Abstract

This Congress is organized by the Gruppo Nazionale di Storia e Fondamenti della Chimica in cooperation with the University of Bologna.The Gruppo Nazionale di Storia e Fondamenti della Chimica was formed in 1986 [http://www.gnfsc.it ]. One year prior to its formal establishment, the Group organized its first congress (Turin, 1985). Since then, the congress has been held every two years.The principal aims of the Group are to provide a collective identity for Italian historians and philosophers of chemistry, to encourage the encounter between scholars of humanistic and scientific training, and to bring a more general public (amateurs, teachers, etc.) and the world of the specialists closer together. For this reason, as on previous occasions, the lectures presented at the Rimini congress will be notable not only for their content and form, but also for their broad objectives. By no means should the generality of these aims be regarded as a limit. On the contrary, it represents a considerable resource for a discipline like chemistry, which is, after all, characterized by an incredible number of philosophical and historical traditions.