ANTONIO STOPPANI
Antonio Stoppani was a literary man and a scientist who studied geology and palaeontology. He was born in Lecco on August 15th, 1824. He was ordained a priest in 1848 and in March of that same year he became a Red-Cross volunteer and joined the revolution during the ‘Five Days of Milan’ period; thanks to his actions he was awarded a gold medal. He also participated in the First War of Independence. Then he began to teach and spread his liberal ideas, that is why he was suspended from his position.
In 1861 Antonio Stoppani was appointed professor of geology at the University of Pavia and in 1867 he became professor at the Polytechnic of Milan. He worked with other academics on the book "Paleontologie lombarde ou description des fossiles de Lombardie", whose first volume was published in 1858.
After the Third War of Independence, in which he took part as a member of the Red Cross in 1866, he started again to teach in Milan and in Florence. Between 1871 and 1873 he wrote the book “Corso di Geologia” (Geology Course) in three volumes. It was the first Italian literary work on this subject. Later he wrote “I primi anni di Alessandro Manzoni” (The first years of Alessandro Manzoni) in 1874, “Il bel Paese” (The Beautiful Country) in 1875, which is his masterpiece, and “I Trovanti” (Academic Lectures) in 1881.
In 1883 Antonio Stoppani returned to Milan and became the director of the Civic Museum of Natural History, that he had contributed to build twenty years before. He was then considered the highest authority in his field and the following year he became president of the Italian Geological Society, the first Italian institution for Earth science created in 1881. Antonio Stoppani died in Milan on January 2nd, 1891 at the age of 66.
Stoppani’s patriotic spirit is richly described in "The Beautiful Country", a delightful depiction of Italy’s beauty and natural heritage. For the author this book needed to play a role in the unification of Italy: thanks to his great skills in describing the scenery, the landscape and the art he gave the readers the sensation of living in the most beautiful country in the world. This was necessary to create and reinforce the pride of being Italian, which was fundamental at the time.
Antonio Stoppani was fascinated by ‘Sasso di Preguda’ (Preguda boulder) when he first saw it during one of his many hikes on mount Moregallo on May, 27th 1878. His studies on the glacial deposits in the Quaternary period in Italy, which resulted in the formation of erratic boulders, are very well known. He explained that the Preguda erratic boulder dated back to the Ice Age.
Antonio Stoppani also wrote a short poem about ‘Sasso di Preguda’:
[...] Sulle acute rocce adagia appena appena il grave fianco, siccome lasso pellegrin che dorma, assiso allato a polverosa via, pronto nuovo cammino, appena il sonno gli avrà rifatta la perduta lena; o com'aquila audace che un istante raccolga il volo sull'aereo poggio, bramosa di lanciarsi ove si annera per soverchi seren, l'aere sottile,
coll'immota pupilla incontro al sole.
‘Sasso di Preguda’ was clearly of particular significance to Stoppani, who put a picture of the boulder on the back flap of his book of poems named “Asteroidi” (Asteroids) published in 1879.
INTERESTING FACTS
1. The asteroid “55854 Stoppani”, which was discovered in 1996, was named after the famous geologist Antonio Stoppani and also dedicated to his family members Edoardo and Eugenio.
2. A room in the Department of Geology at the University of Milan is dedicated to him.
3. There is a statue of Antonio Stoppani on the lakeside promenade in Lecco.