Raffaella Simili – författare

This book provides a fascinating insight into the life and scientific work of Laura Bassi, the first female member of the influential Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna and also the first woman to be appointed a university professor in physics, or universal philosophy as it was then termed. The book describes Laura Bassi’s research activities and achievements, explaining the influence of Newton, her role in promoting Newtonian experimental physics in Bologna, and her work as an experimentalist, including on electricity. Much attention is paid to the context in which Bassi developed her career. The very considerable difficulties faced by a woman surrounded by male university teachers and members of the Academy are discussed, casting light on the constraints that led Bassi to set up the first experimental physics laboratory in her home, complete with the many instruments required for experimentation and private teaching. The aim is to provide a rounded and well-documentedaccount of the scientific endeavors and achievements of a too often overlooked scientist who struggled to overcome the prejudices of her age.

This book is dedicated to Einstein’s personal and scientific relationships with Italy, which began as early as adolescence and continued over various stages of his life. It collects together a wealth of historical documentation including the letters in which Einstein recalls having lived as a young man with his family in Lombardy, Pavia and Milan; the texts of three lectures delivered by Einstein in Italian in October 1921 in Bologna at the invitation of the mathematician Federigo Enriques, the only lectures he held in Italy; the correspondence with Enriques and other Italian intellectuals, together with the letter that Einstein sent in 1931 to the Minister of Justice Alfredo Rocco to try to avoid the infamy of the oath of allegiance to the fascist regime imposed by Mussolini on university professors. The book closes with some writings on relativity from 1907 to 1914 (Einstein, Abraham, Corbino, Castelnuovo) and the 1920s debate between pro-relativists and anti-relativists publishedin the international journal “Scientia”, founded in 1907 by Enriques.