Gabriele Buccola, the first Italian psychologist of Albanian origin, passed away in Turin. He was born in the village of Mezzojuso in Sicily, in 1854. He studied medicine at the University of Palermo from 1874 to 1879. After his studies, he started working as a doctor in the mental hospital of Reggio-Emilia, under the direction of Augusto Tamburini, who encouraged him to further deepen the first experimental studies in the fields of physiology and psychology, according to the research models that were applied in Germany and England. In 1881, he won the University Psychiatric Institute of Turin competition. In 1883, he also published his fundamental work “The Law of Time in the Phenomena of Thought; experimental psychological test”. This work also constitutes the first complete research in the field of experimental psychology in Italy, in the second half of the 19th century. In 1884, he went for specialization in Munich, at the psychiatric clinic directed by Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden. Although he died at a very young age, 31 years old, Buccola left behind 33 scientific papers in experimental psychology. In 1907, the municipality of Palermo decided to honor his memory, deciding that his remains should rest in the “pantheon” of the most prominent personalities of the city, in the Church of Saint Domenico. (In the photo: Gabriele Buccola)
Text: Center of Studies and Publications for Arbëresh
Photo: © https://www.aspi.unimib.it/collections/entity/detail/34/
Graphic processing: AHCF
