PIAGGIO, ANTONIO. - Piarist, b. in Genoa on 18 February 1713, d. in Naples in 1797 or 1798. Of admirable ingenuity and patience in mechanical work, and of extensive knowledge in the chemical sciences, he was first employed in the Vatican Library, where he occupied himself with transcribing old parchments and with other calligraphic work in which he was highly skilled.

Summoned by Charles III, king of Naples, he went there to exercise his rare ability on the papyri discovered at that time in the excavations of Herculaneum. The Father succeeded in inventing (1753) a machine for unrolling them, a machine described and praised by Winckelmann, Bartelle and others, and with which he achieved, though with great difficulty, the unrolling of 300 and more papyri. The said machine is preserved in the Officina dei papiri of the National Museum of Naples, where his letters and scientific memoirs are also to be found. Hamilton, the English minister at Naples, had a pamphlet by the Father on the Vesuvian phenomena published in London.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: G. B. Cereseto, A. P., in Elogi di Liguri illustri; D. Bassi, Il p. A. P. e i primi tentativi per lo svolgimento dei papiri ercolanesi, Naples 1907; D. Bassi, Altre lettere inedite del p. A. P. e spigolature dalle sue «Memorie», ibid. 1908.

Leodegario Picanyol

@incollection{ec9_piaggio_antonio, author = {Picanyol, Leodegario}, title = {Piaggio, antonio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1323}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/piaggio-antonio} }

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Piaggio, Antonio

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