MORO, ANTON LAZZARO. – Priest and scientist, born at S. Vito al Tagliamento on 16 March 1687, died there on 13 April 1764.
He cultivated music and belles-lettres; he was director and professor at the Seminary of Feltre; then maestro di cappella at Portogruaro, and later at S. Vito, where he founded the college that bore his name; subsequently parish priest at Corbolone di Livenza and finally at Pola, appointed by the nephew of that bishop.
In the work that brought him fame: *De' crostacei e degli altri corpi marini che si trovavano su' monti* (Venice 1740), he refuted the theories of Burnet and Woodward, maintaining for the first time that subterranean fire is capable of altering the arrangement of strata and of raising the sea floor. He classified mountains into primary and secondary, that is, those formed by the original conflagrations and those resulting from later ones. In 1751 the work was published in Leipzig in German. Also from 1737 (published in 1838) is his dissertation *Dell'origine de' crostacei*, and from 1750 a *Lettera o sia dissertazione sopra la calata de' fulmini dalle nuvole* (Venice, n.d.). Various letters of his were published posthumously.