79
respectful affection of his confreres, his friends, his pupils, and also of the common
people, among which Secchi was very popular.
4.3 Concluding Remarks
After his death, Secchi’s reputation suffered a sort of exile. In Italy, his scientific
legacy was largely forgotten; due to the lack of development of modern studies in
astronomical spectroscopy, Italian astronomy quickly went into decline. In spite of
a remarkable collection of financial resources, every attempt to dedicate a scientific
monument to Secchi failed (Bonoli and Mandrino, here). The solar telescope in his
name proposed by Tacchini, as a facility for Italian astronomers, would have represented very well the spirit of scientific cooperation that Secchi promoted all along
his career, but it was never built. In England, this black-balling was in operation
even during his life. None of his treatises were ever translated into English; Norman
Lockyer (1836–1920), the influential editor of the journal Nature, vetoed the translations because of unfounded charges of plagiarism fueled by Lorenzo Respighi
(1824–1889), director of the Roman Observatory at the Campidoglio, who was
Secchi’s scientific rival.
On the other hand, the optical firms bidding on building the Secchi memorial
telescope (Bonoli and Mandrino, here) made special discounted offers; this shows
that Secchi’s scientific reputation was still in high regard abroad, long after his
death. The name of Secchi was well remembered in France and in the United States,
two countries where he was very popular. His studies were mentioned in the most
popular contemporary books of popular astronomy (Flammarion 1880; Clerke
1890; Newcomb 1878) and even in literature: we find his name among the authors
of the books in the library of Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Sea by Jules Verne (1828–1905) (published in 1870, when Secchi was still alive) …
and, more recently, as one of the important volumes in the library of the Vatican
Observatory Library as described in The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown
(b.1964)! Quite surprisingly, we also find a poem dedicated to Secchi by the Russian
poet Arseny Tarkowsky (1907–1989) in 1983 (Chinnici 2019: 335–336; Altamore
and Maffeo 2012: 303).
The disappearance of Secchi in history is probably due to the complexity of his
figure. He stood in contrast to the traditional anticlerical freemason prejudice: his
progressive position clearly confuted the traditional charge of obscurantism against
the Catholic Church, usually (wrongly) considered opponent of scientific advancements. If Galileo was typically taken as an example of this obscurantism, Secchi
was a bright counterexample (Consolmagno 2019: VIII), a scientist persecuted as a
Jesuit, who sometimes benefited from and sometimes suffered for his position,
without recanting his convictions.
4 Angelo Secchi: Portrait of a “Multi-versed” Jesuit Scientist
respectful affection of his confreres, his friends, his pupils, and also of the common
people, among which Secchi was very popular.
4.3 Concluding Remarks
After his death, Secchi’s reputation suffered a sort of exile. In Italy, his scientific
legacy was largely forgotten; due to the lack of development of modern studies in
astronomical spectroscopy, Italian astronomy quickly went into decline. In spite of
a remarkable collection of financial resources, every attempt to dedicate a scientific
monument to Secchi failed (Bonoli and Mandrino, here). The solar telescope in his
name proposed by Tacchini, as a facility for Italian astronomers, would have represented very well the spirit of scientific cooperation that Secchi promoted all along
his career, but it was never built. In England, this black-balling was in operation
even during his life. None of his treatises were ever translated into English; Norman
Lockyer (1836–1920), the influential editor of the journal Nature, vetoed the translations because of unfounded charges of plagiarism fueled by Lorenzo Respighi
(1824–1889), director of the Roman Observatory at the Campidoglio, who was
Secchi’s scientific rival.
On the other hand, the optical firms bidding on building the Secchi memorial
telescope (Bonoli and Mandrino, here) made special discounted offers; this shows
that Secchi’s scientific reputation was still in high regard abroad, long after his
death. The name of Secchi was well remembered in France and in the United States,
two countries where he was very popular. His studies were mentioned in the most
popular contemporary books of popular astronomy (Flammarion 1880; Clerke
1890; Newcomb 1878) and even in literature: we find his name among the authors
of the books in the library of Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Sea by Jules Verne (1828–1905) (published in 1870, when Secchi was still alive) …
and, more recently, as one of the important volumes in the library of the Vatican
Observatory Library as described in The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown
(b.1964)! Quite surprisingly, we also find a poem dedicated to Secchi by the Russian
poet Arseny Tarkowsky (1907–1989) in 1983 (Chinnici 2019: 335–336; Altamore
and Maffeo 2012: 303).
The disappearance of Secchi in history is probably due to the complexity of his
figure. He stood in contrast to the traditional anticlerical freemason prejudice: his
progressive position clearly confuted the traditional charge of obscurantism against
the Catholic Church, usually (wrongly) considered opponent of scientific advancements. If Galileo was typically taken as an example of this obscurantism, Secchi
was a bright counterexample (Consolmagno 2019: VIII), a scientist persecuted as a
Jesuit, who sometimes benefited from and sometimes suffered for his position,
without recanting his convictions.
4 Angelo Secchi: Portrait of a “Multi-versed” Jesuit Scientist