All'alba della scienza infelice; Cesare Lombroso e la disputa sul morbo pellagroso in Italia nel XIX secolo

Historiogrphy on Cesare Lombroso's scientific activity and influence seems to downplay the role of his early research. Therefore, Lombroso's criminal antrhopology has gained the greater part of scholarly focus, whereas his research onto cretinism and pelagra has, insofar, attracted less historical investigation.. The aim of this work is to shed light onto the first period of Lombroso's scientific career. More particularly the goal of this dissertation is to highlight some relevant connections between Lomrboso's interpretation of pellagra and cretinism, his medical geography and the “epistemological devices” he deployed in his later and more aknowledged achievements in the field of criminal anthropology, which he greatly contributed to shape theorically and affirm academically. Furthermore, I shall test here A. De Bernardi's interpration, according to which Lombroso's “pseudo-scientific” etiology on pellagra earned scientific accreditaion due to its social functionality to the dominant North-Italian bourgeoisie.