ZUCCHI, NICOLA. - Physicist-mathematician, preacher, and ascetical writer, b. at Parma on 6 Dec. 1586, d. at Rome on 21 May 1670.
Having entered the Society of Jesus at Padua (1602), he taught philosophy, theology, and mathematics at the Collegio Romano for many years, later becoming its rector. He also governed the College of Ravenna and was apostolic preacher in the Vatican for seven years. He accompanied Cardinal Alessandro Orsini on his legation to the court of Ferdinand II, where he became acquainted with Tommaso Keplero.
He wrote several works on machines and optics.
In the Optica philosophia experimentis et ratione a fundamentis constituta (London 1656), he recorded his discovery of the telescope and thus was the first to discover the spots of the planet Jupiter (1650).
As an apostle, Z. is celebrated for many devotional pamphlets, among them: Pratica della vera devozione in aiuto delle Anime, che sono in Purgatorio, Rome 1659; Pratica per passare le feste del santo Natale con vera pietà cristiana, ivi 1667; Sulla vera devozione nella servitù della Vergine Nostra Signora (Rome 1666), which contains the celebrated prayer disseminated in all languages: O Signora mia e Madre mia (O Domina mea et mater mea (Preces et pia opera, Rome 1952, p. 340)), as well as a valuable work on the religious state: Breve notitia della vita religiosa (ivi 1671).