Piccini, Ciamician and the periodic law in Italy

This paper discusses the reception of periodic law in late nineteenth-century Italy. The research main objective is to fill a serious gap in the ambit of studies in the history of chemistry in Italy in the period that runs from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Despite the unquestionable level of professionalisation and specialisation that the historiography of science and technology has attained also in Italy, the temporal arch that the study intends to consider, still today represents a largely unexplored territory, firstly for the lack of a systematic exploration of primary sources, such as collections of letters, manuscripts and archive documents. In the period considered, despite a series of delays and shortcomings mainly on the structural and organisational levels, Italy played a leading role thanks to the work of several extraordinary protagonists like Stanislao Cannizzaro, Giacomo Ciamician, and Augusto Piccini. If the relationship between Cannizzaro and Mendeleev are well enough known, we have more to learn about Ciamician and Piccini. For example, a fundamental spectroscopic study of the young Ciamician about spectroscopic analogies between elements in the same group was remembered by Mendeleev in his 1889 Faraday Lecture; at the same time, Piccini studied with originality many aspects of periodic law, and he was in correspondence with Mendeleev. The study will especially concentrate on the development of Mendeleev’s ideas in Italy under the profile of theoretical development, as well as in relation to the growth and definition of its pedagogical uses by means of a survey of Ciamician and Piccini notes and textbooks.