The Physicists and the Historians of Physics Pasquale Tucci 1 Abstract: In the 60s of the last century the few courses of History of physics in Physics degree were held by scholars who, apart from a few exceptions, did not have a specific research background in the field. Some activities, books, social movements in the civil society allowed in the 70's the entry, among Physics courses, of teachings in History of physics held by scholars specifically trained for that job since their degree. A second change happened in the 90s when many difficulties forced physicists to allocate fewer and fewer resources to the History of their discipline. I'll outline the features of the two periods and the efforts of Historians to find a proper space in Physics departments. Keywords: History of physics, History of astronomy, History of science. 1. Introduction In the 1985 Silvio Bergia took on the task of drawing up an assessment of National Group of History of Physics (GNSF) activities and of papers published in the Proceedings of the yearly conferences (Bergia 1985). Fabio Bevilacqua and Salvatore Esposito outlined the historical context of the birth of the GNSF, of the first meetings and of the first national conference in Pavia and, subsequently, of establishment of SISFA in Milan (Bevilacqua, Esposito 2021). Gerardo Ienna has published a contribution on the birth of researches in History of physics and astronomy (HPA) in Italian scientific institutions (Ienna 2022). Other contributions have been published on the status of the History of science in Italy (Torrini 1988, Pancaldi 1980, Pancaldi 2020). From them epistemological as well as institutional break between the History of science and the History of scientific disciplines emerge. The rationale of this dichotomy is long-lasting, but I’ll not address this issue. I’ll concentrate my attention on social and cultural events which allowed a strong interest in physics departments 2 for researches and teachings of history in the ‘70s and the fall of interest in the ‘90s. 2. Physicists as Historians of physics in Italy In Italy, in the second half of the '900, some physicists who were still active as researchers in some area of their discipline, dedicated time and effort to the History of physics. The precursor was Giovanni Polvani (1892-1970) who, already before and during the Second World War, had expressed his interest in the History of physics. 3 1 Università degli Studi di Milano (retired in 2013) - ptucci@icloud.com 2 I’ll use “department” as to denote structures with disciplinary homogeneity within larger institutions such as Universities or research organizations. An exact definition of “department” will be introduced, on an experimental basis, in the University Law of 1980. 3 Polvani published a book on Antonio Pacinotti, a book on the nature of light, a memoir on the Italian contribution to the progress of physics, an essay on A. Volta. After the war he published, together with Luigi Gabba, a collection of writings by O.F. Mossotti. On Polvani’s institutional responsibilities and on his person as physicist and historian of physics see (Gariboldi 2022a, pp. 57-62).