Light and shadow: the status of Italian geology around 1807

Abstract: The term ‘geology’ (Aldrovandi, 1603) took two centuries to become popular. Cuvier’s and Smith’s stratigraphy and geological mapping gave birth to modern geology. They still used the term ‘geognosy’, and the birth of the Geological Society (London 1807) is the turning point from geognosy to geology. Most of the geoscientists of the time were based in France and Germany. But those in Great Britain were poised to take over the lead. What about the Italian geoscience community and the late birth of its geological society? After three centuries of primacy in science and geology, was Italy stepping back? Actually, a scientific decline before the French Revolution has hardly been proved. What is missing is an adequate knowledge of the works of the Italian geocommunity and the role it played at the time of the tours to Italy. French revolution and Napoleonic wars shocked the Italian states, disrupted the economic order, and discontinued the progress in science. A shift of scientific lingua franca from Latin to French and later to English had already occurred. Nevertheless, Italian geoscientists were the majority of the foreign members of both the French and English geological societies in the early 19th century. From 1759 to 1859, over 40 classic papers in geology were published in Italy. Within six decades around 1807, Italian geologists exceeded 200 in number, one half of whom studied volcanoes and/or earthquakes. Among them, Brocchi (1772-1826) was the most renowned for having inspired Lyell’s works. The final section of the paper is devoted to quantify and qualify the extent to which Brocchi’s Conchiologia Fossile influenced Lyell’s Principles.