Abstract
Starting from the inventory of the Bassi-Veratti Laboratory instruments, the characteristics of the gabinetto and its role in the scientific and social life of eighteenth-century Bologna are illustrated, highlighting the personality and work of Laura Bassi, her innovative teaching and the success she enjoyed in the community.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Marta Cavazza (1995a), p. 736.
- 3.
Archivio di Stato di Bologna (from now on ASB), Archivio Aldrovandi Marescotti, b. 430, now reproduced, Marta Cavazza (1995a), pp. 741–743.
- 4.
Marta Cavazza (1995a), p. 737.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
A close example is Lord George Cowper’s museum, purchased by the Istituto delle Scienze in Bologna at the end of the Eighteenth Century, see Giorgio Dragoni (1985).
- 9.
- 10.
M. Cavazza (1995a), pp. 740–753.
- 11.
- 12.
Don Francesco Vittuari, a priest, the first “mechanic” hired by the Istituto, was the constructor of almost all the apparata used before 1744 (when the instruments ordered from Holland arrived) and again in the 1780s the secretary Sebastiano Canterzani pointed out the importance of the contribution made by members of the Ordine dei Servi (Servite Order) to the construction of up to date scientific instruments; cfr:. De Bononiensi Scientiarum et Artium Istituti atque Accademia Commentarii (from now on cited as Commentarii), Ex Typographia Laelii a Vulpe, Bononiae 1731–1791, volls. 7, I, (1731), p. 16 (for the information on Vittuari); VII, (1791), pp. 14–21.
- 13.
M. Cavazza (1995a), pp. 750–751.
- 14.
On the myth that grew up around the figure of Laura Bassi see Marta Cavazza (1995a), pp. 732–736.
- 15.
Spallanzani to Bassi, Modena, 30 April 1769; Bassi to Spallanzani, Bologna, 19 May 1771, in Pericle Di Pietro (1984), pp. 170–193. For Laura Bassi’s role in Spallanzani education and on the relations between them I refer to Marta Cavazza (1999), pp. 185–202. On the modified Lyonnet microscope used by Spallanzani, cfr. Giulio Barsanti (2000); regarding Brother Fedele: Roberto Gandini (1972).
- 16.
Cfr. Antonio Garelli (1885), the letter from Hortega dated 21 April 1753 (pp. 70–80) and the letter from Nollet dated 30 March 1753.
- 17.
Antonio Garelli (1885), pp. 99–102, letter from Nollet to Bassi, undated. An extended version of this letter was published by Nollet in his Lettres sur l’Electricité dans lesquelles on trouvera les principaux phénomènes qui ont été découverts depuis 1760, printed in Paris in 1767 by L. Guérin et L. F. Délatour.
- 18.
Beccaria to Veratti, Turin 18 October 1766, in Lettere di G.B. Beccaria a Laura Bassi e al marito, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio di Bologna (from now on BCAB), Coll Autogr., VI, 1741–1754, n. 1747; Beccaria to Bassi, Turin, 18 May 1761, ibid., n. 1747.
- 19.
M. Cavazza (1995a), p. 729.
- 20.
Letter from Fontana to Veratti, dated March 1766, BCAB. Coll. Autogr., XXIX, 8024–8031, n. 8031. For his part Spallanzani had written a year before that the “domus’” of Laura Bassi was considered by the most learned men “non aedes privatae mulietis sed doctrinae perfugium, ac sapientiae templum” (dedication to Laura Bassi of his dissertation De lapidibus ab aqua resilientibus, Montanari, Modena 1765, now in Pericle Di Pietro (1996), pp. 155–182: 157–158.
- 21.
Regarding the origin of the institutions in Bologna see Marta Cavazza (1990). For more detailed information on the activity of the Istituto and the Accademia delle Scienze the three volumes of Anatomie accademiche, respectively edited by Walter Tega (1986, 1987) and by Annarita Angelini (1993) are fundamental.
- 22.
- 23.
Regarding the Vari, see Maria Grazia Bergamini (1996).
- 24.
In Padua in 1739 the first chair in experimental physics was established (entrusted to Giovanni Poleni) and the following year a well equipped public laboratory was inaugurated, for which cfr. Gian Antonio Salandin, Maria Pancino (1987). For an overall view of the situation in Italy and in Europe, cfr. John L. Heilbron (1982), in part. pp.157–259, and Marta Cavazza (1995b).
