Gerolamo Sersale

Gerolamo Sersale
Gerolamo Sersale
Born	1584; Naples, Kingdom of Naples
Died	1 December 1654 (aged 69–70); Naples, Kingdom of Naples
Nationality	Italian
Other names	Hieronymus Sirsalis;
	Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics, Astronomy

Gerolamo Sersale (in Latin, Hieronymus Sirsalis) (Naples, 1584–Naples, 1 December 1654) was an Italian Jesuit astronomer and selenographer. His surname is from a noble Neapolitan family that originated in Sorrento. The town Sersale, a commune in the southern Italian province of Catanzaro, was founded in 1620. A Jesuit priest, Sersale drew a fairly precise map of a full moon observed on 13 July 1650. The map was engraved in 1651 and was studied by other astronomers, like Grimaldi and praised and mentioned in Riccioli's Almagestum novum and Astronomia reformata.[1] However, today it can be seen in the Naval Observatory of San Fernando in Cadiz, Spain. With his telescope, the Jesuit Father Daniele Bartoli was able to see two spots on Mars in Naples in 1644.[2]

The lunar crater Sirsalis is named after him.

References

Ewen Adair Whitaker (1999). Mapping and naming the moon: A History of Lunar Cartography and Nomenclature. Cambridge [etc.]: Cambridge University Press. pp. 57–60.
Emanuelli, Pio (1937). "Bio-Bibliografie di astronomi dimenticati". Memorie della Società Astronomia Italiana. 10: 90–91. Bibcode:1937MmSAI..10...81E.

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