JUAN IGNACIO MOLINA GONZALEZ (1740-1829) Autograph manuscript with scientific notes on longitude and latitude of certain Chilean places No place, no date [Bologna, circa. 1800]

Draft of a petition for support ; on the reverse, scientific notes on longitude and latitude of certain Chilean places. 4°. 2 pp. In Italian. Included : I. Confirmation of authenticity from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, Bologna, 10 May 1861. II. Portrait of Molina (Rosaspina after J.B. Frullius, 1805), 26.5 x 20.5 cm. III. Short biography of Molina, 1p. Molina was born in Chile and had to leave the country in 1768 when the Jesuits were expelled from Spain. In 1773, he moved to Bologna and became a professor of Greek and later of natural sciences. He wrote his first treatise on the geographical, natural and civil history of Chile in 1776.