Father Secchi said, 'No, the Holy Father gave permission to one only,' and alone I entered the monastery walls.
"Through long halls, up winding staircases, occasionally stopped by some priest who touched his broad hat and asked 'Parlate Italiano ?' occasionally passed by students, often stopped by pictures on the walls,--once to be introduced to a professor; then through the library of the monastery, full of manuscripts on which monks had worked away their lives; then through the astronomical library, where young astronomers were working away theirs, we reached at length the dome and the telescope.
"One observatory is so much like another that it does not seem worth while to describe Father Secchi's.

This observatory has a telescope about the size of that at Washington (about twelve inches).

Secchi had no staff, and no prescribed duties.

The base of the observatory was the solid foundation of the old Roman building.

The church was built in 1650, and the monastery in part at that time, certainly the dome of the room in which was the meridian instrument.
"The staircase is cut out of the old Roman walls, which no roll of carriage, except that of the earthquake chariot, can shake.
"Having no prescribed duties, Secchi could follow his fancies--he could pick up comets as he picked up bits of Mosaic upon the Roman forum.