Stanislao Cannizzaro and the Development of Chemistry in Palermo from 1862 to 1871

Stanislao Cannizzaro worked at Palermo University for about ten years. There he managed to establish a modern and well-equipped chemical laboratory. His international fame attracted co- workers even from abroad: Naquet, Lieben, and Körner came to Palermo to work with him. This greatly improved the quality of teaching and of research in Palermo, which became a worldwide acknowledged center of chemical culture. In Palermo, atomic-molecular theory was extensively taught and research was carried out on chemical atomicity (valence) and spatial structures of both aliphatic and aromatic organic molecules: Körner found the relative positions of substituent groups on the benzene ring, Paternò proved the equivalence of the four positions around each carbon atom. Thanks to Cannizzaro s and Paternò s efforts, a new journal, Gazzetta Chimica Italiana, was printed in Palermo. The journal collected original papers from Italian chemists, and summaries or translations of foreign ones. When Cannizzaro moved to Rome in 1872, Emanuele Paternò, the youngest of his pupils, took his place. Eventually, Paternò also moved to Rome, and the leading role of Palermo in Italian chemistry faded.