In 1845 Ernesto Capocci (1798-1864) added to the traditional Calendario di Napoli per l’anno 1846, “calculated at the Royal Observatory of Naples for common use,” a new editorial project: the Annuario del reale Osservatorio di Napoli. His aim was innovative: to devote ample space to scientific news from around the world and make it accessible even to a non-specialist audience.
In the Preface to the work, Capocci clearly explains the aims of the almanac, “in a certain sense encyclopedic and intended to pass through everyone’s hands”, conceived to combine scientific popularization with practical usefulness in everyday life.
The originality of the little volume is emphasized by its publisher’s cover, embellished with two charming engravings by the German painter and engraver Ludwig Richter (1803-1884). The front cover depicts the “Royal Astronomical Observatory”, framed by ivy tendrils; the back cover, by contrast, shows the “Royal Vesuvius Meteorological Observatory”, enclosed within small decorative motifs. The choice was not accidental. In 1845, on the occasion of the Seventh Congress of Italian Scientists held in Naples, the Vesuvius Observatory was inaugurated and entrusted to Macedonio Melloni (1798-1854), although the construction of the building was still far from complete. The distinguished physicist was tasked with delivering the inaugural address and, at the same time, presenting an important report on the origin of double-crater volcanoes.
Melloni’s arrival in Naples was strongly supported by Ernesto Capocci, with whom he shared both scientific and political affinities. The two scientists had met in Paris in 1837, when Melloni was in exile after being expelled from Parma for his liberal sympathies and for having praised the French student uprisings of 1830. Capocci undertook that stay in the French capital to examine new technologies – such as gas street lighting – and to purchase scientific instruments. He was deeply impressed by Melloni’s personality and by his expertise in experimental physics, which had earned him the prestigious Rumford Medal of the Royal Society. Capocci worked with great determination to persuade the king that his friend and colleague should be called to Naples to assume a position worthy of his scientific talents.
Finally, in 1839, Melloni was appointed director. Moreover, on several occasions he had expressed his appreciation for the interest shown by the government of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in scientific matters. Thus, he wrote to Giovanni Battista Amici (1786-1863) about Capocci and about Naples: “…Mr. Capocci, director of the Astronomical Observatory, seeing me indefatigably engaged in physics… asked me whether the offer of a position in that city [Naples] would be agreeable to me. Upon my affirmative reply, he immediately informed the Government of Naples, requesting me to not accept any other position before hearing the Minister’s decision, which he expected to be prompt and favorable.”
Also the Discorso letto per l’inaugurazione del monumento sepolcrale di Ernesto Capocci (Address delivered for the inauguration of Ernesto Capocci’s funerary monument) by Pasquale Del Pezzo (1859-1936), Duke of Caianello, preserved in the Archives of the Capodimonte Observatory, testifies to the deep bond of esteem and friendship between the two scientists: “He returned to Naples in the spring of 1838, and there he was the most ardent and effective advocate,with the Bourbon Government, for the arrival of Macedonio Melloni as director of the Vesuvius Observatory.”
It took some time to convince King Ferdinand, and just as much perseverance on Melloni’s part in declining the invitations, including those coming from influential figures. “After endless efforts, undertaken to overcome the inertia of the Government, Capocci was finally able, triumphantly, to inform Arago in Paris of the success on 5 March 1839.” After the uprisings of 1848, they shared the same fate as well: removal from their respective positions due to their progressive ideas. To understand the greatness of these two figures, above all, let the words spoken by Capocci in the obituary he wrote upon Melloni’s death serve as an example: “But let us now cease vain lamentation, and strive to delineate the imperishable part of this illustrious man, which will render him glorious in the memory of posterity, as long as the Sun warms the Earth with its radiant light”.

___Emilia Olostro Cirella