CACCIATORE, NICCOLÒ. - Priest and student of astronomy, b. at Casteltermini in Sicily on 26 Nov. 1780, d. toward the middle of the following century. Having embraced the ecclesiastical life after his first literary rudiments, he devoted himself to the exact sciences and to astronomical investigations, teaching that discipline at the University of Palermo and directing its observatory. Known for fundamental observations and measurements of the equinoxes, he was a member of several academies. In 1812 he oversaw, on behalf of the government, the division of Sicily into districts and in 1819 into administrative circondari. His having opposed the devastation of the observatory during the revolutionary riots of 1820 earned him the looting of his house and of his considerable library, and imprisonment, which prevented him from resuming his beloved studies until 1823.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: D. D. Müller, Biografie autografe ed inedite di illustri italiani di questo secolo, Torino 1823, pp. 84-90; E. Michel, s. v. in Diz. d. Risorg. Naz., II, p. 459.

Paolo Dalla Torre

@incollection{ec3_cacciatore_niccolo, author = {Dalla, Torre Paolo}, title = {Cacciatore, niccolò}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {266--267}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cacciatore-niccolo} }

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Cacciatore, Niccolò

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