Amici, Giovanni Battista

Giovanni Battista Amici, (born March 25, 1786, Modena, Duchy of Modena [Italy]—died April 10, 1863, Florence), astronomer and optician who made important improvements in the mirrors of reflecting telescopes and also developed prisms for use in refracting spectroscopes (instruments used to separate light into its spectral components).

Amici served as professor of mathematics at the University of Modena from 1815 to 1825 and then became astronomer to the Grand Duke of Tuscany and director of the observatory at the Royal Museum in Florence, where he also lectured at the museum of natural history. He made major advancements in compound-microscope design and introduced (1840) the oil-immersion technique, in which the objective lens is immersed in a drop of oil placed atop the specimen under observation in order to minimize light aberrations.

His name is most often associated with improvements in the microscope and reflecting telescope, but he also put his instruments to good use. His observations of Jupiter’s satellites and certain double stars were highly esteemed. Using an improved micrometer of his own design, he made accurate measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters of the Sun. With his improved compound microscope he made discoveries about the circulation of sap in plants and the processes of plant reproduction.