Giuseppe Piazzi: The Controversial Discovery and Loss of Ceres in 1801

Cunningham Clifford J. , “Giuseppe Piazzi and the missing planet”, Sky & telescope, lxxxiv (1992), 274–5.

Cunningham Clifford J. Marsden Brian G. Orchiston Wayne , “How the first dwarf planet became the asteroid Ceres”, Journal of astronomical history and heritage, xii (2009), 240–8.

Journal de Paris, February 1801, 982.

Monatliche Correspondenz, June 1801, 592, and July 1801, 54.

Mayer Tobias , Opera inedita, i (Göttingen, 1775), 52.

Piazzi Giuseppe , Præcipuarum stellarum inerrantium positiones mediæ ineunte seculo XIX ex observationibus habitis in specula Panormitana ab anno 1792 ad annum 1813 (Palermo, 1814).

Mayer Christian , “Verzeichniss aller bisher entdeckten Doppelsterne”, Berliner astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1784 (1781), 178.

Piazzi Giuseppe , Risultati delle osservazioni della nuova stella scoperta il di 1. Gennajo all'Osservatorio reale di Palermo (Palermo, 1801). English translation in Cunningham Clifford J. , The first asteroid: Ceres 1801–2001 (Surfside, FL, 2001), 153–63.

Lacaille N. L. , “Observations sur 515 étoiles du zodiaque”, in his Ephémérides des mouvemens celestes, vi (Paris, 1763).

Wollaston Francis , Specimen of a general astronomical catalogue arranged in zones of north polar distance (London, 1789).

Piazzi Giuseppe , Della scoperta del nuovo pianeta Cerere Ferdinandea, ottavo tra i primarj del nostro sistema solare (Palermo, 1802). Full text in English in Cunningham, The first asteroid (ref. 8), 164–82.

Bode Johann , Von dem neuen, zwischen Mars und Jupiter entdeckten achten Haupt planeten des Sonnensystems (Berlin, 1802). An English translation of the full text of this book regarding Ceres is in Cunningham , The first asteroid (ref. 8), 383–423.

Wollaston Francis , “On a method of describing the relative positions and magnitudes of the fixed stars; together with some astronomical observations”, Philosophical transactions, lxxiv (1784), 181–200.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Letter from Piazzi to Oriani, 24 January 1801, Brera Observatory archives.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Monatliche Correspondenz, June 1801, 592.

Howse D. , Nevil Maskelyne: The seaman's astronomer (Cambridge, 1989).

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Letter from Zach to Oriani, 6 July 1801, Brera Observatory archives, letter number 11.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Piazzi , op. cit. (ref. 6).

Piazzi , op. cit. (ref. 6), 26.

Göttingen University archives, Briefe A, Zach au Gauss 1799–1829, letter 3.

Ibid., letter 4.

Proverbio Edoardo , “The third reduction of Giuseppe Piazzi's star catalogue”, in Débarbat Suzanne (eds), Mapping the sky: Past heritage and future directions (Dordrecht, 1988), 75–86.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Letter from Oriani to Zach, 7 April 1801, Monatliche Correspondenz, June 1801, 608.

Letter from Oriani to Zach, Monatliche Correspondenz, August 1801, 165.

Jerôme de Lalande's Memorandum on the discovery of the Planet of Piazzi, read to the public assembly of the Institute on 15^th Germinal, year 10 (5 April 1802), published in 1803 in Connoissance des temps for 1806, p. 453.

Letter from Piazzi to Bode, 25 August 1801, quoted in a letter from Bode to Olbers, 3 October 1801, Bremen University archives, letter VI B 16.

Quoted in a letter from Olbers to Gauss, 2 February 1802, Göttingen University archives.

Monatliche Correspondenz, November 1801, 558.

Cambridge University Library, RGO Ms 4/221.

Piazzi , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Monatliche Correspondenz, June 1801, 604.

Monatliche Correspondenz, June 1801, 603.

Piazzi , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Letter from Zach to Oriani, Brera Observatory archives, letter 11.

Letters from Piazzi to Oriani, 2 March 1802 and 12 March 1802, Brera Observatory archives.

