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Giacomo Francisco Filippo Maraldi
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Giacomo Francisco Filippo Maraldi – Maraldi IV

A portrait of Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande – courtesy of Wikipedia

On the preceding page I wrote a note about there being a fourth Maraldi, whose name I had not been able to discover. Recently I have found another note in the ‘Monthly Magazine and British Register’ of 1798 quoting the French astronomer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande – whose portrait this is – referring to a fourth Maraldi but, regrettably, not giving his name, though I have assumed him to be Giacomo Francisco Filippo Maraldi for reasons which will be mentioned later. The previous page lists all the siblings, suggesting Giacomo Francisco Filippo to be Maraldi IV. The note also contradicts information I have previously researched relating to the number of children Giovanni Filippo Maraldi, Maraldi III, had, but I now see to be correct, taking into account those children who had died. It seems useful to start this new page in the hope that I can discover more with continuing research.

The note in the ‘Monthly Magazine and British Register’ is headed:

History of Astronomy for the fifth year of the French Republic, read at the opening of the sitting of the College of France, Nov. 15th, 1797, by Jerome De Lalande, Dirctlor of the Observatory, and Inspector of the College of France.

and goes on to read:

Citizen Jacques Philippe Maraldi, the third astronomer of that name, has sent us the observations which he is constantly making at Perinaldo, near Nice. He has done more; he has sent to Paris the eldest of his four sons, aged 18 years, to labour with me in astronomy. I foresee, by his intelligence and assiduity, that Maraldi the fourth will maintain the reputation of his family, and that of the Cassinis their relations, who have been unhappily lost to astronomy since the revolution.

It appears from this note that Maraldi IV would have been born around 1780 and, from the note on Maraldi III that, according to Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre’s ‘Histoire de l’astronomie au dix-huitième siècle’, Maraldi IV died shortly after his arrival in Paris. As noted above, the probability is that he was Giacomo Francisco Filippo Maraldi as he was born on the 27th November 1779 and died on the 19th March 1802, though his death is recorded as being in Perinaldo, Imperia, Italy, not as in Paris as is implied by the note.



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