Lorenzo Respighi

This volume intends to commemorate the bicentenary of Lorenzo Respighi's birth, retracing the main stages of his scientific achievements, recognising in them the seeds of fields of study that remain of great interest today. Respighi was a pioneer of astrophysics and one of the most talented Italian astronomers of the 19th century. His research focused primarily on solar physics and stellar spectroscopy, but he made contributions to positional astronomy, compiling an accurate star catalogue and discovering three new comets. He was also interested in differential calculus and celestial mechanics. A pioneer in developing new technologies for astronomical observation, he was the first to use the objective prism. When placed in front of the telescope lens, this allowed the simultaneous collection of hundreds of stellar spectra. This technology was later perfected - and the actual inventor disputed - by the Jesuit Angelo Secchi, known as the father of astrophysics. Together with Secchi and other astronomers of the time, Respighi founded the Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, the world's first organisation dedicated to promoting and disseminating astrophysical studies. This later became the Italian Astronomical Society, which is still active today. He was also a member of the European Commission for the Measurement of the Meridian and the Italian Commission for Weights and Measures, as well as the Royal Astronomical Society, the Accademia dei Lincei, and the Accademia delle Scienze detta dei XL. His life had interesting social and political implications during the transition from the Papal States to the Kingdom of Italy amid the Italian "Risorgimento", and was intertwined with the history of the Astronomical Observatory of Bologna, and later that of the Astronomical Observatory of the Campidoglio. He directed the latter continuously from 1865 until his death in Rome on 10 December 1889.

The volume contains a collection of essays based on the presentations delivered at the National Workshop held in Rome in October 2024, which was organised by National Committee for the Celebration of Lorenzo Respighi established by the Ministry of Culture, with the contribution of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the scientist's birth. These contributions will be useful for scholars and students of the history of science and astronomy, as they provide biographical and scientific information that is not easily accessible elsewhere.