CHELINI, DOMENICO. - Piarist mathematician, b. at Gragnano (Lucca) on 18 Oct. 1802, d. at Rome on 16 Nov. 1873. He taught mathematics at the Nazareno College from 1831 to 1851; then, until 1864, mechanics and hydraulics at the University of Bologna, where he was loved and admired by all. Dismissed for refusing to take the oath, he was summoned to Rome, where he taught at the University from 1867 to 1870, when he was dismissed for the same reason. C. withdrew, although he was later exempted from taking the oath. He taught at the Vatican University until it was closed, and subsequently gave private instruction.
He wrote memoirs on analytic geometry, refining its methods and approaching geometric calculus and barycentric calculus; in the theory of surfaces he simplified several theorems of Gauss. He wrote a treatise, Elementi di meccanica razionale (Bologna 1860), containing an exposition of dynamics. On the day after his death, Pope Leo XIII, during an audience, expressed his regret at the loss of C., calling him a “great luminary of science and of the clergy,” a Piarist as learned as he was beloved by all, and equally humble and unknown to himself. A marble bust was erected to him at the Sapienza in Rome, through a subscription organized by the mathematicians of Italy, headed by Luigi Cremona.