Description
The remains of the ancient Palazzo della Specola of the Pisan University, the first public astronomical observatory in Tuscany, host the Domus Galileiana since 1941, a key institution for research into the history of science in Italy. The architectural complex housed part of the University Library and the Studium's Chemistry Cabinet. The structure of the edifice originally included also a tall tower for astronomical observation, built on the ruins of an older one, whose restoration work begun in 1735 and was completed in 1746. For almost eighty years the facility was home to the faculty of astronomy. In 1826 however the Specula Academica Pisana was demolished due to its precarious stability, after a series of antecedent lowerings, so the skyline of the citycentre lost its prominent observatory and "the less famous leaning tower of Pisa" was almost forgotten. On the basis of the seminal studies of Gino Arrighi, Mario Di Bono and Claudio Luperini, the present research aims to reconsider some archival documents on the dismantled observatory, from Guido Guido's letter for the construction of the Specola (1729), through the observations of eclipses by the first designated astronomer Tommaso Perelli (1748) to arrive at the six volumes of Observationes Siderum habitae Pisis in specula astronomica (1769-1795) by his assistant and successor Giuseppe Antonio Slop. Among these documents, Geminiano Montanari's inspection report (1765) has to be included since it will prove fundamental for the comparative construction of the Padua astronomical observatory. Overall, retracing the history of the Pisan observatory today offers a fine example of the historical intertwining of cultural astronomy, landscape archaeology and urban architecture, in dialogue with the history of science and new archival research.