Raffaele Giacomelli (5 April 1878, Rome – 13 December 1956, Rome) was an aeronautical engineer, linguist, dialectologist, and historian of science. His father was Francesco Giacomelli, of Bolognese origin, first astronomer at the R. Osservatorio del Campidoglio, and his mother was Maria née Marucchi, from a family of scholars. Raffaele Giacomelli's paternal great-grandfather, Raffaele, jurist, had been rector of the University of Bologna, and his uncle, Orazio Marucchi, was a famous archaeologist. After secondary school at liceo Nazareno Roma, he enrolled at the Sapienza University of Rome, wh