68
observatory was located many times per day, at fixed hours, to read the instruments
and transcribe the data (Iafrate and Beltrano, here). Secchi was strongly in favor of
technical advancement; he was convinced that the transfer of work from humans to
machines would really improve the quality of people’s lives.
Likewise, in Secchi’s opinion, science should be aimed not only at extending
knowledge but also in its applications be for the benefit and service of the public.
For this reason, he believed that scientific knowledge should be disseminated into
ordinary society – what is today called “public outreach.” Secchi was very active in
giving public talks on physics and astronomy, to let ordinary people become more
familiar with contemporary scientific theories, experiments and discoveries (Chinnici 2019: 96–99).
Many of his books were updated texts for teaching and general education
(Fig. 4.2), with contents that often challenged the conservative views circulating in
many Catholic circles (Chinnici 2019: 263–269; Capuzzo Dolcetta, Chap. 11 in this
volume; Tanzella-Nitti, Chap. 3 in this volume). Moreover, he believed that science
should be “inclusive”: Secchi was convinced that everyone, whatever their social
class or gender, had a right to a scientific education. He supported education for
girls and gave lectures for workers (Chinnici 2019: 98). This inclusive approach was
certainly shared by his correspondent Francesco Faà di Bruno (Tanzella-Nitti,
Chap. 3 in this volume), who invented a machine to help blind people read – another
example of science at the service of the disadvantaged.
Secchi also encouraged the scientific practice of what is today called “citizen
science,” namely the contribution that nonprofessional people can give to science.
He often provided scientific instruments to capable amateurs and helped install
meteorological and geomagnetic stations in convents, schools, public buildings, private houses, etc. throughout Italy. His instruction booklet for observers of the 1870
total solar eclipse (Secchi 1870) is an excellent example of how he promoted citizen
involvement in scientific practice. This attention to the public led him to design and
build many sundials, which were important at that time to help people in understanding the transition from solar to standard time and from the Italian to the more
general European system of time measurement (Tuscano, here).
Secchi’s activities in the field of education deserves further investigation. It
would be interesting to know what kind of books he read and consulted and what
educational program he adopted. We may infer some elements from his lecture
notebook, Principii di astronomia compilati per uso delle scuole del Collegio
Romano (1862), which is well furnished with many instructional diagrams and contains explanations of theorems, corollaries, and lemmas, as well as solutions to
some problem exercises (Chinnici 2019: 104–106). He openly taught the Earth’s
rotation around the Sun and repeated Foucault’s experiment inside the church of St.
Ignatius in Rome in 1851, a few months after the first pendulum was suspended in
the Pantheon in Paris (Chinnici 2019: 72–75) . It is important to remark that only in
1835 (i.e., 2 years after Secchi’s entering the novitiate) the names of Copernicus and
Galileo were removed from the Index. This means that Secchi was essentially free
to teach the Copernican theory and contributed to definitely dismantle the antiCopernican tradition of the Collegio Romano, which had been interrupted with the
I. Chinnici
observatory was located many times per day, at fixed hours, to read the instruments
and transcribe the data (Iafrate and Beltrano, here). Secchi was strongly in favor of
technical advancement; he was convinced that the transfer of work from humans to
machines would really improve the quality of people’s lives.
Likewise, in Secchi’s opinion, science should be aimed not only at extending
knowledge but also in its applications be for the benefit and service of the public.
For this reason, he believed that scientific knowledge should be disseminated into
ordinary society – what is today called “public outreach.” Secchi was very active in
giving public talks on physics and astronomy, to let ordinary people become more
familiar with contemporary scientific theories, experiments and discoveries (Chinnici 2019: 96–99).
Many of his books were updated texts for teaching and general education
(Fig. 4.2), with contents that often challenged the conservative views circulating in
many Catholic circles (Chinnici 2019: 263–269; Capuzzo Dolcetta, Chap. 11 in this
volume; Tanzella-Nitti, Chap. 3 in this volume). Moreover, he believed that science
should be “inclusive”: Secchi was convinced that everyone, whatever their social
class or gender, had a right to a scientific education. He supported education for
girls and gave lectures for workers (Chinnici 2019: 98). This inclusive approach was
certainly shared by his correspondent Francesco Faà di Bruno (Tanzella-Nitti,
Chap. 3 in this volume), who invented a machine to help blind people read – another
example of science at the service of the disadvantaged.
Secchi also encouraged the scientific practice of what is today called “citizen
science,” namely the contribution that nonprofessional people can give to science.
He often provided scientific instruments to capable amateurs and helped install
meteorological and geomagnetic stations in convents, schools, public buildings, private houses, etc. throughout Italy. His instruction booklet for observers of the 1870
total solar eclipse (Secchi 1870) is an excellent example of how he promoted citizen
involvement in scientific practice. This attention to the public led him to design and
build many sundials, which were important at that time to help people in understanding the transition from solar to standard time and from the Italian to the more
general European system of time measurement (Tuscano, here).
Secchi’s activities in the field of education deserves further investigation. It
would be interesting to know what kind of books he read and consulted and what
educational program he adopted. We may infer some elements from his lecture
notebook, Principii di astronomia compilati per uso delle scuole del Collegio
Romano (1862), which is well furnished with many instructional diagrams and contains explanations of theorems, corollaries, and lemmas, as well as solutions to
some problem exercises (Chinnici 2019: 104–106). He openly taught the Earth’s
rotation around the Sun and repeated Foucault’s experiment inside the church of St.
Ignatius in Rome in 1851, a few months after the first pendulum was suspended in
the Pantheon in Paris (Chinnici 2019: 72–75) . It is important to remark that only in
1835 (i.e., 2 years after Secchi’s entering the novitiate) the names of Copernicus and
Galileo were removed from the Index. This means that Secchi was essentially free
to teach the Copernican theory and contributed to definitely dismantle the antiCopernican tradition of the Collegio Romano, which had been interrupted with the
I. Chinnici