La correspondance entre Alfred Des Cloizeaux et Quintino Sella - The Correspondence between Alfred Des Cloizeaux and Quintino Sella

Cristiano Ferraris; Ophélie Weinert; Giovanni Ferraris

doi:10.13135/2281-2164/2805

Cristiano Ferraris Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie (IMPMC), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris)
Ophélie Weinert Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris)
Giovanni Ferraris Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2281-2164/2805

Parole chiave: Crystallography, Mineralogy, Scientific Correspondence

Abstract

The unpublished correspondence between Alfred Des Cloizeaux (1817-1897) and Quintino Sella (1827-1884) is reported and briefly noted. Both of them were students of Henri Hureau de Sénarmont (1808-1862) at the École des Mines (Paris) and their epistolary extends between 1856 and 1884. As well as illustrating the scientific characteristics of the two mineralogists, it offers a panorama of the academic environment of the period in France and in Italy. Political events also transpire, as Sella, after 1860, was committed to building the just unified Italy. The published documents are available in the archives of the Académie des Sciences (Paris) and of the Fondazione Sella (Biella). In particular, Des Cloizeaux pioneered modern microscopy of minerals and promoted the foundation of the Société Française de Minéralogie; Sella introduced new mathematical methods in crystallography and refounded the Accademia dei Lincei.