Life and

4 Introduction
early as 29 July 1875, appointed a commission “to provide the best means against
a possible invasion and spread of Phylloxera”. 7
It is thus becoming clear that a
biography of this particular comparative
anatomist and physiologist can be set up in
such a way as to yield deeper insights into
the manifold ramifications of a scientist’s
role in a rapidly changing cultural and
economic setting. In particular, Leopoldo
Maggi’s relevance is enhanced by two
idiosyncratic aspects: He was one of the
first and most coherent academic followers
of Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) in Italy, who,
through various different channels, was to
become the most popular foreign scientist
in Italy, 8 and subsequently, some of
Maggi’s students were to reach influential
positions in Italian zoology at the turn of
the twentieth century. Therefore, Maggi
represents a crucial episode in the history
Fig. 1 Leopoldo Maggi (1840-1905)
of Italian life sciences just prior to World
War I and the Fascist takeover – which is
not to say that “Haeckelism”, the way
Maggi promoted it, played a crucial role in the advent of Fascism, as Daniel
Gasman claimed in 1998. 9 What in fact happened was that the Haeckel-Maggi
“school” of comparative anatomy declined in Italy at the beginning of the century
(no less than it did in Germany), succumbing to a more experimental approach in
biology and a resurgence of neo-idealism in philosophy (although positivism
survived in some niches well into the Fascist period). 10 It can be surmised that
these contingencies eventually hindered the development of a full-fledged
7 “destinata a provvedere ai migliori mezzi contro una possibile invasione e diffusione della
fillossera”, of which Leopoldo Maggi was a member, alongside botanist Santo Garovaglio,
naturalist Emilio Cornalia, and some others. Rendiconti. Istituto Lombardo, 2 nd ser. 8 (1875):715.
8 On some aspects of the intellectual relationship, see Barbagli (2005). The influence of Haeckel’s
ideas on Maggi’s work will be an ongoing theme in the present work. More generally on the role
of Haeckel in Italy see Krauße (1993), Brömer (1993).
9 See Gasman (1998) and the new foreword in id. (²2004). The most recent rebuttal is in Richards
(2008), a short version Richards (2007a).
10 For a critical assessment of Haeckel’s morphology in early twentieth-century Germany, see his
own student, Richard Hertwig (1919). The lingering on of positivism in Italy, especially in the
realm of sociology, is described by Nese (1993), Garzia (1992).