Science and technology in Italy various astronomical observations, and initial formulation of the first and second laws of motion. Galileo was suppressed by the Catholic Church, but was a founder of modern science. The astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who made many important discoveries about the Solar System; the physicist Alessandro Volta, who invented the electric battery, thus providing for the first time a sustained source of current electricity; the mathematicians Giuseppe Peano, Lagrange, Fibonacci, and Gerolamo Cardano, whose "Ars Magna" is generally recognized as the first modern treatment on mathematics, made fundamental advances to the field; Marcello Malpighi, a doctor and founder of microscopic anatomy;
Italian unification landscapes, rural scenes, and military life during the Italian unification. In literature, lots of works were dedicated to Risorgimento since the beginning. The most known writer of Risorgimento is Alessandro Manzoni whose works are a symbol of the Italian unification, both for its patriotic message and because of his efforts in the development of the modern, unified Italian language; he is famous for the novel "The Betrothed" (orig. Italian: "I Promessi Sposi") (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. Vittorio Alfieri, was the founder of a new school in the Italian drama, expressed in several occasions his suffering