Lorenzo Leone Antonio Maria Respighi was born in Cortemaggiore (PC) on 7th October 1824.

Being orphaned of both parents at an early age, he was placed in the care first of his brother and then of a great uncle.

After completing his high school studies, he enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in Bologna, where he received an honorary degree in 1847 and where, in 1851, he was appointed professor of Optics and Astronomy. A few years later he was entrusted with the direction of the city’s astronomical observatory.

In 1864, Respighi, a practicing Catholic, refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Savoy government, probably for reasons of conscience and loyalty to the pope, thus being dismissed from all official positions.

However, the following year Pontiff Pius IX appointed him holder of the chair of Optics and Astronomy at “La Sapienza” college in Rome and, later, director of the Capitoline Observatory.

During his long career, he was involved in numerous researches in various fields of astronomy, including the solar chromosphere and the relationships between spots and protuberances, daily measurements of the sun’s diameter, the sunspot spectrum, the analysis of various cometary phenomena, the latitude of the Capitol and Monte Mario, the longitude of Rome and Milan, and compiled a valuable catalog of more than 2534 stars.

Lorenzo Respighi died in Rome on December 10, 1889.

You can consult birth and death records on the Ancestors Portal, respectively: Archivio di Stato di Piacenza, Stato civile della Restaurazione, Cortemaggiore, 1824 and Archivio di Stato di Roma, Stato civile italiano, Roma, 1889

The originals are preserved at the State Archives of Piacenza and the State Archives of Rome, respectively.

For more on the figure of Lorenzo Respighi, see the entry of the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani edited by Ileana Chinnici.

His personal archive (1849-1890; 450 files) is kept at the Historical Archives of the Astronomical Observatory in Rome.