Life
Bonanni was born in Rome in 1638, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1654, when he was still 17 years old. After his novitiate, in 1656 he was sent to study at the Society's noted Roman College. There he became a pupil of the German scientist, Athanasius Kircher. While a student there, he undertook the manufacturing of the manufacturing of microscopic lenses. He used his lenses to develop scientific studies of a number of specimens.
From Rome, Bonanni was sent to teach in the Jesuit Colleges of Orvieto and Ancona. Upon Kircher's resignation of the post of Professor of Mathematics at the Roman College, Bonanni was chosen to succeed him.
After Kircher's death in 1698, Bonanni was appointed curator of the well-known cabinet of curiosities (collection of antiquities) gathered by Kircher and installed in the Roman College. He published a catalogue of the collection in 1709, titled Musæum Kicherianum.
In this work, among other topics, Bonanni wrote of the ingredients used in China for the manufacture of the lacquer used on the porcelain which was a popular import item for Europe at the time. Like other researchers of the day, he went on to experiment with various recipes to recreate the lacquer used on porcelain and furniture. In 1720, Bonanni published his studies in a Treatise on the Varnish commonly called Chinese. This work was republished repeatedly over the next century in several languages, and was re-issued in 1994 in its original Italian version.
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