Early investigations on Italian coal deposits: Giovanni Fabbroni’s geological and mining studies in Tuscany (1790)

Giovanni Fabbroni (Firenze 1752 – Pisa 1823) was a naturalist, chemist, agronomist and economist active in many institutions and in the technical administration of the Grand Duchy; he was a founder and vice director of the Natural History Museum in Florence. Member of the Accademia dei Georgofili since 1783, his predisposition for languages (indeed, his mother was German) made him one of the most cosmopolitan intellectuals of the late 18th century Tuscany. Between 1775 and 1780 the government sent him on a long trip abroad, and he lived in Paris and London, carrying out research in the field of arts and manufactures, mines and agriculture, and establishing long lasting contacts with the leading scientists of the continent. Living in Paris during the years of the revolution of the chemical studies of Lavoisier, of whom he was a supporter, he collaborated with the chemist Rouelle; later, in London he wrote the notes to the English version of Cronstedt’s system of mineralogy (1788). In 1779 he travelled through the northern counties of England, visiting coal and metal mines, steelworks, cannon factories, spinning mills and dyeing plants; here he observed and studied the manufacture of steel, porcelain, the industrial production of sulphuric acid and the new machines for the textile industry, and was impressed by the new steam engine of James Watt, which he suggested for reclaiming the marshes of Maremma and the exploitation of deep mineral deposits in Versilia. His notebooks formed the basis for his work as technical and mining consultant to the Habsburg-Lorraine in Tuscany. Here Fabbroni supported the reforms of Pietro Leopoldo I and in 1790 wrote his geological and mining studies on coal (1790). Later, Ferdinand III gave him several public offices, which he kept and increased during the Napoleonic period and the Restoration, when he became responsible of the Grand Duchy’s mines. He was appointed “Royal Commissioner to the Joint Council for the administration of the iron mines in Elba and for the control of the Magona Toscana”, and more generally he was asked to contribute to the improvement of the Tuscan economy, also through the identification of potentially profitable coal deposits. His essay on coal was commissioned by the government. Here he examines the characteristics of Anthracite, its various qualities and reports its chemical analysis. He discusses the possibility of finding good quality coal in Tuscany, the stratigraphy, depth and orientation of coal seams, not forgetting the issues of preliminary investigations (possibly carried out by means of exploration drilling from the surface) and the opportunity of opening new mines with the most recent mining techniques. Finally, he evaluates the comparative advantages of capital and technology investments in the coal industry. The question of Italian coal deposits was largely rationalized only one century later (Corpo Reale delle Miniere, 1893), with a general survey of the Country’s resources.