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5 unusual facts about Giovanni Battista Riccioli


Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita

His map, however, did not come into standard use, as it was superseded by those made by Hevelius and the Jesuits Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1650–1651).

Gabriel Mouton

Based on the measurements of the size of the Earth conducted by Riccioli of Bologna (at 321,815 Bologna feet to the degree), Mouton proposed a decimal system of measurement based on the circumference of the Earth, explaining the advantages of a system based on nature.

Immanuel Halton

Having heard of Flamsteed's astronomical proficiency, Halton called to see him at Derby in 1666, and afterwards sent him Giovanni Battista Riccioli's New Almagest, Johannes Kepler's Rudolphine Tables, and other books on astronomy.

Phases of Venus

This observation essentially ruled out the Ptolemaic system, and was compatible only with the Copernican system and the Tychonic system and other geoheliocentric models such as the Capellan and Riccioli's extended Capellan model.

Two Towers

The Asinelli Tower was used by the scientists Giovanni Battista Riccioli (in 1640) and Giovanni Battista Guglielmini (in the following century) for experiments to study the motion of heavy bodies and the earth rotation.


Giovanni Battista Baliani

His arguments published by Giovanni Battista Riccioli in his Almagestum novum (1651) and later resumed by John Wallis and Isaac Newton.


see also