1third of seven children of a modest family which owned a kiln and delivered
bricks and other construction material to builders, especially in Florence, with
their own barocci, the traditional two-wheeled carts which, horse-drawn and
balanced, have for centuries performed this task over the greater part of the
Italian countryside. Less sturdy than the other children, he was sent to the town
school where, it seems, he distinguished himself so well that at the age of
thirteen, having already decided on his vocation, he went to Florence to study.
Since there was no seminary then, he became one of the young clergy of the
Cathedral and enrolled in the Collegio Eugeniano, an excellent school of
humanistic leaning, where he completed the entire course corresponding to
what would later be the Gymnasium. His success there seemed to point to the
concinuation of literary studies, but Caverni had already made another choice.
For three years after the Collegio he attended the public Scuole Pie, run by the
Scolopian Fathers at S. Giovannino. There he received a basis foundation in
what were to become his favorite subjects: philosophy, taught by the Rosminian
Father Zini, and physics with Father Cecchi who together with Father Antonelli
was to furnish the loggia dei Lanzi in 1860 with a pair of exceptional instru
ments: a thermometer and a barometer with a face of more than 1.5 meters.
Then, instead of going to the University, for a few years he attended the
Istituto Ximeniano, also run by the Scolopians, where he had Antonelli for
astronomy and higher mathematics and Father Barsanti for mechanics and
hydraulics. And thus he became a priest with the hobby of philosophy and
science, following an inclination which seems traditional in the Florentine
clergy—the desire to reconcile what appears to be irreconcilable!
bricks and other construction material to builders, especially in Florence, with
their own barocci, the traditional two-wheeled carts which, horse-drawn and
balanced, have for centuries performed this task over the greater part of the
Italian countryside. Less sturdy than the other children, he was sent to the town
school where, it seems, he distinguished himself so well that at the age of
thirteen, having already decided on his vocation, he went to Florence to study.
Since there was no seminary then, he became one of the young clergy of the
Cathedral and enrolled in the Collegio Eugeniano, an excellent school of
humanistic leaning, where he completed the entire course corresponding to
what would later be the Gymnasium. His success there seemed to point to the
concinuation of literary studies, but Caverni had already made another choice.
For three years after the Collegio he attended the public Scuole Pie, run by the
Scolopian Fathers at S. Giovannino. There he received a basis foundation in
what were to become his favorite subjects: philosophy, taught by the Rosminian
Father Zini, and physics with Father Cecchi who together with Father Antonelli
was to furnish the loggia dei Lanzi in 1860 with a pair of exceptional instru
ments: a thermometer and a barometer with a face of more than 1.5 meters.
Then, instead of going to the University, for a few years he attended the
Istituto Ximeniano, also run by the Scolopians, where he had Antonelli for
astronomy and higher mathematics and Father Barsanti for mechanics and
hydraulics. And thus he became a priest with the hobby of philosophy and
science, following an inclination which seems traditional in the Florentine
clergy—the desire to reconcile what appears to be irreconcilable!
During the school year 1859-60, at the same time that the Granducal
government failed, the Archbishop of Florence sent him as professor of philos
ophy and mathematics to the Seminary of Firenzuola, a sort of citadel in a
gorge in the Apennines, exactly halfway between Florence and Bologna. There
he was ordained on the second of June 1860 and there he spent, in great
serenity, a period which the young priests of the diocese considered a kind of
severe penance. During the ten years he remained there he studied nature with
enthusiasm, gaining thereby a rapid and complete maturity while filling entire
notebooks with observations, records, and meditations. But at the end of 1870,
shortly after Porta Pia, he was at last recalled from his exile of sorts and assigned
to a parish about 12 kilometers from Florence. As Father Givannozzi has
observed, this parish was small, well supplied, and conveniently close to the
libraries of the city, and this made it possible for him in the course of a simple
life to return again with zeal to his favorite studies, but without neglecting his
ministry. In that place, even less populous today, he is still remembered
with admiration, almost veneration, by the oldest inhabitants who used to
study catechism with him. Giovannozzi observes that he was “as good a
priest as he was a diligent scholar.” But he found neither one nor the other
occupation without its thorns and difficulties.
government failed, the Archbishop of Florence sent him as professor of philos
ophy and mathematics to the Seminary of Firenzuola, a sort of citadel in a
gorge in the Apennines, exactly halfway between Florence and Bologna. There
he was ordained on the second of June 1860 and there he spent, in great
serenity, a period which the young priests of the diocese considered a kind of
severe penance. During the ten years he remained there he studied nature with
enthusiasm, gaining thereby a rapid and complete maturity while filling entire
notebooks with observations, records, and meditations. But at the end of 1870,
shortly after Porta Pia, he was at last recalled from his exile of sorts and assigned
to a parish about 12 kilometers from Florence. As Father Givannozzi has
observed, this parish was small, well supplied, and conveniently close to the
libraries of the city, and this made it possible for him in the course of a simple
life to return again with zeal to his favorite studies, but without neglecting his
ministry. In that place, even less populous today, he is still remembered
with admiration, almost veneration, by the oldest inhabitants who used to
study catechism with him. Giovannozzi observes that he was “as good a
priest as he was a diligent scholar.” But he found neither one nor the other
occupation without its thorns and difficulties.