Francesco Denza

Francesco Maria Denza (born June 7, 1834 in Naples , † December 14, 1894 in Rome ) was an Italian Barnabite priest , teacher, meteorologist and astronomer . He founded the meteorological observatory in Moncalieri near Turin and from there a weather observation network , from which the Società Meteorologica Italiana emerged .

Life

Denza entered the Barnabite College of Resina ( Ercolano ; near Naples) at the age of 16, where he took his religious vows in 1851 . He then studied philosophy in Macerata until 1853 and then theology in Rome. There he met the Jesuit , astronomer and meteorologist Angelo Secchi , who got him excited about natural sciences and with whom he also studied. In 1856 Denza was transferred to the Barnabite College in Moncalieri as a teacher of mathematics and physics. In these two subjects he graduated from the University of Turin the following year ; shortly afterwards he was ordained a priest .

In 1858 he wrote to his teacher Angelo Secchi about his plan to set up a small meteorological observatory at the college in Moncalieri. Secchi, who from 1855 in the Papal States had established a network of observatories, stood him in as a recognized meteorologist. In the following year, the Moncalieri observatory began operations. In turn, Denza organized a network, first in Piedmont and the Aosta Valley , and then throughout the country after the unification of Italy . He published data and studies in his journal Bullettino Meteorologico as well as in numerous scientific monographs. The Società Meteorologica Italiana emerged from the network called Corrispondenza Meteorologica Italiana in 1880 . The several hundred weather stations and stations of the company were finally taken over by the Italian state weather service founded in 1876 .

Denza's work and reputation soon led the Italian government and other agencies to offer him leadership roles. Denza usually turned down these offers because he did not want to leave his students in Moncalieri and from 1870 the Roman question was also an issue . Nonetheless, he represented the Curia and Italy in his meteorological field on an international level, gave lectures and made research trips. He was also one of the organizers of the state weather service.

On February 5, 1886, Denza suffered a stroke at a meeting at the Club Alpino Italiano in Turin , which partially paralyzed him. Denza kept working, writing with his left hand instead of his right. Pope Leo XIII. he suggested that the Papal Observatory be rebuilt. With the elimination of the Papal States, Italy had also moved in the former seat of the observatory, the Palazzo del Collegio Romano , in the capital Rome , which is why the new observatory was built in the Vatican. The management of the work and the observatory was taken over by Francesco Denza, who therefore left Moncalieri in 1890. On December 14, 1894, Denza died of another stroke in his small apartment by the observatory.

A Catholic school was named after him in his hometown of Naples, and the Rifugio Stavèl Francesco Denza refuge in Trentino .

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personal data
SURNAME	Denza, Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Denza, Francesco Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian barnabit, teacher, meteorologist and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	June 7, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH	Naples
DATE OF DEATH	December 14, 1894
Place of death	Rome