Cultura e formazione degli ingegneri. Studi ottocenteschi intorno a Leonardo da Vinci

While, in the middle of nineteenth century, new engineering schools open in Italy, European culture discusses a lot about Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Technical and poly-technical mind, he anticipates nineteenth-century progress by writing about central subjects in the training of engineers. His hydraulic researches and his wor- king on the painting remain the only known writing until the nineteenth century when, in Paris, Charles Ravaisson Mollien edits the Institut de France’s manuscripts and, in 1883, Jean Paul Richter publishes in London The literary works of Leonard da Vinci. From the same years, in Italy, Gilberto Govi, Giovanni Piumati, Edmondo Solmi and Luca Beltrami publish other new books. Leonardo’s notes about hydrau- lic, maths, survey, cartography, mining engineering, knowledge of the Earth are the same discussed in the engineering schools open in Turin and in Milan or in other uni- versity of Italy. Gustavo Uzielli, a main Leonardo’s researcher who teaches in Rome, Turin and Parma, links some of his lessons with Leonardo’s works; adopting the same scientific method of the Grande of Vinci, Uzielli interlaces historical research with the knowledge of the territorial and natural sciences. Furthermore, when Mario Baratta opens Pavia’s courses, he thinks of Vinciano’s studies on Earth. Others repe- at the same analysis. The result is an international scientific discussion on Leonardo da Vinci, still capable, five hundred years after his death, of drawing the future.