Ernesto Bozzano was one of the most erudite sages of recent times. Born in Savona, in the province of Genoa, Italy, in the year 1861, he disincarnated in Genoa on July 7, 1943. Given his unusual interest in the study of Spiritism, to which he devoted half of his profitable life of 81 years, he deserved the nickname of Grand Master of the Science of the Soul.

Working 14 hours a day for fifty-two years, he produced a study which, if compiled into a medium-sized book, would result in a volume of 15,000 pages. In carrying out his studies he had the valuable assistance of 76 mediums, having left nine unfinished monographs.

At the age of only 16, Bozzano was already interested in subjects ranging from philosophical, psychological, astronomical, natural sciences and palaeontological studies. Moreover, from his youth he was unusually attracted to the problems of the human personality, mainly those leading to the causes of suffering, the purpose and reason of human life.

His name achieved notable international renown, having been elected Honorary President of the V International Spiritist Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain, from September 1 to 10, 1934. According to news printed in the famous English newspaper Two Worlds, in its May 1939 edition, the British spiritists offered him a beautiful gold medal, on one side of which appeared a symbolic figure holding a laurel wreath in his right hand, with the Latin motto Aspera ad Astra, and on the other side a dedication whose translation is the following: To the Great Master of the Science of the Soul, Ernesto Bozzano, who opened new horizons to suffering humanity, his friends and admirers.

Bozzano was an uncompromising advocate of Spiritism, having assumed such an important position after having studied it thoroughly. At a time when the Positivism of Auguste Comte was dazzling many consciences, Bozzano joined its ranks, showing a clear inclination towards all branches of human knowledge and devoting himself resolutely to the study of the works of the great philosophers of all ages. From positivist postulates he gravitated towards an uncompromising form of materialism, which led him later to proclaim: I was a positivist-materialist to such an extent that it seemed impossible to me that there could be educated people, normally endowed with common sense, who could believe in the existence and survival of the soul.

In the early days of 1891, he received from Professor Ribot, editor of the Philosophical Review, information about the launching of the Journal Annales des Sciences Psychiques, edited by Dr. Darieux, under the patronage of Charles Richet. His initial opinion of this publication was the worst possible, given the fact that he considered it a real scandal that representatives of official Science should take seriously the possibility of the transmission of thought between people living on different continents, the appearance of ghosts and the existence of so-called haunted houses. At the same time, Professor Rosenbach of St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) published a violent article in the Philosophical Review, opposing the introduction of this new mysticism into the domain of official psychology.

In the subsequent edition, Dr. Charles Richet refuted, point by point, Rosenbach's assertions, which he considered erroneous, and then showed his logical conclusions on the matter. This article by the French scholar had the merit of diminishing Bozzano's doubts. The last residues of this doubt were completely destroyed in Bozzano's mind when he had read the book Ghosts of the Living, by Gurney, Podmore and Myers.

The doubts he nourished about the telepathic phenomena were thus completely eliminated. From then on he devoted himself with real fervour to the profound study of the spiritist phenomena through the works of Allan Kardec, Leon Denis, Gabriel Delanne, Paul Gibier, William Crookes, Russell Wallace, Du Prel, Alexander Aksakof and others. As an initial step for further study, Bozzano organised an experimental group, in which Dr. Giuseppe Venzano, Luigi Vassalo and professors Enrique Morselli and Francesco Porro of the University of Genoa participated.

In the course of five consecutive years, thanks to the intense work developed, this small group supplied vast material to the Italian press and, crossing the frontiers of the peninsula, reached several countries, for, practically, the realisation of almost all the phenomena had been objectified, culminating in the materialisation of six Spirits, in a quite visible form, and with the most rigid verification. His first article was entitled Spiritualism and Scientific Criticism, but the sage spent nearly nine years studying, comparing and analysing before publishing his ideas. A polemicist of vast resources, he had four fierce and important polemics with detractors of Spiritism. In order to pulverise an attacking work published at the time, he had a two hundred page book published, entitled In Defence of Spiritism.

The first work published by him, with the purpose of sustaining the spiritist thesis, was Spiritist Hypothesis and Scientific Theory, which was followed by others no less important: Of the Cases of Spiritist Identification, of the Premonitory Phenomena, and The First Manifestation of Direct Voice in Italy. The following works by Bozzano were translated into Portuguese: Animism or Spiritism, Thought and Will, The Enigmas of Psychometry, Human Metapsychics, The Crisis of Death, Xenoglossia, Psychic Phenomena at the Moment of Death and Transport Phenomena.

His dedication to his work made the great Italian scholar become, de jure and de facto, one of the most outstanding investigators of spiritist phenomena, imposing himself by the projection of his name and by the deep love he devoted to the cause he had embraced and defended with all the strength of his unshakable conviction. A new fact came to contribute to the strengthening of his belief in Spiritism.

The disincarnation of his mother in July 1912 served as a bridge to the demonstration of the survival of the soul; Bozzano held weekly séances at that time with a small group of friends and with the participation of a famous medium. During a séance on the date commemorating the first anniversary of his mother's disincarnation, the medium wrote some words on a piece of paper, which, when read by Bozzano, astonished him. There were written the last two verses of the epitaph that he had left on his mother's grave that very day. Between 1906 and 1939, Bozzano collaborated intensively in the spiritist magazine Luce e Ombra, writing hundreds of articles for magazines of the genre, which were published in Italy, France, England and other countries.

Ernesto Bozzano is still, without the slightest doubt, the greatest spiritist expression of our times. Deceased some years ago, the great Italian master continues to be the author quoted in contemporary spiritist literature in the field of phenomenology. It is true that none of the great spiritist authors, from Croques to Bozzano, from Flammarion to Geley, has destroyed the imminence of Allan Kardec's work.

New terminology, more developed interpretations, to a certain extent, this is what we are noticing after Kardec, even though every branch of knowledge is enriched with the passing of the years. Basically, however, as far as the general principles of Spiritism are concerned, no Author, on Earth or in the Beyond, has surpassed Kardec's codification of spiritism. Ernesto Bozzano made an invaluable contribution to the spiritism science. Suffice it to say that Bozzano's works are always a universal source. It is not possible to discuss spiritism today without citing Bozzano after having read Kardec's work.

His books are considered classics on spiritism.