Prior events

1735 is a fundamental year for the development of astronomy in Southern Italy. Under Charles III of Bourbon, when Naples had finally become an independent kingdom after more than two centuries of vice-royalty, the reform plan of Neapolitan Studies put forward by Celestino Galiani was approved. The reform involved the reorganization and redistribution of chairs among professors, established new duties and rights of students and professors and promoted the creation of the chair of Astronomy and Nautical sciences which replaced that of Ethics and Politics. Astronomy was, therefore, included in the higher education program for the first time in Southern Italy. The link between Astronomy and Nautical sciences was deeply rooted in the age-old connection between observation of the sky and navigation at sea. Furthermore, the new chair would serve the purpose of improving navigation techniques and expanding both the merchant and war fleets, following the example of the Observatory of Paris in France and the Observatory of Greenwich in England. The new Realm also needed to reorganize its defence and economic systems and, in order to do so, entrusted the university with the task of forming experts in these fields. Pietro De Martino (1707-1746) was the first Chairman of Astronomy and Nautical sciences (which was then renamed Astronomy and Calendars). Like his successors Felice Sabatelli (1714-1786) and Ferdinando Messia da Prado (?-1810), he did not have a Specula at his disposal at the time and had to limit his teaching to theory only. The absence of an Astronomical Observatory was a setback for a city which aimed at being a European capital. European cities such as London, Paris and Berlin had a long tradition of scientific studies, witnessed by their prestigious astronomy observatories, botanical gardens and scientific academies (i.e. the Royal Society in London and the l'Académie des Sciences in Paris), and even the major cities of Northern and Central Italy such as Bologna, Pisa, Florence and Rome had well developed astronomy and botanical study centres. In Naples, instead, these institutions still had to be created. Furthermore, the University of Naples was oriented mainly towards medical and mathematical studies and offered a poor choice when it came to scientific disciplines. Astronomy was still studied and practiced in some Speculae which were private or connected to colleges of religious orders, such as the Specula of the Royal College of the Pious Schools, under the directorship of Father Nicola Maria Carcani, and the private observatories of Lord Acton in San Carlo alle Mortelle and prince Ferdinando Vincenzo Spinelli of Tarsia. The College of 'Gesuiti al Salvatore' also housed a rich collection of physical and astronomical instruments. Thus, while scientific disciplines had been progressively integrated with technology, economy and social policy in Europe, scientific academies mainly operated as private institutions in Southern Italy. In this context, Pietro De Martino and Sabatelli unsuccessfully insisted on the foundation of a Specula. The project was taken up by Sabatelli's student Giuseppe Cassella (1755-1808) who studied Astronomy in Padua with the Abbot Giuseppe Toaldo. Appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Paduan Seminar, in 1786 he moved to the chair of Astronomy at the Royal Marine Academy. Here he met Lord Acton, Minister of the Marine, who had a great passion for astronomy and took it upon himself to plead the case for the foundation of the Specula at Court. The project was finally approved by Ferdinando IV in 1791. The first site that was chosen was on the North-East side of the Royal Museum. This, according to the King, would become a cultural centre and be renamed "General Museum and Academy of Science and Arts". The Roman architect Pompeo Schiantarelli (1746-1802/05) was entrusted with the architectural design of the Specula.

What remains of this plan which was never completed, is the beautiful meridian with a brass listello 27.40 meters long set in marble panels with the mythological representations of the zodiac constellations on oval pictures, probably carried out by Johann Heinrich Willhelm Tischbein (1751-1829), the then director of the Painting, Sculpture and Architecture Academy. The meridian is housed in the National Archaeological Museum on the first floor. During the French domination, under King Giuseppe Bonaparte, Cassella renewed his request. With the January 29 1807 decree, he was finally granted the use of the San Gaudioso Monastery on the Sant'Agnello hill, close to the Greek Acropolis of Neapolis, for the Specula.

