170
meteorological notes page of the aforesaid Bulletin: “Nice weather. Cannon shots in
the morning, villainy until evening. North and weak south-west [winds]. The barometer is rising slightly. Not very regular magnetic field” (Secchi 1870, 10 (10): 80).
16
The Observatory Bulletin also published the notable scientific correspondence
that many scholars carried on with Secchi, evidence of the need for scientists to collaborate with each other, to exchange ideas, knowledge, and results useful for the
progress of science. The subjects involved were many: astronomy, astrophysics,
atmospheric sciences, geomagnetism, and space weather. Noteworthy is the correspondence published in the Bulletin between Angelo Secchi and the Barnabite
priest Francesco Denza, who will later go on to found the Vatican Observatory. The
main topics treated by them, with a surprising unity of views, concerned the need to
have close-knit observation networks, to install observatories in every territorial
context, and to equip them with comparable instruments so as to standardize observation methods and thus allow comparison among their measurements. Weather
data recorded within the Papal Weather Warning Service were also published daily
in the Roman newspapers, for example, the Giornale di Roma.
9.7 The Unpublished Manuscript “on the Complicated
Question of Weather Forecasts”
The complex question of weather forecasts is one of the topics discussed in a fragment of an unpublished manuscript, Notizie meteorologiche adattate all’uso comune
[Meteorological news adapted for common use] outlined by Father Secchi but left
unfinished due to his premature death. It has been discovered in the Secchi Fund
(Chinnici and Gramatowski 2001) preserved at the Historical Archives of the
Pontifical Gregorian University (APUG, Angelo Secchi S. I., 4, V(b), 23 ff.). This
manuscript is in the form of a booklet containing, in the words of the author, “very
beautiful, practical, and useful aspects.”
It consists of only 16 pages, divided into 2 parts. The first part has an Introduction
and three chapters: “General notions of meteorology and the atmosphere” (Chap. I);
“Air weight and density, Barometer” (Chap. II); and “Practical advice on the
Barometer” (Chap. III). Its second part consists of a single chapter, “The use of
telegraphic dispatches to forecast the weather.” Reading this document, one of
Secchi’s comments is particularly striking for being true even today: “Some people
believe that all the science [of meteorology] consists only in predicting the weather
for several days, or months, or years in advance. This is a serious mistake […].” The
manuscript is presently examined by us, in order to be published shortly.
16 Bello. Cannonale al mattino, furfanterie fina a sera. Nord e Sud-Ovest leggero. Cresce poco il
barometro. Magneti poco regolari.
L. Iafrate and M. C. Beltrano
meteorological notes page of the aforesaid Bulletin: “Nice weather. Cannon shots in
the morning, villainy until evening. North and weak south-west [winds]. The barometer is rising slightly. Not very regular magnetic field” (Secchi 1870, 10 (10): 80).
16
The Observatory Bulletin also published the notable scientific correspondence
that many scholars carried on with Secchi, evidence of the need for scientists to collaborate with each other, to exchange ideas, knowledge, and results useful for the
progress of science. The subjects involved were many: astronomy, astrophysics,
atmospheric sciences, geomagnetism, and space weather. Noteworthy is the correspondence published in the Bulletin between Angelo Secchi and the Barnabite
priest Francesco Denza, who will later go on to found the Vatican Observatory. The
main topics treated by them, with a surprising unity of views, concerned the need to
have close-knit observation networks, to install observatories in every territorial
context, and to equip them with comparable instruments so as to standardize observation methods and thus allow comparison among their measurements. Weather
data recorded within the Papal Weather Warning Service were also published daily
in the Roman newspapers, for example, the Giornale di Roma.
9.7 The Unpublished Manuscript “on the Complicated
Question of Weather Forecasts”
The complex question of weather forecasts is one of the topics discussed in a fragment of an unpublished manuscript, Notizie meteorologiche adattate all’uso comune
[Meteorological news adapted for common use] outlined by Father Secchi but left
unfinished due to his premature death. It has been discovered in the Secchi Fund
(Chinnici and Gramatowski 2001) preserved at the Historical Archives of the
Pontifical Gregorian University (APUG, Angelo Secchi S. I., 4, V(b), 23 ff.). This
manuscript is in the form of a booklet containing, in the words of the author, “very
beautiful, practical, and useful aspects.”
It consists of only 16 pages, divided into 2 parts. The first part has an Introduction
and three chapters: “General notions of meteorology and the atmosphere” (Chap. I);
“Air weight and density, Barometer” (Chap. II); and “Practical advice on the
Barometer” (Chap. III). Its second part consists of a single chapter, “The use of
telegraphic dispatches to forecast the weather.” Reading this document, one of
Secchi’s comments is particularly striking for being true even today: “Some people
believe that all the science [of meteorology] consists only in predicting the weather
for several days, or months, or years in advance. This is a serious mistake […].” The
manuscript is presently examined by us, in order to be published shortly.
16 Bello. Cannonale al mattino, furfanterie fina a sera. Nord e Sud-Ovest leggero. Cresce poco il
barometro. Magneti poco regolari.
L. Iafrate and M. C. Beltrano