DE VICO, FRANCESCO. - Jesuit and astronomer, b. at Macerata on 19 May 1805. He had been at Siena a disciple of the learned Piarist astronomer Giovanni Inghirami, before entering, on 25 Dec. 1823, the novitiate of S. Andrea in Rome. Having perfected himself in astronomy under Fr. Stefano Dumouchel, director of the observatory of the Roman College, he succeeded him in 1840 and soon acquired worldwide fame for the originality and acuteness of his methods of observation and measurement.
The object of his research and publications were comets, the satellites of Saturn, the rotation of Venus; from 1839 onward there appeared under his direction Memorie intorno a parecchie osservazioni fatte nella specola dell'Università Gregoriana. In 1844 he had discovered a comet and the following year a planetoid.
Driven from Italy by the Revolution of 1848, he received flattering invitations everywhere. Having decided to apply himself to the observatory of the Jesuits at Georgetown in the United States, he had returned to Europe to procure instruments and personnel, when death overtook him, in London, on 5 Oct. 1848. To his distinguished gifts of mind he joined a great musical sensibility; among his compositions the Lamentazioni for Holy Week were especially admired.
Bibliography3 worksSommervogel, VIII, coll. 641-44; A. Secchi, Raggnaggio intorno alla vita e ai lavori del p. F. De V., Rome 1851; G. Stein, Fr. De V. e i suo
BIBL.: Sommervogel, VIII, coll. 641-44; A. Secchi, Raggnaggio intorno alla vita e ai lavori del p. F. De V., Rome 1851; G. Stein, Fr. De V. e i suoi contributi alle scienze astronomiche, in Civ. Cutt., 1949, II, pp. 190-200, 214-24.
Lamalle, Edmondo. “De Vico, francesco.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, col. 1506. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/de-vico-francesco.
MLA
Lamalle, Edmondo. “De Vico, francesco.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, col. 1506. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/de-vico-francesco.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec4_de_vico_francesco,
author = {Lamalle, Edmondo},
title = {De Vico, francesco},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IV},
pages = {1506},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/de-vico-francesco}
}
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