I RAPPORTI TRA SPALLANZANI E GIRARDI E LE «OSSERVAZIONI ANATOMICHE INTORNO AI PIPISTRELLI» DI MICHELE GIRARDI

Abstract<title> SUMMARY </title>Among the manuscripts of L. Spallanzani preserved at the «A. Panizzi» Library in Reggio Emilia there is an unsigned paper entitled «Osservazioni anatomiche intorno ai Pipistrelli» («Anatomical Observations on Bats»). Its examination proved that it is not by Spallanzani, but by the anatomist Michele Girardi, who studied the subject with particular attention to the nervous system of the cheiroptera at the request of L. Spallanzani, who developed an interest in the matter in the course of his research on the blind flight of these animals. Having established the authorship of the manuscript and reconstructed the circumstances in which the article was prepared, we analyse it briefly and reproduce a complete transcription of this unpublished text.