This brief offers a novel vision of the city of Florence tracing the development of chemistry
via the biographies of its most illustrious chemists. It documents not only important
scientific research that came from the hands of Galileo Galilei and the physicists who followed
in his footsteps but also the growth of new disciplines such as chemistry pharmaceutical
chemistry and biochemistry. It recounts how in the Middle Ages chemistry began as an applied
science that served to bolster the Florentine economy particularly in the textile dyeing
industry. Later important scientific collections founded by the ruling Medici family served as
the basis of renowned museums that now house priceless artifacts and instruments. Also
described in this text are the chemists such as Hugo Schiff Angelo Angeli and Luigi Rolla
who were active over the course of the following century and a quarter. The authors tell the
story of the evolution of the Royal University of Florence which ultimately became the
University of Florence. Of interest to historians and chemists this tale is told through the
lives and work of the principal actors in the university's department of chemistry.
