A story that not everyone knows, that of Vincenzo Tiberio, the Italian who discovered antibiotics. The book by Roman journalist Tiziana Lupi “The Missed Nobel Prize” is dedicated to the life of this scientific and cultural figure. Vincenzo Tiberio, the Italian who discovered antibiotics” (published by Minerva, 2024).
The book
A man, love, science: these few words contain the story of Vincenzo Tiberio, the Italian doctor who first of all, thirty-three years before Fleming, discovered the importance of some molds and experimented with their antibiotic power .
It happened, as often happens in important discoveries, almost by chance: Tiberius’ intuition did the rest. His studies, published in 1895 in the Annali d’Igiene Sperimentale with the title On extracts of some moulds, remained in a drawer, however, because Tiberio, due to an apparently impossible love, abandoned his university career for a military one, winning the competition for Medical officer of the Royal Navy.
This book is the story of his story as a man, as a scholar and as a soldier taken from the diaries jealously guarded by his nephews who decided to make them available to the author so that Vincenzo Tiberio is finally recognized as having the place he deserves in the register of gold of the great scientists of our time: that of the Italian who discovered antibiotics.
«This book intends to give due credit to a man who was able to be a scientist of great intuition and a very valid officer, a wonderful example for all»
ADMIRAL INSPECTOR ANTONIO DONDOLINI POLI
«The reader is thus transported back in time, simultaneously becoming an actor and observer of the events of the discoverer of penicillin»
ANNA ZUPPA COVELLI AND GIULIO CAPON
The author
Tiziana Lupi, journalist, is the author of historical and religious documentaries. You have worked for various Rai and Mediaset programs and have written some episodes of the successful TV series Don Matteo. The book is by him Our pope. The first illustrated biography of Francesco (Mondadori), from which the docu-film of the same name was based, which he directed with Marco Spagnoli.
She is the editor of Pope Francis’ book My idea of art (Mondadori-Vatican Museums) and author of the documentary of the same name, directed by Claudio Rossi Massimi. You wrote (together with Lucia Macale) the book Do you know what the committee does? Metamorphosis of the television author (Grafica Santhiatese). He wrote the book with Alessandro Greco and Beatrice Bocci I chose Jesus. An infinite love story (Rai Libri).
He wrote and directed the documentary for Rai Documentari (with Marco Spagnoli). The art of war. He writes for the newspaper “Avvenire”, for the weeklies “TV Sorrisi e Canzoni” and “Telepiù” and for the press agency “Italpress”.
