The Brera Observatory was built in 1765 as an extension of the Brera palace under the direction of the jesuite Giuseppe Ruggero Boscovich (1711-1787), who was at the time a professor of mathematics at University of Pavia. By the first decade of the XIX century the Observatory had gained international fame and importance: in 1781 Messier informed the Observatory about a new celestial body recently discovered by William Herschel, who had described it as a curious nebulous star or a comet: he had actually discovered the planet Uranus. The astronomers of Brera Observatory immediately set out to calculate the orbit, and although the results were far from accurate, they realized that the new ``comet" had a circular orbit. The calculations for the orbit made by the Observatory were considered as official up to five years later, when it was realized that the new comet was in fact a planet.
By 1810, the Observatory had seven full-time staff members, three main
astronomers, three allievi (pupils), and one machinery manager. The
financial position of the Allievi was rather ambiguous: according to the
law, every Italian observatory had to have three Allievi. These had to
work for free for two years before they started to receive a salary. In 1813
the First Astronomer was Barnaba Oriani (1752-1832), the Second Astronomer was
Angelo de Cesaris (1749-1832) and the Third Astronomer was Francesco Carlini
(1783-1862). The Pupils were Carlo Brioschi, who became in 1819 the director
of the Observatory of Naples, Giovanni Santini, who became in 1817 the
director of the Observatory of Padua, and Giovanni Plana, who became in 1813
the director of the Observatory of Turin. After Plana left, his place was
taken for a very short time by Brugnatelli
, and when the
latter left, by Mossotti, who took on the job on 18 June 1813.