Raffaello Magiotti

Who was Raffaello Magiotti?

Raffaello Magiotti was an Italian astronomer, mathematician and physicist. Born at Montevarchi, he studied at Florence, and, having taken his vows, moved to Rome, following Cardinal Sacchetti. In 1636, he began to work at the Vatican Library. A pupil of Castelli in Rome, in 1638 he was Castelli's tip to Galileo as the candidate for the chair of Mathematics at Pisa. Well at home in the scientific community in the Papal city, Magiotti actively participated in Roman scientific debates, on which he provided detailed information to Galileo, with whom he was often in touch. During his life, Magiotti published only one work, entitled Renitenza dell’acqua alla compressione, which came out in 1648. The text was the first report of the practical resistance to compression - which Magiotti mistakenly claimed to be absolute - of water at constant temperature, as well as the expansion and contraction of fluid media subjected to changes in temperature. In addition to descriptions of various thermometers, the work also presents an illustration of the bell-jar divers, or "Cartesian devils", whose discovery would then be attributed to the Tuscan scientist.