Vincenzo Miotti (25 July 1712,

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was on ...

– 15 February 1787, Murano) was an Italian physicist and astronomer.

Life

Born in the parish of Santo Stefano on Murano to Daniele Miotti and Angela Licini, he was the first of three brothers and two sisters. He came from a wealthy family of glaziers which owned a furnace, but he left the family business in the hands of his brother Alvise, preferring a career in the church. After studying in the

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...

seminary in Venice at San Cipriano, run by the

Somaschi Fathers , image = SomascosEscut.jpg , image_size = 200px , caption = Coat of arms of the Somascan Fathers , abbreviation = CRS , nickname = Somascans , formation = , founder ...

, he distinguished himself in classics, mathematics, physics and astronomy. He joined the

Camaldolese The Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona ( la, Congregatio Eremitarum Camaldulensium Montis Coronae), commonly called Camaldolese is a monastic order of Pontifical Right for men founded by Saint Romuald. Their name is derived from the Holy Hermita ...

cultural circle at

San Michele in Isola San Michele in Isola is a Roman Catholic church, located on the Isola di San Michele, a small islet sited between Venice and Murano, which once sheltered a Camaldolese monastery ( it, Monastero di S. Michele di Murano), but now houses the main cem ...

, where he met

Angelo Calogerà Angelo Calogerà, also known as Domenico Demetrio Calogerà, (circa 7 September 1696, Padua - 29 September 1766, Isola di San Michele) was an Italian Benedictine monk and writer, active in popularizing literature and science. Life Angelo was bor ...

and Fortunato Mandelli. He became a priest at Santa Maria e San Donato and led a cloistered life, declining the many academic posts offered to him and devoting himself to designing and building instruments for physics and astronomy demonstrations, which were used and highly valued by

Jérôme Lalande Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (; 11 July 1732 – 4 April 1807) was a French astronomer, freemason and writer. Biography Lalande was born at Bourg-en-Bresse (now in the département of Ain) to Pierre Lefrançois and Marie‐Anne‐Gab ...

Paolo Frisi Paolo Frisi (13 April 1728 – 22 November 1784) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer. Biography Frisi was born in Melegnano in 1728; his sibling Antonio Francesco, born in 1735, went on to be a historian. Frisi was educated at the lo ...

, Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich and

Alessandro Volta Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (, ; 18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian physicist, chemist and lay Catholic who was a pioneer of electricity and power who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the ...

. Mainly main of card and wood, few of them now survive, though one for demonstrating the

tautochrone curve A tautochrone or isochrone curve (from Greek prefixes tauto- meaning ''same'' or iso- ''equal'', and chrono ''time'') is the curve for which the time taken by an object sliding without friction in uniform gravity to its lowest point is independe ...

of a

cycloid In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it rolls along a straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another curve ...

and another for parabolic motion do remain. Many small fragments and gadgets also survive in the

Murano Glass Museum The Murano Glass Museum (Italian language, Italian: ''Museo del Vetro'') is a museum on the history of glass, including local Murano glass, located on the island of Murano, just north of Venice, Italy. History The museum was founded in 1861. It ...

Bibliography

Vincenzo Miotti
category:1712 births category:1787 deaths 18th-century Italian astronomers 18th-century Italian physicists People from Murano Catholic clergy scientists {{Italy-physicist-stub