BINA, ANDREA. - A Cassinese Benedictine of the Abbey of Polirone (Mantua), born in Milan in 1724, died there on March 8, 1792. He taught philosophy in the monasteries of Padua, Perugia, and Milan, theology in Rome, and mathematics and physics at the University of Parma. He is credited with the invention of the pendulum seismograph, which he first described in his *Ragionamento sopra la cagione de' tremuoti, ed in particolare di quello della terra di Gualdo e Nocera nell'Umbria seguito l'anno 1751* (Perugia 1751). He also published other scientific writings, particularly on electricity, and was the first to translate Christian Wolff's *Physics* into Latin.
BIBL.: G. C. Poggendorff, *Biographisch-literarisches Handwörterbuch für Mathematik, Astronomie, Physik, Chemie und verwandte Wissenschaftsgebiete*, I, Leipzig 1863, p. 191; G. Terenzzi, *L'inventore del sismografo a pendolo*, in *Riv. scientifico-industriale*, 19 (1887), p. 52 and in *Bull. del vulcanismo ital.*, 14 (1887), p. 33; G. Argannengo, *L'inventore del sismografo a pendolo*, in *La meteorologia pratica*, 7 (1926), p. 264.