Amici aspired to make a refracting telescope that could compete with or surpass the refractor of Dorpat, the masterpiece of Joseph Fraunhofer. Due to the lack in Italy of a glass manufacturer capable of producing large disks of glass of good quality the rough hew were ordered from the company Guinard of Paris and reached Florence in July of 1840. The objective that Amici made from it, afterwards known as “Amici I”, had a diameter of 283 mm. In 1864 the Italian Parliament allocated 44.000 lire for a new and more suitable mount which, however, proved to be unsatisfactory. The instrument was then placed in the new Observatory at Arcetri and, in 1924, the objective was substituted with another with an aperture of 370 mm. It is instead, uncertain the history of the objective with an aperture of 238 mm, known as “Amici II”. It was probably derived from two disks of 288 mm in diameter, acquired in Paris in 1844 by Amici, then resized to eliminate imperfections along the border. Today the objective is preserved along with “Amici I” in the Observatory at Arcetri.
Telescope “Amici II”,
Giovanni Battista Amici; first half of the 19th C.; wood, brass
It seems that the instrument could have been the personal property of Amici. It was passed afterward to the Observatory in Arcetri, where it was used by Ernst Tempel, who lamented about its limited mount.