Francesco LUZZINI

ORCiD

Academia.edu  /  Researchgate.net

Francesco Luzzini (PhD, History of Science; BS/MS, Natural Sciences) is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Dept. of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage). He is Contributing Editor for the Isis Bibliography of the History of Science.

Francesco's work focuses mainly on the Earth and environmental sciences, natural philosophy, and medicine in early modern Europe. His current MSC project (SOUNDEPTH – Sounding the Depths of Providence: Mineral (Re)generation, Natural Resources, and Human-Environment Interaction in the Early Modern Period) aims to understand how the debate on mineral generation in early modern Europe influenced the development of natural philosophy, the Earth sciences, and the role of humans as geological and environmental agents. The research approach combines historical inquiry, laboratory replications, and the comparative exploration of mining sites.

Francesco's previous affiliations include the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG Berlin), Johns Hopkins University, the University of Oklahoma, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City. He taught history of biology, history of geology, and history of medicine at the Universities of Milan and East Piedmont. At Ca’ Foscari University, he collaborates as Associate Scholar with the Max Planck Partner Group “The Water City: The Political Epistemology of Hydrogeological Praxis,” the UNESCO Chair “Water, Heritage and Sustainable Development,” and the New Institute Center of Environmental Humanities (NICHE).

Among his recent books are Quando il mondo scalò il Sublime (MuSe 2022); Theory, Practice, and Nature In-between (Edition Open Sources 2018).

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

2020, 2014 Habilitation Degree in History of Science, Associate Professor (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale, Professore di II Fascia) – Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research
2009 Ph.D., History of Science (Honors) – University of Bari
2009 Teaching Fellow, History of Science – University of East Piedmont
2008 Teaching Fellow, History of Science – University of Milan
2005 M.S., Natural Sciences (Honors) – University of Milan
1996 Classical Lyceum (Diploma di Maturità Classica) – Istituto Salesiano S. Ambrogio, Milan

LANGUAGES

Italian (Native)

English (Fluent)

Latin (Good)

German (Basic)

Spanish (Basic)

EMPLOYMENT

2021- Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow
2017-2022 Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG Berlin), Dept. I – Research Affiliate
2017-2019 Museum of Sciences-MuSe (Trento) – Research Fellow
2016-2017 University of East Piedmont, Dept. of Humanities – Lecturer, History of Medicine
2015-2016 University of Oklahoma, University Libraries – Edition Open Sources Postdoctoral Fellow
2015-2016 University of Insubria, Dept. of Theoretical and Applied Sciences – Postdoctoral Fellow
2012-2015 University of Milan, Dept. of Biosciences – Adjunct Professor, History of Biology
2010-2013 University of East Piedmont, Dept. of Humanities – Postdoctoral Fellow
2010-2011 University of East Piedmont, Dept. of Humanities – Adjunct Professor, History of Geology

GRANTS, AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS (SELECTED)

2023 Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies - Visiting Fellowship

2021 Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of History of Science and Technology – Visiting Fellowship

2021 European Commission – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship Award, Horizon 2020-MSCA2020 Project “Sounding the Depths of Providence” (SOUNDEPTH)
2020 European Commission – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Seal of Excellence Award, Horizon 2020-MSCA2019 Global Fellowship Proposal “Sounding the Depths of Providence” (SOUNDEPTH)
2020, Jan-Apr University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK) – Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship Award
2019 Arizona State university – Conference Travel Grant, IsisCB Workshop (Utrecht, Jul 27-28, 2019)
2018 International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO) – Conference Travel Grant, 43rd INHIGEO Meeting (Mexico City, Nov 12-21, 2018)
2016, Jul-Dec MPIWG Berlin, Dept. I – Visiting Fellowship
2014 University of Oklahoma Libraries – Edition Open Sources Postdoctoral Fellowship Award
2014, May-Jul Linda Hall Library (Kansas City, MO) – 2014 Fellowship Award
2012, May-Jul Linda Hall Library (Kansas City, MO) – 2012 Fellowship Award
2007 University of Florence-Biblioteca Leonardiana di Vinci – Summer School Grant, 2007 Post-Graduate Specialization Course (Vinci, Sep 14 to 21, 2007)
2007 Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL (Rome) – Prize, Best Degree Thesis in History of Biology (year 2006), May 22, 2007

OTHER APPOINTMENTS AND SERVICES TO THE PROFESSION (SELECTED)

2023- UNESCO Chair Water, Heritage and Sustainable Development; Ca' Foscari's New Institute Center of Environmental Humanities (NICHE) – Associate Scholar

