Volta: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment

This book is pretty much what it says on the cover, a biography of Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery, as well as an exploration of the Enlightenment through his life and times. A great book for anyone interested in early batteries, or Italian natural philosophers, but Volta was in many ways a peripheral figure in the Enlightenment. Some interesting theories about the use of science in diplomacy, to project power and prestige, but there are probably more fun sources elsewhere.