From Superstition to Science

Luke Magnotto is a third generation Italian American raised in the steel-mill town of Farrell, Pennsylvania. As a boy in the 1950's, he saw an old postcard of the Piazza Lionardo DiCapua in his maternal ancestral town of Bagnoli Irpino. That postcard, honoring his seventeenth-century predecessor, began his quest to discover Lionardo's history. After completing medical training, he began studying Italian with Adele Lord who, surprisingly, was also related to Lionardo. Together they translated Lionardo's biography and other relevant documents, which eventually led to From Superstition to Science, a passionate historical novel about Lionardo DiCapua.