MORINI, MARIANO. - Theologian, philosopher and physicist, b. in Parma on 19 May 1732, d. there on 21 Jan. 1801. He entered the Order of Minims and taught theology and philosophy for several years in the houses of the Order. Around 1760 he was superior of the convent of S. Barnaba in Modena and professor of philosophy, general physics and then experimental physics at the Royal University.
A follower of the Galilean school and of Newton's modern theories, a skilled mathematician, he was among the first to introduce the experimental method into the school and to make it appreciated, at a time when physics cabinets and laboratories existed only rarely and only privately. He had a special building erected, still standing, the "physical theater," which he designed and whose construction he personally supervised, equipping it with machines of his own invention and, for those times, remarkable (some of them preserved today in the Museo Estense in Modena): for indicating the shocks and directions of earthquakes, for measuring the amount of rainfall and the humidity of the air; he also devised certain special clocks; he had as his collaborator the lay Capuchin fra Agostino Artieri da Modena, a most skilled mechanic. With barometric observations, and with studies on methane, M. cooperated with the Accademia Rangoni of Modena; he was a corresponding member of the medical academy of Michele Rosa in Paris, where he went several times, cooperating in the experiment of blood transfusion, and read dissertations on electricity and on light. After 25 years of university teaching he retired to the convent of Parma, where he nevertheless continued to teach philosophy to the young men of his Order.
Principal works: Congettura intorno all'aria infiammabile, nativa, in Nuovo giornale dei letterati d'Italia, Modena 1778, p. 124 ff.; Paragone tra il fuoco e la materia elettrica (s. n. t.); Descrizione d'istrumento per delineare sopra qualunque superficie anche ineguale, qualunque genere di orologi (s. n. t.); Lezioni di fisica particolare e sperimentale, it is not known whether and where published.
Bibliography3 works
Gennaro Moretti