THE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE AND THE MALASPINA EXPEDITION

In the year 1788 a project was conceived and started to take shape. It set a milestone in the expeditions promoted by the Spanish Monarchy. It was a journey that did not have as its main objective to discover new routes or to conquer lands for the Crown, but that had a clear and explicit scientific aim: the one of getting better knowledge of the already discovered routes and lands. Its promoters were captains Alessandro Malaspina and Jose de Bustamante y Guerra, and it received the approval of King Charles III of Spain. In order to arrange the expedition, Malaspina contacted wellknown figures and important institutions related to the scientific European world of his time: marquis Gherardo Rangoni, minister of the dukedom of Modena, Joseph Banks of the Royal Society of London, the biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani of the University of Pavia, the Reale Accademia delle Scienze of Turin, the Astronomic Observatory of Brera in Milan. Nevertheless, the results of the expedition, that took place between 1789 and 1794, remained hidden because of the personal vicissitudes of Malaspina.