CECCHI, FILIPPO. - Scholastic physicist, born in Ponte Buggianese (Pistoia) on 31 May 1822, died in Florence on 19 May 1887.
He taught physics and mathematics in Florence for more than forty years, succeeding Fr. Antonelli upon the latter’s death as director of the Observatory, to which he gave a meteorological and also geodynamic orientation. The geodynamic activity he initiated brought the S. Giovanni Observatory to a high degree of excellence among similar observatories, not only in Italy but beyond the Alps.
In the field of seismography he achieved singular merits, for which he was awarded a gold medal at the Turin exhibition. In meteorology he left notable works, including the barometer and thermometer bearing his name, and he was unable to complete a meteorograph.