de Gasparis, Annibale

Alternate Name

Gasparis, Annibale de

Born Bugnara, (Abruzzo, Italy), 9 November 1819

Died Naples, Italy, 21 March 1892

Annibale de Gasparis was a professor, observatory director, and specialist on minor planets, of which he discovered nine. He was the son of Angelo de Gasparis and Eleonora Angelantoni. In 1838 he moved to Naples in order to attend the courses in the Scuola di ponti e strade(School of bridges and roads), an engineering university, but in 1840 he became alunno(student) at the observatory of Naples. In 1846 the University of Naples honored de Gasparis with a degree “ad honorem” for his studies on the orbit of the minor planet (4) Vesta, which had been discovered by Heinrich Olbers in 1807. In 1848, de Gasparis married Giuseppina Russo, and they had eight sons, of whom three died in infancy.

On 12 April 1849, de Gasparis discovered a new asteroid, one that he named Igea (or Hygiea) Borbonica (Borbonicain honour of Ferdinand II of the Borbones, then king of the two...