DEL RICCO, GAETANO. - Piarist, mathematician, born in Firenze on 3 June 1756, died there on 4 Feb. 1818. He studied mathematics under Fr. Canovai, with whom he later collaborated on the mathematical works that made their name famous throughout Italy and beyond. Appointed first director of the Ximeniano Observatory in Firenze, he immediately improved its conditions, while also seeing to its enlargement.
D. R.’s activity was more that of a scholar than of a scientist; he supervised the republication of several scientific works, such as Gardiner’s celebrated Tavole and Marie’s Corso di matematiche, which he rearranged and enriched not only with numerous additions but with entirely new treatises. Assisted by Canovai, he undertook astronomical works when the young Piarist Giovanni Inghirami became his pupil and assistant. Recognizing the talent of this pupil, he seriously prepared him to become his successor, sending him to Milano to study under the Lombard astronomers Oriani and De Cesaris. Other duties of various kinds weighed upon D. R., especially as provincial superior of Toscana during the Napoleonic period; all these he discharged admirably, having been a model of the perfect Piarist.