Le lettere di Felice Giordano a Quintino Sella - Terza parte (2.5.1877-26.2.1884) - The Correspondence between Felice Giordano and Quintino Sella Third Part (2.5.1877-26.2.1884)

Abstract

The letters addressed by Felice Giordano to Quintino Sella stretch across about 37 years, from 1847 to 1884. The original correspondence is kept at the Fondazione Sella in Biella and its publication is curated by a project promoted by the Centro Studi di Storia dell'Università di Torino. We transcribed and commented these letters, a lengthy work we have split into three parts because of the size and complexity of these documents which reflect Giordano’s multiform and hyperactive living, technical skills, and commitments. A first group of 81 letters and a second group of 72 letters were published. The third and final part of the correspondence is presented in this article and consists of 77 letters from 1877 to 1884. From 1877 Giordano is charged with heavy tasks mainly for the activity and problems of the R. Mining Corps, the Geological Service and the launch of the “great enterprise”: a new Geological Map of Italy, obeying the standards suggested by Giordano himself (1860) and codified by Sella in his famous memoir of 1861. This is an intriguing story characterized by competition until the final victory of Sella, Giordano and the Corps of mining engineers against Antonio Stoppani and his pupil Torquato Taramelli, both supporters of an independent Geological Institute lead by the university world. In this third part of the correspondence, we find the first evidence of a crisis of relations between the two friends of a lifetime. The “casus belli” concerns Giacinto Berruti, a member of the Mining Corps, the director of the Mining District in Turin, and one of Sella’s pupils. In a letter partially reported by Giordano (dated January 12th, 1881), Sella complains about Berruti seeing unfairly rejected his appointment as inspector. Giordano was astonished and shocked by this charge that would not go without consequences within the Corps of Mines and the Geological Service. In a few months’ time the dispute settled, as displayed in the correspondence, while Giordano was involved in new important events, such as the study of the Gotthard railway tunnel, the 2nd International Geological Congress in Bologna, the birth of the Italian Geological Society, and much more. On 26th of February 1884, Giordano writes his last letter to his friend, stuck at home because of poor health: the matter is the publication of the explanatory notes of the Geological map of Italy. Quintino Sella dies in Biella less than a month later (March 14th, 1884), at the age of 57. Felice Giordano survives him for eight years, with declining health and new bitterness at work, and dies July 16th 1892 in a tragic accident in Vallombrosa, near Florence.