346
20.3 Minor Documentary Archives
This survey of the scattered traces of Angelo Secchi to be found in libraries, archives,
private repositories, religious institutions, and so forth can only be provisional and
subject to further investigation. The work presented at this time thus should be
thought of as a partial result and open to subsequent improvement. In addition to the
two large archives mentioned above, Secchi’s letters and documentation are present
in almost every corner of Italy. For this reason, the survey we made so far is incomplete, and anything more that may come to light will constitute another piece in this
geographically scattered puzzle.
The research inside the Italian astronomical historical archives of the National
Institute for Astrophysics has led to the identification of correspondence of Angelo
Secchi with almost all of his contemporaries, but in particular important documentation has been preserved in the archives of the observatories of Arcetri, Brera, and
Palermo. The Arcetri Observatory in Florence has 135 letters by Angelo Secchi to
Pietro Tacchini, sent between 1865 and 1877 (Chinnici and Gasperini 2013), which
along with the corresponding letters of Tacchini to Secchi preserved at the Pontifical
Gregorian University constitute one of the most important narratives of the transition from classical astronomy, based on the determination of accurate positions of
stars and calculation of orbits, to a new science, “astrophysics,” aimed at the study
of constitution, formation, and evolution of celestial bodies. In addition, in the historical archive of that Observatory, in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, and in the
Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence are a number of letters addressed to Giovanni
Battista Donati (1826–1873), who was director of the Observatory in Florence from
1859 and who carried out various fundamental stellar spectroscopy experiments
from 1857, immediately carried forward by Secchi in the following years (Figs. 20.1
and 20.2).
Also in Florence, the Archivio Provinciale delle Scuole Pie Fiorentine (Provincial
Archives of the Fiorentine Piarist Schools) preserves 32 letters by Angelo Secchi to
Alessandro Serpieri (1823–1885), a Piarist priest who was a physicist, seismologist,
meteorologist, and astronomer (Mantovani and Vetrano 1991). Even more than by
their studies of astronomy, these two scientists were bonded by their common interest in meteorology. In 1850 Serpieri founded a meteorological observatory in the
Italian region of Marche with the idea of applying the telegraph to the service of
meteorology. It was Secchi who achieved this aim in 1856 by creating a network of
telegraph stations in the Pontifical States.
Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835–1910) was another important astronomer
of the second half of the nineteenth century with whom Secchi was in correspondence. He was director of the Brera Observatory from 1862 until his death in 1910,
and he was famous for his studies of Mars. Letters between these astronomers are
kept at the Brera Astronomical Observatory (68) and at the Domus Galileiana in
Pisa (9).
Secchi’s relations with Padua were also close, especially with Giovanni Santini
(1787–1877) and Giuseppe Lorenzoni (1843–1914), as evidenced by the
A. Gasperini and M. Gargano
20.3 Minor Documentary Archives
This survey of the scattered traces of Angelo Secchi to be found in libraries, archives,
private repositories, religious institutions, and so forth can only be provisional and
subject to further investigation. The work presented at this time thus should be
thought of as a partial result and open to subsequent improvement. In addition to the
two large archives mentioned above, Secchi’s letters and documentation are present
in almost every corner of Italy. For this reason, the survey we made so far is incomplete, and anything more that may come to light will constitute another piece in this
geographically scattered puzzle.
The research inside the Italian astronomical historical archives of the National
Institute for Astrophysics has led to the identification of correspondence of Angelo
Secchi with almost all of his contemporaries, but in particular important documentation has been preserved in the archives of the observatories of Arcetri, Brera, and
Palermo. The Arcetri Observatory in Florence has 135 letters by Angelo Secchi to
Pietro Tacchini, sent between 1865 and 1877 (Chinnici and Gasperini 2013), which
along with the corresponding letters of Tacchini to Secchi preserved at the Pontifical
Gregorian University constitute one of the most important narratives of the transition from classical astronomy, based on the determination of accurate positions of
stars and calculation of orbits, to a new science, “astrophysics,” aimed at the study
of constitution, formation, and evolution of celestial bodies. In addition, in the historical archive of that Observatory, in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, and in the
Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence are a number of letters addressed to Giovanni
Battista Donati (1826–1873), who was director of the Observatory in Florence from
1859 and who carried out various fundamental stellar spectroscopy experiments
from 1857, immediately carried forward by Secchi in the following years (Figs. 20.1
and 20.2).
Also in Florence, the Archivio Provinciale delle Scuole Pie Fiorentine (Provincial
Archives of the Fiorentine Piarist Schools) preserves 32 letters by Angelo Secchi to
Alessandro Serpieri (1823–1885), a Piarist priest who was a physicist, seismologist,
meteorologist, and astronomer (Mantovani and Vetrano 1991). Even more than by
their studies of astronomy, these two scientists were bonded by their common interest in meteorology. In 1850 Serpieri founded a meteorological observatory in the
Italian region of Marche with the idea of applying the telegraph to the service of
meteorology. It was Secchi who achieved this aim in 1856 by creating a network of
telegraph stations in the Pontifical States.
Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835–1910) was another important astronomer
of the second half of the nineteenth century with whom Secchi was in correspondence. He was director of the Brera Observatory from 1862 until his death in 1910,
and he was famous for his studies of Mars. Letters between these astronomers are
kept at the Brera Astronomical Observatory (68) and at the Domus Galileiana in
Pisa (9).
Secchi’s relations with Padua were also close, especially with Giovanni Santini
(1787–1877) and Giuseppe Lorenzoni (1843–1914), as evidenced by the
A. Gasperini and M. Gargano