Is there a specific feature of Neapolitan scientific culture and practices? The cycle of seminars “Fare scienza a Napoli” aims to stimulate the debate around this question, exploring some of the most exciting and least known events in Italian scientific history.

The four meetings in hybrid mode – organized by the Institute for the history of modern philosophical and scientific thought of the National Research Council (Cnr-Ispf) – aim to shed light on the rich and complex cultural and scientific heritage of the city of Naples since the dawn of his reign through a wide variety of scientific contributions of an interdisciplinary nature, in an attempt to reconstruct the complex prism of his historical, artistic, political and cultural identity.

In the second seminar of the Cycle “Practicing Science in Naples”, Manuel Bertolini will discuss the main aspects of Prospero Aldorisio’s Gelotoscopy (1611), the practice of ascertaining someone’s character and personality from the manner of their laughter. By exploring Aldorisio’s principles in the light of Campanella’s acute and critical observations, this seminar attempts to reconsider the relations between signs, natural philosophy, and pseudo-science in late Renaissance Naples.