Fabio D'Angelo

During my doctoral studies, in joint supervision with the University of Pisa and the Université de Grenoble-Alpes, and under the expertise of Mr. Gilles Bertrand, I explored different fields of research with a special focus on the history of scientific travels, the circulation of traditional knowledge and techniques, the history of tourism, the relationship between political exile and innovation techniques, specifically during the second half of the 18th century and the first half of 19th century.

From 2012, my area of research has considerably broadened to embrace the travels and the educational trainings of military engineers, doctors and naturalists of the Kingdom of Naples from

Italy to France by the end of the 18th century and the first decade of the 19th century.

The postdoctoral period has given me the most fruitful chance to progressively extend my studies, which enabled me to foster a new research project focused on what is commonly known as the

‘itinerant science’, initially promoted by the work of six mineralogists of the Kingdom of Naples sent by Ferdinand IV of Bourbon to the German states, England and France from 1789 to 1794. The aim of this study was to explain how this mission, linked to the mineralogical knowledge, managed to

initiate an unprecedent process of change in the kingdom, especially for the young travellers who strived to go internationally and lend a valuable support to the scientific and political fields.