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Sponsored by the University of Florence, the "National Committee for the celebrations of the bicentenary of the birth of Antonio Meucci" had multiple goals. These included: fostering a knowledge of the historic period in which Antonio Meucci lived in Florence, where he was born on 13 April 1808; contributing to spread and enhance technical-scientific culture among secondary school and university students; offering an occasion for reflection on the future of telecommunications from the perspective of technological innovation and the legal, regulatory, economic and social aspects; underscoring the influence of the telephone on the evolution of language, customs and means of expression, and finally co-ordinating and enhancing other initiatives not directly sponsored by the Committee. This book "Il telefono & dintorni" brings together a selection of the events, contributions and 'images' selected from among the numerous initiatives organised by the Meucci Committee over its three years of activity.

The subject around which the contributions in this volume gravitate is the creation of a higher institute of engineering studies in Florence in the late nineteenth-century. On the eve of the unification of Italy, Florence was a promising centre for a Polytechnic, in view of the experience of the Corpo di Ingegneri di Acque e Strade, the precocious railway building, the importance of the mining sector and the solidity of the Istituto Tecnico Toscano. Despite this, unlike what took place in Milan and in Turin, the Istituto Tecnico Toscano was not transformed into a Polytechnic for the training of engineers. The reasons for this non-development can be traced to the lack of "industrialist" propensities in the managerial group that emerged victorious from the "peaceful revolution" of 1859, to a desire for independence from the national academic system built on the Casati law, and to a local demand for engineering skills that was less dynamic than expected. Consequently, the prevailing winds were those of "normalisation" blowing from the government, the universities and the most prestigious Colleges of Engineers. Nevertheless, Florence continued to represent an important technological centre, especially in relation to railway infrastructures, public works, and the mechanical engineering industries (for example Pignone and Galileo). In the end it was not until one hundred years after unification that the city finally became the seat of a Faculty of Engineering.