Frías, Antonio (1745–1824)

views updated

Frías, Antonio (1745–1824)

Antonio Frías (b. 13 October 1745; d. 1824), Argentine-born astronomer. Frías was born in Santiago del Estero and entered the Society of Jesus in 1764, just three years before the Jesuits were expelled from the Río de la Plata. Exiled, he sailed on the Venus to the Papal States, where he was ordained to the priesthood. Frías became interested in astronomy as a seminarian and retained the interest throughout his life. He worked under the Jesuit astronomer and mathematician Roger Boscovich. Frías conducted research in the observatory of Brera, near Milan, and published his findings in the Efemeridi astronomiche of Milan. He left several unpublished manuscripts, which today are in the Jesuit archive of the Colegio Salvador in Buenos Aires. He died in Milan.

See alsoAstronomy; Jesuits.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Francisco Talbot, "Otro astrónomo argentino. Antonio Frías, S.J., 1745–1824," in Estudios (Buenos Aires) 18 (1920): 346-349.

Additional Bibliography

Proverbio, Edoardo, and Letizia Buffoni. Nuovo catalogo della corrispondenza di Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich. Roma: Accademia nazionale delle scienze detta dei XL, 2004.

                                 Nicholas P. Cushner