Speaker
Simone Bianchi
(Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
Description
While we celebrate our friend Daniele from Pisa, I will talk about another great Pisan
astronomer, Giovanni Battista Donati (1826-1873), pioneer of Astrophysics and founder
of the Arcetri Observatory. Despite his many achievements, Donati had received little
attention by Italian science historians in the past. In the last two decades, however, the
situation has changed, thanks to Daniele, who spent countless night hours to read and
transcribe letters and other documents regarding his personal hero (a.k.a. "Bista").
I will illustrate the human aspects of Bista that emerged from Daniele's work (and the fun we had in this research!).
Primary author
Simone Bianchi
(Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))
