Speaker
Description
Luca Antonio Pellicciari, a priest and physicist, is an almost unknown figure in the history of Italian physics in the late eighteenth century. His significance lies in two aspects: he was the first professor of experimental physics at the University of Perugia and he was responsible for the establishment of the university’s theatre of experimental physics. This facility constituted the foundational core of the experimental physics cabinet, whose instruments (augmented through subsequent acquisitions) are now preserved in the Department of Physics. At the University of Perugia, physics began to emerge as an autonomous discipline only from 1730 onward, no longer embedded within other fields of teaching, although it still retained a predominantly theoretical character closely aligned with natural philosophy. After 1753, the Bishop of Perugia, as Rector and in agreement with Pope Clement XIII, resolved to give the discipline an experimental orientation by establishing a chair of experimental physics, to which Pellicciari was appointed. For this purpose, Pellicciari was sent to Rome and tasked with creating in Perugia a physics cabinet modelled on that of the Sapienza University. This initiative reflected broader developments occurring in major Italian universities during the second half of the eighteenth century. Rather than merely constructing a laboratory, the project involved the creation of a true theatre of experimental physics, designed for public demonstrations addressed not only to students. The main aspects of Pellicciari’s biography have been reconstructed, with particular attention to his research interests and to the establishment of the theatre of experimental physics.