52
have changed a lot: the events that took place in Rome, both at the College and at the
University, and the general course of affairs, require me to be more cautious. I therefore ask
V.S. to accept my resignation from the above-mentioned prominent position.
Answering Secchi on December 5, from Rome, Brioschi expressed his displeasure
and astonishment, hoping that the Jesuit astronomer would change his mind and
withdraw his resignation. After receiving the letter from Brioschi, Secchi sent a new
longer and more detailed letter, dated December 1870, from Augusta, where he was
testing instruments for the eclipse observation. In this letter, both significant for its
clarity and the free expression of his conscience, the astronomer blames the Italian
government for the anti-Catholic criticism promoted in Rome, for the injustices suffered by the Jesuits and other religious orders, and for the ambiguous conduct that,
in his opinion, the authorities of the new Italian government had toward him. Here
are some passages from this second letter, reported, like the previous ones, from the
archive material published by Castellani (1944: 177–179):
The contents of the opening speech at the University were such that they could not be tolerated by all ears. How could one applaud an inauguration that insulted the religion of the
country? … How could I become part of this University especially after the dissolution of
the colleges, which in a certain way degraded me after 18 years that I was part of it? The
hope that Rome would be respected and governed by particular laws compatible with the
majesty of the Pontiff, has now vanished, and I retire into my nothingness. I am always
ready to serve my country wherever my gratitude and feelings were not compromised, but
I cannot take part in its favors.
A few years later, in 1876, priest and scientist Francesco Faà di Bruno had to
undergo similar circumstances. Aware of Secchi’s renunciation of the chair and having to decide whether or not to continue his career as a professor at the University
of Turin, Faà di Bruno wrote to the Jesuit astronomer for advice. Secchi exhorted
Faà di Bruno to continue his academic work at the university, explaining to him that
the present situation in Turin was different from the one that he had faced years
earlier in Rome:
You are already an old member of the University—Secchi writes on October 22, 1876—and
you do not join it in a time of [political] crisis. Thank God that, even if there are people who
have a too liberal mentality, the University of Turin has not perpetrated those scandals that
the University of Rome instead had done. Here in Rome it was not decent for a Catholic and
a priest to stay at the University: so it happened for me and for this reason I resigned.
(Palazzini 1980: 23)
Angelo Secchi continued to be Director of the Observatory of the Roman College
until his death on February 26, 1878. His expected successor in the direction, the
Jesuit Fr. Gaspare Stanislao Ferrari, was not appointed by the Italian government;
instead, in 1879, the rooms of the Observatory, like the entire building of the Roman
College, were confiscated by the Kingdom of Italy. Pietro Tacchini was called upon
to establish the Central Bureau of Meteorology there, and he took over Secchi’s
observatory (which also had valuable meteorological instruments) in order to continue its astronomical activities. Tacchini also held the Chair of Astronomy and
Physics at the University “La Sapienza” that Secchi had renounced.
G. Tanzella-Nitti
have changed a lot: the events that took place in Rome, both at the College and at the
University, and the general course of affairs, require me to be more cautious. I therefore ask
V.S. to accept my resignation from the above-mentioned prominent position.
Answering Secchi on December 5, from Rome, Brioschi expressed his displeasure
and astonishment, hoping that the Jesuit astronomer would change his mind and
withdraw his resignation. After receiving the letter from Brioschi, Secchi sent a new
longer and more detailed letter, dated December 1870, from Augusta, where he was
testing instruments for the eclipse observation. In this letter, both significant for its
clarity and the free expression of his conscience, the astronomer blames the Italian
government for the anti-Catholic criticism promoted in Rome, for the injustices suffered by the Jesuits and other religious orders, and for the ambiguous conduct that,
in his opinion, the authorities of the new Italian government had toward him. Here
are some passages from this second letter, reported, like the previous ones, from the
archive material published by Castellani (1944: 177–179):
The contents of the opening speech at the University were such that they could not be tolerated by all ears. How could one applaud an inauguration that insulted the religion of the
country? … How could I become part of this University especially after the dissolution of
the colleges, which in a certain way degraded me after 18 years that I was part of it? The
hope that Rome would be respected and governed by particular laws compatible with the
majesty of the Pontiff, has now vanished, and I retire into my nothingness. I am always
ready to serve my country wherever my gratitude and feelings were not compromised, but
I cannot take part in its favors.
A few years later, in 1876, priest and scientist Francesco Faà di Bruno had to
undergo similar circumstances. Aware of Secchi’s renunciation of the chair and having to decide whether or not to continue his career as a professor at the University
of Turin, Faà di Bruno wrote to the Jesuit astronomer for advice. Secchi exhorted
Faà di Bruno to continue his academic work at the university, explaining to him that
the present situation in Turin was different from the one that he had faced years
earlier in Rome:
You are already an old member of the University—Secchi writes on October 22, 1876—and
you do not join it in a time of [political] crisis. Thank God that, even if there are people who
have a too liberal mentality, the University of Turin has not perpetrated those scandals that
the University of Rome instead had done. Here in Rome it was not decent for a Catholic and
a priest to stay at the University: so it happened for me and for this reason I resigned.
(Palazzini 1980: 23)
Angelo Secchi continued to be Director of the Observatory of the Roman College
until his death on February 26, 1878. His expected successor in the direction, the
Jesuit Fr. Gaspare Stanislao Ferrari, was not appointed by the Italian government;
instead, in 1879, the rooms of the Observatory, like the entire building of the Roman
College, were confiscated by the Kingdom of Italy. Pietro Tacchini was called upon
to establish the Central Bureau of Meteorology there, and he took over Secchi’s
observatory (which also had valuable meteorological instruments) in order to continue its astronomical activities. Tacchini also held the Chair of Astronomy and
Physics at the University “La Sapienza” that Secchi had renounced.
G. Tanzella-Nitti