Books by Giovanni Ferraris
La transizione dalla Accademia d’Italia alla Accademia dei Lincei: uno snodo nello sviluppo della chimica da Giacomo Fauser ai giorni nostri”, Atti dei Convegni Lincei, 358, pp. 111-122., 2024
Some historical contributions of crystallography to the atomic theory of matter and, in particula... more Some historical contributions of crystallography to the atomic theory of matter and, in particular, to chemistry are mentioned. The main contributions of Italian crystallography to the development of chemistry are then developed, in the period analyzed in the meeting. In Italy, the laboratory at the Polytechnic of Milan, where Giulio Natta conducted the research that led him to be honored by the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1963), was a pioneer in the use of X-ray diffractometry, as Natta himself illustrated extensively in his Nobel lecture. Since then, the theoretical and experimental contributions of Italian crystallography to the progress of chemistry gradually become important, also thanks to the contact between crystallographers of different extraction belonging to the Italian Association of Crystallography (AIC), and to the international crystallography schools held at the Ettore Maiorana Center in Erice. Benefits brought to chemistry by crystallographic data are illustrated, such as: (1) availability of databases including the “Cambridge Structural Database”, “Inorganic Crystal Structure Database” and “Protein Structure Database” (about 200,000 structures); (2) possibility to map the electron density deformed by the chemical bond and compare it with its theoretical calculation; (3) structural determination of biological macromolecules; (4) structural determination of natural (zeolites) and synthetic microporous materials useful in catalytic processes and for other properties; (5) the conceptual revolution resulting from the discovery of quasicrystals, in particular natural ones.
1965-2015 CINQUANT’ANNI DI NOI CON VOI, 2015
Il volume presenta gli eventi più importanti dei primi cinquant’anni della Associazione Pro Loco ... more Il volume presenta gli eventi più importanti dei primi cinquant’anni della Associazione Pro Loco di Prarolo. Nella pubblicazione, ricca di fotografie, sono ricordati gli aspetti tradizionale e folkloristici del piccolo comune immerso nelle risaie vercellesi, da cui svettano le torri del castello e i campanili della chiesa parrocchiale (1628) e della confraternita (1763).
The volume presents the most important events of the first fifty years of the Pro Loco Association of Prarolo. The publication, rich of photographs, recalls the traditional and folkloristic aspects of the small community immersed in the Vercelli rice fields, from which the castle towers of the parish church (1628) and of the church dedicated to the Saints Grato and Carlo (1763) stand out.
Bollettino Storico Vercellese, 2023
Abstract - The article illustrates the artistic production of Umberto Cavalli (Vercelli 1883 – No... more Abstract - The article illustrates the artistic production of Umberto Cavalli (Vercelli 1883 – Novara 1927) who was an appreciated pupil of Edoardo Sassi (Vercelli 1858 – Villarbasse 1935). For health reasons, Cavalli's artistic activity was interrupted when he was in his early twenties. About forty drawings of his artistic production are kept at the Istituto Belle Arti in Vercelli, where he was a pupil; moreover, a rare album published in Vercelli in 1900 is known which, in addition to the title page in red color, contains 18 lithographs representing views of Vercelli and the surrounding countryside.
Atti dei convegni lincei, 2022
Isomorphism (mixed crystals, solid solutions) played an important role in the conception of the p... more Isomorphism (mixed crystals, solid solutions) played an important role in the conception of the periodic table of chemical elements by Dmitri Mendeleev. He has clearly underlined this role in his treatise The Principles of Chemistry and several other articles. This topic deals with the reasons that led to the rapid forgetting of isomorphism, but also that this forgetting depends mainly on the importance and necessity of atomic weights in the periodic table. The disinterest in morphological crystallography in the physico-chemical fields, although typical of the second half of the 19th century, is not unrelated to the disinterest in the study of isomorphism.
Giovanni Antonio Ranza nel bicentenario della morte (1801-2001). Atti del convegno tenutosi a Vercelli il 24 novembre 2001., 2001
The work of the Jacobin Giovanni Antonio Ranza (Vercelli, 1741 - 1801), publisher at his Tipograf... more The work of the Jacobin Giovanni Antonio Ranza (Vercelli, 1741 - 1801), publisher at his Tipografia Patria in Vercelli and at other printers and political writer, is analyzed. Various figures reproduce the title pages of Ranza's publications.
Il Vercellese e la Grande Guerra, 2015
Summary - The volume is a collection of contributions by various authors describing the situation... more Summary - The volume is a collection of contributions by various authors describing the situation in the Vercelli province on the eve of, during and immediately after the Great War (1915-1918). In particular, the figures of the gold medal decorated fighters are illustrated. A large part of the volume is dedicated to the post-war situation and the controversial erection of memorials in honor of the Fallen.
Papers by Giovanni Ferraris
Bollettino Storico Vercellese, 2020
During the small ice age that affected Europe between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, in... more During the small ice age that affected Europe between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, in the winter of 1739-1740 the Po valley had copious snowfalls and low temperatures that lasted until May. The baptismal register of the parish of Prarolo (Vercelli) testifies that the exceptional cold caused a high death rate of newborn babies. The main cause of the deaths was the impossibility of keeping babies in warm places. In fact, at that time the inhabitants of Prarolo were almost all poor peasants at the service of the Abbey of S. Stefano and lived in poor, unheated homes. Even the use of the stables to take advantage of animal heating was impossible as the animals were kept in cramped shelters and not in equipped stables.
