Upon obtaining his diploma in Architectural Engineering from the University of Bologna in 1807, Giovanni Battista Amici (1786-1863) taught mathematics at the superior school in his native Moderna and, in 1815, he was nominated professor of mathematics for the city university. In 1831 he was invited by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II to direct the Observatory of the Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History, with the title of Professor of Astronomy at the University of Pisa. Optician of international fame, due to his important contributions to the development of the compound microscope, which he perfected by introducing the frontal hemispherical lens and the technique of immersing the objective. He had made micrometers, geodetic instruments and telescopes both reflecting and refracting. He had invented a great number of optical devices among which the direct-vision prism that bears his name, the dipleidoscope and the catadioptric microscope. Numerous and important were his studies in microscopy.
Portrait of Giovanni Battista Amici,
Michele Gordigiani, 1874; oil on canvas
Objective Lens,
Giovanni Battista Amici [ attr.]; first half of the 19th C.; glass, brass
The objective with a diameter of 170 millimeters, might be one of the many that Amici made for his own private observatory, that upon his death, were donated to the Observatory at Arcetri.
Dipleidoscope ,
Giovanni Battista Amici; first half of the 19th C.; glass, brass, stone
Designed by Amici, this instrument, if correctly positioned, is able to determine the instant of true solar noon with a precision of a few seconds.
Spectroscope,
Giovanni Battista Amici; first half of the 19th C.; glass, brass
This is a direct-vision spectroscope constructed by Amici in black painted brass. It was part of the accessories that furnished the telescope “Amici I”.
Filar Micrometer,
Giovanni Battista Amici, Moderna; before 1831; brass
The lateral movement of the ocular of the micrometer was achieved through a rack slide. The device, in addition could have rotated parallel to the optical axes of the telescope.