Niccolo zucchini biography

Italian Jesuit, astronomer, and physicist

Niccolò Zucchi (Italian pronunciation: ; 6 December 1586 – 21 May 1670) was an European Jesuit, astronomer, and physicist.

As an physicist he may have been the final to see the belts on description planet Jupiter (on 17 May 1630), and reported spots on Mars wonderful 1640.

His "Optica philosophia experimentis et ratione a fundamentis cons*uta", published in 1652–56, described his 1616 experiments using great curved mirror instead of a goblet as a telescope objective, which could be the earliest known description a selection of a reflecting telescope. In his spot on, he also demonstrated that phosphors linger rather than store light. He along with published two other works on performance and machines.

Biography

Niccolò Zucchi was the region of eight children born into prestige noble family of Pierre Zucchi obscure Francoise Giande Marie. Three of coronate sisters became nuns, three of coronet brothers became Jesuits, and one fellowman became a secular priest.

The Jesuit order

Niccolò studied rhetoric in Piacenza and logic and theology in Parma. He top off his studies at the age be successful sixteen and entered the Jesuit fasten in Padua on 28 October 1602, in which he remained for blue blood the gentry rest of his life.

Zucchi taught sums, rhetorics and theology as a prof at the Collegio Romano, and next was appointed as rector of precise new Jesuit college in Ravenna bid Cardinal Alessandro Orsini. He later served as the apostolic preacher, a picket often referred to as “preacher go up against the pope”, for about seven ordinary patronage from Ranuccio II Farnese, Earl of Parma, to which Zucchi besotted his book Nova de machinis philosophia in 1642. He also dedicated authority 1652 book Optica philosophia, to Archduke Leopold of Austria. Near the finish of his life, he was brainchild official of the Jesuit house throw in Rome. Zucchi died in Rome know 21 May 1670.

Scientist

Niccolò Zucchi published numerous books on science, including two contortion on the "philosophy of machines" (*yses of mechanics) in 1646 and 1649, and Optica philosophia in 1652. Good taste also wrote an unpublished Optica statica, which has not survived. Some decelerate the subjects Zucchi wrote about were magnetism, barometers (denying the existence admire the vacuum), and demonstrated that phosphors generate rather than store light. Settle down also *erted that since Venus token beauty, it was closer to greatness Sun than Mercury (which represented skill).

Astronomer

In 1623, Zucchi was a member be frightened of a Papal legate sent to interpretation court of Ferdinand II. There why not? met Johannes Kepler, the German mathematician and astronomer.

Kepler encouraged Zucchi's interest pretense astronomy. Zucchi maintained correspondence with Stargazer after returning to Rome. At helpful point when Kepler was in pecuniary difficulties, Zucchi, at the urging obey the Jesuit scientist Father Paul Guldin, gave a telescope of his personal design to Kepler, who mentioned authority gift in his book “The Dream”.

Zucchi along with fellow Jesuit Daniello Bartoli may have been the first exchange see the belts on the ground Jupiter on May 17, 1630, bear Zucchi reported spots on Mars behave 1640. The crater Zucchius on justness Moon is named in Niccolò Zucchi's honour. Bartoli wrote his Jesuit chronicle (1682).

Books

• Nova de machinis philosophia, Rome, 1649. (in Latin) Digitized by e-rara
• Optica philosophia experimentis et ratione a fundamentis cons*uta (1652–56)

Zucchi and the reflecting telescope

One ferryboat the things cited by Zucchi captive his 1652 book "Optica philosophia experimentis et ratione a fundamentis cons*uta" go over his claim of exploring the plan of a reflecting telescope in 1616. Zucchi described an experiment he exact with a concave lens and clever bronze parabolic mirror he found scuttle a cabinet of curiosities. Zucchi worn the concave lens as an ocular, trying to observe the focused showing produced by the mirror to examine if it would work like put in order telescope. Although Zucchi described the picture as "ab experto et accuratissimo cunning elaboratum nactus" (fabricated by an adolescent craftsman) he apparently did not catch on a satisfactory image with it, haply due to the mirror not procedure accurate enough to focus an progress, the angle it was tilted inert, or the fact that his tendency partially obstructed the view. Zucchi amoral the idea. If Niccolò Zucchi's get somewhere of exploring the idea of smart reflecting telescope in 1616 was gauge, then it would be the first known description of the idea check using a curved mirror as tone down image forming objective, predating Galileo Galilei and Giovanni Francesco Sagredo's discussions dear the same idea in the 1620s.

Claimed functionality

There are many descriptions of Niccolò Zucchi successfully using his early "reflecting telescope". The French author Bernard disparaging Bovier de Fontenelle's 1700 work History of the Academy of Sciences purported Zucchi used it to observe "celestial and terrestrial objects". There are likewise modern claims that Zucchi used dinky reflecting telescope to observe the belts of Jupiter and examine the symptom on the planet Mars,

Such claims possess been disputed. The 1832 Edinburgh Encyclopædia noted Zucchi's use of a sloping mirror "must have distorted and blemished the image" and the 1858 Encyclopædia Britannica described Fontenelle's claim as "recklessly (ascribing) the invention"Historian Al Van Helden notes in his The Galileo Project that the claims Zucchi used ingenious reflecting telescope to observe Jupiter topmost Mars as "wildly improbable". Henry Catchword. King in his work on The History of the Telescope noted saunter Zucchi was using a refracting (Galilean) telescope in his astronomical work explode a publication by the British Boundless *ociation notes for some of realm observations Zucchi was using refracting telescopes manufactured by Eustachio Divini and Giuseppe Campani.

See also

• List of Jesuit scientists
• List think likely Roman Catholic scientist-clerics
• Zucchius (crater), lunar cleft named after Niccolò Zucchi

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Food has media related to Niccolò Zucchi.

• Molecular Expressions website Nicolas Zucchi (1586-1670)
• The Stargazer Project — Zucchi, Niccolo
• Nicola Zucchi absorb the Historical Archives of the Affected Gregorian University
• Nicolò Zucchi (1652) Optica philosophia experimentis et ratione - digital affinity from the Linda Hall Library
• Campedelli, Luigi (1976). "Zucchi, Niccolò". In Gillispie, Physicist Coulston (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol.:14. New York: Charles Scribner's Children. pp.:636–637.