Giuseppe Barilli, the inventor of time zones, explains his views on Charles Darwin's debated theory of evolution.
- Handwritten letter in Italian from Giuseppe Barilli to Andreini, a doctor friend.
- 4 pages, each page is 13.6 cm x 21.2 cm.
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Comes with a translation from Italian to French of this same letter by Andreini + A biographical note in French on Giuseppe Barilli by Andreini.
- City of Cento, Italy, August 18, 1872.
- Paper yellowed with age, some stains, writing with a quill pen.
- Unique piece.
Giuseppe Barilli (1812 - 1894) was a great curiosity, a man of reflection but also of action. Mathematician, astronomer, inventor and politician, he contributed, for example, courageously, to the creation of the Italian Republic.
This document shows the debate that generated the publication in 1859 of the book The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, one of the most important books in the history of science, presenting the Theory of Evolution, the basis of all modern biology. Giuseppe Barilli, scientist, disagrees with his doctor friend and explains his vision.
This correspondence, between two scientist friends with very different opinions, but with deep respect, has a very rare scientific content.
Erasto Villa Branco, Professor of Evolution at the Department of Genetics at the Federal University of Paraná, gives his opinion on this document:
As this letter is from 1872, it is clear that the author was well informed and willing to accept new ideas of his time. The letter contains several ideas that were “hot” discussions at the time and have now “cooled down” and at least one that is still very much “alive”.
It is curious that a Darwinist or half-Darwinist is considering his friend a materialist, as this was one of the main accusations that weighed on the Darwinists themselves. Doctors were even more skeptical and more materialistic, but they restricted their explanations to biological and organic phenomena, illnesses and “states of the soul”.
The idea that Nature is hormonic is an idea that has existed for a long time and gained great reinforcement with ancient Christianity, which believed that the universe was a ready work of God and, therefore, as God was considered perfect, his work could also not contain imperfections. This is today an idea that is not part of discussions within Science, but is present in many philosophical and religious currents.
As for the origin of the Solar System, it was in agreement with most scholars today. It is almost a consensus that the Solar System was formed from the gathering of dust originating from other bodies that disintegrated. At the time this was not an idea with much credence. The idea that there are life forms outside Earth that are the same as those that exist here is an idea that has already been completely discarded. This would require “channeling” that would make species follow the same evolutionary “tracks” here and abroad. This is no longer accepted within Science, although we hear a lot about it outside of it.
A current discussion that is still ongoing is that of the origin of life. It is very far from presenting a consensus. There are several attempts to explain it and one of them is panspermia. It is an old idea that had a new boost within Science around this time, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It is positioned in favor of one of the explanations that consider life to originate from outside the Earth. Even Darwin in his time did not claim that the evolution of living beings was a progressive evolution, that is, Darwin saw evolution as change and not as improvement. The reason that probably leads Quirico Filopanti to say this is the same reason that leads most people of his time to accept evolution: the world would be continually improving. This idea is no longer valid within Science today, but it continues to be the reason that leads most people to accept it. Finally, the idea that a current species descends from another current one is not accepted by today's Science but is strong outside Science, as is the case with the other previous idea. It is clear that within Science what is considered are the shares of ancestors, more closely or more distantly.
Quirico Filopanti was willing to think about the new ideas of his time and clearly took sides in favor of some of them, generally more in agreement with current ideas than most of his contemporaries.
November 2010. Erasto Villa Branco, professor of Evolution at the Department of Genetics at the Federal University of Paraná.
Here we have a true scientific and historical piece.
