Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Napoli «Federico II», Napoli, Italy

Measurements of elements of the Earth's magnetic field started in Naples in 1837 by the Astronomical Observatory. Declination and inclination daily averages were regularly published from 1840. In 1839 Macedonio Melloni was called in Naples by the Bourbon Government and asked to found an observatory to carry out regular measurements of geomagnetic elements and meteorological parameters. The observatory was built on Mt. Vesuvius and completed in 1848, but it started to operate only in 1852. Magnetic measurements were carried out in the following years, rather discontinuously, by Luigi Palmieri.