Between 1802 and 1803 Cassella was still using Lord Acton's Observatory and had only a few instruments of his own. In 1808, Cassella became ill and died during the time-consuming observation of a comet path in the sky and the Specula of San Gaudioso was closed. However, during the French domination, many scientific enterprises were promoted by Bonaparte, who being aware of the importance of progress of science and culture was willing to fill this gap and set up new institutions, as the foundation of the Botanical Garden in 1807 bears witness. Under King Gioacchino Murat, who replaced Giuseppe Bonaparte in 1808, the French promoted education and research in such way as to develop a dynamic relationship between the academic world and the country's socio-economic needs. Great public works were carried out, such as the foundation of the Zoological Museum and the Astronomical Observatory.

From foundation till 1860

The foundation of the Observatory was meticulously planned. In 1809, Federico Zuccari (1784-1817), who was teaching Mathematical Geography at the Military College, was chosen among the most promising astronomers to be trained abroad and then entrusted with the directorship of the Specula. Thus, the twenty-five years old Neapolitan Professor was sent to the Milanese Specula in Brera, where he started his five-year specialization under the supervision of the famous astronomer Barnaba Oriani. When he returned to Naples, in view of the realization of the Observatory of San Gaudioso he installed his own instruments on the terrace of the Monastery's Belvedere, thanks to the help of the mechanic Augusto Aehenelt . However, the works never came to an end, since it was finally acknowledged that the location was unfit for astronomical observations, due to the closeness of the city lights and the unsteadiness of the ground. In 1812, the construction of an ex-novo Observatory was finally decreed (a rare thing in a Country were 'restructuring' was the main trend) and new ground inspections were started. Zuccari finally chose the Miradois hill, close to the Royal Palace of Capodimonte, which was named after the Marques of Miradois, prince regent of the Great Court of Vicaria. The site proved to be suitable and was approved by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1817 and by the new director Carlo Brioschi in 1819. The project of the building was conceived by Zuccari himself and finalized by the architect Stefano Gasse. It was a monumental project, though not entirely practical, as it did not provide for facilities such as study rooms and lodgings, as Barnaba Oriani and Giuseppe Piazzi when asked to approve the plans remarked. However, the project was approved with no objections by the Baron Franz Xaver von Zach, a well known astronomer who founded the first international astronomical review "Corrispondance astronomique, géographique, hydrographique et statistique". During Zuccari's stay in Milan, he had been the contact between the young atronomer and the German astronomer Georg von Reichenbach (1772-1826), who was one of the best engineers and technicians of optical instruments in Europe, together with Joseph von Utzschneider, Joseph Liebherr and Joseph Fraunhofer , responsible for the purchase of instruments. The building works started on November 4, 1812. However, due to the dishonesty of the building contractor and Zuccari's inability to manage funds, they progressed slowly and at high cost. When in February 1815 the Baron von Zach came to Naples to install the instruments which had been ordered by Reichenbach, the works still hadn't reached completion. After the Restoration, ratified by the Congress of Vienna, Ferdinand returned to the throne as king of the Two Sicilies and included the completion of the works of the Specula in the global plan for the capital's urban development. However, in 1816 the works were interrupted again due to a lack of funds.

Finally, in 1817 the King asked Giuseppe Piazzi to come to Naples and assess the progress of the building works. His plan was approved and with the June 27 1817 decree funds were set up to start again. Even though they proceeded at a faster pace, the Theatine father had to struggle with the local technicians who tended to neglect the functional side of the enterprise in the name of aesthetics. In early 1819, the building of the outer areas started (the large square, the boundary walls and the ditch) while the subterranean rooms and the decoration of the building reached completion. In the same year, the building was solemnly inaugurated. The inscription FERDINANDUS I / ASTRONOMIAE INCREMENTO / MDCCCXIX still stands out on the frontispiece of the main observatory. Also, the hall houses Claudio Monti's bas-relief which portrays Ferdinand crowned by Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, followed by Ceres, in praise of the Bourbon dynasty. Once the factory was completed, research activities finally began. When Zuccari died in 1818, Carlo Brioschi (1781-1833) was appointed director of the Specula under Barnaba Oriani's recommendation to Piazzi. During his directorship (from 1819 to 1833), the astronomers Ernesto Capocci and Antonio Nobile calculated the meridian distance of eleven stars and the Sun for the first time in 1820 and performed the first weather observations in 1821.

