Since 2014 the Museum of the History of Physics of the University of Padua has been working on the study and valorisation of the collection of historical scientiﬁc instruments kept at the high school “Scipione Maﬀei” in Verona, one of the oldest high schools in Italy. The Cabinet of Physics of “Liceo Maﬀei”, founded in 1802, currently consists of about 550 instruments, acquired until the 1960s. Besides the Museum’s staﬀ, the project has involved two physics teachers and a group of students, who participated in diﬀerent phases of the work on the collection. This article intends to present the collection, the project, and the results achieved so far. We also aim at highlighting the potentialities and possible future developments of the project, a project which can become a model for other schools

Marcon, F.

Since 2014 the Museum of the History of Physics of the University of Padua has been working on the study and valorisation of the collection of historical scientific instruments kept at the high school “Scipione Maffei” in Verona, one of the oldest high schools in Italy. The Cabinet of Physics of “Liceo Maffei”, founded in 1802, currently consists of about 550 instruments, acquired until the 1960s. Besides the Museum’s staff, the project has involved two physics teachers and a group of students, who participated in different phases of the work on the collection. This article intends to present the collection, the project, and the results achieved so far. We also aim at highlighting the potentialities and possible future developments of the project, a project which can become a model for other schools

Fanny Marcon

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Padova

DOI 10.1393/ncc/i2017-17105-7Communications: SIF Congress 2016IL NUOVO CIMENTO 40 C (2017) 105Between school and university: The study of the historicalscientific instruments collection of the Liceo Maffei in VeronaF. Marcon(∗)Museum of the History of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy “Galileo Galilei”,University of Padua - Padua, Italyreceived 10 April 2017Summary. — Since 2014 the Museum of the History of Physics of the University ofPadua has been working on the study and valorisation of the collection of historicalscientific instruments kept at the high school “Scipione Maffei” in Verona, one of theoldest high schools in Italy. The Cabinet of Physics of “Liceo Maffei”, founded in1802, currently consists of about 550 instruments, acquired until the 1960s. Besidesthe Museum’s staff, the project has involved two physics teachers and a group ofstudents, who participated in different phases of the work on the collection. Thisarticle intends to present the collection, the project, and the results achieved so far.We also aim at highlighting the potentialities and possible future developments ofthe project, a project which can become a model for other schools.The collaboration between the high school “Scipione Maffei” of Verona and the Mu-seum of the History of Physics of the University of Padua began in 2014, when an agree-ment was signed between the school and the Department of Physics and Astronomy“Galileo Galilei”, where the Museum is housed. The aim was to work on the collectionof scientific instruments kept at the Liceo. The working group consisted of two schoolteachers, Giorgia Vittori and Leonardo Aldegheri, the curator of the Museum of Historyof Physics, Sofia Talas, and the author, Fanny Marcon, research grant holder working atthe Museum. The Museum of History of Physics had previously collaborated with twoother high schools in Padua –“Liceo Tito Livio” and “Istituto Scalcerle”- to study andpromote their historical scientific heritage, but the project carried out with the “LiceoMaffei” can be considered an exemplary model, as it went further in involving staff andstudents of the school. After describing Liceo Maffei’s collection of scientific instruments,the present paper will show how the first results of the research activities have openednew perspectives for further studies in the history of science. I will then outline the waythe project was organized and carried out, and examine how it could be “exported” andbecome an example for other schools in Italy.(∗) E-mail: fanny.marcon@unipd.itCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) 12 F. MARCONThe “Liceo Maffei” is a high school established on 28 December 1804 under theNapoleonic domination with the name “Liceo Centrale in Verona pel Circondariodell’Adige”. It is one of the oldest still existing high schools in Italy. The Cabinetof Physics originated even earlier, in 1802, and in 1804 it was enriched with the collec-tion donated by the Count Giovanni Battista Gazzola (1757–1834), an intellectual andscientist from Verona who gave to the school some 18th-century scientific instruments [1].The first professor of physics was Giuseppe Zamboni (1776–1846), who held the chair of“Elementi di Fisica Generale e Sperimentale” from the foundation of the school in 1804till his death in 1846. Zamboni’s cutting-edge and well-known researches on dry pileswere carried out right in the Liceo.In 1807 the Cabinet included 73 instruments, described in the inventory as follows:“37 apparecchi per l’aerologia, tra cui due macchine pneumatiche e relativi accessori,vari barometri e termometri, una macchina d’Atwood, una cassetta con le forme dellecristallizzazioni, una cassetta con due serie di reagenti chimici ed altro; 20 apparecchi perl’elettricità, fra cui due macchine elettriche a disco di cristallo, varie bottiglie di Leyden,scaricatori, un quadro magico, una pistola di Volta, elettrometri ed altro; 7 apparecchipel magnetismo, bussole e calamite; 4 apparecchi