Le Stelle

Description

Rare first edition. Father ANGELO SECCHI, a Jesuit, was a pioneer of the then nascent astrophysics through the spectroscopy of those celestial bodies that emit radiation in the visible range both through direct and reflected light. This can be analysed in detail through its components, which define many of its characteristics. Better known and appreciated abroad than in Italy, partly due to a certain post-unification anticlericalism, Father Secchi, between 1866 and 1868, classified the stars into four classes based on their spectral emission (to which he added a fifth in 1877). This classification is discussed in this first edition of "Le stelle", and brought him international fame. From 1850 to 1878, he was director of the Astronomical Observatory of the Collegio Romano, which, to his disappointment, became the property of the Italian State in 1873.