Person: Manfredi, Eustachio
Eustachio Manfredi was an Italian mathematician, astronomer and poet.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- After attending school at the Jesuit Convent of St Lucia, Eustachio studied at the Jesuit College in Bologna.
- Guglielmini had produced important contributions to crystallography beginning in 1688 and, at the time that Manfredi was studying with him, Guglielmini was studying hydraulics leading to his major work on rivers, Della Natura del Fiumi Ⓣ(The nature of rivers) (1697), which included among other things a description of uniform flow.
- Guglielmini taught Manfredi the differential calculus and he soon became interested in hydraulics, but also taught himself astronomy.
- During these years the young Manfredi had wide interests for, in addition to these scientific studies, he also studied French, and was interested in literature, particularly poetry.
- All of these interests were enhanced by a group of friends with similar scholarly interests who Manfredi invited to form the Accademia degli Inquiti.
- Manfredi was fascinated by astronomy and led much of the groups' activities in that direction.
- Although they did not have funds to buy astronomical instruments, nevertheless they set up an observatory at the Manfredi home and constructed their own rudimentary sextants and telescopes.
- As we indicated above, Manfredi was also interested in poetry and music.
- He wrote poetry, some of which is now lost, but an anthology of his poetry was published in the 84 page work Rime del dottore Eustachio Manfredi Ⓣ(Poems of Dr Eustace Manfredi) (1713).
- His poetry enjoyed great popularity with works such as the 59-page book of sacred poetry Poesie sacre di Eustachio Manfredi bolognese Ⓣ(The sacred poems of Eustachio Manfredi of Bologna) published in 1840.
- In 1699 Manfredi was appointed as a public lecturer in mathematics at the University of Bologna.
- However, this position was very poorly paid and Manfredi was in considerable financial difficulties.
- From around 1700 Manfredi was also supported by Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili (1658-1730), a soldier and naturalist who was engaged in military campaigns but, nevertheless, wished to create an academy in Bologna similar to the Royal Society in London and the Academy of Sciences in Paris.
- With Marsili's support, Manfredi erected an observatory at the palace in 1703.
- From 1705 Manfredi corresponded with Guido Grandi who had been appointed to Pisa.
- In particular he corresponded with Manfredi.
- On 29 November 1707, jointly with Vittorio Francesco Stancari with whom he was working, Manfredi discovered a comet (now given the name C/1707 W1).
- In 1711 Manfredi was appointed to the chair of astronomy at the Institute of Sciences which had been founded by Count Marsili.
- Following the building of the new Bologna Observatory, Manfredi carried out observations to calculate its precise latitude and longitude.
- By the time it cleared the censors, James Bradley had made similar observations to those of Manfredi and, in 1729, he published his own observations together with his explanation that the phenomenon was caused by the aberration of light.
- Although Manfredi had, earlier than Bradley, discovered the same phenomenon and given it the name 'aberration', he could not accept Bradley's explanation.
- Manfredi remained throughout his life a believer in a stationary earth in the centre of the universe.
- Before this time ephemerides had always been intended as astrological purposes and we must give Manfredi credit for publishing his ephemerides intending them for scientific use.
- The ephemerides were preceded by a volume of instructions including tables that were reprinted by Eustachio Zanotti in 1750.
- In 1725 Manfredi published a similar, highly successful work for the period 1726-1750 that in some ways anticipated the Nautical Almanac (1766).
- After completing the work for the ephemerides in 1714, Manfredi took up problems in hydraulics.
- Manfredi represented Bologna in the discussions which were set up between experts from the States of Mantua and of Venice in attempts to solve this problem.
- Manfredi went to Lucca in 1724 where he was called to settle a dispute regarding boundaries.
- Over these final years of his life, Manfredi taught astronomy at the Institute where he was visited by several foreign scholars.
- Another two posthumous publications by Manfredi were Instituzioni astronomiche Ⓣ(Astronomical Institutions) (1749) and his lectures on the elements of plane and solid geometry and trigonometry, Elementi della geometria piana e solida e della trigonometria Ⓣ(Elements of plane and solid geometry and trigonometry) (1755).
- We have explained above how Manfredi founded the Accademia degli Inquieti, that became the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1714.
- It is interesting to see the papers by Manfredi that were read at meetings of the Royal Society.
- These include: Observations of the solar eclipse witnessed at Bologna on 14 September 1727 (read 16 January 1728); Observations of the moon, Venus and Saturn made at Bologna (read 16 January 1728); Observations of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites (read 16 January 1728); Astronomical passage of a Lumen Boreale observed near Bologna March 14 1727 (read 16 May 1728); Observations of the lumen borealis seen at Bologna on 14 March 1727 (read 16 May 1728); Concerning Newton's work on optics (read 31 October 1728); Observations of lunar eclipse on 28 July 1729 (read 22 January 1729); Concerning Mr Bradley's theory about fixed stars (29 January 1729); Observations of a solar eclipse witnessed at Bologna (read 29 October 1730); Observations of the solar eclipse on 3 May 1734 (read 23 October 1735); Account of the conjunction of Mercury with the Sun observed at the Astronomical Observatory of the Institute of Bologna on 11 November 1736 drawn up by Eustachio Manfredi (read 13 January 1737).
Born 20 September 1674, Bologna, Papal States (now Italy). Died 15 February 1739, Bologna, Papal States (now Italy).
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Astronomy, Origin Italy
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
