How Electricity Was Born: The Story of Volta and Paris

The professor, the singer, and the invention of the battery.

How is electricity born between two people? The answer, almost always, is a spark at first sight. Yet this story isn’t about Benjamin Franklin and his famous experiment, but about broken hearts that fatefully intertwine with the history of electricity.
It’s an evening in 1789 in Pavia, where Paisiello’s comic opera The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution is being performed. Just a few kilometers away, a revolution is about to erupt and forever change the face of Europe. But on the quiet Lombard banks of the Po River, the echoes of that turmoil are still faint, and life seems to go on peacefully. And yet, that night, in a theater in Pavia, we’ll discover how electric energy was born through a spark of love.

How electricity was born

Alessandro Volta was 43 years old when he first saw Marianna Paris on that stage a young, talented, and beautiful Roman actress and singer. He was an incurable bachelor, admired by the ladies who crowded the city’s most fashionable salons to hear his brilliant discussions on physics.

In the late 18th century, while Enlightenment ideas spread through universities and palaces, electrical phenomena were still something mysterious and even erotic. Consider the Venus Electrificata, a curious mix of game and experiment that allowed people to exchange “electric kisses.” It was an era of transformation: science was a daily topic far more than today and leading professors were true celebrities. The discovery of electricity and its applications reads like an adventure novel, full of rivalries, twists, and love stories.

From a broken heart to a passion for electricity

Volta saw Marianna, and suddenly his hesitation vanished. That’s how electricity sparked between two hearts. It was an overwhelming love that risked compromising the scientist’s reputation, his family ties, and even his university position.

Volta and Marianna wanted to marry but how could a renowned scholar and an actress be together? In the 18th century, women had only recently been allowed to appear on stage, and the profession still carried a social stigma that branded actresses as immoral.

Volta, however, refused to give up. He asked to be transferred to Milan, considered less provincial than Pavia. At one point, he even considered marrying Marianna in secret but she refused to live their love in the shadows. Desperate, Volta wrote directly to the Emperor, asking for his help.

His efforts only provoked strong opposition from his family, who moved through ecclesiastical channels to block any possible marriage. Meanwhile, Volta feared that Marianna, tired of waiting, would leave him or fall on hard times. In the end, it was she who chose to end their relationship. Though heartbroken, Volta found solace in science. As the Italian singer Brunori Sas would later put it, “Don’t confuse love with infatuation.” The professor from Pavia left behind his romantic turmoil to devote himself body and soul to another passion this time scientific that would become his life’s great love.

The story of animal electricity: Volta vs. Galvani

In 1792, Luigi Galvani published his study on frogs and “animal electricity,” and Volta strongly opposed his conclusions. What followed was a long and dramatic scientific feud that ultimately led to the invention of the electric battery the ancestor of modern batteries that still power today’s photovoltaic storage systems, helping us make our homes more energy-efficient.

Two years after his breakup with Paris, in 1794, Volta married Teresa Peregrini, who gave him three sons — Luigi, Flaminio, and Zanino and the stability he needed to focus on his work. In 1799, in his home in Lazzate, he built the Voltaic pile, the first battery in history.

Ten years had passed since that night at the theater, and the story of electricity and of the world had changed forever. Perhaps, in part, thanks to a young and courageous actress who chose to give up her dream of love.