Francesco Bianchini

Francesco Bianchini was an Italian philosopher and scientist, born on December 13, 1662, in Verona, Republic of Venice. He died on March 2, 1729, in Rome, Papal States. Educated by Jesuits and the astronomer Geminiano Montanari, Bianchini studied comets and theology at the University of Padua. He moved to Rome in 1684, becoming a librarian for Cardinal Ottoboni, who later became Pope Alexander VIII. As papal chamberlain and canon of Santa Maria Maggiore, Bianchini served three popes. He was involved in the commission for calendar reform, working on the calculation of Easter. Pope Clement XI sent him to Paris in 1712 and tasked him with establishing a museum of Christian antiquities. Bianchini's paper on Giovanni Domenico Cassini's parallax method was published in *Acta Eruditorum* in 1685. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1713 and a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1706. His astronomical work included deducing the rotational period of Venus based on surface observations, though this is now known to be impossible due to Venus's thick cloud cover. He also studied Venus's parallax and the precession of Earth's axis. Bianchini constructed a meridian line in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome to aid in astronomical and calendar calculations. Pope Benedict XVI later highlighted the importance of such devices for determining liturgical dates and prayer times. While his stance on the Copernican system is unclear, a diagram in his book on Venus showed an empty center. Asteroids and lunar/Martian craters are named in his honor. In archaeology, Bianchini explored and published findings on the columbarium of Livia and was injured exploring the Palace of the Caesars. He died in Rome and is buried in Santa Maria Maggiore, with a monument in Verona Cathedral.