12 Facts About Luigi Ferrarese

Luigi Ferrarese was an Italian physician and the leading proponent of phrenology in Italy in the nineteenth century.

Luigi Ferrarese was born at Brienza, in the province of Potenza, to Nicola and Antonia Contardi.

Luigi Ferrarese received his first education in a Piarist school in Naples, studying Italian literature, Greek and Latin.

Luigi Ferrarese was a member of several institutions such as the Scientific Academies of Naples, Turin, Bologna, Padua and a corresponding member of the Phrenological Society of Paris.

Luigi Ferrarese published a half dozen works on phrenology between 1830 and 1838.

Luigi Ferrarese's work was initially met with approval by the Church.

Luigi Ferrarese's writings published after his 1838 opus without the necessary permission from the state ran him afoul of ecclesiastical authorities, resulting in persecution, and even imprisonment.

In 1838, in the course of defending his beliefs, Luigi Ferrarese was among the earliest persons identified to expressly address and criticize Pandeism: The belief that God became the Universe and that human beings are therefore "fragments" of God.

In March 1844, Luigi Ferrarese was visited by noted Scottish phrenologist George Combe, who had earlier read and been impressed by Luigi Ferrarese's Memorie Risguardanti La Dottrina Frenologica.

On his visit to Naples, Combe reported first a difficulty in finding Luigi Ferrarese and discovered the doctor to living in obscurity.

Luigi Ferrarese spoke with interest of Phrenology, and said that he had projected a Phrenological Journal, but knew that he would be stopped by the Government.

Luigi Ferrarese wished to shew the importance of the science in insanity, criminal legislation, education, and social arrangements; but in Naples there was no outlet for knowledge.