF PHYSICS – THE ACTIVITY OF PIETRO
BLASERNA SCIENTIST, DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT
INTRODUCTION
This project aims to examine the work of Pietro Blaserna both in his relations with the National
Academy of Lincei (of which he was president from 1904 to 1916), and in his many activities as
organizer of scientific research within the governmental and institutional committees which he took
part and often presided, even in his activity as creator, chief advocate and director of the Institute of
Physics of Rome. With regard to this, the research aims to study the laboratories of chemistry and
physics of the University of Rome, both in terms of the role of laboratories in teaching and
research, and of cooperation with the technical services of the public administration and even for
their planning.
The topics of the laboratories will also be examined in the broader context of research policy,
choices of strategy and finance, as well as declarations of principle. Scientific development has
indeed played a role in the affirmation of identity and national prestige after the unification of Italy,
while it has also been the constant reference to the organized models of the countries that had first
developed a productive system starting from scientific innovation: Britain, France, Germany,
United States. From this point of view the study of the University of Rome has a central role. In
fact, the construction of new research infrastructures characterized both the new role of the city as
the scientific capital of the country, and the inclusion of the country in the circuit of European
thought. The national dimension also involves the study of complementary and sometimes rival
relations with other universities. The international comparison is particularly evident in some of the
characters of this story: Stanislao Cannizzaro, Blaserna, Vito Volterra and Orso Mario Corbino.
Inside the National Academy of Lincei Blaserna has played a leading role for several decades:
elected member in 1873, he became assistant secretary in 1877 and secretary in 1879 under the
chairmanship of Quintino Sella (1874-1884), maintaining this position even during the presidency
of Francesco Brioschi (1884-1898), then he was vice-president in 1900, and finally president in
1904, a position held until 1916. He engaged himself in the development of Italian cultural heritage
through careful management of academic awards (Ministerial Awards, Real Prizes, Prize "Santoro",
Prize "Cannizzaro", Prize "Sella") and promoting a variety of businesses such as national editions
of works by Leonardo da Vinci, Alessandro Volta, Luigi Cremona, Evangelista Torricelli, the
compilation of a dictionary of Italian Toponymic, the publication of the proceedings of the
constitutional Italian parliaments from the Middle Ages to 1831. In addition, on the international
front, during his presidency of the Academy, he had the direction of the International Association of
Academies for the period 1908-1910, organized and hosted the conference of incorporation of the
International Institute of Agriculture (1905) and the Fourth International Congress of Mathematics
(1908).
With regard to the role played by Blaserna as the organizer of a broader research policy, we will
also examine his activities within committees and bodies about scientific and cultural life within
which the scientist had mostly a managerial and foreground role: the Italian Society of Physics of
which he was one of the promoters in 1897 and its first president, the Italian Geographical Society,
of which he was member of the board continuously from 1875 to 1891 and Vice President from
1885 to 1886, the Governing Council of the Office Central Meteorology and Geodynamics he
helped create, as part of a major reorganization of the state meteorological and seismological
studies, and directed from 1879 to 1907. On the international front it is his important activity within
the International Bureau of Weights and Measures of which he was a member since 1897 and then
secretary-general from 1901 to 1918.
MAIN OBJECTIVES
In part already known, these events have uneven degrees of knowledge and all require further
investigation ranging from the reconstruction of the leaders and lesser-known episodes towards a
new approach to the interpretation of the events already studied. In both cases, these insights have
to go through the resumption of the work of identification, development and study of the sources
that this project seeks to promote.
From this existing archive many surveys will be carried out to identify the documents of
laboratories (including iconography) and the national and international cooperation in the archives
already known (National Academy of Lincei, National Academy of Sciences said the XL, Central
Archives of the State, Museum and Department of Physics of Rome) and other archives hitherto not
considered. A selected part of this documentation, in particular concerning Blaserna, will be the
subject of a work of digitizing and editing.
The main aim of the project, started in 2012, is to increase the multimedia content available through
the web sites of the institutions involved (first of all, the Centre Fermi), and to create dossiers and
scientific articles, to be published in national and international journals.
The investigation will start focusing on the early period, which can be labeled as Pietro Blaserna
scientist from Palermo to Rome. The origin of the Institute of Physics.
The expansion and renovation of the University of Rome, built by Quintino Sella in the early years
of the united Kingdom of Italy, was part of the activities of the chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro from
Palermo, who conducted much of the negotiations with the Ministry of Education on the issue of
new laboratories for chemistry, and then physics. Cannizzaro in fact called from Palermo Blaserna,
sharing with him approach and intent. Both attributed great importance to the new structures of
teaching, but also - of course - relevance to the experimental activity. Their conception of the
laboratory and its role in the life of the institute was borrowed from foreign models, known by
virtue of personal relationships and journeys undertaken.
In the case of Blaserna the Institute he designed in detail since 1872, and opened in 1881 with a
careful choice of space and facilities allocated for the teaching of laboratories for the Practical
School, was fitted perfectly on the international circuit, in particular following the German model.
The life of the Institute and its instrumentation in the early decades of activity was characterized by
some research areas such as acoustics, meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, seismology and
geodynamics, all grown from the same Blaserna.
We intend to depart from the screening and the study of Blaserna’s correspondence with other
scientists, correspondence preserved in the Corsiniana Library of the Academy of Lincei in Rome,
as well as through the study of documents kept in the archives of the Museum and Department of
Physics, many still unpublished, where there also are the original designs and architectural projects
of the same museum, projects that Blaserna had meticulously followed with particular attention.
Group Leader: Raffaella Simili Researcher funded by Centro Fermi (2012/2013): Miriam Focaccia
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ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Scienziati, patrioti, presidenti. L'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (1874-1926), a cura di R.
Simili, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012.
G. Battimelli, G. Paoloni, «Il ministro scienziato», Le Scienze, n. 484, pp. 112-118,
dicembre 2008.
G. Battimelli, G. Paoloni, R. Simili, Da via Panisperna all’Italia: creatività scientifica e
creatività istituzionale, in Beautiful Minds I nobel italiani, a cura di P. Galluzzi, L. Manetti,
Giunti, Firenze-Milano, 2004, pp. 110-117.
M.G. Ianniello, La storia dell’Istituto di fisica della Sapienza attraverso la sue collezioni di
strumenti, Roma, 2003, pp. 17-24.
B.J. Reeves, Le tradizioni di ricerca della fisica italiana nel tardo diciannovesimo secolo,
in La scienza accademica nell’Italia post unitaria, a cura di V. Ancarani, Franco Angeli,
Milano, 1989, pp. 53-95.
G. Paoloni, R. Simili ( a cura di), I Lincei nell’Italia Unita. Mostra storico-documentaria
sotto l’alto patronato del Presidente della Repubblica (Roma, 22 novembre 2003-10
gennaio 2004) , Giorgio Bretschneider editore, Roma, 2004.
M. Cantone, Commemorazione dell’accademico linceo sen. Pietro Blaserna, <<Rendiconti
della R. Accademia nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di scienze fisiche, matematiche e
naturali>>, s. 5°, XXVII, 1918, pp. 262-269.
O.M. Corbino, Pietro Blaserna, <<Memorie della Società degli spettroscopisti italiani>>, s.
2°, vol. VII, 1918, pp. 3-4.
L. Palazzo, Pietro Blaserna e gli studi geofisici in Italia, <<Bollettino della Società
sismologica italiana>>, vol. 22, fasc. 3-4, 1919, pp. 188-203.
V. Volterra, Commemorazione, Senato del Regno, <<Atti parlamentari. Discussioni>>,
seduta del 27 febbraio 1918, p. 4102.
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