Zuccari's nephew Ernesto Capocci (1798-1864), who had already been appointed second astronomer in 1819, succeeded Brioschi as director in 1833. Since 1824 he had dedicated himself to comet observations, which were published in the 1826 "Commentarj". In 1827, he was requested by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel to work with Father Inghirami from Florence compiling the Great Star Map. His task was to observe a region with a declination -15° and +15° and 18 and 19 hours right ascension. In a period of three years, Capocci and his assistant Leopoldo Del Re, measured the positions of nearly 7900 stars by using the Reichenbach meridian circle and checked the relative position of several hundred double stars. Interested in literary studies and a strong believer in the popularisation of science for the sake of community development and welfare, Capocci was a man of letters and a politically committed intellectual who openly fought against Bourbon power. Because of his political ideas, he was dismissed in 1850 and re-employed only in 1860, with the united Kingdom of Italy. When he died on January 6 1864, Annibale De Gasparis (1819-1889) took up the directorship.

From 1860 till today

Annibale De Gasparis (1819-1889), who had already distinguished himself during Leopoldo Del Re's directorship, was the most important figure in astronomical science at the Specula of Capodimonte from the Sixties to the Nineties. It was hard times as funds were scarce and the instruments were obsolete. Initially equipped with the most up-to-date instruments for positional astronomy, by the early Fifties its instruments were obsolete. Furthermore, the Neapolitan astronomers only practiced the classical 18th century positional astronomy which dealt with time measurement, clock setting and routine meteorological surveys. This was due to the fact that Neapolitan scientific and astronomical research was strongly linked to mathematical sciences and investigation into other fields, such as the chemistry had been neglected. However, it was from the exchange between mathematics, chemistry and physics that astrophysics sprang up and developed at an international level. Thanks to a few brilliant astronomers, the Neapolitan Specula could slowly come to be part of the astrophysics international framework. In 1855, Arminio Nobile (1838-1897) put forward the first hypotheses on short-term variations in longitude, a phenomenon which Küstner (Berlin Observatory) "rediscovered" thirty years later. As the German astronomer claimed it as his own discovery, in 1891 Nobile published an essay entitled "A Claim for Scientific Property". In 1893-1894, the then director Emanuele Fergola and the well known Neapolitan astronomers Faustino Brioschi , Francesco Contarino e Filippo Angelitti , made a series of daily observations performed simultaneously with the Columbia College Observatory of New York to determine the variations in latitude in Naples. Fergola had a mathematical background and developed an interest in astronomy during the Sixties, when he started to work with Father Angelo Secchi from the Roman College. They measured the difference of longitude between Naples and Rome using the synchronous data transmission via telegraph. The results of this research were published in the essay "The Difference in Longitude between Naples and Rome Determined by Use of Telegraph Transmission of the Observations of Passages". He also put forward the first hypotheses on the existence of Polar motion, presented in his paper "Capodimonte Royal Observatory's New Determination of Latitude".

This orientation of astronomy studies lasted until 1912, when Azeglio Bemporad (1912-1932) took over the directorship and the focus was finally moved to astrophysics. He believed that astrophysics was a promising field which had to fight against the traditionalism of the academic world. Before World War I, the Neapolitan Specula was taking its first steps into astrophysics. The war and post war years resulted in an abrupt termination of investments which caused the progressive impoverishment of technological and human resources. In 1926, Bemporad reckoned that it was extremely difficult to work with few resources and even more difficult to compete with European and American research centres. During the Seventies the Observatory slowly started to recover from this crisis and grew to become what is now one of the most prestigious and active international institutes.