This week, we left Pisa and temporarily relocated to Arezzo to take part in the XXI Congress of the Gruppo Nazionale di Fondamenti e Storia della Chimica (GNFSC). Attending such conferences is always an enriching occasion, full of exchanges and intellectual stimuli, where we can learn from the work of many other scholars who pursue aims akin to our own, albeit in different domains. In this spirit, the congress afforded us the opportunity to engage with numerous researchers, chemists, goldsmiths and different scholars, through discussions ranging from the centenary celebrations of quantum mechanics to the metallurgical and goldsmithing traditions of Arezzo, as well as the lives and studies of those figures who have shaped Chemistry over the centuries. Within this context, we presented two contributions related to the Va3SCoDi project, which will subsequently be published in the conference proceedings. Professor Domenici, in her presentation, highlighted the educational potential of the project, demonstrating how historical scientific instruments can serve as a gateway to retracing the scientific and technological developments of spectroscopy. In particular, by taking advantage of the relative simplicity and “open” nature of historical instruments, she showed how it becomes far more immediate to grasp their principles of operation—principles rooted in the foundations of physics, chemistry, and the natural sciences more broadly—thus revealing the scientific reasoning embodied in such apparatus. Luca Rocca, for his part, discussed the structure of the project, emphasizing how bibliographical and archival research must be combined with the study of historical scientific instruments and the scientific knowledge they embody, thereby creating a virtuous and integrated whole. The instrument thus becomes a valuable pedagogical aid, to the great benefit of students, while simultaneously being enhanced in value and, incidentally, preserved for the future.