The article is published in Bollettino Storico Vercellese, 94, pp. 197-200, (2020)
Rivista di storia dell'Università di Torino, 2022
The article reports the 66 letters that make up the correspondence between A. Daubrée and Q. Sell... more The article reports the 66 letters that make up the correspondence between A. Daubrée and Q. Sella. The letters written by Daubrée (38) and by Sella (28) are kept at the Fondazione Sella o.n.l.u.s. (Biella) and the library of the Institut de France (Paris), respectively. The topics are mainly related to positions of president, in the order, of the Institut de France (Daubrée) and of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, which Sella reorganized after Rome became the capital of Italy in 1871. In particular, Sella, to enhance the scientific role of Italy, supports Italian candidates worthy of becoming members of the Institut. At the same time Sella, who had to abandon his promising crystallographic research in favour of politics but aspires to be elected member of the Académie des Sciences himself, highlights his relationship with the international mineralogical community and his promotion of the Italian scientific activity.
I PAESAGGI FLUVIALI DELLA SESIA FRA STORIA E ARCHEOLOGIA (R. Rao Ed.), 2016
The investigation on of the diocese of Vercelli east of the Sesia river highlights the following.... more The investigation on of the diocese of Vercelli east of the Sesia river highlights the following. On the left bank of the Sesia, alluvial sediments of the Holocene age (< 12,000 years) are present only in a limited area adjacent to the river south of Vercelli and are almost absent north of the city. Therefore, the hypothesis of an eastern border of the diocese dictated by an ancient course of the Sesia does not find support in the geology of the territory. The road system of the Roman era had in Vercelli an important node for the itineraries connecting Pavia and Milan with the north of the Alps and with Turin. The importance of the Pavia-Vercelli-Ivrea-Alps itinerary is supported by the discovery of the remains of a monumental Roman bridge crossing the Sesia in front of Mantie (Motta de' Conti, Vercelli). Near Vercelli, a route that led from Milan to the north of the Alps used the fords of the Sesia. Archeology shows that the Libyans, founders of Vercelli, were also present between the Sesia and Agogna rivers. It can therefore be hypothesized that the consolidation of the diocese of Vercelli on the territories located east of the Sesia river was favoured by the influence that the city had exerted on them since pre-Roman times.
Bollettino Storico Vercellese n. 98, 2022
The article analyzes images of S. Ugolina which in the background show approximate profiles of an... more The article analyzes images of S. Ugolina which in the background show approximate profiles of ancient Vercelli.
Bollettino Storico Vercellese 98, 2022
The article contains information on the conviction in absentia and on the exile in Paris of Giuse... more The article contains information on the conviction in absentia and on the exile in Paris of Giuseppe Malinverni, political leader of the 1821 riots in Vercelli.
Bollettino Parrocchiale Pezzana Prarolo Pizzarosto , 2022
On the basis of archival documents, the series of consuls and mayors of Prarolo has been partiall... more On the basis of archival documents, the series of consuls and mayors of Prarolo has been partially reconstructed. The first known consul was in office in 1460.
Bollettino Storico Vercellese, 2021
In Vercelli the political leader of the Piedmontese Moti of 1821 was Giuseppe Malinverni. Togethe... more In Vercelli the political leader of the Piedmontese Moti of 1821 was Giuseppe Malinverni. Together with his companion Gioacchino Deambrogi, parish priest of Motta de' Conti, and various revolutionaries, they met in the Malinverni house in Prarolo on the night of 10-11 March 1821. From there they left for Vercelli where they began the revolution aimed at obtaining the constitution. When the Moti failed, Malinverni and Deambrogi were sentenced to death. Malinverni took refuge at the Cadé Brarola farmhouse in Brarola, then fled abroad: first (1922) he settled in Bellinzona (Switzerland), then (1923) in Bath and London (England), finally (1831) in Paris, where he died around 1850. For the first time details of Malinverni's stay at the Cadé are reported. There he lived in two rooms that he embellished with decorations still existing; they are allegorical to his situation. The few information relating to Malinverni's exile are critically analyzed.
Journal of Applied Crystallography
Acta Crystallographica Section A Foundations and Advances
Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali
Substantia, 2019
After briefly presenting early hypotheses on the submicroscopic origin of symmetry and polyhedral... more After briefly presenting early hypotheses on the submicroscopic origin of symmetry and polyhedral morphology in the crystals, the structural model proposed by Haüy in 1784, based on the periodic repetition of integrant molecules made up of simple molecules, is discussed. It is then highlighted how-through investigation of crystal hemihedry, isomorphism (mixed crystals) and optical activity-researches aiming at overtaking drawbacks of Haüy's model brought basic ideas to achieve the modern knowledge of the atomic structure of matter. The atomic-scale interpretation of properties of the crystalline state soundly contributed, among others, to properly define molecules and atoms, determine the atomic weights, hypothesize stereoisomer-ism, build the periodic table of elements and define ionic radii and bond.
Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry
Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry
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Books by Giovanni Ferraris
The volume presents the most important events of the first fifty years of the Pro Loco Association of Prarolo. The publication, rich of photographs, recalls the traditional and folkloristic aspects of the small community immersed in the Vercelli rice fields, from which the castle towers of the parish church (1628) and of the church dedicated to the Saints Grato and Carlo (1763) stand out.
Papers by Giovanni Ferraris
The article is published in Bollettino Storico Vercellese, 94, pp. 197-200, (2020)
The volume presents the most important events of the first fifty years of the Pro Loco Association of Prarolo. The publication, rich of photographs, recalls the traditional and folkloristic aspects of the small community immersed in the Vercelli rice fields, from which the castle towers of the parish church (1628) and of the church dedicated to the Saints Grato and Carlo (1763) stand out.
The article is published in Bollettino Storico Vercellese, 94, pp. 197-200, (2020)