"The book has courage in its title; it required a lot of courage to write, and it's wonderful that a story of passion has been recognized." With this motivation, and for telling a story of resilience and the fight against prejudice, the book "Del coraggio e della passione," which documents (with meticulous archival research) the adventurous life of Adelasia Cocco, the first female physician in contemporary Italy from 1914 to 1954, won first prize in the Human, Philosophical, Historical, and Literary Sciences section of the 13th edition of the Giancarlo Dosi National Prize for Scientific Dissemination, dedicated to promoting scientific culture and highlighting the best popular works published in the past year.

Written by Eugenia Tognotti, professor of History of Medicine and Human Sciences at the University of Sassari, Del coraggio e della passione (Franco Angeli editore) also took second place overall, out of fifteen finalists selected by the Prize's Scientific Committee from 297 nominated works, evaluated by a jury of over two hundred scholars. "I'm happy to have given voice to one of the pioneers who, from Sardinia, helped change Italy," Tognotti said during the awards ceremony at the headquarters of the National Research Council (CNR) in Rome, where the final round took place on Wednesday, awarding first prize to the book Dove comincia l'uomo (Solferino) by Telmo Pievani and Giuseppe Remuzzi.