Abstract

This introductory essay places the articles in this volume within the context of the historiographical debate on the «two cultures» – natural sciences versus history and the humanities. It has been argued that the divide between the two cultures emerged in the nineteenth-century. These essays show that it did not, at least not to the extent that has been commonly assumed. They show that even in the nineteenth century the separation of the epistemic persona of the scientist from that of the historian was far from being firmly established. The essays do this in two ways: one group of articles documents the persistent intertwining of historical and scientific interests in the lives of two prominent positivist intellectuals, Jacob Moleschott and Cesare Lombroso. Another group of essays shows in detail that historical research was still, in this period, part and parcel of the practices of several scientific disciplines, from medicine to botany to engineering.