Abstract & Overview
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.