Giovanni Battista Amici

Giovanni Battista Amici was an Italian astronomer, microscopist and botanist, born in Modena in 1786. He studied mathematics under Paolo Ruffini, graduated from the University of Bologna and was professor of mathematics at Modena from 1815 to 1825. He later became director of the observatory at Florence, where he also lectured at the natural history museum. Amici is best known for improving the mirrors of reflecting telescopes and above all the microscope, for which he developed an achromatic lens and introduced oil-immersion and water-immersion objectives. He also invented the dipleidoscope and the direct vision prism, and he was the first to observe the pollen tube. His astronomical work included double stars, the satellites of Jupiter and the diameters of the sun. He died in Florence in 1863.