2022- The History of Earth Sciences Society (HESS) – Nominating Committee Member

2022- Antonio Vallisneri National Edition – Committee Member

2021- Max Planck Partner Group The Water City (MPIWG Berlin – Ca' Foscari University of Venice) – Affiliate Scholar

2017- Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science (IsisCB) – Contributing Editor
2017- Il Protagora (Journal) – Co-editor (History of Science)
2009- Online Inventory of Antonio Vallisneri’s Correspondence – Scientific Manager
2016-2019 The History of Earth Sciences Society/Earth Sciences History (Journal of HESS) – Councilor
2015-2018 ISCH COST Action “Reassembling the Republic of Letters, 1500-1800” – Affiliate Scholar
2017 Conference Organization – I Crocevia della Scienza. Dialoghi tra natura, storia e cultura (University of Insubria)
2012-2017 Acque Sotterranee, Italian Journal of Groundwater – Column Editor
2007-2009 Vallisneri National Edition – Transcription/philological analysis of 1200 letters (17th-18th cent.)
2002-2003 JRC-Joint Research Centre (Ispra) – Apprenticeship, hypolimnic water analysis
2001 LIFE-URSUS Project – Apprenticeship, wildlife radio telemetry (Adamello Brenta Park, Italy)

ORGANIZED EVENTS

2024-2025- Webinar Series Da più storie una sola storia. Antonio Vallisneri e la costruzione della moderna monografia scientifica (University of East Piedmont – ISPF-CNR Naples-Milan) – Co-organization

2024 Workshop History of Science in the Time of Environmental Challenges: Toward an IsisCB Special Issue (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice – NICHE Institute, Mar 21, 2024) – Organization

2023- Workshop Fertile Uncertainties: Experimentation between Ambiguity and Objectivity in the Early Modern Time (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice – University of Milan) – Co-organization

2021 Conference Series History and Philosophy of Science: Historical Traditions and Epistemological Perspectives (ISPF-CNR Naples-Milan – Cattaneo-Preti Center, Varese) – Co-organization

2017 Conference Series I Crocevia della Scienza (University of Insubria) – Organization

2010 Meeting La tradizione galileiana e lo sperimentalismo naturalistico d’età moderna (Milan) – Conference Secretary

2009 Meeting Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Scienziata, umanista e donna di fede da Varedo all’Europa (Varedo) – Conference Secretary

2007 Meeting Clelia Grillo Borromeo Arese. Un salotto letterario settecentesco tra arte, scienza e politica (Cesano Maderno) – Conference Secretary

2007 Meeting Networks on the Net. Towards the inventory and the publishing of the Vallisneri Archive (Milan-Corsico) – Conference Secretary

2006 Meeting Antonio Vallisneri. La figura, il contesto, le immagini storiografiche (Milan) – Conference Secretary

MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS (ACTIVE)

2021- Johns Hopkins University, C. Singleton Center for the Study of Premodern Europe – Affiliate Scholar

2021- Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) – Italy Chapter
2020- The Renaissance Society of America (RSA)
2020- University of Oklahoma, Dept. of the History of Science – Affiliate Fellow
2016- The History of Earth Sciences Society (HESS)
2013- Centro Studi Lazzaro Spallanzani (Lazzaro Spallanzani Studies Center)
2012- International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO)

PEER-REVIEW ACTIVITY

2024- Early Science and Medicine (ISSN: 1383-7427)

2022- Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society (ISSN: 0021-1753)

2022- Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas (ISSN: 2280-8574)

2021- Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science (ISSN: 1545-6994)
2021- Histoire des Alpes-Storia delle Alpi-Geschichte der Alpen (ISSN: 1660-8070)
2020- Geological Society of America Books
2019- Centaurus: An International Journal of the History of Science and its Cultural Aspects (ISSN: 0008-8994)
2019- Earth Sciences History (ISSN: 0736-623X)
2018- Studi di Storia Medievale e di Diplomatica (ISSN: 2611-318X)
2018- Society and Politics (ISSN: 1843-1348)
2017- Italian Journal of Geosciences (ISSN: 2038-1719)
2017- Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana (ISSN: 2035-8008)
2016- Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology (ISSN: 0891-2963)
2015- History Matters: An Undergraduate Journal of Historical Research (ISSN: 1934-4651)

MEETINGS, WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS, LECTURES (SELECTED)

2024, Apr 12 - Invited Lecture: Earth(l)y Knowledge: Mineral (Re)generation, Natural Resources, and Human-Environment Interaction in the Early Modern Period (University of Oslo, Dept. of Archaeology, Conservation and History)

