On the education of engineer in the 19th century. A note from the studies about Leonardo da Vinci

In the second half of the nineteenth century, scholars and professors discussed a lot about the education of civil engineer, reflecting on the relationship between research and teaching and about the importance of theoretical lectures and the practical exercises. The mini-review discusses the same relationship, still actual, based on a note signed by Gustavo Uzielli (1839-1911), teacher of Mineralogy and Geology in the Regia Scuola di applicazione per gli ingegneri in Torino now Politecnico of Torino, an important tool in order to valuate the link between research and teaching. Uzielli wrote about a rock derived from quartz, giving to the students of the school of engineering the outcome of his research about Leonardo da Vinci – so-called Vinciano, a man considered the forerunner of the nineteenth-century progress, able to deal original themes in the fifteenth and sixteenth century that became key topics for the education of the engineer in the nineteenth century. At the same time, the note of the professor, famous for his researches about Cristoforo Colombo e Paolo Toscanelli, allows to evaluate the experimental and scientific method, for Uzielli founded by Leonardo and adopted, still today, in the education of engineers.