Life and

Life and (a few) letters 17
carried the first Italian review of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, penned
anonymously by the editor ([Cattaneo] 1860). 47 Curiously, the name of Paolo
Mantegazza is absent from Maggi’s list, though the former was probably the most
influential member of the group, before leaving Pavia in 1869 (well after Maggi’s
graduation) to take up the founding directorship of the Institute for Anthropology
and Ethnology at the Istituto di studi superiori in Florence, Italy’s interim capital, in
1870. 48 The alienation between the two scholars may well have been mutual,
considering the exceedingly cool reception Mantegazza later gave Maggi’s
anthropological projects, culminating in an almost dismissive tone the former
teacher used in the very brief obituary devoted to his student, whom he was to
survive by five years (Mantegazza 1905a).
During the academic year following Maggi’s graduation (1863/64), the
teaching of natural history in Pavia was strengthened with the creation of a second
chair: While Balsamo Crivelli focused his remit on zoology and comparative
anatomy, he supported his assistant’s application for the second chair, dedicated
to geology and mineralogy, to which Maggi was duly appointed in October 1864,
initially at the rank of lecturer (incaricato). The following year, Maggi married
Balsamo’s daughter Pierina – a young scholar becoming his professor’s son-in-law
was a pattern quite common not only at Pavia, but apparently throughout
university history. 49 In 1869, Maggi successfully applied for a nomination as
professore straordinario. 50 Thus began what has recently been called Maggi’s “eclectic”
work in mineralogy, palaeoethnography, and anthropology, 51 apparently far away
from the microbiological research during his student days with Mantegazza,
Balsamo Crivelli, and Giovanni Cantoni. A few cautionary remarks are in order at
this point, however: As in other countries (Nyhart 1995), the 1860s were a time
when, in Italy, ‘biology took form’. It has been noted that, until 1864; Balsamo
Crivelli had covered the entire field of natural history – at least in teaching, though
in his research he had been able to concentrate on the life sciences. 52 In a
(somewhat distant) analogy, Louis Pasteur started his research into the presumed
origin of life from work in crystallography, 53 and similarly, the Pavia group
included a physicist, Giovanni Cantoni, who contributed approaches on a
47 On Carlo Cattaneo’s role in the Risorgimento, see the classical work by Lovett (1972). A
comprehensive survey of literature on and by Charles Darwin in Italy is provided by Coccia
(2003).
48 Like Milan in Lombardy, the capital of Tuscany had kept its university at a distance, in Pisa, as
was the case with Venice (Padua).
49 For a discussion of slightly earlier German examples, see Clark (2006:241f.).
50 Contini 2002:22, n.7.
51 Armocida, Contini & Vaccari (eds., 2002).
52 For a bibliography of Balsamo Crivelli’s most relevant publications, see Taramelli (1883).
53 Geison (1995):53-109.