ORIANI, BARNABA. — Astronomer and priest, born on 17 July 1752 at Garegnano (Milan), died on 12 November 1832 at Milan. The son of extremely poor parents, his intelligence was noticed by the Fathers of that Charterhouse, who directed him toward his studies with the Barnabites of Milan.
Having donned the priestly habit, he entered the Brera Observatory and in 1777 succeeded Lagrange as astronomer. After Herschel’s discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781, O. accumulated an entire series of observations on it, which earned him great fame throughout Europe; so much so that in 1796 Bonaparte, having entered Milan, addressed a public letter to him, urging him to inform him of the needs of the Milanese scientists, and declaring himself ready to assure a comfortable position in France for all those who wished to go there. O. replied to him with dignity that scholars had also been honored by the former government, and complained that, on the contrary, with the arrival of the French, payment of their salaries had ceased. He subsequently also protested against the provision of the Cisalpine Constitution decreeing the oath for public officials. As deputy for the Brera Lyceum at the assemblies of Lyon in 1801, he was appointed director of the Milan Observatory the following year. A senator in 1809, Napoleon also offered him the portfolio of Public Instruction, which O. refused. At Laplace’s proposal, the Emperor commissioned him that same year to measure the latitudes of Rome and Rimini, a fundamental operation for completing the general map of the Kingdom of Italy, begun on his orders. In the fields of astronomy and geodesy, O. was among the foremost minds of his time.