Cunningham Clifford J. , The first asteroid (ref. 8), and Jousting for celestial glory: The discovery and study of Ceres and Pallas (Surfside, FL, 2006).

Using the voltaic pile, named for its discoverer Alessandro Volta, Luigi Brugnatelli invented electroplating in 1805.

Brugnatelli L. V. , printed edition of the manuscript Diario del viaggio compiuto in Svizzera e in Francia con Alessandro Volta nel 1801, Università di Pavia, 1953.

Frellers Thomas , “Between Andalusia and Sicily: New light on some famous politically motivated Arabic forgeries”, Miscelánea de estudios árabes y hebraicos, Sección Árabe-Islam, liii (2004), 77–99.

Beaurepaire P.-Y. , “The Universal Republic of the Freemasons and the culture of mobility in the Enlightenment”, French historical studies, xxix (2006), 407–30.

Porset C. , Les Philalethes et les convents de Paris (Paris, 1996), 317.

Monatliche Correspondenz, August 1801, 157.

Letter dated 14 fructidor in the French republican calendar (1 September 1801) sent on to Joseph Buerg in Vienna, in Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Autog. 4/54–2.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Letter from Piazzi to Oriani, 8 August 1801, Brera Observatory archives.

Monatliche Correspondenz, August 1801, 155.

Monatliche Correspondenz, September 1801, 279.

Lalande J.-J. , “History of astronomy for the year 1801”, Philosophical magazine, xii (1802), 112–21.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Howse , op. cit. (ref. 18), 183.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Royal Astronomical Society, Herschel archives, letter W.1/13.B117.

Royal Astronomical Society, Herschel archives, letter W.1/13.P18.

Forbes Eric , “Gauss and the discovery of Ceres”, Journal for the history of astronomy, ii (1971), 195–9.

The monthly magazine, 1 August 1801, 88, capitalization as used in original.

Bremen University archives; letter III 01 9. Presumably Bode had two copies of the letter made; one went to Oriani and another to Olbers.

Letter from Piazzi to Oriani, 8 August 1801, Brera Observatory archives.

Bremen University archives; letter VI En10 W 39.

Letter from Zach to Lalande, 13 July 1801, Paris Observatory archives.

Monatliche Correspondenz, August 1801, 155.

Monatliche Correspondenz, September 1801, 279.

Bremen University archives, letter VI B 14.

Bremen University archives, letter VI B 15.

Bremen University archives, letter VI En10 W 40.

Letter from Bode to Olbers, 30 April 1802, Bremen University archives.

Letter from Bode to Olbers, 27 February 1802, Bremen University archives.

Piazzi, op. cit. (ref. 8), section 1.

Hoskin Michael , “Bode's Law and the discovery of Ceres”, in Physics of solar and stellar coronae: G. S. Vaiana Memorial Symposium, ed. by Linsky Jeffry F. Serio Salvatore (Dordrecht, 1993), 35–46.

Angelitti Filippo , “Sulla scoperta del primo asteroide Cerere Ferdinandea satta nell'Osservatorio di Palermo il 1° gennaio 1801 de Giuseppe Piazzi: Commemorazione centenaria letta nell'Aula Magna della R. Universita di Palermo il 2 gennaio 1901”, Memorie della Società Astronomica Italiana (Catania, 1901), 7–17.

Serio G. Foderà Manara A. Sicoli P. , “Giuseppe Piazzi and the discovery of Ceres”, in Bottke W. Paolicchi P. Binzel R. Cellino A. (eds), Asteroids III (Tucson, 2002), 17–24. These authors attribute Piazzi's behaviour with regard to the discovery of Ceres to the fact that “… he was not an astronomer but simply a 40-year-old professor of mathematics”. This claim is without merit; it is akin to saying that William Herschel was not an astronomer, but simply a musician. Whatever else he may have been, Piazzi was the Director of a state-sponsored observatory, and he was daily engaged in astronomical observations.

Cunningham Clifford J. , “A project to publish the collected correspondence of Baron Franz von Zach”, in Balázs L. Brosche P. Duerbeck H. Zsoldos E. (eds), The European scientist: Symposium on the era and work of Franz Xaver von Zach (Acta Historica Astronomiae 24, 2004), 195–7.