Bullettin of the Gioenia Academy of Natural Sciences of Catania

The Paleontology Museum of the University of Catania: origin and history

Mario Alberghina — 2024-09-06

The migratory stages of the fossil collections belonging to the Museum of Paleontology of the University of Catania have been reconstructed to the best of available documentary sources. Additionally, more light has been shed on the knowledge and history of the curators who assisted and took care of the continuous rearrangement of fossil specimens in the exhibition rooms, with greater responsibility and competence. New allocations have affected the ancient University Building during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the new Science Palace in the second twentieth century until today. Making use of economic resources provided by national Projects for the reorganization and promotion of science, many exhibition novelties have been introduced in the Museum.

Three algebraists at the Gioenia Academy: Cipolla, Scorza, and Spampinato

Giovanna Giardina — 2024-09-22

The article discusses three renowned algebraists -Gaetano Scorza, Michele Cipolla, and Nicolò Spampinato- who were members of the Gioenia Academy and professors at the University of Catania. In the first half of the twentieth century, they significantly influenced the course of mathematical research both in Italy and abroad. After briefly describing the intellectual fervor that animated mathematical research in Catania among this group of scholars, as well as the main lines of their work, the article focuses on the notion of infinity. The study and debate on this concept within the Gioenia Academy link the authors to the three aforementioned algebraists, demonstrating the contribution that Catania’s mathematical community made to the emerging theory of algebras at the beginning of the twentieth century. In particular, the treatment of infinity in the context of real variables highlights the complexity and significance of Spampinato’s studies on the same issue in the case of complex variables. From this perspective, Spampinato explores infinity in multi-unit algebras, eventually showing that in the field of n complex variables, the same notion of infinity is obtained as with the projective viewpoint. This approach connects the different conceptions of infinity in both the complex field and the multi-unit algebraic case.

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

Antonietta Rosso — 2024-12-13

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.