On 21 January 1926, exactly one hundred years ago, the great scientist Bartolomeo Camillo Emilio Golgi passed away in Pavia. He was born in Pisogneto di Corteno, in Val Camonica, on 7 July 1843. After completing his secondary education in Lovere at the Liceo Decio Celeri, Camillo Golgi later graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the Royal University of Pavia in 1865, under the supervision of Cesare Lombroso.
Forced by economic circumstances to move away from an academic career, Golgi developed the “black reaction” while working at the Hospital for the Incurables in Abbiategrasso. This technique, based on the sequential use of potassium dichromate and silver nitrate, allowed the staining of the “diffuse nervous network,” making it possible to clearly visualize the morphology of neurons. This groundbreaking discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906, making him the first Italian laureate together with Giosuè Carducci.
Camillo Golgi was one of the most important Italian histologists and neuroscientists. His research activity focused primarily on the microscopic study of nervous tissues and on the development of innovative staining techniques that profoundly transformed the field of histology.
In 1907, he was among the founders of the Italian Society of Neurology and became its first President. This institutional initiative was crucial, as it formally established neurology as an autonomous scientific discipline, distinct from clinical psychiatry, while preserving strong shared foundations.
After a brief period in Siena, Golgi returned to the Royal University of Pavia, where he held the positions of Full Professor of General Pathology and Histology and served two terms as Rector (1893–1896 and 1901–1909).
In addition to his discovery of the staining method for the diffuse nervous network, Camillo Golgi made several other fundamental contributions through his mastery of microscopy. He discovered the internal reticular apparatus of the cytoplasm, later named the Golgi apparatus, which plays a key role in the modification and intracellular transport of proteins. He also described the parasitic cycle of Plasmodium malariae, identifying the optimal timing for the administration of antimalarial drugs.
Golgi was appointed Senator of the Kingdom of Italy in 1900 and President of the High Council of Health in 1916. In these roles, he was deeply committed to public health, with particular attention to the control of malaria, which at the time represented a major public health emergency in Italy.