HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Gian Domenico Romagnosi (; 11 December 1761 – 8 June 1835) was an Italian
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and
jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...
.


Biography

Gian Domenico Romagnosi was born in
Salsomaggiore Terme Salsomaggiore Terme ( Salsese: ; Parmigiano: ) is a town and ''comune'' located in the province of Parma, in the region of Emilia-Romagna. Located at the foot of the Apennines, its warm saline waters made this a popular Spa town. History In the ...
. He studied law at the University of
Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...
from 1782 to 1786. In 1791 he became the chief civil magistrate of
Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...
. In the late 18th and early 19th century Trento was successively under the rule of France, Italy and Austria. In 1799 Romagnosi was arrested in
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...
during fifteen months by the Austrians on account of his alleged sympathy with the French, but he was acquitted. In 1801 the French occupied Trento, and he was raised to the position of Secretary of the Higher Council. He was successively professor of law at Parma, Pavia, Pisa and Milan. After the fall of Napoleon he lost his position at the Milan university, but continued to lecture till 1817. In 1818 he was again tried for treason at Venice, and again acquitted.
Carlo Cattaneo Carlo Cattaneo (; 15 June 1801 – 6 February 1869) was an Italian philosopher, writer, and activist, famous for his role in the Five Days of Milan in March 1848, when he led the city council during the rebellion. Early life Cattaneo was born i ...
was his student and he was largely influenced by his thought. He died in Milan in 1835. His most celebrated work is ''Introduzione allo studio del diritto pubblico universale'' (2 vols., Parma, 1805).


Electromagnetism

Although Romagnosi was not a scientist, he made some experiments with a
voltaic pile upright=1.2, Schematic diagram of a copper–zinc voltaic pile. The copper and zinc discs were separated by cardboard or felt spacers soaked in salt water (the electrolyte). Volta's original piles contained an additional zinc disk at the bottom, ...
and its influence on a compass. He published two accounts of his findings in 1802, in Italian newspapers. It is sometimes assumed that he found a relationship between
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...
and
magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...
, about two decades before
Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted ( , ; often rendered Oersted in English; 14 August 17779 March 1851) was a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields, which was the first connection found between electricit ...
's 1820 discovery of
electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions o ...
. However, his experiments did not deal with electric currents, and only showed that an
electrostatic Electrostatics is a branch of physics that studies electric charges at rest ( static electricity). Since classical times, it has been known that some materials, such as amber, attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The Greek word for ...
charge from a voltaic pile could deflect a magnetic needle. However, as Joseph Hamel has pointed out, Romagnosi's discovery was documented in the book by Joseph Izarn, ''Manuel du Galvanisme'' (1805), where a galvanic current (''courant galvanique'') is explicitly mentioned. It was also mentione
on page 340
of the book by Giovanni Aldini, ''Essai théorique et expérimental sur le Galvanisme'' (1804): "Cette nouvelle propriété du galvanisme a été constatée par d'autres observateurs, et dernièrement par M. Romanesi, physicien. de Trente, qui a reconnu que le galvanisme faisait décliner l'aiguille aimantée." That says,"This new property of
galvanism Galvanism is a term invented by the late 18th-century physicist and chemist Alessandro Volta to refer to the generation of electric current by chemical action. The term also came to refer to the discoveries of its namesake, Luigi Galvani, specif ...
has been noted by other observers, and lately by M. Romanesi, a physicist. de Trente, who recognized that galvanism made the magnetic needle decline." Aldini was also communicating with Ørsted at the time, Hamel notes.Hamel (1859), p. 38.


Works

* ''Genesi del diritto penale'', 1791. * ''Che cos'è uguaglianza'', 1792. * ''Che cos'è libertà'', 1793. * ''Introduzione allo studio del diritto pubblico universale'', 1803. * ''Principi fondamentali di diritto amministrativo'', 1814. * ''Della costituzione di una monarchia nazionale rappresentativa'', 1815. * ''Dell'insegnamento primitivo delle matematiche'', 1823. * ''Della condotta delle acque'', 1824. * ''Che cos'è la mente sana?'', 1827. * ''Della suprema economia dell'umano sapere in relazione alla mente sana'', 1828. * ''Suprema economia dell'umano sapere'', 1828. * ''Della ragion civile delle acque nella rurale economia'', 1829 - 1830. * ''Vedute fondamentali sull'arte logica'', 1832. * ''Dell'indole e dei fattori dell'incivilimento con esempio del suo risorgimento in Italia'', 1832. * ''Collezione degli articoli di economia politica e statistica e civile'', 1836 (published posthumously). * ** * ''La scienza delle costituzioni'', 1849 * ''I Discorsi Libero-Muratori di Gian Domenico Romagnosi (1761-1835)'', in: ''L'Acacia Massonica'', 1949, III, n. 8, pp. 220-24 e n. 9-10, pp. 282–86. * ''Scritti filosofici'', 2 vols., Firenze, Le Monnier, 1960; Milano, Ceschina, 1974.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romagnosi, Gian Domenico 1761 births 1835 deaths 18th-century Italian philosophers 19th-century Italian philosophers People from Salsomaggiore Terme University of Parma alumni 18th-century Italian physicists Italian economists