Pavia, April 28–29, 1878: Volta Anniversary and Honorary Degree for Maxwell

This time, the Historical Corner hosts a very special paper. It is focused on a few documents from the archives of the University of Pavia, never published before. These concern the celebration of one hundred years since Alessandro Volta become a Professor at Pavia University (see R. Cecchini and G. Pelosi "Alessandro Volta and His Battery," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, 34, 2, 1992, pp. 30-37). In the framework of the celebrations, a few degrees honoris causa were awarded to pre eminent physicists, among whom was Maxwell, who wrote two letters to the Rector of the University. These letters were incidentally found in the archives only very recently, and are here reported for the first time. A book with rich documentation on the celebration is coming out shortly.