Migliorini and the Three Pillars of Geological Wisdom

Abstract

Franco di Cesare, Francesco Guidi, and Raffaele Casnedi bring to life the career of Carlo Ippolito Migliorini, one of Italy’s most influential 20th Century geologists, and examine his legacy. One of the wisest remarks made by Carlo Ippolito Migliorini was the simple observation that ‘curiosity not ambition should be the mainspring of research’. It was a maxim to which he adhered throughout his distinguished scientific career. Migliorini is acknowledged as one of the most important figures in the pantheon of Italian geologists, noted for what we refer to as the Three Pillars of the Geological Wisdom. He was also influential in his role as head of exploration for the first 20 years of the Italian national oil company Agip. He was born in Bibbiena in the Arezzo Province (Tuscany) on 13 August 1891, the progeny of an Anglo-Italian union. His father Migliorotto Migliorini was a lawyer and his mother Elène Fowke was from a notable British family. Her uncle was Major General Sir George Henry Fowke. The young Migliorini apparently showed an early interest in geology, so much so that at the age of 15 he had enrolled as a member of the Italian Geological Society and was also a frequent visitor to the Geological Institute of Florence. On completing school studies in Florence, he went to Cornwall, England to attend the Camborne School of Mines where he graduated in 1912, at the age of 21, as a mining engineer. He immediately launched into a career of geological activity, first in Cornwall and later in Portugal, only for the war to interrupt. He served in the Italian army with some distinction being honoured with a bronze medal and a Distinguished Service Cross. As soon as the war was over he returned to his chosen career and was soon involved in a geological mission to Anatolia where he earned some recognition for his tectonic interpretations. In 1920 he took a post at the Italian Institute of Colonial Agriculture in Rhodes, Greece where he remained until 1934. It was during this period that he carried out some important studies in a number of the Dodecanese Islands mainly focused on quarrying and hydrology. Also during his stay in Rhodes, he met the love of his life. In 1926 he married Vera Sanine Ivanovna, a reportedly charming lady from a noble Russian émigré family who had escaped from the revolution in Russia. Among those in attendance at the engagement ceremony in Rhodes were Sir George Fowke along with Lord and Lady Mountbatten, who presented Migliorini’s fiancé with a beautiful ring.