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Aldo Mieli
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'''Aldo Mieli''' (Livorno, Italy, 4 December 1879 – Florida, Argentina 16 February 1950)<ref name="encyclopediadotcom">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref> was an influential historian of science, and a pioneer of gay rights.<ref name="HWJ">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>
==Early life and education==
Born in 1879 in Livorno, Italy to a wealthy Jewish family, Mieli was raised on Chianciano, a small spa town in Tuscany, which his family moved to in 1880.<ref name="HWJ" />
In 1904 he obtained a degree in chemistry, followed by six months of study at the [[University of Leipzig]], attending the lectures of the chemist [[Wilhelm Ostwald]]. His chemistry career continued, and in 1908 he moved to the [[Sapienza University of Rome]] to work with [[Emanuele Paterno]]. He subsequently became a university lecturer in chemistry at the University.<ref name="HWJ" />
==Socialism==
Mieli was a member of the Socialist Party, which led to his election as town councillor in Chianciano in 1901. He left in 1903. Mieli claimed in his autobiography that he left the Socialist movement due to the lack of sincerity and idealism in the movement.<ref name="Mieli-bio">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref> Police records, however, showed that Mieli's homosexuality, referred to as 'manifest immorality' was well-known in the local area, which would have severely inhibited his political career.<ref name="HWJ" />
Secret police raided his flat in Rome in 1929, just a few months after he had moved to France. Mieli's friend Gino Chiappini, a typographer, and his friend Angelo Pisani were living there at the time. By 1930, police records marked him as a 'dangerous socialist'.<ref name="HWJ" />
==History of science==
Mieli is now considered one of the founders of the discipline of the [[history of science]], as one of the first to consider it a discipline it its own right.<ref name="HWJ" /><ref name="encyclopediadotcom" />
His history of science career began whilst a chemistry lecturer in Rome, building on interest stimulated in his studies in Germany.
In 1912, he founded, and briefly maintained, a section in the journal Rivista di filosofia for the history of science. He edited the Italian bibliography for the then new journal [[Isis (journal)|Isis]], and in 1916, published a pamphlet calling for a chair of history of science to be created in Italian universities. He also wrote several books on history of science topics, and edited a series on classic texts in science and philosophy for Laterza, an Italian publisher.<ref name="HWJ" />
He taught history of science at the University of Rome between 1919 and 1928, and the [[University of Perugia]] in 1926.<ref name="HWJ" /> He was elected a member of [[Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina]] in 1925.<ref></ref>
In 1919, he founded the journal ''[[Archeion (journal)|Archeion]]'' (later renamed 'Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences' and still published), which he continued to edit until three years before he died. Many organisations, including UNESCO, provided funding for the journal, which he also subsidised from his own finances.<ref name="HWJ" />
In 1928 he moved to Paris. There, Mieli co-founded, and served as permanent secretary of the Comite International d'Histoire des Sciences (the International Committee for the History of Science), renamed the [[International Academy of the History of Science]] at its First International Congress of the History of Science, held in Paris in May 1929. At that meeting, ''Archeion'' became the offical journal of the Academy.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>
That same year, Mieli was invited to create and direct a Unit for the History of Science at the Centre international de synthèse, which had been created in 1925 by [[Henri Berr]]. The Unit officially opened on 22 January 1930. He worked there, collaborating with [[Helene Metzger]] until 1939, when he moved to Argentina. He was very ill when he arrived in Argentina, and spent several months in hospital.<ref name="HWJ" />
He worked at the [[National University of the Littoral|Universidad Nacional del Litoral]] in Santa Fé, from 1940 to 1943 where he founded an Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and continued to edit ''Archeion.'' Following the [[1943 Argentine coup d'état]] and the new Government's intervention in the university, his employment contract was cancelled,<ref name="HWJ" /> and he retired to [[Florida Este, Buenos Aires|Florida]], near Buenos Aires.<ref name="encyclopediadotcom" />
In poor health, and without the financial backing of the university, he ceased being editor of ''Archeion,'' which was subsequently relaunched as ''Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences.'' He began to write ''Panorama general de historia de la ciencia,'' a survey of the history of science, intended to be an eight-volume set. He completed and published the first two volumes, and had proofs of the third, fourth and fifth, by the time he died.<ref name="encyclopediadotcom" />
==Understandings of sexuality==
[[File:Mieli Aldo - L'amore omosessuale.jpg|thumb|alt="Cover of Aldo Mieli's book, L'amore omosessuale, published around 1925"|L'amore omosessuale, published ca. 1925.]]
