  As it is well-known, the year 2005 has been the centenary of the "annus
mirabilis" (1905) during which Albert Einstein published four fundamental
papers of his. But already in 1979, for the centenary of Einstein's birth, the
world celebrated his monumantal work. In Italy too, there appeared scientific
books, and many semi-popularization (or popularization) articles. The present
paper represents a talk delivered in Italian, at the invitation of the Nobel
Foundation (Sanremo, IM; Italy), in time for its publication in 1979. This
article has been however reprinted, much more recently, in 2002, by the "Centro
DIEA", Faculty of Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy [and its
source-file, in html, has been prepared with DIEA's collaboration]. We present
here a description of the human, philosophycal and scientific background,
starting from which Einstein produced his amazing results: Indeed, we try to
show why Einstein's writings today are still so important not only for pure
physics (and technology!), but also for our epistemological understanding of
the procedures followed by science, and by our own mind, in their development,
as well as for our philosophical views about the world we live in; without
forgetting the teachings that come (or should come) from Einstein's life and
claims for modern pedagogy.
