EUSTACHIO MANFREDI (Bologna, 1674-1739)


Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bologna, he was the first director of the Observatory. Enfant prodige, at 16 he founded at his own home a scientific academy, which later gave origin to the Institute of Sciences. Main topic of research in his early years at the Observatory was the annual aberration of fixed stars, about which he published De annuis inerrantium stellarum aberrationibus in 1729. Manfredi, together with his brothers and sisters, made astronomical observations which are available in the archives, and published the Ephemerides Bononienses, a series started in 1715 which was continued until 1845.


[italiano |back| English]