Eugenio Curiel - Life

Life

Eugenio Curiel was the first of four children of a Jewish family of comfortable circumstances. His father, Giulio, was an engineer in the San Marco workshops of Trieste, and his mother, Lucia Limentani, was the sister of the Florentine philosopher, Ludovico Limentani.

After graduation from high school in 1929, he studied engineering for two years in Florence. In 1931 he enrolled at the Politecnico di Milano University, but after a few months he returned to Florence University where he took up theoretical physics and lodged with his uncle, Ludovico, who taught moral philosophy at that university. Careful to maintain his independence, he taught privately and obtained a diploma in December, 1932, to teach in primary schools. In 1933 a friend, Bruno Rossi, who had obtained a chair in physics at Padua University, invited him to finish his studies there, which he managed to do, taking his degree magna cum laude.

Curiel was, however, subject to neurasthenia, and for some time was attracted to the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner, whose system of thought and practical life appeared to offer, as he confided to Rossi in a letter, a stimulus towards self-discipline that might allow him to adjust his physical and psychological outlook to the intellectual and moral rigour he already displayed. His interests in this area drew him away from the scientific career which seemed to be the natural direction for him after his degree. In November, 1933 he accepted a position as reserve teacher of literature at the gymnasium school of Montepulciano but returned to Padua in February 1934, where Bruno Rossi had obtained for him a position as university assistant in rational mechanics. In 1935 he joined a small clandestine communist cell at the university.