LANA TERZI, FRANCESCO. - Jesuit, mathematician and physicist, b. at Brescia on 10 December 1631, d. there on 22 February 1687. He taught grammar at the College of Terni with such acclaim that he and his family were granted the right of citizenship; to which he responded with the sacred drama: La rappresentazione di s. Valentino martire e protettore di Terni con la coronazione di Tacito e Floriano, terniani, imperatori romani (Terni 1656). He subsequently devoted himself to the sciences and taught philosophy for three years at Brescia, which at that time also included physics and the natural sciences, then mathematics for six years at the University of Ferrara; and he spent the rest of his life at Brescia, intent on his inventions and on writing his works.

Already at Rome, under the impulse of Fr. A. Kircher, L. T. had carried out several notable experiments, which he then continued and which formed the subject matter of his publications. These comprise, besides an essay of natural history of the province of Brescia, in Latin (left unfinished and published, translated, by C. Pilati, in Saggio di storia naturale bresciana, I, Brescia 1769, p. 13 ff.), the work: Prodromo ovvero saggio di alcune invenzioni nuove, premessa all'Arte Maestra (Brescia 1670), which is, as it were, the prologue to the more complete and erudite work: Magisterium naturae et artis (I-II, Brescia 1684-86; vol. III, posthumous, Parma 1692). In the Prodromo (ch. 6) he studies precisely the possibility of building "a ship that travels above the air with oars and with sails"; and he gives the figure, the description, and the scientific principles on which it is based. The news aroused much admiration (Fr. B. Zamagna composed a poem on it: Navis aerea et elegiarum monobiblos [Rome 1768]) and also contradictions. It is not certain that L. T. actually built his ship, nor that, having built it, he made the experiment; yet he always retains the merit of having posed the problem and sought, as one of the first, to solve it scientifically. Other inventions of L. T. concern a new method for the reading of the blind, improvements to the microscope and the telescope, etc.

LANA TERZI, FRANCESCO - A ship capable of sustaining itself in the air with oars and with sails. A.B.C.D.: Four spheres empty of air; F-E: wooden boat with sail, copper engraving - Copy in the Library of the Civiltà Cattolica.(from F. L., Prodromo o vero saggio di alcune invenzioni nuove premesso all'Arte Maestra, Brescia 1879, plate facing p. 55)

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: G. B. Rodella, Notizie intorno la vita e gli scritti del p. F. de T. L. (Nuova raccolta calogeriana, 40), Venezia 1784; some letters of L. T. are found in Lettere edite ed inedite del p. D. Bartoli d. C. d. G. e di uomini illustri scritte al medesimo, Bologna 1865; Sommervogel, IV, coll. 1441-54. - Studies: B. Wilhelm, Die Anfänge der Luftschiffahrt. L.-Gusmão, Hamm 1909; G. Venturini, Da Gearo a Montgolfier, I, Roma 1931, pp. 207-209; Jotti di Badia Polesine, L'opera aeronautica del p. conte F. L. T., bresciano, Milano 1931; A. Ferretti-Torricelli, Una gloria bresciana d. C. d. G. Il p. F. L. T. nel III centenario della sua nascita, in Eco di vita collegiale, Brescia 1931, nn. 2-3; E. Rosa, Un grande fisico e precursore, il genufio p. L. T., in Civ. Catt., 1932, 1, pp. 211-22; Le invenzioni e i criteri scientifici del p. F. L. T., ibid., 1932, 1, pp. 424-37; P. Guerrini, Il centenario del p. L., in Monografie di storia bresciana, 8 (1932), pp. 239-40.

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Lana Terzi, Francesco

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