- 25.
Le Costituzioni del1’Istituto delle Scienze eretto in Bologna sotto lì 12 Dicembre 1711, printed notice in ASB, Assunteria d’Istituto, Diversarum, b 9, No. 5.
- 26.
On these matters I refer you to Marta Cavazza (1993).
- 27.
The information about the home-based schools of Beccari, Galeazzi, Laghi, Galli, Morandi and Manzolini, and also about some of the academies organised by some of them and by Marchesini, are mainly derived from the relevant entries in G. Fantuzzi (1781–1790); the information about Galvani comes from Mario Medici (1845). There are important recent studies on the waxwork anatomical laboratory and the relative anatomy exercises by the Manzolini couple and then by Morandi alone. Amongst the most complete studies are: Miriam Focaccia (2008); and Rebecca Messbarger (2010).
- 28.
For Veratti’s career, in the University and in the Istituto, see S. Mazzetti (1847), ad vocem.
- 29.
Cfr. the Biografia (pp. l1–39) foreword by A. Garelli to the Lettere inedite (1885), p. 32, note 3.
- 30.
Regarding the Bolognese dottoressa’s “battles” to assert herself as a scholar and as a university teacher, as well as the Studies cited in note 5, I refer to M. Cavazza (1997b).
- 31.
Nota di “requisiti” published in Elio Melli 1960, pp. 53–187: p. 87.
- 32.
- 33.
This compelling expression is contained in a letter from Eustachio Manfredi dated 17 October 1736 published in a German numismatic journal, «Der Wöchentlichen Historischen Münz-Belustigung», in the 27 February 1737 issue, dedicated entirely to Laura Bassi, pp. 69–70. Regarding the phenomenon of the spectacular exhibition of female knowledge, typical of Eighteenth-Century Italy, see Marta Cavazza (2009b).
- 34.
ASB, Senato, Partiti, ff. 49–50. Regarding Bassi’s battles to be able to teach properly see Berti Logan (1994), in part. pp. 796–800.
- 35.
Elio Melli (1960), p. 128.
- 36.
Elio Melli (1960), pp. 103–104: letter to F. Scarselli, Bologna, 2l April 1745.
- 37.
Elio Melli (1960), pp. 150–151: letter to R Scarselli, Bologna, 16 July 1755.
- 38.
Elio Melli (1960), pp. 148–149: letter to F. Scarselli, Bologna, 14 June 1755 (400 scudi corresponded to 2000 lire).
- 39.
Antonio Garelli (1885), letter from Scarselli to Bassi, Roma, 18 October 1755, pp. 122–124.
- 40.
G. Fantuzzi (1781–1794), I, p. 388, note 9.
- 41.
- 42.
- 43.
Dedication Laurae Bassiae, spectassimi nominis muliebri […] to Spallanzani’s first work, De lapidibus ab aqua resilientibus, in Dissertazioni due dell’abate Spallanzani, Eredi B. Soliani, Modena 1765, pp. unnumbered (republished, in Pericle Di Pietro (1996), pp. 155–182).
- 44.
Ignazio Odoardi, Elogio, in Pubblica Accademia di lettere avutasi nel Collegio Montalto dagli alunni del medesimo la sera delli 5 giugno 1778 in lode della defunta loro precettrice Laura Bassi (BCAB, ms. B, 2727, cc. unnumbered).
- 45.
ASB, Senato, Vacchettoni, reg. 71, c. 95, Aumento alla lettrice Laura Bassi, 14 December 1759. Veratti also applied to the Senate and obtained reimbursement for the expenses sustained for experiments “of the kind that are carried out at home by Sig. Veratti for the Medical use of the Electric Machine”: ASB, Assunteria. di Studio, Atti, 4, f. 1284. I thank Paola Bertucci for this reference.
- 46.
- 47.
Beate Ceranski (1996), pp. 138–161, pp. 260–270 (Appendix).
- 48.
Cfr. A. Angelini (1993), Il diario scientifico, cit. in note 46, passim.
- 49.
Canterzani to Bartolomeo Mozzi, Bologna, 7 December 1776, Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, ms. 2096, b. 6.
- 50.
Cfr. M. Cavazza (1995a), pp. 745–747.
- 51.
