CACCIA TORE, NICCOLÒ

NICCOLÒ CACCIATORE, priest and student of astronomy, was born at Casteltermini in Sicily on 26 November 1780 and died about the middle of the following century. After receiving his early literary training he entered the ecclesiastical life and devoted himself to the exact sciences and astronomical research, teaching this discipline at the University of Palermo and directing its observatory there. Noted for his fundamental observations and measurements of the equinoxes, he was a member of several academies. In 1812 he was entrusted by the government with the task of dividing Sicily into districts, and in 1819 into administrative circles. His opposition to the devastation of the observatory during the revolutionary disturbances of 1820 resulted in the sacking of his house and his considerable library, and in his imprisonment, which prevented him from resuming his beloved studies until 1823.