250 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 54, No. 3, June 2012 J. C. Maxwell’s Forerunners: Riccardo Felici Elson Agastra and Stefano Selleri University of Florence Via di S. Marta 3, I-50139 Florence, Italy E-mail: [elson.agastra,stefano.selleri]@unifi.it 1. Life R iccardo Felici (Figure 1) was born on June 11, 1819, in Parma. Parma was then the capital city of the eponymous duchy governed by Maria Luigia, wife of Napoleon and daughter of the Emperor of Austria, Francis II. Felici studied at the University of Pisa, where he received his degree on July 12, 1843. In 1846, he was nominated assistant to Carlo Matteucci [Forlì, Italy, June 21, 1811 – Leghorn, Italy, July 25, 1868] (Figure 2). Matteucci was the founder of Il Cimento (The Endeavor), a journal of physics, chemistry, and natural history (1844), and later founder of Il Nuovo Cimento (The New Endeavor) (1855), which is still a major physics journal in Italy. Matteucci was a pioneer in electrochemistry and electrophysiology, discovering the presence of electrical phe- nomena in muscle contraction, and independently from Faraday formulating the laws of electrolysis. J. C. Maxwell befriended Matteucci, and hence had occasion to have frst-hand accounts of the research of Italian physicists. Indeed, in one of the frst biographies of Maxwell, it was remembered that [1] He [Maxwell] acquired Italian with great rapidity, and amused himself with noticing the different phonetic values of the letters in Italian and English. One of his chief objects in learning the language was to be able to converse with Professor Matteucci. In 1948, Felici, with Matteucci and several other students and professors of the University of Pisa, fought in Italy’s frst war of independence, in the Curtatone battle (May 29, 1848). Back at the university, he received the course of experimental physics as an Associate Professor (1849), and later was the Chair of Physics (1859). He was twice elected Rector of the University of Pisa (1870-1871 and 1882-1883). Felici was elected a Member of the Lincei Academy (1875), Italy’s most eminent scientifc academy, and was Director of the aforementioned Il Nuovo Cimento journal from 1893 to 1900. On the private side, Felici married Elisa Frullini in 1854, and they had a daughter, Isabella. Among his students, one of the preeminent was Antonio Roiti [Argenta, Ferrara, Italy, May 26, 1843 – Rome, Italy, June 28, 1821], who was himself a renowned scientist, and one of the nominators of Guglielmo Figure 1. Riccardo Felici [1819-1902], from the photo- graphic archive of the University of Pisa; the handwriting on the photo reads, “Riccardo Felici full professor of Physics at King’s University of Pisa, July 10, 1887.” Marconi for the Nobel Prize [2]. Roiti, who wrote a com- memoration of Felici at the Lincei Academy [3], remembered him as jovial, witty, pleasant in conversation, and that the refned irony and biting sarcasm of his jokes were the most striking contrast with the delicate and benevolent sentiments that guided him in all his actions. Roiti reported the following phrase as an example [3]: Giovanotto, giovanotto! ─ mi diceva ─ rifetta che ogni idea nuova è novantanove volte su cento uno sproposito da prendere con le molle. Se le viene la combatta prima di buttarla fuori! [Young man, young man! – He repeated to me – Refect that every new idea is a mistake ninety-nine times out of one hundred, to be taken carefully. Fight it, before letting it out (from your head)!]. Angelo Battelli [Macerata Feltria, Pesaro e Urbino, Kingdom of Italy, March 28, 1862 – Pisa, Kingdom of Italy, December 11, 1916], who wrote another obituary on the Nuovo Cimento, also remembered the extreme shyness and modesty of Felici, who shunned any celebration or praise of his achievements, to the point that no complete collection of his works exists [4]. Felici retired in 1893. He died on July 20, 1902, in Sant’Alessio, halfway between Pisa and Lucca, Kingdom of