Jeannette Villepreux Power: life, research and relationships with the Accademia Gioenia

Abstract

Jeannette Villepreux Power (1794–1871), a french woman who lived in Messina for about 25 years (1818–1842), was extremely versatile and interested in various aspects of natural sciences and in scientific dissemination. She is considered a pioneer of marine biology, mainly known for the invention of the aquariums and the solution of the issue about the nature and the origin of the Argonauta argo shell. She routinely used the experimental method and studied fossils as well. Results of her studies were illustrated to various academies and mostly to the Accademia Gioenia, which welcomed her in 1836 as the first woman among its members. In this note for the celebratory volume of the 200 years of life of the Accademia Gioenia di Catania, after her short biography, the modernity and current validity of the studies of Jeannette Power (first published in the Atti dell’Accademia Gioenia) are highlighted. Her relationships with the Academy and the fruitful discussions with some of its most important representatives are documented by her letters and by passages of her “Guida per la Sicilia”, as well as by the inaugural speeches of the Academy and other writings.