CANOVAI, STANISLAO. - Piarist physicist and mathematician, b. in Firenze on 28 March 1740, d. there on 17 Nov. 1811. He learned mathematics from the celebrated Fr. Gregorio Fontana and taught it, especially in Firenze, where his name became famous.
Assisted by Fr. Gaetano Del Ricco, his pupil and another able mathematician, he oversaw the publication of several scientific works, which made his name famous not only in Firenze but throughout Italy and beyond. C. may be called the father of the physico-mathematical scientific movement that developed in the Piarist Schools of Toscana in the second half of the 18th century and endured down to our own times. He was moreover the first holder of the chair of hydraulics, established by the will of Ximenes at the Florentine Observatory. C. also devoted himself to historical studies and sacred eloquence, being one of the most highly esteemed orators of his time.