Pagina 337 - Giosuè Sangiovanni, Diari (1800-1808), a cura di V. Martucci

Vittorio Martucci
Citation standard
SANGIOVANNI Giosuè, Diari (1800-1808), a cura di V. Martucci,
Napoli, ISPF Lab Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (“I quaderni
del Lab”, 2), 2014. ISBN 9788890871214
Abstract
Like many young Neapolitan physicians, Giosuè Sangiovanni (1776-
1849) was involved in the revolution of 1799. He served in the
Guard of the Republic, whose tragic end marked his destiny as an
exile and a scientist. Sangiovanni keeps track of this experience in
his Diaries (1800-1808), hitherto unpublished, where he notes in a
fast and sometimes syncopated way the record of his wanderings in
Italy, France, Switzerland, Tyrol, Piedmont. There we find not only
places, meetings, small events and daily life’s adventures - almost the
backbone of the autobiography of an Neapolitan exile - but above
all the story of an educational trip. In Paris, thanks to his contact
with prominent naturalists of the time, such as Cuvier, Lamarck,
Saint-Hilaire, Lacépède, this pupil of Domenico Cirillo’s reaches
his scientific maturity and his academic recognition. Sangiovanni’s
Diaries end with his final return to Naples, where he, now an advo-
cate of Lamarck’s evolutionary theory, was appointed professor of
the first chair of Comparative Anatomy in Italy.
Keywords
G. Sangiovanni; History of science; History of evolution theories,
Neapolitan revolution; Comparative Anatomy.
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