CECCHI, FILIPPO. – Piarist physicist, born in Ponte Buggianese (Pistoia) on 31 May 1822, died in Florence on 1 May 1887.
He taught physics and mathematics in Florence for more than forty years, succeeding Fr. Antonelli, after the latter’s death, as director of the Observatory, to which he gave a meteorological and also geodynamic orientation. Indeed, the geodynamic activity that he initiated brought the Observatory of S. Giovannino to a position of eminence among similar observatories, not only in Italy but also abroad.
In the field of seismography he earned singular merit, for which he was awarded a gold medal at the Turin Exhibition. In meteorology he left noteworthy instruments, including the barometer and thermometer bearing his name, and he was unable to complete a meteorograph.