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Speaker |
Sigismondi, Costantino |
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Coauthors |
Costantino Sigismondi, Silvia Pietroni, Luca Biagetti, Flavia Marra, Simone Biagi, Luca Battisti, Andrea D'Orrio, Daniele Impellizzeri and Lyceum Ferraris Secchi Group |
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Pontifical Astronomical Patronage by Clement XI to Pius IX |
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Abstract |
Clement XI financed the great sundial of Santa Maria degli Angeli as the first act of his pontificate in 1700, and was completed in 1702. The age-old problem of solar equation found the most exact solution of its time in the monumental Roman gnomon, built by the astronomer Francesco Bianchini. Bianchini published the first scientific results in 1703. An analytical calculation method is shown here to know the eccentricity and the perigee argument. In 1711 Donato Creti's paintings were donated to the Pope himself, representing the astronomic observations to convince him to realize the observatory of the University of Bologna, which was promptly financed. We discuss the quality of the images represented by Creti, in relation to Jupiter and its red spot. On the Roman College he ascended Pius VII Chiaramonti, on the occasion of an eclipse in 1806, to the tower of the abbot Calandrelli who during the suppression of the Jesuits (1774-1814) had taken the reins of the Tower Observatory built by Cardinal Zelada on the façade the building of the Roman College built upon the will of Gregory XIII, the pope of the calendric reformation in 1582. Leo XII in 1829 established the construction of the Sapienza University Observatory, the University Studium Urbis was founded by Bonifacio VIII in 1306, on the Bonifacio IX tower at the Campidoglio. This observatory specialized in solar astrometry and produced useful data until 1937 when it was dismantled. Pius IX finally supported financially and interacted constantly with the Jesuit Angelo Secchi called to direct the observatory of the Roman College from 1851 until 1878 when he died, a few months before the pope. At the Collegio Romano Secchi he began the stellar catalogue for stellar colors, starting to distinguish the first spectral types in the world. He also studied the Sun in depth, and is fully recognized as the father of astrophysics. Pius IX visited the Campidoglio observatory, as a plaque recalls, and what remained of the Observatory of the Collegio Romano and the Campidoglio constituted the Monte Mario Astronomical Observatory under the direction of Armellini, until 1958 when a fire destroyed the telescope Merz di Secchi in the main dome of Monte Mario. Dead Armellini, Cimino continued his studies and completed the construction of the Solar Tower in 1961. |
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