Giuseppe Veratti (1748, 1752). For an overall view of the two scholars’ interest in electrical phenomena I refer to G. Berti Logan (1994), pp. 808–810; B. Ceranski (1996), pp. 162–169. M. Cavazza (2009a), pp. 115–128; regarding the controversy over the medical use of electricity and Veratti’s role see Paola Bertucci (2005), pp. 64–100 and 123–171.
- 52.
As well as the experiments described in the dissertations published in the Commentarii and in the manuscript essays, there are those reported by the Secretary of the Accademia in Commentarii, t. Il, part I, 1745, pp. 347–353, with the title De aeris compressione.
- 53.
B. Ceranski (1996), p. 169.
- 54.
Marc’Antonio Leopoldo Caldani, Sull’insensitività ed irritabilità di alcune parti degli animali. Lettera scritta al chiarissimo e celebratissimo signore Alberto Haller, Bologna 1757, pp. 269–336, in part. p. 325, where the author describes an experiment on the electrical stimulation of the fibres of the heart in which Bassi actively participated and in which he thanked Veratti for having suggested to him the “new method” followed in these electrophysiological experiments. An interesting interpretation of the episode has been proposed in Paula Findlen (2003). On the debate between Hallerians and advocates of the Malpighian iatromechanical tradition, I refer to Marta Cavazza (1997a, 2008b).
- 55.
For an extremely useful text concerning the studies on electricity carried out in Italy, see Antonio Pace (1958).
- 56.
- 57.
Giambattista Beccaria (1758).
- 58.
Beccaria to Bassi, Turin, 26 […] 1759, BCAB, Coll. Autogr., VI, 1741.
- 59.
In a letter to Veratti dated 10 October 1763 Beccaria sent his thanks to Bassi “for the commemoration that she chose to make of my law of the refraction of rock crystal “ (ibid., 1745), referring probably to the essay Sopra il vetro islandico, now lost, which she presented to the Accademia on 29 April 1762 (cfr. A. Angelini (1993), vol III, p. 352). Bassi’s lost essay with the title Sopra l’elettricità vindice presented in the Accademia on 7 June 1771 (ibid., p. 363) must certainly have been a speech in favour of the new version of Franklin’s theory proposed by Beccaria.
- 60.
- 61.
Regarding this see Fontana’s letter to Veratti dated 25 March 1759 from Florence, in Antonio Garelli (1885), pp. 211–221.
- 62.
For Bassi, see Fontana’s letters dated 10 June 1768 and 9 May 1775 from Florence (BCAB, Coll. Autogr. XXIX, 8024 e 8028). For Veratti «Diario Bolognese Ecclesiastico e Civile», years 1779 and 1780.
- 63.
For the influence of Veratti’s research on Galvani’s development see Marco Bresadola (2011).
- 64.
Bassi to Spallanzani, Bologna, 9 April 1768, in Pericle Di Pietro (1984), X. p. 223.
- 65.
- 66.
M. Cavazza (1999), pp. 195–197.
- 67.
Fontana to Bassi, letters dated 8 February 1771 and 30 April 1775, from Bologna (BCAB, Coll. Autogr., XXIX, 8027 e 8029).
- 68.
Landriani to Bassi, Milan, 4 July 1777 (BCAB, Coll. Autogr., XXXVII, 10054).
- 69.
Campi to Bassi, letter dated 8 August 1774, from Milan (BCAB, Coll. Autogr., XIII, 3868).
- 70.
- 71.
Volta to Bassi, letters from Como dated 15 July 1771 and 15 June 1777, in Antonio Garelli (1885), pp. 157–158 and 158–159; Campi to Bassi, letter from Milan dated 28 November 1776 (BCAB, Coll. Autogr., XIII, 3869).
- 72.
Bassi to Volta, Bologna, 10 September 1777, in Francesco Massardi (1949).
- 73.
On couples in science see the essays collected in Helena M. Pycior, Nancy G. Slack, Pnina G. Abir-Am (1996); Francesco Algarotti (1737); on the transformation of places for experimentation in the Age of Enlightenment see the contributions to the volume edited by Bernardette Bensaude-Vincent and Christine Blondel (2008).
- 74.
For these questions see P. Bertucci (2005), pp. 172–215.
- 75.
- 76.
Amongst the many articles on the subject I restrict myself to citing Moira R. Rogers (2003).
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Cavazza, M. (2020). The Bassi-Veratti Home Laboratory. In: Cifarelli, L., Simili, R. (eds) Laura Bassi–The World's First Woman Professor in Natural Philosophy. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53962-7_6
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