Schuh’s Annotated Bio-Bibliography


Return to main Biobliography page

BECCARI, Jacopo Bartolomeo.

(1682 – 1766)

(Born: Bologna, Italy, 25 July 1682; Died: Bologna, Italy, 1766) Italian physician.

Beccari was professor of physics at the Institute Sciences and Arts in Bologna. He was elected president in 1723. In 1709 he was appointed professor of logic at the University of Bologna, later becoming professor of medicine in 1712. Beccari was named the first professor of chemistry at any Italian university (Bologna) in 1737. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1728. His best remembered studies describe phosphorescence, sexual functions, and the effect of light on silver salts.

Biographical references: ABI: I 124, 62-75; II 46, 112. Casati, Dizionario degli Scrittori d'Italia, 1925-34. Frati, Dizionario Bio-bibliografico Italiani, 1933. Jöcher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, Supplement. Mazzetti, Repertorio di Tutti i Professori, 1848. Mazzuchelli, Gli Scrittori d'Italia, 1753-63. Poggendorff: 1, col. 1534. Provenzal, Bio-Bibliografici di Chimici Italiani, 1938: pp. 27-32. WBI. World Who's Who in Science: 137.

1. Italian, 1764 [Dissertation].
Osservazioni Intorno alla Doppia Refrazione del Crystallo di Rocca, di Io. Bapt. Beccaria. Turino, 1764.

4°: A-B4; 8l.; no pagination.

Extremely rare. Technical discussion of the phenomena of double refraction in quartz crystals. Newton had earlier shown that quartz or rock crystal like Iceland spar would refract light rays that passed through it, although this phenomena is much less pronounced in quartz. In this work Beccari shows that the three different axis of a crystal refract light in different ways. No copy of this title has been traced, however, an earlier paper by Beccari appeared: "On the double refraction of crystals" (\t{Philsophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London}, 52 (1761), p. 486-490.).

Bibliographical references: Berlinische Sammlungen: 3 (1765), 545. BL [no copy listed]. LKG: XVI 314. NUC [no copy listed]. Physikalisch-Oekonomische Auszüge: 7, 480.

.