The tiger of Noto

"The teacher came in, greeted us, and counted us quickly. He paused when he saw me and smiled. I was the only woman." Faculty of Mathematics, Sapienza University of Rome. Autumn 1915. She is Anna Maria Ciccone, the protagonist of La tigre di Noto (The tiger of Noto), by Simona Lo Iacono, a writer of indisputable and captivating talent, published by Neri Pozza. In this beautifully written and necessary book, Ciccone is deservedly brought back into the limelight, with a blend of scrupulous attention to historical facts and a partly fictionalised account of her passions and feelings, as a woman of science with a strong moral fibre. Anna Maria, known as Marianna to her friends, was a curious, enterprising young woman, determined not to share the same fate as other girls from wealthy Sicilian families (she was born in Noto in 1891): a good marriage, children, housekeeping, the wealthy and tedious passing of time in an ancient province. She had a brilliant talent for science, and for research into light and the stars. And so, against her parents' will, she left Sicily and began studying mathematics in Rome, soon after winning a public competition to gain admittance to the Scuola Normale Superiore university in Pisa. Fascinated by the then-revolutionary ideas of Einstein, she caught the eye of a few supporters. And then, from Pisa to Germany, and back to Pisa, always in search of "a small glimpse of knowledge..." In addition, she felt a deep passion for social values and a strong sense of responsibility, which led her to defy the Nazi's anti-Semitic raids and save 5,000 valuable Jewish books. She enjoyed the latest ideas on relativity and quantum physics that were changing the world, and showed an eager yet austere vocation for teaching. Indeed, she taught experimental physics in Pisa, did research in atomic and nuclear physics at the Collège de France, and qualified for two full professorship posts, to which "she was never appointed, because she was a woman." La tigre di Noto Simona Lo Iacono Neri Pozza, 2021