- Francesco Bianchini
:"For Giovanni Bianchini (1410-ca. 1469), see
Giovanni Bianchini ."Francesco Bianchini (
December 13 ,1662 –March 2 ,1729 ) was an Italianphilosopher andscientist . He worked for thecuria of threepopes , including being "camiere d`honore" of Clement XI, and secretary of the commission for the reform of thecalendar , working on the method to calculate the astronomically correct date forEaster in a given year.Bianchini was born of a noble family at
Verona . In 1684 he went toRome , and became librarian to Cardinal Ottoboni, who, asPope Alexander VIII (1689), raised him to the offices of papal chamberlain and canon of Santa Maria Maggiore. Clement XI sent him on a mission toParis in 1712, and employed him to form a museum of Christian antiquities. A paper by him onGiovanni Domenico Cassini 's new method ofparallax es was inserted in the "Ada Eruditorum" ofLeipzig in 1685.His deduction of the rotational period of Venus was based on the observation of its surface. Today, we know that this is impossible, because of the thick cloud cover on this
planet . He also worked on the parallax of Venus, and he measured the precession of theEarth 's rotational axis.As part of his efforts to improve the accuracy of the calendar, Bianchini constructed an important meridian line in the basilica of
Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri inRome , a device for calculating the position of the sun and stars.His point of view on the
Copernican system is not evident, but it was noted that the picture of the planetary system in his book about Venus has an empty center.Craters on Mars and the
Moon were named in his honor.He also worked as a topographer and archaeologist of ancient Rome, and as a collector.
Books by Bianchini
He published many books, including:
* "Storia universale, provata co' monumenti, e figurata co' simboli degli antichi" (Rome, 1697 and 1747)
* "De Calendario et Cyclo Caesaris" (1703)
* "De vitis romanorum pontificum a Petro Apost. ad Nicolaum I." 4 vol. (Rome, 1718-35)
* "Hesperi et Phosphori nova phaenomena sive observationes circa planetam Veneris" (Rome, 1728), in which he assertedVenus to rotate in 243 days
* (posthumously) "Astronomicae et Geographicae Observationes Selectae" (1737) and
* "Opuscula Varia" (1754).References
*1911
External links
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02541a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia engl.]
* Kurzbeschreibung [http://www.bo.astro.it/~biblio/Vultus-Uraniae/Face_cap4I.html Hesperi et Phosphori nova phaenomena…]
* Bianchini's [http://www.bo.astro.it/~biblio/Vultus-Uraniae/Globe-of-Venus.html Globe of Venus] , 1727. Astronomical Museum "Museo della Specola," Bologna
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