CACCIATORE, NICCOLÒ. — Priest and scholar of astronomy, born in Casteltermini in Sicily on 26 November 1780, died around the middle of the following century. Having embraced ecclesiastical life after his first literary studies, he devoted himself to the exact sciences and to astronomical research, teaching this discipline at the University of Palermo and directing its observatory. Known for fundamental observations and investigations concerning the equinoxes, he was a member of
several academies. In 1812, on behalf of the government, he oversaw the division of Sicily into districts, and in 1819 into administrative circondari. His opposition to the devastation of the observatory during the revolutionary disturbances of 1820 earned him the sacking of his house and considerable library, as well as imprisonment, which prevented him from resuming his preferred studies until 1823.