per l’ottica, fra cui due microscopi,5 cannocchiali, prismi, specchi metallici e di vetro, lenti, un quadrante astronomico, unmicroscopio solare ed altro”(1) [2].The above-mentioned inventory of the Cabinet of Physics, whose instruments weretransported from the earlier site of S. Sebastiano to the current location in 1810, remainedalmost unchanged until that year, when Zamboni decided to repair the old machines andpurchase new ones for the presentation of his three pupils’ final essays. At the endof 1810, a new inventory was actually set up, showing a considerable increase of theCabinet of Physics, with new instruments such as: twenty-five mechanical machines andtwo acoustics instruments. The number of instruments to study electricity rose to twenty-seven; those for hydrostatics to eight, while optical instruments to twenty. However, thenumber of the machines for the study of aerology decreased to twenty-one, and likewisethose for the study of magnetism were reduced to five [3].Over the years the collection was continuously increased by Zamboni himself first,and then by his successors according to the scientific developments of the time, withinstruments such as electric motors, dynamos and x-ray tubes. It counted more than 230instruments in the inventory compiled in 1899 and more than 550 instruments in the in-ventory updated in the 1960s. It is extraordinary that very few instruments went lost overtime and almost the whole collection is still preserved at the school. This rich collectionnot only documents the evolution of physics teaching in a high school in the 19th and 20thcenturies, but it also highlights the fact that high schools in 19th-century Northern Italywere also research centers. A part of the collection is actually linked to Zamboni: variousprototypes of his piles are preserved here as well as two-winding watches and other objectsrelated to his researches on the subject that made him internationally known (fig. 1).(1) 37 aerology devices, including two air pumps and their accessories, various barometers andthermometers, an Atwood machine, a box with crystallization forms, a box with two sets ofchemical reagents and more; 20 instruments for the study of electricity, including two crystaldisk electrical machines, various Leyden bottles, electrical dischargers, a magic box, a Voltagun, electrometers and more; 7 apparatuses for the study of magnetism, compasses and magnets;4 optics devices, including two microscopes, 5 telescopes, prisms, metal and glass mirrors, lenses,an astronomical quadrant, a solar microscope and more.BETWEEN SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY ETC. 3Fig. 1. – Dry pile made by Giuseppe Zamboni, 1820 ca. (Courtesy of Liceo Maffei Verona).To further underline the fact that the Liceo Maffei was also a research center, itis worth mentioning that the study of the collection led us to enlighten links betweenthe Liceo and the University of Padua. In particular, we found out scientific exchangesbetween Zamboni and Salvatore Dal Negro (1768-1839), professor of experimental physicsat Padua University from 1806 to 1839. An electrometer designed by Dal Negro andsome thermometers were for instance found at the Liceo Maffei [4]. The Dal Negroelectrometer(2) (fig. 2) was made in Padua, while the thermometers were constructed byAngelo Bellani (1776-1846)(3) for Dal Negro and then donated by the latter to Zamboni(fig. 3). Furthermore we found at the “Biblioteca Civica di Verona” some letters sent toZamboni by Dal Negro in 1835, where he explained to his “amico e collega carissimo!”(4)the result of some of his experiments on magnetism [5]. This led the Museum of theHistory of Physics to start a research work on the relationship between the schoolsof the Veneto Region and the University of Padua in the 19th century, and on thespecific role played by these institutions in the development and transmission of scientificknowledge. This research has actually become the focus of the current PhD program ofFanny Marcon(5).Of course, the study of the collection also encompassed the study of the archivalmaterial preserved at the high school and in other institutions, like the “Biblioteca Civicadi Verona”. Here, in addition to Zamboni’s correspondence, we found six notebooks thatbelonged to three Zamboni’s students. In these notebooks the students recorded theirphysics lessons, with beautiful drawings of the instruments used by the professor. Thesenotebooks were an extraordinary discovery, because they allow us to understand theprecise way Zamboni gave his lectures and how he used the instruments themselves [6-8].The evolution of physics teaching practices is another research line that the Museum hasstarted to analyze thanks to the collaboration with the schools of the territory.We have introduced the collection and some of the first results of the researches wecarried out so far, but how was the work of study and valorisation actually carried out?(2) It is a particular model of a condenser electrometer devised by Salvatore Dal Negro. Theinstrument, designed to detect even very small amounts of charge, was based on the attractionexerted by a brass finger connected to the condenser and terminating with a bead of the samematerial towards a very sensitive mobile index. The distance between the bead and the indexwas adjusted using a sophisticated mechanism of micrometer screws. The instrument was madeby Giuseppe Stefani (? -1842), who was mechanic at the Observatory of Padua from 1834 to1842.(3) Angelo Bellani (1776-1852) was a physicist and priest from Monza. He also invented severalinstruments, dedicating a part of his workshop to the construction of thermometers, barometersand hygrometers.