Tommaso Valperga di Caluso

Tommaso Valperga di Caluso (1737 -1815), a man of letters and of deep and wide learning, wrote in mathematics and in astronomy but, above all, was a great expert in oriental languages (especially Coptic and Hebrew). He wrote in addition an essay on the aesthetics of the beautiful ideal. As Secretary of the Reale Accademia delle Scienze in Turin (a post he held until 1801), in 1789 – at the urging of Gherardo Rangoni – he supported the nomination of Alexandro Malaspina as corresponding academician, and sent him a series of questions and suggestions for his scientific Expedition. He was also director of the astronomical observatory in Turin and taught in the university of that city; however, he was dismissed from teaching with the fall of the Napoleonic régime.

Image courtesy of the Centro di Studi Malaspiniani, Mulazzo, Italy.  Biographical notes by Dario Manfredi (Italian version), translated by John Black.