N. FABBRI, Kepler: Il cosmo armonico e la musica
In his Harmonices Mundi Libri V, Johannes Kepler (Weil der Stadt, Württemberg, 1571 – Regensburg, Bavaria, 1630), besides the formulation of the “harmonic law“, expounds the theory according to which the relationships among planetary velocities correspond to musical intervals.
In the intellectual paths by which Kepler arrives at his three famous dicta on planetary motion and at his polyphonic cosmos, Platonic and Neo-Platonic traditions assume a central role. Robert Fludd, like Kepler, is concerned with a Pythagorean and Platonic theme; but while Fludd’s discussion is primarily concerned with the number mysticism of the Greek philosophers, Kepler arrives at an exact explanation of the structure of the cosmos in terms of a divine harmony based on geometry and music.

G. NONNOI, La scienza e la filosofia galileiane nel New World di John Wilkins
According to some recent interpretations, John Wilkins may be considered the English thinker of the seventeenth century who was most deeply influenced by Galileo’s science and philosophy. Undoubtedly, when considered from a Baconian viewpoint, the contributions made by Galileo to observational astronomy are given their just importance in Wilkins’ texts and not without a certain emphasis. The same cannot be said with reference to cosmology and epistemology. In these cases, Galileo’s ideas do not appear to have acted as a prime stimulus but rather as a support for orientations previously arrived at through literary sources closer to the religious and exegetic orientations, as well as the national intellectual and scientific traditions, that were the stable point of reference the Puritan virtuoso.

L. ZUCCHI, Linneo e Parkinson: Il botanico e le scimmie nel Giardino dell’Eden
The essay examines the title pages of the Systema naturae German edition, (1760) by Linnaeus and of the Paradisi in Sole (1629) by J. Parkinson. Both images show Adam in the garden of Eden, while he gives a name to the creatures therein. For Parkinson – who holds an «isidorian» conception of meaning – the original word expresses the «essence» of what is signified in the world. In actual taxonomic practice, this involves the use of a «diagnostic» nomenclature, with lenghthy polynomials, intended to describe the whole living being. The efficacy of Linnean binomial nomenclature, instead, is due to the clear distinction between the denotative and the descriptive functions of language, linked to a highly selective «sexual system» of classification. However, elements of the «isidorian» conception are present, all the same, in Linnean thought, but they acquire new meanings by being transposed in a mechanist frame of reference. The subjects illustrated and their arrangement express furthermore the Linnean vision of the relationships of Man and other primates as based on continuity.
The analysis of the two title pages shows also how images of this kind, in the early modern period, could function as effective pictorial introductions to scientific works, suggesting in which way the text should be read.

L. E. FUNARO, «Il criterio e la mano». Viaggi e donativi sovrani all’Imperiale e Regio Museo fiorentino
Based on unpublished sources, this article focuses on the relationships between four Habsburg – Lorraine Grand Dukes and the Imperiale e Regio Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale di Firenze, with special reference to the scientific studies and the travels of the young Leopoldo II. The role of Vincenzio Antinori, director of the Museum in the Florentine scientific context of the mid – 1800’s is also considered.

G. N. VLAHAKIS, Against French science: Alessandro Volta and Luigi Brugnatelli in early nineteenth-century Greece
Because of the generalizing tendency of “big” histories, important details of the scientific activities of a particular period in a geographical area sometimes passed unnoticed. A striking example of this fact is constituted by the support for the theories of Volta and Brugnatelli by Greek scientists against French science in the early nineteenth century.
Volta’s theories on chemistry and on electricity were supported mainly by his Greek students in the University of Pavia.
Constantinos Vardalahos, the author of an important physics textbook published in 1812, gave a detailed account of the work of Volta in electricity and described the Brugnatelli – Lavoisier debate extensively.
Brugnatelli’s strongest supporter was his student Dionyssios Pyrros, a Greek polymath who translated into Greek, among other works, Brugnatelli’s best – selling Farmacopea generale.

R. PASSIONE, Mente e lavoro. Le prime ricerche in Italia fra laboratorio e officina
Taking as its starting point Angelo Mosso’s studies of muscular and mental work carried out in Turin at the end of the nineteenth century, this essay focuses on early Italian investigations of the psycho – physical attitudes of workers undertaken by Mosso’s pupils Zaccaria Treves and Mariano Luigi Patrizi in the fields of medicine and psychophysiology between the end of the nineteenth century and the first ten years of the twentieth century.
In particular, the author is interested in delineating the differences between the various methodological approaches of these studies and in indicating their different ideological meanings, whose origins lie in the various facets of the materialistic philosophy of Italian scientific and positivist culture.

A. MESCHIARI, Le carte del «Fondo Giovanni Battista Amici» e della «Raccolta Amici Grossi» nella Biblioteca
We publish here for the first time the complete register of documents of G.B. Amici belonging to the Estense Library in Modena.

E. ULIVI, Mariano Del M° Michele, un maestro d’abaco del XV secolo
In this work has been reconstructed the biography of M° Mariano, a Florentine teacher of abacus of the fifteenth century. Mariano was born about 1387 to Dada of Moddeo Turi and Michele of Gianni, another abacus teacher whose name connected to with the well known Paolo dell’abaco and Antonio Mazzinghi. He taught for about fifty years, mostly in a «bottega d’abaco» located in the Lungarno Acciaiuoli, below his dwelling house, and also for some time in the well known Santa Trinita abacus school. In his long period of activity, among his many pupils were the sons of important Florentine merchants and noblemen. In the years 1422 – 1426 he took part in the works for the building of the Spedale degli Innocenti of Florence. He died in 1458. During his life as well as after his death, he had the reputation of an excellent abacist.

C. POGLIANO, Statements on Race dell’Unesco: cronaca di un lungo travaglio (1949 – 1953)
The two Statements on Race issued by Unesco in 1950 – 1951 represent an interesting case of intersection and problematic collaboration between science and politics. While Europe was recovering and rebuilding after the ravages of war, the young United Nations organization decided to launch a campaign against the numberless sources of racism spread all over the world. For almost three years, Unesco House in Paris changed into the headquarters of a battle inside the international scientific community, whose different sections were disagreeing and quarrelling about the meaning and the implications of the race concept. Mainly based on Unesco archival materials, this essay describes the development of that confrontation as an interplay of actions and reactions. The Appendix contains the texts of the two Statements.