47
Church—included a 22-cm Merz equatorial refractor, a 16-cm Cauchoix refractor,
and an Ertel Meridian Circle.
3.3 Secchi’s Chair of Astronomy at the University
“La Sapienza”
By 1870, when the Piedmont troops conquered Rome, Angelo Secchi was a prominent scientist, well known in Italy and abroad especially for his studies on spectral
classification of stars and solar physics, but also for his research in the field of
meteorology. His fame was known to government administrators and bureaucrats of
the new Italian government, even to the point that the Jesuit astronomer was one of
the first scholars explicitly and personally contacted by government officers.
This gave rise to the events related to the chair of physical astronomy at the
University of Rome “La Sapienza,” a position which the Kingdom of Italy soon
offered to Secchi and which he eventually had to refuse. Being a key episode in
Secchi’s life as a scientist and a faithful Catholic, this subject deserves to be examined in depth. A detailed report, from which we quote Secchi’s correspondence and
diary, was published many years ago by Castellani (1944). A more recent account is
offered by Ileana Chinnici (see Chinnici 2012: 51–54, 2019).
On the evening of September 20, 1870, just after the Piedmont troops gained
access to the Pope’s city, a letter from Giovanni Cantoni (1818–1897), General
Secretary of the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Italy, was delivered by
hand to Secchi. The message expressed the government officer’s wish for Secchi to
remain at the Observatory of the Roman College, reassuring him that the Italian
government would provide for his needs and would pay him a professor’s salary.
The building of the Roman College was at that time the site of a prestigious high
school, run by the Jesuits and attended by many Roman schoolboys. Due to the
seriousness of the situation, Secchi did not give a definite answer. However, he
expressed his willingness to remain in Rome, even though this city was now the
capital of the new unified Kingdom of Italy, in order to continue his scientific
research activity and teach as professor in the Jesuit school. From his diary we know
that Secchi had invested a significant part of his personal patrimony, a sum of about
9000 scudi (today equivalent to about €250,000), into the equipment of the
Observatory (APUG 1870: II, 29).
Three days later, on September 23, the mathematician Francesco Brioschi
(1824–1897), senator of the Kingdom of Italy, visited the Observatory and handed
Secchi a letter from the Italian Minister of Finance, Quintino Sella (1827–1884).
Sella too, like Brioschi, was a man of science who had later become a politician, and
someone who knew Secchi’s scientific reputation. The minister proposed that
Secchi become part of the teaching staff at the University “La Sapienza,” which had
just ceased to be under the Pope’s authority and had passed to the Italian government.
Quintino Sella wrote to Secchi (cited by Castellani 1944: 41):
3 Between Science and Religion: Angelo Secchi and his Time
Church—included a 22-cm Merz equatorial refractor, a 16-cm Cauchoix refractor,
and an Ertel Meridian Circle.
3.3 Secchi’s Chair of Astronomy at the University
“La Sapienza”
By 1870, when the Piedmont troops conquered Rome, Angelo Secchi was a prominent scientist, well known in Italy and abroad especially for his studies on spectral
classification of stars and solar physics, but also for his research in the field of
meteorology. His fame was known to government administrators and bureaucrats of
the new Italian government, even to the point that the Jesuit astronomer was one of
the first scholars explicitly and personally contacted by government officers.
This gave rise to the events related to the chair of physical astronomy at the
University of Rome “La Sapienza,” a position which the Kingdom of Italy soon
offered to Secchi and which he eventually had to refuse. Being a key episode in
Secchi’s life as a scientist and a faithful Catholic, this subject deserves to be examined in depth. A detailed report, from which we quote Secchi’s correspondence and
diary, was published many years ago by Castellani (1944). A more recent account is
offered by Ileana Chinnici (see Chinnici 2012: 51–54, 2019).
On the evening of September 20, 1870, just after the Piedmont troops gained
access to the Pope’s city, a letter from Giovanni Cantoni (1818–1897), General
Secretary of the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Italy, was delivered by
hand to Secchi. The message expressed the government officer’s wish for Secchi to
remain at the Observatory of the Roman College, reassuring him that the Italian
government would provide for his needs and would pay him a professor’s salary.
The building of the Roman College was at that time the site of a prestigious high
school, run by the Jesuits and attended by many Roman schoolboys. Due to the
seriousness of the situation, Secchi did not give a definite answer. However, he
expressed his willingness to remain in Rome, even though this city was now the
capital of the new unified Kingdom of Italy, in order to continue his scientific
research activity and teach as professor in the Jesuit school. From his diary we know
that Secchi had invested a significant part of his personal patrimony, a sum of about
9000 scudi (today equivalent to about €250,000), into the equipment of the
Observatory (APUG 1870: II, 29).
Three days later, on September 23, the mathematician Francesco Brioschi
(1824–1897), senator of the Kingdom of Italy, visited the Observatory and handed
Secchi a letter from the Italian Minister of Finance, Quintino Sella (1827–1884).
Sella too, like Brioschi, was a man of science who had later become a politician, and
someone who knew Secchi’s scientific reputation. The minister proposed that
Secchi become part of the teaching staff at the University “La Sapienza,” which had
just ceased to be under the Pope’s authority and had passed to the Italian government.
Quintino Sella wrote to Secchi (cited by Castellani 1944: 41):
3 Between Science and Religion: Angelo Secchi and his Time