2024, Mar 21 - Workshop History of Science in the Time of Environmental Challenges: Toward an IsisCB Special Issue (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice - NICHE Institute – Paper: A new IsisCB Special Issue Project

2023, Nov 22 - Workshop Fertile Uncertainties: Experimentation between Ambiguity and Objectivity in the Early Modern Time (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) – Paper: Ore-making as knowledge-making

2023, Oct 31 - Workshop MEI Day for the Future: Manifacturing, Education, Innovation (Confindustria, Rome) – Presentation: The UNESCO Chair on Water, Heritage, and Sustainable Development

2023, Oct 5-6 - Workshop Spaces in between in the History of Scientific Knowledge (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna) – Paper: On the Origins of Minerals: Between Natural Philosophy and Practical Alchemy

2023, Sep 22 - Seminar: Mineral (Re)generation, Natural Resources, and Human-Environment Interaction in the Early Modern Period (Radboud University Nijmegen, Center for the History of Philosophy and Science)

2023, Jul 5-7 - Workshop Historical Waterscapes in Crosscultural Perspective (Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena) – Paper: Expedient Obedience: Water Management and Natural Order in Early 18th-Century Italy

2022, Dec 9 - Seminar: Sublime travelers and Sublime climbers: a critical edition of an alpine guest book from the Dolomites (1820–1875) (MPIWG Berlin)

2022, Sep 22 - Invited Lecture: Earth(l)y Knowledge: Mineral (Re)generation, Natural Resources, and Human-Environment Interaction in the Early Modern Period (Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of History of Science)

2022, May 23 - Graduate Seminar: Learning from Geoenvironmental Data: Tools for a Changing Planet (Venice International University) – Paper: Thus was closed the cycle. Natural philosophy and the early modern debate on the origin of springs: a historical and experimental inquiry

2022, Jan 25 - Seminar: La bellezza sospesa. Repubblica di Venezia e gestione delle acque in età moderna (Einaudi College in Turin)

2021, Oct 20 - Seminar: The Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science and the IsisCB Explore Platform: Bibliographic Tools for the Study of Scientific Objects (University of Neuchâtel, Dept. of History)

2021, Oct 14 - Inauguration, Max Planck Partner Group The Water City (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) – Paper: The Floating Price of Beauty: Water (and Land) Management in Venice through the Centuries

