THE “QUESTION OF FOSSILS” AND THE HISTORY OF MOUNTAINS IN 18TH CENTURY ITALY

The question of fossils emerges in 17th century Italy to mark the birth of palaeontology, in particular through the work of prominent scholars such as Nicolaus Steno, Fabio Colonna and Agostino Scilla: all studied in depth by Nicoletta Morello (1979).

Beyond the definition of the organic origin of fossils, which was widely accepted in Italy at the beginning of the 18th century, their role within a new reconstruction of the Earth's history based on lithostratigraphical data became gradually more evident to naturalists and Earth scientists (or ‘oryctologists'). For example, the cases of Antonio Vallisneri (1721) and later Giovanni Arduino (1760, 1771-72) may be considered as particularly significant.

The variety and diversity of fossils, as well as their different distribution within the strata of hills and mountains, clearly revealed some possible changes which had occurred to the species over a very long time span, together with the changes which had modified the morphology and the lithology of the Earth's surface.

The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of the Italian 18th century geological studies which gradually started to identify the traces of a long history of evolution.