Departures of note

Paolo Galluzzi was an Italian historian of science and a leading authority on Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei. Born in Florence, he graduated from the University of Florence in 1968 under Eugenio Garin and, from 1970 to 1980, worked as a researcher at the CNR's Lessico Intellettuale Europeo in Rome, where he built a monumental digital lexicon of Galileo's works, an early milestone in digital humanities. He served as full professor of history of science at the University of Siena from 1979 to 1994 and at the University of Florence from 1994 to 2010. From 1982 to 2021 he directed the Museo Galileo (Institute and Museum of the History of Science) in Florence, transforming it into a world reference center for the history of science and for studies on Galileo and Leonardo. He conceived and directed the Leonardo//thek@ digital archive, a pioneering multimedia resource for the Vincian manuscripts and drawings, and presided over the commission for the National Edition of Leonardo's manuscripts and drawings. He directed the Einaudi Storia della Scienza series, conceived the Biblioteca della Scienza Italiana, and curated numerous exhibitions on scientific history held in Italy and abroad. He was a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and in 2026 received the career prize of the Italian Society for the History of Science. He died in Florence in 2026 at the age of 84.