Pancaldi, Giuliano

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Pancaldi, Giuliano

PERSONAL: Born in Italy. Education: University of Bologna, Laureate; University of Oxford, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Home—Bologna, Italy. Office—International Centre for the History of Universities and Science, University of Bologna, Via Zamboni 38, 40126 Bologna, Italy. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, professor of history of science, director of department of philosophy, 1997–2000, head of International Centre for the History of Universities and Science.

MEMBER: Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences, History of Science Society, Società Italiana di Storia della Scienza (member of executive committee).

AWARDS, HONORS: Domus Galilaeana fellow; British Academy-Wolfson Foundation fellow; Accademia dei Lincei fellow; Fulbright fellow; Dibner Institute/Massechusetts Institute of Technology fellow.

WRITINGS:

Charles Darwin: "Storia" ed "Economia" della Natura, La Nuova Italia (Florence, Italy), 1977.

Darwin in Italia, translated by Ruey Brodine Morelli as Darwin in Italy: Science across Cultural Frontiers, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1991.

Radio: Da Marconi alla musica delle stelle, Graftis (Bologna, Italy), 1995.

Volta: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2003.

EDITOR

Evoluzione: biologia e scienze umane, Il Mulino (Bologna, Italy), 1976.

I Congressi degli scienziati Italiani nell'età del positivismo, CLUEB (Bologna, Italy) 1983.

Teleologia e Darwinismo: la corrispondenza tra Charles Darwin e Federico Delpino, 1984.

Le Università e le Scienze, 1993.

(With Anna Guagnini) Cento anni di radio: Le radici dell'invenzione, 1995.

(With Marco Bresadola) Luigi Galvani International Workshop: Proceedings, University of Bologna (Italy), 1999.

Allesandro Volta: electtricità, scritti scelta, 1999.

(With Paola Bertucci) Electric Bodies: Episodes in the History of Medical Electricity, University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy), 2001.

(With Dino Buzzetti and Harold Short) Augmenting Comprehension: Digital Tools and the History of Ideas, 2003.

Natura, cultura, identità: le università e l'identità Europea, 2004.

Also contributor to The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, 2003. Member of editorial board of periodicals, including The British Journal for the History of Science, Intersezioni: Rivista di Storia delle Idee, Minerva, Nuncius, Physis, and Social Studies of Science.

SIDELIGHTS: From its birth in Victorian England, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution soon spread throughout the European continent, and in Darwin in Italy: Science across Cultural Frontiers, science historian Giuliano Pancaldi describes its impact on the scientific community in one European nation. Pancaldi chooses to focus on native-born Italians, rather than the exiles from authoritarian Russia and Germany who found a refuge in Italy. He explores the ideas and impact of various pre-evolutionists, such as Giambattista Brocchi, who embraced species extinction but rejected its relationship to natural history, many of whom had at least an indirect influence on Darwin. He goes on to cover both pro-and anti-Darwinists, and presents a detailed description of the impact of Darwin's Italian translator, Giovanni Canestrini. For Science contributor Joy Harvey, "the greatest virtue of Pancaldi's book is that he has discussed the science of the individuals he has chosen, as well as their adherence to evolutionism."

Pancaldi followed this work up with a biography of an Italian who was a giant of scientific history in his own right. Volta: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment tells the story of Allesandro Volta, the man behind the words "volt" and "voltage," whose innovative battery, which emerged from his studies of the torpedo fish, or electric ray, gives some indication of his wide-ranging interests and expertise. Pancaldi's book provides a wide-ranging look at the world in which Volta operated, a world of revolutionary ideas and startling new discoveries within age-old systems of courtly patronage and hide-bound universities. For Fabio Bevilacqua, writing in American Scientist, "Every chapter has an interesting and original thesis, shows detailed and painstaking knowledge of manuscripts and adds to our knowledge of Volta and his time."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, November-December, 2003, Fabio Bevilacqua, review of Volta: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, p. 560.

Booklist, June 1, 2003, Bryce Christenson, review of Volta, p. 1738.

Isis, December, 2003, William R. Shea, review of Volta, p. 733; December, 2003, review of Electric Bodies: Episodes in the History of Medical Electricity, p. 792.

Science, February 21, 1992, Joy Harvey, review of Darwin in Italy: Science across Cultural Frontiers, p. 1002.