View source for Giovanni Battista Beccaria

{{Short description|Italian physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = [[Doctor (title)|Doctor]]
| name              = Giovanni Battista Beccaria
| birth_name        = Francesco Ludovico Beccaria
| honorific_suffix  = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}}
| image             = Giambattista Beccaria.jpg
| caption           = Beccaria by [[Andrea Gastaldi]], 1845
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1716|10|03|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Mondovì]], [[Duchy of Savoy]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1781|05|27|1716|10|03}}
| death_place       = [[Turin]], [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]]
| nationality       = [[Italy|Italian]]
| footnotes         =
| field             = [[Experimental physics]]
| academic_advisors = 
| notable_students  = {{hlist|[[Joseph-Louis Lagrange]]|[[Antonio Vassalli Eandi]]}}
| workplaces        = [[University of Turin]]
| alma_mater        = 
| known_for         = ''Elettricismo artificiale e naturale libri due''
| spouse            = 
| children          = 
| parents           = Giovanni Battista Beccaria <br/> Anna Maria Ingalis
| resting_place     =  
| module = {{Infobox clergy 
 |child          = yes
 |religion       = [[Christianity]]
 |church         = [[Catholic Church]]
 |ordained       = November 1734
}}
}}
'''Giovanni Battista Beccaria''' {{postnominals|post-noms=[[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]}} ({{IPA|it|bekkaˈriːa|lang}}; 3 October 1716 – 27 May 1781){{sfn|Herbermann|1913}} was an Italian [[physicist]]. A fellow of the [[Royal Society]], he published several papers on [[Electricity|electrical]] subjects in the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Phil. Trans.]]''{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Beccaria was one of Benjamin Franklin's more conspicuous correspondents.<ref>{{harnvb|Pace|1952|p=406}}.</ref> His students included [[Joseph-Louis Lagrange]], Giovanni Francesco Cigna, Giuseppe Angelo Saluzzo, and the successor to the Chair of physics, [[Antonio Vassalli Eandi]]; moreover, his researches inspired the physicists of [[University of Pavia|Pavia]], [[Alessandro Volta]] and [[Luigi Galvani]].<ref name=Cerruti>Cerruti, Luigi. “Dante's Bones: Geography and History of Italian Science, 1748–1870”, in Kostas Gavroglu (ed.), ''Sciences in the European Periphery During the Enlightenment'' (Dodrecht: Kluwer, 1999), p. 111.</ref>

Beccaria did much, in the way both of experiment and exposition, to spread knowledge of the electrical researches of [[Benjamin Franklin]] and others. In 1753, he published an important treatise on [[electricity]], ''Elettricismo artificiale e naturale libri due'', which was translated into English thanks to Franklin's interest.<ref name=Cerruti/> His contributions include a classification of luminous discharges, the collection of data on [[atmospheric electricity]], and the design of the electrical thermometer, whose invention is usually wrongly ascribed to Franklin's colleague, [[Ebenezer Kinnersley]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries. A Study of Early Modern Physics|first=J. L.|last=Heilbron|year=2022|isbn=9780520334595|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|page=370}}</ref> Franklin noted in a letter to [[Cadwallader Colden]] that "he (Beccaria) seems a Master of Method, and has reduc'd to systematic Order the scatter'd Experiments and Positions deliver'd in my Papers."<ref>Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 30 August 1754. In L.W. Labaree (ed.). ''Papers of B. Franklin''. Vol. V. New Haven-London: [[Yale University Press]], 1961, p. 428.</ref> [[Joseph Priestley]] (in his ''[[The History and Present State of Electricity|History and Present State of Electricity]]'') declared Beccaria the "great Italian genius" who had "far surpassed everything done by French and English electricians."{{sfn|Pace|1965}}

== Life and works ==
Beccaria was born at [[Mondovì]], near Turin, on 3 October 1716. In 1732, at the age of sixteen, he entered the [[Order of the Pious Schools]] or Piarists, and changed his baptismal name Francesco Ludovico into Giambattista. He studied  in the schools of the order at [[Rome]] and at [[Narni]]. From 1737 to 1744 he taught [[grammar]] and [[rhetoric]] in [[Urbino]] and [[Palermo]]. At the same time, he applied himself with success to [[mathematics]].<ref name="americana3">{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Beccaria, Giovanni Battista}}</ref>

In 1744 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the college of S. Pantaleo in [[University of Rome La Sapienza|Rome]].{{sfn|Pace|1965}} In 1748 he was appointed to the professor of physics at the [[University of Turin]], where he introduced the [[experimental method]], in contrast with the [[Cartesianism]] of his predecessors.{{sfn|Heilbron|1970|p=457}} He was afterwards made tutor to the young princes de Chablais and de Carignan, and continued to reside principally at [[Turin]] during the remainder of his life.

In Turin Beccaria ardently devoted himself to research on [[atmospheric electricity]], in which he made liberal use of kites, rockets, and iron wire for the purpose of exploring the electrical conditions of the atmosphere. Henley's [[Electroscope|pith-ball electroscope]] was his recording instrument. In broken or stormy weather, positive and negative electrification were detected; whereas in calm, serene weather "the excessive or positive was always found". The sinuous or forked character of [[lightning]] was attributed to the resistance of the air; and the rupture of the shoes of a man struck by a flash, to the "moisture of the feet flying into vapour".

Beccaria confirmed the observation of [[Andrew Gordon (Benedictine)|Andrew Gordon]] that water evaporates more rapidly when electrified. He was also among the first to recognize and clearly state that the electrical charge on a conductor is confined to the surface. An experimental demonstration of this law of electrostatics was devised by [[Henry Cavendish|Cavendish]] in 1775 and independently by [[Charles-Augustin de Coulomb|Coulomb]] in 1788 and popularized in 1816 by [[Jean-Baptiste Biot|Biot]], whose name it usually bears. Beccaria adopted the two-fluid theory of [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]] as well as the views of the American philosopher on the preventive and protective functions of lightning conductors.

