Le premier laboratoire de chimie de l’université de Naples était-il français?

One of the most important legacy of the Decennio Francese in the history of the Kingdom of Naples was the rich exchange among scholars involved in chemical studies and it is not yet investigated as it deserves. In the 18th century the Neapolitan chemical community lacked a coherent network of institutional sites for chemical research. Even so, it is possible to discern the lively debate in particular on the new French ideas on chemistry by an analysis of publications, but as regards the 1790s it becomes a very hard job, because the Kings’ censorship gradually affected every “French fashion”. One episode can help us to understand better the shift that happened in this topic since 1806. Luigi Sementini (1777-1847) was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Naples and in 1812/1813 Minister Giuseppe Zurlo asked him to equip the University with the first chemical laboratory. To do that Sementini went to Paris in order to buy the instrumentation. The interesting thing is that Sementini took part in the 1799 Neapolitan Revolution, in fact he was compelled to run away to Florence and to France, officially to improve his skills in chemical studies. How they set up this first university chemical laboratory? Were personal French relationships essential? Sementini also published two chemical textbooks, in two different political climates. The first one in 1803 and the second one in 1814-1816. By these two works can we highlight different social, cultural, political conditions for chemists? The aim of the paper is to illustrate, by means this episode, how in the Decennio Francese scientific links were boosted among the European scholars, mainly between French and Neapolitans. The assumption is that, from a cultural history point of view, the scientific exchange among scholars began to be official instead of purely personal.