Piazzi

Piazzi, GIUSEPPE, Italian astronomer, was born at Ponte in the Valtelline, July 16, 1746, and entered the order of the Theatins at Milan in 1764. After holding professorial chairs of Philosophy, Mathematics, and Theology at Genoa, Malta, Ravenna, and Rome, he was appointed in 1780 to the chair of Mathematics in Palermo; and there, with the aid of government, he established an observatory in 1789. The first task he set himself to was to make a catalogue of the stars, published in 1803, and again extended in 1814. On the night of the 1st January 1801 he discovered a new planet, the first of the group of planetoids between Mars and Jupiter, and named it Ceres. He died, 22d July 1826, at Naples.