Francesco Cetti SJ (9 August 1726 – 20 November 1778) was an Italian Jesuit priest, zoologist and mathematician.

Cetti's warbler

Biography

Cetti was born in Mannheim in Germany, but his parents were natives of Como. He was educated in Lombardy and at the Jesuit college at Monza.

He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Milan on 12 October 1742, and professed the four vows on 2 February 1760. He devoted himself to scientific studies and taught for several years philosophy and mathematics at the Jesuit College of Brera, soon becoming one of the most prominent members of the Milanese province.

In 1765 he was sent to Sardinia to help improve the standard of education on the island. In 1766 he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Sassari, holding that position until his death.

Cetti took long excursions in the vicinity of Sassari, collating his discoveries in the Storia Naturale di Sardegna (Natural History of Sardinia, 1774–7). This has three volumes, covering mammals, birds and amphibians with fishes. A supplement on mammals was published in 1777.

Cetti is commemorated in the name of the Cetti's warbler (Cettia cetti), which was collected on Sardinia by Alberto della Marmora.[1]

Works

References

  1. ^ Temminck, Coenraad Jacob (1820). Manuel d'ornithologie, ou, Tableau systématique des oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe (in French). Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Paris: H. Cousin. pp. 194–195.

Further reading

  • Baldino, Maria (1931). "Francesco Cetti illustratore della fauna sarda". Rivista di storia delle scienze mediche e naturali. XIII: 476–79.
  • Mearns, Barbara; Mearns, Richard (1988). Biographies for Birdwatchers : the lives of those commemorated in Western Palearctic bird names. London: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-487422-3.
  • Mattone, Antonello; Sanna, Piero (2002). "Francesco Cetti e la storia naturale della Sardegna". Studi Storici (in Italian). 43 (4): 967–1002. JSTOR 20567170.


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