in Italiano

Curriculum vitae

(February 2022)

Cesare S. Maffioli

(born in 1946)

Degrees:

1970: Dottore in fisica (MA in physics) at the University of Pavia (IT).

1994: Doctor (PhD) in the history of science at the University of Utrecht (NL). Doctoral thesis: Out of Galileo:The Science of Waters 1628-1718 (supervisers: prof. H.A.M. (Harry) Snelders and prof. Giuliano Pancaldi).

Teaching:

1970-1979: physics in some high-schools (Istituti Tecnici Industriali) of Milano (IT).

1979-1995: mathematics, physics and sciences at the Europese school of Bergen N.H. (NL).

1995-2004: mathematics and physics at the Ecole européenne of Luxembourg (LU).

1990-1992: history of physics (from Galileo to Volta) at the Istituto di Fisica of the University of Milano (IT as professore a contratto.

Research Appointments:

fall 2004-spring 2005: Senior Fellow at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, MIT, Cambridge MA (USA).

fall 2005: Visiting Fellow at the Istituto di Studi Avanzati of the University of Bologna (IT).

Visiting Scholar:

winter 2010/11-fall 2011: at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science of the University of Cambridge, UK.

Research Activity:

1974-1979: on secondary school teaching and the history of physics (in particular on The steam engine and the birth of thermodynamics in the 18th and 19th centuries).

1980-1994: at the Instituut voor Geschiedenis der Natuurwetenschappen of the University of Utrecht (NL) as an‘External PhD student’ (externe promovendus): on the theme of my dissertation (originally it was The new science in Italy after Galileo: The case of hydraulics 1675-1725, but eventually it included also early and mid seventeenth-century science and technology) and on the scientific relations between Italy and Holland in the eighteenth century.

1995-2009: on Renaissance and seventeenth-century science (the main theme was The Way of Waters 1500-1700: Appropriation of the Mechanical Arts and Transformation of the Mathematical Sciences but see also the section Articles and Papers in the page Publications).

2010-2013: on Italian engineers and mathematicians and English mathematical practitioners in the early modern age; on Cardano, Galileo, the siphon and the limited 'force of the void'; on the Parella hydraulic laboratory built in mid eighteenth-century Turin.

2014-2016: on Leonardo da Vinci and the engineers in late 15th-century and early 16th-century Milan; on RenaissancVitruvian instruments and Renaissance practices of levelling of the w;aters.

2017--.... : on Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts against the backgrounds of former intellectual traditions and Renaissance technological practices; on the myth of Leonardo as engineer of the Milan canals; on Leonardo's ideas and designs about water, rivers and canalizations; on Venturi's studies of Leonardo's science of water.

Publications: More than 40 works in the field of the history of science (see the bibliography in the page Publications).

Lectures/talks: Several invitations by European and American universities and research institutes to hold talks and seminars (a shortened list is given in the page Publications).

Organization of symposia:

1988: Coordinator of the scientific committee of the conference Italian scientists in the Low Countries in the XVII^th and XVIII^th centuries (University of Utrecht, 25-27 May 1988) and joint editor (with Lodewijk C. Palm) of the proceedings (Amsterdam, 1989).

2001: Coordinator of the scientific committee of the conference Arte e Scienza delle Acque nel Rinascimento (University of Bologna-Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, October 2001) and joint editor (with Alessandra Fiocca and Daniela Lamberini) of the proceedings (Venezia, 2003).

Other:

1986: Member (elected) of the Società Italiana di Storia della Scienza.

1989: Editor of a special issue of the Dutch journal Incontri devoted to the scientific relations between Italy and Holland in the 18th century.

1997: My book Out of Galileo: The Science of Waters 1628-1718 (Erasmus Publishing, 1994) was nominated for the 1997 Pfizer Award of the History of Science Society.

2010: Corresponding member (elected) of the International Academy of the History of Science.

2016: Effective member (elected) of the International Academy of the History of Science.