History of 19th century Astronomy and Astrophysics

This is her main field of research, with special attention to the birth and the development of astrophysics in Italy and in Europe. She has studied the institutional role and the scientific activities of some of the most important Italian protagonists of this rise, such as Pietro Tacchini (1838-1905) and Angelo Secchi S. J. (1818-1878) as well as some post-unitarian Italian scientific expeditions and the establishment of the “Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani” (1871). Her publications on the ‘Carte du Ciel’ international project (1887) are considered the main reference texts on the subject. In the field of the classical astronomy, a significant contribution, with G. Foderà, to the history of the discovery of Ceres is also to be mentioned.

History of Scientific Instruments

She is interested in the 19th century astronomical and meteorological instruments and has published, with G. Foderà, the catalogue of the collection of scientific instruments kept at the Museum of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo. She also worked on the spectroscopic instruments used in the Italian Observatories in 19th century and on the history of the construction of the Palermo Ramsden Circle (1787-89) as well as on the plumb-line level, a less-known instrument by Jesse Ramsden. Recently, she has been curator of the exhibition AStrum 2009: Astronomy and Instruments. Italian Heritage four hundred years after Galileo, held in Rome at the Vatican Museums (16 October 2009 - 16 January 2010) and editor of the related catalogue.

Historical Astronomical Archives

Exploring and studying archives is crucially related to her research activities. Her most important contributions in this field, at present, are the following: 1) publication of the calendar of the correspondence of the astronomer Pietro Tacchini (1838-1905) kept at the UCEA in Rome; 2) edition of the correspondence concerning the great international project of the "Carte du Ciel" kept in the archives of the Observatoire de Paris; 3) publication of an inventory of the documents contained in the archival fund “Angelo Secchi S. J. (1818-1878)” kept at the P. Università Gregoriana in Rome; 4) edition of the letters sent by Tacchini on the occasion of the Italian scientific expedition to Sicily for observing the total solar eclipse occurred in 1870; 5) edition (with A. Gasperini, INAF-Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory) of the correspondence between Angelo Secchi and Pietro Tacchini; 5) publication of a manuscript by Ramsden kept at Palermo Observatory.

Other

She has studied some institutional aspects of the scientific research organization, in Italy and in France, in the second half of the 19th century, especially in the fields of astronomy and, only for Italy, meteorology.