Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

"History of Geology" analyses the main protagonists and themes of geology in their historical context. The goal is to provide a comprehension of themes, methodologies and concepts of Earth Sciences, starting from the pioneers. The course aims at reconstructing the evolution of the "geological method", highlighting its continuity with modern approaches in stratigraphy, sedimentology, tectonics, paleontology, petrography, geochemistry and geophysics. Going back to the origin of present day knowledge is crucial to understand geology as a science. In addition, reconstructing the history of geological thought allows to have an integrated approach to geological phenomena, necessary to unravel their complexity.

Learning outcomes:
The course allows the student to learn the fundamental concepts of various fields of Earth Sciences, through an historical approach, useful also for teaching purposes. The analysis of historical and social aspects is finalised to the systematic comprehension of geological theories, which are in turn useful for teaching.

Programme

1) Introduction to the History of Geology, and history of science in general; contextualization of geology in the scientific disciplines

2) Introduction to the History of Geology in Italy, the first cosmogonies and theories of the Earth in the classical Greco-Roman era

3) Fossils: extraordinary objects between myth and folklore; first fantastic and mythological interpretations of fossils; myths of giants, myth of dragons; magical and healing powers of fossils in traditional pharmacopoeia

4) The debate on the true nature of fossils; Italian and foreign authors in favor of inorganic origin of fossils; promoters authors of an organic origin as lithified remains

5) Debate and controversies of Diluvialist against antediluvialists; Deluge as a universal explanation for marine fossils found on mountains and hills; the great sacred theories of the earth of the seventeenth century English School; the Italian antediluvialist school from the genius of Leonardo to the Tuscan school of the early eighteenth century; authors favorable at long sea stationing in areas now occupied by emerged lands

6) Debates and controversies between the Neptunist, Volcanist and Plutonist schools for the formation of rocks and mountain chain systems

7) The concept of uniformitarianism in Earth Sciences and its various interpretations, simplifications and ambiguous uses over the years

8) The Catastrophic and Uniformitarianist debate in Earth Sciences; ancient catastrophism and birth of neo-catastrophic theories

9) The debate on the age of the earth: physical evidence against geological observations; the discovery of radiogenic heat, decay, and late confirmation of physics

10) The glacial theory of Agassiz

11) The revolution of plate tectonics: from the first hypotheses to the monumental paradigm shift that led to reviewing most, if not all, aspects of Earth Sciences

12) Geology in the works of Dante Alighieri

13) The geological elements in Leonardo da Vinci's manuscript works

14) Geology in the Prodromus of Niccolò Stenone

15) The geological and paleontological intuitions in the work of the Sicilian painter Agostino Scilla

Adopted texts

The didactic support material can be downloaded from the e-learning pages of the course

