Agostino Codazzi

Giovanni Battista Agostino Codazzi (1793-1859), (alternatively known in Latin America as Agustín Codazzi) was an Italian military, scientist, geographer and cartographer. He made his main investigations and cartographic work in Venezuela and Colombia, thereby creating for both countries a complete set of maps and statistics after the tumultuous post-independence years from Spanish Empire.

Early years

Codazzi was born in the Italian city of Lugo on July 12, 1793. Since young he appreciated the ideals of the French Revolution and, after his studies at the military academy "Scuola di Artiglieria" of Pavia, actively served in the Napoleon Army.

With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 Codazzi moved away from Italy and after some travels went to Venezuela, where he offered his military knowledge to Simon Bolivar.

Codazzi the geographer, scientist and cartographer

Successively he received the task of mapping the area of the Maracaibo Lake and the borders between Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. The Venezuelan government named him Colonel and ordered the creation of an Atlas of Venezuela, a task that gave him international fame (in Paris Codazzi was awarded in 1842 the "Legion of Honor" by the King of France, on behalf of the French Academy of Science).

Agustin Codazzi meanwhile took the Venezuelan citizenship from president José Antonio Páez and become Governor of Barinas, a region of southwestern Venezuela. In those years his academic activity of geographer was continuously interrupted by his duties of military commander, suffocating many revolts.

Codazzi even promoted the creation in the 1840s of the Colonia Tovar, a small German settlement in the Venezuelan central mountains that still exist today and has become one of the main tourist attractions near Maracay.

With the fall of Páez after a military insurrection, Codazzi was forced to escape to Cúcuta (Colombia), where he continued his geographic and mapping activity with military duties for the Colombian government.

In 1852 Codazzi did a scientific and cartographic inspection of Panama for the British government: in 1854 -even if with no mention of Codazzi- the Panama Canal project was done following exactly his indications and route.

Last years

Agostino Codazzi died of malaria in February 1859 at the small town of Espiritu Santu in the Colombian mountains, while he was mapping the area. The town where he died, has been renamed since then "Aldea Codazzi".

Venezuela honored the memory of Agustin Codazzi placing his remains inside the Panteón Nacional of Caracas in 1942, where he is considered one the Heroes of Venezuela.

External links

* [http://mitreum.net/codazzi Biography of Codazzi: "Agustin Codazzi, Vida y Empresas", by Giorgio Antei (in Italian & Spanish)]
* [http://mitreum.net/codazzi/imgs/010501b.jpgPhoto of Agostino Codazzi]

ee also

Italo-venezuelans