2021, Apr 29 - Workshop Natural Resources in Early Modern Economies of Knowledge (Ca’ Foscari University Venice - MPIWG Berlin) – Paper: Water and Ore Generation in Biringuccio’s De la Pirotechnia (1540)
2021, Apr 15 - Meeting: RSA Virtual 2021 (Panel Mining for the Earth-Based Sciences) – Paper: “The First and Proper Companion of Mines.” Water and Ore Generation in Biringuccio’s De la Pirotechnia (1540)
2020, Apr 30 - Seminar: The Edition Open Sources Project: Critical Editions and Modern Academia (MPIWG Berlin)
2020, Mar 6 - Invited Lecture: Sounding the Depths of Providence: Mineral (Re)generation and Human-Environment Interaction in the Early Modern Period (University of Oklahoma, Dept. of the History of Science)
2019, Nov 26 - Workshop: Cosmologies of Resource Transformation in the Early Modern Period (Collaborative Research Center 980, Berlin)
2019, Sep 20 - Meeting: Variable Matters: Materia Medica in the Eighteenth-Century World (University of Basel) – Paper: Naturae Consilio. Earthly Substances, Medicine and Therapeutics in Vallisneri’s Research
2019, Jul 27-28 - IsisCB Workshop 2019 (Utrecht)
2019, Jun 14 - Scientiae Conference 2019 (Belfast) – Paper: Inversi Arboris Instar: (Re)generative Theories and Botanical Analogies In the Early Modern Debate on Mineral Ores
2018, Nov 13 - 43rd INHIGEO Meeting (Mexico City) – Paper: Sounding the Depths of Providence. On Mineral (Re)generation and Human-Environment Interaction in the Early Modern Period
2018, Apr 24 - Seminar: On Deep Time. Theories of the Earth in the Early Modern Period: an Overview (MPIWG Berlin)
2017, Nov 8 - Invited Lecture: Notes from the Paleoanthropocene. Antonio Vallisneri’s Primi Itineris Specimen: an Edition Open Sources book (University of Vienna, Dept. of History)
2017, Sep 22 - Meeting: Mapping the Territory: Exploring People and Nature, 1700-1830 (University of Bern) – Paper: In Aspero Solo. Antonio Vallisneri’s Primi Itineris per Montes Specimen Physico-Medicum
2017, Jul 28 - Meeting: 25th International Congress of History of Science and Technology (Rio de Janeiro) – Paper: Antonio Vallisneri and the Rise of Naturalistic Experimentalism. A European Debate
2016, Nov 15 - Seminar: Primi Itineris Specimen (1705). An Edition Open Sources Book (MPIWG Berlin)
2016, Feb 4 - Invited Lecture: Closing the cycle. Natural Philosophy and the debate on the origin of springs from the 16th to the 18th centuries (University of Oklahoma, School of Geology & Geophysics)
2016, Feb 1 - Conference: 2016 Digital Humanities @ OU Day 2 (University of Oklahoma) – Talk: Defining a New Harmony. The EOS Project: Towards a Critical Edition of an Early Modern Scientific Text
2015, Nov 3 - GSA Annual Meeting (Baltimore, MD) – Paper: Description, analogy, symbolism, faith. Jesuit science and iconography in the early modern debate on the origin of springs
2015, Oct 16 - Seminar: Maxima parvo tempore molimur. A critical edition of Antonio Vallisneri’s manuscript “A Physico-Medical Example of a First Journey Through the Mountains” (University of Oklahoma)
2014, Jul 22 - Invited Lecture: Through dark and mysterious paths. Early modern science and the search for the origin of springs from the 16th to the 18th century (Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, MO)
2014, Jul 8 - 39th INHIGEO Meeting (Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA) – Paper: Early modern science and the search for the origin of springs from the 16th to the 18th century
2013, Feb 22 - Meeting: Scorci di un fiume. L’Adige come problema storiografico complesso (Rovereto, Italy) – Paper: L’Itale Terre a vagheggiare inteso. Il bacino dell’Adige nel XVIII secolo: tra storia e scienza
2012, Jul 18 - Invited Lecture: Faith and facts, experience and expedience. A comparison of Protestant and Italian Catholic perspectives in 17th and 18th-Century theories of the Earth (Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, MO)
2010, Nov 17 - Meeting: Il Giornale de’ Letterati d’Italia trecento anni dopo: scienza, storia, arte, identità (1710-2010) (Padua-Venice-Verona) – Paper: Tutto pien di natura tacito. Le scienze della Terra nel Giornale de’ Letterati
2010, July 6 - 35th INHIGEO Meeting (Madrid-Almadén) – Paper: Matrices, not seeds. Vallisneri’s research on mines: between empiricism and philosophy
2008, Jan 22 - Meeting: XVIII Convegno Nazionale dei Dottorati di Ricerca in Filosofia (Reggio Emilia, Italy) – Paper: Calando i vecchi monti, e alzandosene de’ nuovi. Le Scienze della Terra nel pensiero di Antonio Vallisneri
2007, Nov 21 - Meeting: Networks on the Net. Towards the inventory and the publishing of the Vallisneri Archive (Milan) – Paper: Utilia scripta. Considerazioni sull’utilizzo del carteggio vallisneriano
2007, Jul 31 - 32nd INHIGEO Meeting (Eichstätt, Germany) – Paper: Flood conceptions in Vallisneri’s thought
2006, Jun 22 - Meeting: Antonio Vallisneri. La figura, il contesto, le immagini storiografiche (Milan) – Paper: Antonio Vallisneri e i vermicelli spermatici: evoluzione di un concetto

PODCASTS

2024, Mar 13 (Interview) Da più storie una sola storia (Radio Missione Francescana – Program “Filosofia per tutti”)

2021, Nov 17 (Interview) Carnevale e pandemia (RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera – Rete Due)

2021, Sep 2 (Interview) Come la scienza entrò nel corpo (RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera – Rete Due)
2020, Aug 14 Il corpo umano nei secoli tra teoria e pratica (RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera – Rete Tre)
2020, Aug 11 (Interview) Il vaccino nella storia (RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera – Rete Due)
2020, May 22 Il preservativo nella storia (RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera – Rete Tre)
2020, Mar 30 Cosa ci insegnano le epidemie del passato (RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera – Rete Tre)
2020, Mar 3 (Interview) Il virus e la storia (RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera – Rete Due)

EXHIBITIONS

2010-2013 Ostinate esperienze. Antonio Vallisneri e le Scienze della Terra: il viaggio montano del 1704 (Gallicano-Reggio Emilia-Milan-Scandiano, Italy)