(4) “Dear friend and colleague!”.(5) The PhD is codirected by Jan Lacki, Université Paris 7, and Sofia Talas, Museum of theHistory of Physics, University of Padua.4 F. MARCONFig. 2. – Electrometer Dal Negro, made by Giuseppe Stefani, 1834–1839 (Courtesy of LiceoMaffei Verona).Fig. 3. – Thermometer signed “Bellani fece per Prof. Dal Negro nel 1814”, made by AngeloBellani, 1814 (Courtesy of Liceo Maffei Verona).BETWEEN SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY ETC. 5Fig. 4. – Liceo Maffei website (http://95.110.231.234/fisica/).From the beginning, students have been involved in the project, and this provided themthe opportunity to feel this heritage as their own, to discover a different approach tothe history of physics through these instruments and to get closer to the history oftheir institution. The group of twenty students has been mainly involved in takingmeasurements and in describing the materials the instruments are made of. Then, alwaysco-supervised by their two professors, Giorgia Vittori and Leonardo Aldegheri, studentsperformed an outstanding bibliographic research on the history of the instruments, whichhelped the writing of the catalogue records. Prof. Vittori and Aldegheri took care tocarry out all the researches on the history of the school and the history of the collection,by consulting the archive stored in the school and in other Libraries and Archives.Fig. 5. – “Itinerari virtuali” portal (http://itinerarivirtuali.musei.unipd.it/).6 F. MARCONLet us also point out that the maintenance of the collection has been done over the last40 years by Armando Benini, the school laboratory technician: without him, many ofthe tools would surely be lost forever. As for the Museum of History of Physics, westarted by updating the inventory and we carried out researches on the instruments andtheir history. I also wrote about 220 catalog entries, which include all the instrumentspurchased until 1899. These entries have been now published on a website maintainedby prof. Vittori and Aldegheri (http://95.110.231.234/fisica/) and hopefully theywill soon be collected on a paper catalogue (fig. 4).A further opportunity of presenting the collection to the wider public is now providedby the portal “Itinerari virtuali” (http://itinerarivirtuali.musei.unipd.it/), setup by the University of Padua to at promote the heritage kept at the University and inthe surrounding territory (fig. 5). The schools of the Veneto Region that own historicalscientific instruments will be given direct access to insert data about their collections inthe portal. This will give birth to one or more virtual tours through the Veneto Region,documenting the history of physics’ research and teaching in the various institutions of theregion. Some schools will start inserting data about their historical collections from thenext months within the National project “alternanza scuola-lavoro”. This will not onlyoffer to the general public the possibility to discover the extraordinary scientific heritageof their territory, but it will represent a precious research infrastructure for historians ofphysics, to analyze for instance the circulation of scientific knowledge, scientific practicesand instruments throughout the centuries.In this sense, and in general, the collaboration that was set up in the last yearsbetween high schools and the University of Padua to enhance the study, preservation andpromotion of the schools’ scientific heritage, gives results beyond any expectation. Thecase of the Liceo Maffei is particularly interesting because it is a long-term sustainablemodel: the University acted as a consultant to guide the researches and write the catalogentries, but much work was achieved by the Liceo’s students and professors. A modelthat could be widely spread, in particular at a moment when the involvement of studentsin activities out of their curriculum is strongly encouraged by the Ministry of Educationthough the already mentioned “progetto alternanza scuola-lavoro”.REFERENCES[1] Dal Prete I., Making Science Public in 18th-Century Europe: The Role of Cabinets ofExperimental Philosophy, edited by Bennett J. A., Talas S., 1st edition (Brill, Leiden)2013.[2] AAVV, Studi Maffeiani, 1st edition (Fratelli Bocca, Milan) 1909.[3] Mantovani R. et al., Atti del XXX Congresso Nazionale della Società Italiana degli Storicidella Fisica e dell’Astronomia, Urbino (Italy), 30 June - 3 July 2010, edited by MantovaniR., Vol. 30 (Argal̀ıa Editore, Urbino) 2012.[4] Dal Negro S., Letter to Zamboni, October 11, 1835, Fondo Zamboni, Biblioteca Civica diVerona.[5] Salandin G. A. et al., La fisica a Padova nell’800: le opere di Salvatore Dal Negro nelcampo dell’elettricità (Dipartimento di Fisica “Galileo Galilei”, Padua) 1994.[6] Belviglieri C., Lezioni di Fisica I, Lezioni di Fisica II, 3152I-II, Sc. Fis. 90.4, BibliotecaCivica di Verona.[7] Giuliari G. B., Fisica Particolare I, Fisica generale II, 3153I-II, Fisica, 91.2, BibliotecaCivica di Verona.[8] Zoppi A., Fisica Sperimentale I, Fisica Particolare II, 2586A-B, Mat-Fis, 82-2, BibliotecaCivica di Verona.

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Between school and university: The study of the historical  scientific instruments collection of the Liceo Maffei in Verona

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Between school and university: The study of the historical scientiﬁc instruments collection of the Liceo Maﬀei in Verona

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Between school and university: The study of the historical scientiﬁc instruments collection of the Liceo Maﬀei in Verona

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