Giovanni Battista Riccioli

Giovanni Battista Riccioli (b.April 17 1598, Ferrara, Italy – d. June 25 1671, Bologna, Italy) was an Italian astronomer.

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He was a Jesuit who entered the order in 1614.

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He devoted his career to the study of astronomy, often working with Francesco Maria Grimaldi. He wrote the important work Almagestum novum in 1651. By necessity, he opposed the Copernican heliocentric theory though praising its value as a simple hypothesis.

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He and Grimaldi extensively studied the Moon, of which Grimaldi drew a map. Much of the nomenclature of lunar features still in use today is due to him and Grimaldi. He also observed Saturn, and was the first to note that Mizar was a double star.

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Other books he wrote were: Geographiae et hydrographiae reformatae libri (1661), Astronomia reformata (1665), Chronologia reformata (1669) and Tabula latitudinum et longitudinum (published in 1689).

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Interestingly, despite his stated opposition to Copernicus's theory he named a very prominent crater (Copernicus crater) after him, and other important craters were named after other proponents of the theory Kepler, Galileo and Lansbergius. Craters that he and Grimaldi named after themselves are in the same general vicinity, while some other Jesuit astronomers have craters named after them in a different part of the Moon, near Tycho crater. This is sometimes considered to be tacit sympathy for Copernican theory, which as a Jesuit he could not publicly express.

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Ferrara: Ferrara, a town, an archiepiscopal see and a province in Emilia-Romagna, Italy....

Italy: Italy (Italian: Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a country in southern Europe. It comprises a boot-shaped peninsula and two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia, and shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent countries...

June 25: June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining....

Giovanni Battista Riccioli related Images and Photos (experimental)

Giovanni Battista Martini	Giovanni Battista Belzoni at the Temple of Memnonium	Giovanni Battista Vico Italian Philosopher and Professor in Naples	Portrait of Count Giovanni Battista Vailetti
Gardening Knife from "Hesperides" by Giovanni Battista Ferrari	Fishponds at Villa D'Este Tivoli from "Le Fontane" by Giovanni Battista Falda Published by 1689	Giovanni Cassini	Giovanni Prisoner in Newgate
"Don Giovanni" Luigi Bassi as the Don: The Serenade	Don Giovanni the Opening Scene	Giovanni He Fights a Duel with Branecki	Giovanni Bellini Italian Artist of the Venetian School