Giovanni Battista Zupi

Who was Giovanni Battista Zupi?

Giovanni Battista Zupi or Zupus was an Italian astronomer, mathematician, and Jesuit priest.

He was born in Catanzaro. In 1639, Giovanni was the first person to discover that the planet Mercury had orbital phases, like those of the Moon and Venus. His observations demonstrated that the planet orbited around the Sun. This occurred thirty years after Galileo's first telescope design, and Zupi's was only slightly more powerful. He died in Naples.

The crater Zupus on the Moon is named after him.