MORINI, MARIANO. – Theologian, philosopher, and physicist, b. Parma, 19 May 1732, d. there, 21 Jan. 1881. He entered the Order of Minims and taught theology and philosophy for several years in houses of the Order. Around 1760 he was superior of the convent of S. Barnaba in Modena and professor of philosophy, general physics, and later experimental physics at the Royal University.
A follower of the Galilean school and of Newton’s modern theories, he was a skilled mathematician among the first to introduce and promote the experimental method in schools at a time when physics laboratories and cabinets existed only rarely and privately. He had a special building constructed, still extant, the “physical theatre,” which he designed and personally supervised, equipping it with machines of his own invention and notable for the period (some preserved today in the Estense Museum of Modena): for indicating tremors and the direction of earthquakes, for measuring rainfall and air humidity; he also devised special clocks. He had as collaborator the lay Capuchin Fra Agostino Artieri of Modena, an exceptionally skilled mechanic. Through barometric observations and studies on methane, Morini contributed to the Ragnoni Academy of Modena; he was a corresponding member of the Medical Academy of Michele Rosa in Paris, where he traveled several times, contributing to experiments on blood transfusion and delivering dissertations on electricity and light. After 25 years of university teaching, he retired to the convent in Parma, where he continued to teach philosophy to the young of his Order.
Principal works: *Congettura intorno all'aria infiammabile, nativa*, in *Nuovo giornale dei letterati d'Italia*, Modena 1778, pp. 124 ff.; *Paragone tra il fuoco e la materia elettrica* (n.p.t.); *Descrizione d'istrumento per delineare sopra qualunque superficie anche ineguale, qualunque genere di orologi* (n.p.t.); *Lezioni di fisica particolare e sperimentale*, publication details unknown.