Lorenzo Respighi
Italian mathematician (1824–1889)
Lorenzo Respighi (7 October 1824 – 10 December 1889) was an Italian mathematician and natural philosopher. He was a pioneer in solar spectroscopy.
Biography
Lorenzo Respighi was born at Cortemaggiore, Piacenza, to Luigi Respighi and Giuseppina Rossetti. He studied mathematics and natural philosophy, first at Parma and then at the University of Bologna, where he obtained his degree in 1847. From 1855 to 1864 he was director of the Astronomic Observatory of Bologna, and during these years he discovered three comets, #1862 IV, #1863 III and #1863 V.
After the Unification of Italy the Italian Government imposed upon university professors the Oath of Allegiance to the House of Savoy. Respighi refused to take it. In consequence of this refusal, he had to leave the chair and the direction of the observatory.
He moved to Rome, where he obtained the position of astronomer at the Campidoglio observatory, directed by Calandrelli. In 1866, Respighi succeeded him both in the directorship of the Campidoglio observatory and in the chair of astronomy at the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1866 he made important observations on the lunar crater Linné.
“Lorenzo Respighi” enters the record as italian mathematician (1824–1889). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lorenzo, Respighi and Italian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1398937. VIAF identifies the subject as 69709960. The Library of Congress control number is no2009055184. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1824, 1889, 1847 and 1855.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lorenzo Respighi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.