Giandomenico Romagnosi at The Borghese Gardens, Rome

myminifactory

Gian Domenico Romagnosi was born on December 11, 1761. He studied law at the University of Parma from 1782 to 1786. In 1791 he became the chief civil magistrate of Trento. Trento changed hands several times between France, Italy, and Austria in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Romagnosi was arrested in Innsbruck by Austrian authorities for 15 months on suspicion of sympathizing with the French. He was later acquitted. The French occupied Trento in 1801, and Romagnosi became Secretary of the Higher Council. He taught law at Parma, Pavia, Pisa, and Milan universities. After Napoleon's defeat, he lost his position at Milan University but continued to lecture until 1817. In 1818, he was tried for treason in Venice and acquitted again. Carlo Cattaneo studied under Romagnosi and was influenced by his ideas. Despite not being a scientist, Romagnosi conducted experiments with voltaic piles and compasses. He published two accounts of his findings in Italian newspapers in 1802. It is sometimes believed that he discovered a relationship between electricity and magnetism before Hans Christian Ørsted's 1820 discovery of electromagnetism. However, Romagnosi's experiments only showed that an electrostatic charge from a voltaic pile could deflect a magnetic needle. Joseph Hamel points out that Romagnosi's work was documented in the book "Manuel du Galvanisme" by Joseph Izarn in 1805 and "Essai théorique et expérimental sur le Galvanisme" by Giovanni Aldini in 1804, which mentioned a galvanic current.