AUDIFFREDI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. - Dominican astronomer and bibliographer, b. at Saorgio (Nice) on 2 February 1714, d. at Rome on 4 July 1794. After several years of teaching, in 1759 he was elected prefect of the Casanatense Library in Rome, a post he held until his death. There, with very scant means, he founded an astronomical observatory, observing the transits of Mercury (1753 and 1756) and of Venus (1761), studying eclipses and the motions of the moon (1754 and 1755), the solar parallax (1765) and the theory of comets (1769).

Of his activity as a bibliographer, notable monuments are the Catalogus Bibliothecae Casanatenensis, Rome 1761-88 (down to the entry Leodegarius, 4 folio vols. and one fascicle), compiled according to new criteria that reveal his profound learning; the Catalogus historico-criticus Romanorum editionum saec. XV, ibid. 1783; and the Specimen historico-criticum editionum italicarum saec. XV, ibid. 1794; these last works being of great value and usefulness.

Bibliography

BIBL.: A. Guglielmotti, Catalogo dei bibliotecari del Coll. Casanatense, Rome 1860.

Leodegario Picanyol

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Audiffredi, Giovanni Battista

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