La morte di Filippo De Filippi a Hong Kong (1867). Il racconto inedito di un missionario

The essay focuses on the death of the zoologist Filippo De Filippi, who died in Hong Kong the 9 February 1867 during the sailing around the world of the Italian steam corvette Magenta. It is here presented for the first time the letter sent on 29 August 1867 by Bernardo Viganò, missionary of the Seminario Lombardo delle Missioni Estere in Milan, who took care of De Filippi in his last moments, to the director of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale of Milan, Emilio Cornalia. This previously unpublished document represents a valuable witness of the death of one of the most well-known Italian zoologists of the Nineteenth Century. He was among the first to embrace the theory of evolution in Italy, as showed by the lecture of 1864 L’uomo e le scimie (On Man and Apes). The article also deals with the unknown testamentary controversy after De Filippi’s death. Many unpublished sources are used, mostly from the historical archives of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale of Milan (Fondo Cornalia), the University of Turin and the Library of the Animal and Human Biology Department of the same University.