Lombrosian Creatures: Literary Devices for an Effective Popularisation of Science

Whenever Cesare Lombroso needs to propose a new theory, he seeks to find its evidence in the criminal history of an individual, in order to persuade his readers and perhaps himself, too. He picks these stories up from old books and newspapers he reads, or he chooses cases of criminal investigations in which he takes part as a consultant. Thus, Cesare Lombroso has made popular stories of ordinary criminals, such as Giuseppe Villella, the study of whose skull would convince him to have found the true nature of crime. Or Vincenzo Verzeni, a strangler of women who loved to drink the fresh blood of his victims, and Giovanni Cavaglià called 'Fusil', a murderer who drew childish figures on a pitcher for narrating his story of life before committing suicide. Cesare Lombroso uses these ordinary stories to both endorse his hypothesis and catch the attention and interest of the audience. Unlike some of his colleagues, he does not scorn the 'volgarizzamento scientifico', literally a sort of popularisation of science. Quite the opposite. Lombroso cleverly uses this type of scientific communication to promote his own ideas: sometimes he exaggerates some aspects of his stories, while other times he enriches them with narrative means. This paper aims to point out Cesare Lombroso’s narrative skills in the communication of science and to show how they were particularly fruitful for promoting and conveying his ideas and theories.