In 1921, Mieli founded the 'Società italiana per lo studio delle questioni sessuali' (Italian society for the study of sexual matters), an organisation to discuss sexuality and sexology. He also founded the journal ''Rassegna di Studi Sessuali'' (Sexual Studies Review). The journal published a range of topics on sex and sexuality, notably including the works of [[Magnus Hirschfeld]].<ref name="thesis">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>. Hirschfield and Mieli had both been members of the organizing committee of the first Congress of Sexology, in Berlin, held earlier that year in 1921.<ref name="HWJ" />
These activities formed part of Mieli's strategy to encourage public debate on sexual issues with a view to changing government policies on sexuality. He considered homosexuality a "completely natural fact, not something to cure but to be analysed with a high degree of objectivity", which Benadusi notes was an "absolute novelty".<ref name="Benadusi">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>
==Selected publications==
Mieli published extensively in a wide range of journals, and wrote several books.<ref name="encyclopediadotcom" /> Selected publications include:
* Aldo Mieli, G. Bargellini, ''Influenza che esercita un sale in varie concentrazioni sulla velocità di decolorazione di soluzioni acquose di sostanze organiche sotto l'influenza della luce'', Rome, 1906
* Aldo Mieli, ''La scienza greca: I prearistotelici. I (la scuola ionica. La scuola pythagorica. La scuola eleata, herakeitos)'', Libreria della Voce, Florence, [[1915]].
* Aldo Mieli, ''Lastoria della scienza in Italia'', Florence, 1916, Rome, 1926,
* Aldo Mieli, ''Per una cattedra di storia della scienza'' Florence, 1916
* Aldo Mieli, ''Il libro dell'amore'' Florence, 1916. Described by [[Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli]] as the work that he "considered his spiritual testament".<ref name="encyclopediadotcom" />
* Aldo Mieli, ''Lavoisier'', A. F. Formiggini, Genoa 1916, second edition Rome 1926.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Lavori e scritti di Aldo Mieli (1906-1916), Libreria della Voce, Florence, 1917.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Manuale di storia della scienza: Antichità storia, antologia, bibliografia'', Rome, 1925, published in French as ''Histoire des sciences. Antiquité'', Paris, 1935
* Aldo Mieli, ''La storia della scienza in Italia: Prolusione ad un corso di storia della scienza'', Casa Edit. Tip. Leonardo da Vinci, Rome 1926.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Patologia sessuale'', in: "Rassegna di studi sessuali", I [[1921]], pp. 81-94.
* ''Erotes: (Gli amori): Lucio o l'asino'' (traduzione di [[Luigi Settembrini]], prefazione e note di A. Mieli Casa Edit. Tip. Leonardo da Vinci, Rome, 1925.
* Aldo Mieli, ''L'amore omosessuale'', Tinto, Rome s.d. (ca. [[1925]]).
* Aldo Mieli, ''Per la lotta contro la delinquenza collegata a manifestazioni sessuali'', in: "Rassegna di studi sessuali", VI 1926, pp. 256-261.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Alessandro Volta'', Formiggini, Roma [[1927]].
* Aldo Mieli, Roberto Assagioli, Nicola Pende, ''Tre lezioni di sessuologia'', Tinto, Rome 1931.
* Aldo Mieli, ''La science arabe et son role dans l'evolution scientifique mondiale, par Aldo Mieli. Avec quelques additions de Henri-Paul-Joseph Renaud, Max Meyerhof, Julius Ruska'', E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1938.
* Aldo Mieli, ''El desarollo histórico de la historia de la ciencia y la función actual de los iustitutos de historia de la ciencia'', Santa Fé, 1939.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Sumario de un curso de historia de la ciencia en ciento veinte números'', Santa Fé, 1943.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Digressions autobiographiques, sous forme de préface à un panorama général d'Histoire des sciences'', in: "Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences", XXVII [[1948]], pp. 494-505.
===The Panorama general de historia de la ciencia series===
* Aldo Mieli, ''Panorama general de historia de la ciencia - 1: El mundo antiguo: Griegos y Romanos'', Espasa Calpe Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1945.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Panorama general de historia de la ciencia - 2: La época medieval, mundo islámico y occidente cristiano'', Espasa-Calpe Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1947.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Panorama general de historia de la ciencia - 3: La eclosión del Renacimiento'', Espasa Calpe Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1951.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Panorama general de historia de la ciencia - 4: Lionardo da Vinci: sabio'', Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1951.
* Aldo Mieli, ''Panorama general de historia de la ciencia - 5: La ciencia del Renacimiento: matemática y ciencias naturales'', Espasa-Calpe Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1952.
== References ==
== External links ==
* [https://ift.tt/2XwJ8HX The International Academy of the History of Science]
* [https://ift.tt/2Jzc2Nw Aldo Mieli works at the Open Library]
<!--- Categories --->
[[Category:1879 births]]
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:Historians of science]]
[[Category:Italian historians]]
[[Category:Historians of chemistry]]
[[Category:Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]]
[[Category:LGBT rights activists from Italy]]
[[Category:LGBT history in Italy]]
July 07, 2019 at 07:43PM
