Roman College

From the late 1500s through the early 1800s, Jesuit scientists observed celestial phenomena from the balconies and windows of the Roman College. In the mid 1700s Pope Benedict XIV approved the proposal of Roger Boscovich S.J. to construct a real observatory on the roof of the adjacent Church of St. Ignatius. But the project was delayed by the Suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. A Pontifical Observatory was finally installed atop the church in the mid 1800s, under the direction of Angelo Secchi S.J. The first telescope to be installed was a Merz equatorial with an aperture of 24 cm and a focal length of 435 cm.