VATICAN
310
VATICAN
with the Vatican Observatory, at least as far as the
locality is concerned. The tower is 73 metres above
sea level and stands over tlie museum and library,
between the courtyards Belvedere and della Pigna.
It is often called the "Tower of the Winds".
(2) The second period of the Vatican Observatory
tion of instruments presented to Leo XIII by the
Italian clergy for the celebration of his golden jubilee
of priesthood, in 18S8. The Barnabite Father Denza,
well-known as founder of the Italian Meteorological
Society, then proposed to Leo XIII to preserve the
instruments in the Gregorian Tower, and to restore
deals mainly with the person of Mgr. Filippo Luigi that locality to its former purposes. The plan was
Gilii, whose hfe ha^ been written by Lais. Gilii was accepted and a series of the best instruments was pro
bom in Cometo, in 1756, and died in Rome, in 1821,
a beneficed clergj'man of St. Peter's Basilica. He was
a universal genius, well versed in physics and in
biology, in archeology and in the Hebrew language.
The Gregorian Tower was then in charge of the
cured, partly from donations by Hicks in London,
partly by purchase of self-registering apparatus from
Richard in Paris. From the observatory of the late
Marquis of MontecuccoU in Modena, of which Denza
had been director, a four-inch equatorial, a three-
Vatican librarian, to which office Cardinal Zelada inch transit instrument, and four pendulum clocks
had been appointed in 1780. Zelada wished to with two chronometers, were acquired. Father
honour the traditions of the tower by devoting its Denza had still broader plans. The year before,
upper part to an observatory. In 1797 he obtained in 1887, Mouchez had organized the co-operation of
the sanction of Pius VI, and placed over the entrance a number of observatories for continuing Argelander's
to the tower the Latin inscription Si>ccida Valicana. observations to fainter magnitudes by means of
The upper story was fitted up with meteorological photography. At the second meeting of the com-
and magnetic in-
struments, with a
seismograph, a
Dolland telescope,
a smaU transit and
pendulum clock,
and the observa-
tory was given in
charge of Mgr.
Gihi. From 1800
to 1821 Gihi made
an uninterrupted
series of meteoro-
logical observa-
tions, reading the
instruments twice
a day (after 6 a. m.
and 2 p. m.), ac-
cording to the
programme of the Mannheim Meteorological So- ciety. The observations of about seven years of the long series are pubhshed, while the rest are in great part preserved as manuscripts in the Vatican Library. There are also deposited astro- nomical observations of echpses, comets, Jupiter's sateUites, and of a transit of Mercury. Gihi's scien- tific activity extended beyond the Vatican Observa- tory and beyond Rome. The meridian hne in front of St. Peter's, with the obeUsk as gnomon and the readings of the seasons by the length of the shadow, is due to him ; so are also the signs on the floor of St
mittee in Paris, in
1889, Denza de-
clared his inten-
tion to join in the
work. For this
purpose, Leo XIII
ceded to the ^'ati-
can Observatory a
second tower,
more than 400
metres distant
from the Grego-
rian. It is the
western of the two
towers remaining
from the Leonine
Fortress which had
been built for de-
fence against the
Saracens in 8-18-.5.3. With a diameter of 17
metres and a thickness of 4.5 metres in the
lower walls, it seemed large and strong enough to
support the thirteen-inch photographic refractor,
which was ordered from Gauthier in Paris. During
the four years following the observatory remained in
charge of the vice-director. Father Lais, of the Ora-
tory, who has conducted the photographic work from
the beginning, all at his own expense. From 1898
imtil 1905 the directorship was in the hands of the
Augustinian Father Rodriguez, a specialist in nie-
teorology. Seven volumes were published during
Peter's Basilica, indicating the lengths of the greatest the third period of the observatory, four under Denza,
churches of the world; hkewise the two old clocks of the fifth under Lais, and the last two under Rodriguez French and Italian style, in the front of the basilica, (4) The fourth and present period of the Vatican
and finally the first lightning rod on St. Peter's Observatory began with the appointment in Novem-
cupola. Similar memories of him exist in various ber, 1904, by Pius X of Archbishop (now Cardinal)
churches and cities of Italy. The tombstone in Ara Maffi as President of the Specola. His first step was
Cceli calls him a man "mitissimi ingenii, modestiae to remedy the great difficulty caused by the separa-
singularis, plus". At the death of Gilii the Vatican tion of the two towers. According to his plans, the
Observatory was discontinued, for the following Gregorian Tower was to be abandoned to historical
reason: Pius VII and Leo XII raised the standard archives, and the second round tower of the old
of studies in the papal states. The latter pope, in Leonine Fortre.ss, with the adjoining summer resi-
dence of Leo XIII, was to be given over to astronomy.
The two old towers were to be connected with each
other by a passage over the fortification wall, with an
iron bridge spanning a gap of 85 metres in length.
For carrying out these plans, the author of the present
article was designated in the audience given to Car-
his Apostolic letter, "Quod divina sapientia", gave
instructions about observatories, publications, and
intercourse with foreign scientists. In 1787 the ob-
servatory at the Roman College had been founded,
under Calandrelli, and was declared preferable to
the Vatican, as more accessible to students in
the city, an(l not obstructed bv the great cupola of dinal Mafli on 14 Miuch, 1900, and officially ap- St. Peter's (Giornale Arcadico,'lI, p. 407). On the pointed on 20 April. The fortification wall, a thou- advicc of Father Boscovich the instruments were then sand years old, which extends about 400 metres, is now tran.sferred from the Gregorian Tower to the Roman crowned with four rotary domes, covering the as- College. trograpliic refractor in the Leonine Tower, and a new
(3) The revival of the Vatican Observatory in its sixteen-inch visual telescope in the second tower, third periocl was occasioned, on the one hand, by the called Torre Pio X. A four-inch equatorial stands on loss to the Church of the Roman College an<l its a half round bastion, at the west end of the bridge, observatory in 1870, and on the other, by the e.xposi- and a photoheliograph at the east end of the old wall.
