Calandrelli, Giuseppe

(b. Zagarolo, near Rome, Italy, 22 May 1749; d. Rome, 24 December 1827),

astronomy.

Calandrelli was professor of mathematics at the Gregorian University of the Jesuit-run Collegio Romano in Rome and director of the observatory that he had built there in 1787. The thin square tower that he used as an observatory (which was replaced by the observatory built by Angelo Secchi) may still be seen. Calandrelli confined himself exclusively to positional astronomy and, in collaboration with his codirectors, Andrea Conti and Giacomo Ricchebach, he published the series Opuscoli Astronomici (1803–1824). Those of 1806, dedicated to Pope Pius VII, include Osservazioni e riflessioni sulla parallasse annua dell’alfadella Lira and Soluzione esatta del problema delle altezze corrispondenti.

In 1816, again in collaboration with Conti and Ricchebach, Calandrelli published the Tavola delle parallassi di altezza di longitudine e di latitudine, also dedicated to Pius VII, who had become so keenly interested in the work that he provided the observatory with “perfect machines,” among them the transit of Reichenbach. Calandrelli also wrote historical articles on the Gregorian calendar and on Roman astronomy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A list of Calandrelli’s writings is in Poggendorff, I, 361. The Bollettino di bibliografia e di storia del Boncompagni (1868–1887) states that Calandrelli maintained correspondence with d’Alembert. See also G. Abetti, Storiadell’astronomia (Florence. 1963), p. 389; and Tipaldo, Biografia degli Italiani illustri, III (1836). 243.

Giorgio Abetti