Beccaria confirmed Franklin’s discovery that pointed metal rods could discharge electricity in the air, which eventually led to such rods being attached to buildings for the protection in an electrical storm of individuals on the ground. [[Charles Emmanuel III]], was so impressed that he asked Beccaria to install a [[lightning rod]] on the [[Royal Palace of Turin]].

In May 1755 Beccaria was elected [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] of London,<ref>{{cite web |title=Giovanni Battista Beccaria|url=https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/people/na8306/giovanni-battista-beccaria |access-date=25 June 2025 |publisher=Royal Society|website=royalsociety.org}}</ref> and in 1766 he contributed a paper to the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions]]'', in which he describes (in [[Latin]]) five of the more important of his experimental researches. In 1770 he contributed a second paper (also in Latin) in which he expounds five theorems followed by fifteen corollaries in [[electrostatics]]. In 1759, King [[Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia]] employed him to measure the degree of [[meridian arc]] in Piedmont.<ref name="americana3" /> Beccaria died in Turin on 27 May 1781.

== Works ==
[[File:Beccaria Giovanni Battista. "Dell’elettricismo artificiale". Torino, Filippo Antonio Campana, 1753.png|thumb|Title page of Beccaria's ''Dell’elettricismo artificiale'', Turin, 1753]]
Beccaria did much, in the way both of experiment and exposition, to spread a knowledge of Franklin's electrical researches. His main work is his treatise ''Dell'elettricismo artificiale e naturale'' (1753), which was translated into [[English language|English]] in 1778.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Franklin considered ''Dell'elettricismo'' «one of the best pieces on the subject . . . in any language.»<ref>Benjamin Franklin to [[Thomas-François Dalibard]], 29 June 1755  in Benjamin Franklin, ''Expériences et Observations sur l’Electricité faites à Philadelphie en Amérique'', Thomas-François Dalibard, trans. (2d edit., 2 vols., Paris, 1756), II, 307–19 ([https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-06-02-0050 online]).</ref> 

In 1758 he published the ''Lettere sull'elettricismo'', a treatise on electricity in the form of sixteen letters to the chemist [[Jacopo Bartolomeo Beccari]]. The work was held in high regard by Priestley, who considered it Becaria’s finest achievement.{{sfn|Heilbron|1970|p=457}}

Other works are ''Experimenta atque observationes quibus electricitas vindex late constituitur'' (1769); and ''Dell'elettricità terrestre atmosferica a cielo sereno'' (1775), the first extended treatise on the subject of atmospheric electricity.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Gregory|last=Good|year=2003|title=Atmospheric Electricity|encyclopedia=Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science|editor=J. L. Heilbron|location=New York|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|pages=67–68}}</ref>

== Selected works ==
* {{Cite book|title=Dell'elettricismo naturale e artificiale|publisher=Filippo Antonio Campana|location=Turin|date=1753|language=it}}
* {{Cite book|title=Dell'elettricismo|publisher=|location=Bologna|date=1758|language=it}}
* {{Cite book|title=Experimenta atque observationes quibus electricitatis vindex late constituitur atque explicatur|publisher=ex Typographia Regia|location=Turin|date=1769|language=la}}
* {{Cite book|title=Elettricismo artificiale|publisher=Stamperia reale|location=Turin|date=1772|language=it|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=699972}}
* {{Cite book|title=Gradus Taurinensis|publisher=Stamperia reale|location=Turin|date=1774|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=700923}}
* {{Cite book|title=Della elettricità terrestre atmosferica a cielo sereno|location=Torino|date=1775|language=it|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=699797}}
* {{Cite book|title=Lettere di un Italiano ad un Parigino intorno alle riflessioni del sig. Cassini de Thury sul grado torinese|publisher=Gaetano Cambiagi|location=Florence|date=1777|language=it|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=12766745}}

===In translation===
* {{cite book
|date        = 1776
|title       = A Treatise Upon Artificial Electricity
|url         = https://books.google.com/books?id=ywx0G5neUZEC
|location    = London
|publisher   = J. Nourse, bookseller to his Majesty
|access-date = 25 June 2025
}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{Commons}}
{{sfn whitelist |CITEREFPace1965}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Beccaria, Giovanni Battista|volume=3|page=602}}
* {{CE1913|wstitle=Giovanni Battista Beccaria}}
* {{cite journal|first=A.|last=Pace|title=The Manuscripts of Giambatista Beccaria, Correspondent of Benjamin Franklin|journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]]|volume=96|issue=4|year=1952|pages=406–416|jstor=3143797}}
* {{cite encyclopedia
 |title= Beccaria, Giambatista
 |encyclopedia= [[Dictionary of Scientific Biography]]
 |volume= 1
 |editor= [[Charles Coulston Gillispie]]
 |year= 1970
 |last= Heilbron
 |first= John L.
 |author-link= John L. Heilbron
 |publisher= [[Charles Scribner's Sons]]
 |location= New York
 |pp= 546–549
 |url= https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/beccaria-giambatista
 |access-date= 28 August 2023
}}
* {{DBI |title= BECCARIA, Giambatista |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giambatista-beccaria_(Dizionario-Biografico)|last= Pace|first= Antonio|volume= 7}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beccaria, Giovanni Battista}}
[[Category:1716 births]]
[[Category:1781 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Mondovì]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian physicists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Palermo]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Turin]]
[[Category:Catholic clergy scientists]]
[[Category:Piarists]]