Bibliography

Romano M. (2013). ‘The vain speculation disillusioned by the sense’: the Italian painter Agostino Scilla (1629–1700) called ‘The Discoloured’, and the correct interpretation of fossils as ‘lithified organisms’ that once lived in the sea. Historical Biology, 26(5):631-651. Romano M. (2014). From petrified snakes, through giant “foraminifers”, to extinct cephalopods: the early history of ammonite studies in the Italian peninsula. Historical Biology, 27(2):214 235. Romano M., Cifelli R., Vai G. (2015). Natural history: first museologist’s legacy. Nature, 517, 271. Romano M. (2015). Reviewing the term uniformitarianism in modern earth sciences. Earth-Science Reviews, 148:65–76. Argentieri A., Console F., Fabbi S., Pantaloni M., Petti F. M., Romano M., Rotella G., Zuccari A. (2015). Il passato è la chiave de presente e del futuro: il Progetto “Geoitaliani” della Società Geologica Italiana. Rendiconti Online Società Geologica Italiana 09/2015; 36:18-23. DOI:10.3301/ROL.2015.135. Fabbi S., and Romano M. (2015). The First World War of Italian Geologists: between patriotic interventionism and objective pragmatism. Rendiconti Online Società Geologica Italiana 09/2015; 36:67-71. DOI:10.3301/ROL.2015.146. Romano M., Cifelli R. (2015). Plate tectonics: Continental-drift opus turns 100. Nature, 526, 43. Romano M., Cifelli R. (2015). 100 years of continental drift. Science, 350(6263), 915-916. Romano M. (2016). “Per tremoto o per sostegno manco”: The Geology of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 135(1), 95-108. Romano M., Console F., Pantaloni M., and Fröbisch J. (2016) One hundred years of continental drift: the early Italian reaction to Wegener’s ‘visionary’ theory. Historical Biology, DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2016.1156677. Romano M., Cifelli R., Vai G. (2016). The first geological map: an Italian legacy. Italian Journal of Geosciences. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 135, 261-267. Salvador I., Romano M., and Avanzini M. 2017. “Da per tutto il cielo sembrava di fuoco”: gli strani fenomeni atmosferici del 1821 in Trentino e una misteriosa eruzione. Studi Trentini di Scienze Naturali, 96, 133-141. Romano M. 2017. Fragile come la statua colossale del Nabucco: l’Abate Fortis e la critica ai “grandi sistemi geologici”. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana, 43, 28-35. Pantaloni M., Console F., Lorusso L., Petti F. M., Franchini A. F., Porro A., and Romano M. (2017). Italian physicians’ contribution to geosciences. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 452, SP452-17. Romano M., and Palombo M. R. (2017). When legend, history and science rhyme: Hannibal’s war elephants as an explanation to large vertebrate skeletons found in Italy. Historical Biology, 29, 1106-1124. Romano M., and Avanzini, M. (2017). The skeletons of Cyclops and Lestrigons: misinterpretation of Quaternary vertebrates as remains of the mythological giants, Historical Biology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2017.1342640. Romano M. (2017). The theory of the Earth of the Barnabite cleric Ermenegildo Pini: a mostly unknown Italian catastrophist. Historical Biology, 29(4), 519-538. Romano M. (2017). Italian Diluvianism and antidiluvianism within the international arena: the great debate that lasted more than six centuries. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2017.07.001. Romano M. (2018). “Chi tutto il Fenomeno non spiega, non ne spiega nulla”: Anton Lazzaro Moro e la confutazione dei sistemi di Burnet e Woodward. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana, 45, 147-156. Romano M. (2018). Palaeoecology before ecology: the rise of actualism, palaeoenvironmentes studies and palaeoclimatology in the Italian panorama between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 137, 16-30, DOI: 10.3301/IJG.2017.14. Salvador I., Romano M., and Avanzini M. (2018). Gli “apparenti disordini delle leggi fisiche dell’universo”: gli effetti delle eruzioni del Laki (1783) e del Tambora (1815) nelle cronache delle regioni alpine. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana, 44, 72-79. Romano M., and Nicosia U. (2018). Tributo a Bruno Accordi: la prima riscoperta e valorizzazione moderna delle nostre ‘gloriose’ radici geo-paleontologiche. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana, 44, 96-103. Romano M. (2019). “L’uomo universale del primo Rinascimento”: la geologia nel De re aedificatoria di Leon Battista Alberti. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana. Romano M. (2020). La Geologia nel Il Tesoro di Brunetto Latini. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana, 50, 39-55.

Prerequisites

Minimum knowledge of Earth Sciences and Natural Science sensu lato

Exam modes

The exam will consist of an oral test to test the student's preparation on the topics covered in class

Exam reservation date start	Exam reservation date end	Exam date
26/11/2020	08/02/2021	09/02/2021
20/01/2021	20/04/2021	21/04/2021
20/01/2021	22/06/2021	23/06/2021
20/01/2021	20/07/2021	21/07/2021
20/01/2021	05/09/2021	06/09/2021
20/01/2021	26/09/2021	27/09/2021
20/01/2021	02/11/2021	09/11/2021
25/09/2021	23/01/2022	24/01/2022