101
• Application of specific visual skills (in drawing, engraving, lithography, or photography) not only to the professional specialty but also to other fields as
recreation
Many of these points are also present in Secchi’s life and work. He came from a
socially modest background, as did his father Giacomo Antonio Secchi and his
mother Luigia Belgieri. His father was a carpenter and cabinet maker and his mother
a seamstress; thus Secchi definitely had visually oriented artisans in his family.
However, Secchi attended a normal elementary school and then a Jesuit preparatory
school. Secchi did not study at a polytechnic or other applied school, but rather went
to a Jesuit college. Thus, his training since age 15 as a novice in the Jesuit order was
certainly quite focused on the written word, which might also explain why Secchi
himself was just a passable draughtsman. I also do not see any connections to architecture or other visually strong fields of science or technology in his family or training, aside from a cousin Jesuit archaeologist who possibly motivated Secchi to
study at the local Jesuit College of Reggio. Archeology was Secchi’s favorite hobby,
and since 1850 he also was a pioneer of daguerreotype and photography.
Secchi also worked in geodesy (trigonometric measurements of the geodetic
base line along the Via Appia in 1854/1855; see Aebischer, Chap. 12, in this volume) and meteorology, which presumes intense training in visual observation and
precise drawing, most likely obtained during his training in applied science in the
Jesuit order.
Thus, several of the above prosopographic layers typical of protagonists of visual
science cultures are fulfilled (especially an artisanal family background), whereas
others are unclear or missing. With respect to his intense Jesuit training in theology
and other textual subjects, Secchi is an exceptional case: he became strongly visually oriented without specific prior training in the visual arts and without extraordinary drawing skills. His training in textual subjects, however, led him also to become
an extraordinary speaker and an excellent writer of science, able to fascinate every
kind of audience and reader, both academicians and common people.
Acknowledgments I kindly thank Prof. Emilia Chiancone and Prof. Nicolò d’Amico for the
honor of an official invitation to contribute to the Secchi centennial in Rome and for reading parts
of my talk in my absence. I also very much thank Dr. Ileana Chinnici for establishing the contact
to the Rome organizers and for kind answers to my many questions about Secchi’s context. I made
use of her replies in this final version of my talk (esp. in footnote 17).
References
Abetti, G. (1975). Secchi, Pietro Angelo. Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 12, 266–270.
Angot, A. (1878). Le P. A. Secchi, sa vie et ses traveaux. Revue de la France et de l’Etranger, 2nd
series, 8, 505–508.
Bartholomew, C. F. (1976). The discovery of the solar granulation. Quarterly Journal of the Royal
Astronomical Society, 17, 263–289 and pl. I–IV.
5 Angelo Secchi, Stellar Spectroscopy, Solar Physics, and Visual Science Culture
• Application of specific visual skills (in drawing, engraving, lithography, or photography) not only to the professional specialty but also to other fields as
recreation
Many of these points are also present in Secchi’s life and work. He came from a
socially modest background, as did his father Giacomo Antonio Secchi and his
mother Luigia Belgieri. His father was a carpenter and cabinet maker and his mother
a seamstress; thus Secchi definitely had visually oriented artisans in his family.
However, Secchi attended a normal elementary school and then a Jesuit preparatory
school. Secchi did not study at a polytechnic or other applied school, but rather went
to a Jesuit college. Thus, his training since age 15 as a novice in the Jesuit order was
certainly quite focused on the written word, which might also explain why Secchi
himself was just a passable draughtsman. I also do not see any connections to architecture or other visually strong fields of science or technology in his family or training, aside from a cousin Jesuit archaeologist who possibly motivated Secchi to
study at the local Jesuit College of Reggio. Archeology was Secchi’s favorite hobby,
and since 1850 he also was a pioneer of daguerreotype and photography.
Secchi also worked in geodesy (trigonometric measurements of the geodetic
base line along the Via Appia in 1854/1855; see Aebischer, Chap. 12, in this volume) and meteorology, which presumes intense training in visual observation and
precise drawing, most likely obtained during his training in applied science in the
Jesuit order.
Thus, several of the above prosopographic layers typical of protagonists of visual
science cultures are fulfilled (especially an artisanal family background), whereas
others are unclear or missing. With respect to his intense Jesuit training in theology
and other textual subjects, Secchi is an exceptional case: he became strongly visually oriented without specific prior training in the visual arts and without extraordinary drawing skills. His training in textual subjects, however, led him also to become
an extraordinary speaker and an excellent writer of science, able to fascinate every
kind of audience and reader, both academicians and common people.
Acknowledgments I kindly thank Prof. Emilia Chiancone and Prof. Nicolò d’Amico for the
honor of an official invitation to contribute to the Secchi centennial in Rome and for reading parts
of my talk in my absence. I also very much thank Dr. Ileana Chinnici for establishing the contact
to the Rome organizers and for kind answers to my many questions about Secchi’s context. I made
use of her replies in this final version of my talk (esp. in footnote 17).
References
Abetti, G. (1975). Secchi, Pietro Angelo. Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 12, 266–270.
Angot, A. (1878). Le P. A. Secchi, sa vie et ses traveaux. Revue de la France et de l’Etranger, 2nd
series, 8, 505–508.
Bartholomew, C. F. (1976). The discovery of the solar granulation. Quarterly Journal of the Royal
Astronomical Society, 17, 263–289 and pl. I–IV.
5 Angelo Secchi, Stellar Spectroscopy, Solar Physics, and Visual Science Culture