MORINI, MARIANO. — Theologian, philosopher, and physicist, born in Parma on 19 May 1732, died there on 21 January 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 at Modena and professor of philosophy, general physics, and later experimental physics at the Royal University.
A follower of the Galilean school and of the modern theories of Newton, and a skilled mathematician, he was among the first to introduce the experimental method into the school and to win appreciation for it, at a time when physics cabinets and laboratories scarcely existed except rarely and only privately. He had a special building constructed, still in existence, the “physical theater,” which he designed and whose construction he personally supervised, equipping it with machines of his own invention that were remarkable for those times (some of them are preserved today in the Museo Estense of Modena): instruments for indicating the shocks and directions of earthquakes, for measuring the quantity of rainfall and the humidity of the air; he also devised several special clocks. He had as a collaborator the Capuchin lay brother fra Agostino Artieri da Modena, a highly skilled mechanic. Through barometric observations and studies on methane, M. collaborated with the Rangoni Academy of Modena; he was a corresponding member of the medical academy of Michele Rosa in Paris, where he went several times, taking part in experiments on blood transfusion, and read dissertations on electricity and 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 or where published.