BERTELLI, LEOPOLDO. - Barnabite, in religion Father Timoteo, born in Bologna on 26 October 1826 and died at the "Alla Querce" college in Florence on 6 February 1905. Physicist and seismologist, first investigator of microseisms, historian of science. After completing his studies at the public schools of the Barnabites in Bologna and being ordained a priest in Naples (1850), he taught mathematics and physics for more than fifty years in the colleges of his Order in Naples, Macerata, Bologna, Parma, and from 1868 in Florence, where he remained until his death. His versatility as a scientist led him to concern himself with the most varied phenomena: with electromagnetism, meteorology, astronomy; with geological and paleontological research; with thalassic and terrestrial physics observations; with historical-scientific studies on the marine sounding line, on the nautical compass, on the barometer, on the voltaic pile. But above all he stands in the vanguard in the history of seismology, having been one of its first cultivators and having contributed notably to its development with accurate investigations. In the observation of phenomena not yet thoroughly understood, he always sought confirmation of personal inferences or hypotheses through rigorous and assiduous experiments; and for these he built various instruments, among them one for recording microseisms, which he called a "chronometer." He has several publications on the use and history of the compass that clarify the genesis of the legend of Flavio Gioia. He was a member of many academies and from 1904 president of the Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes. He also held the directorship of the Vatican Observatory (1895-98).
Bibliography
Filippo M. Parenti