Born in Milan, Italy, on 15 May 1816, Giovanni Codazza graduated in Engineering and Architecture at Pavia in 1837. He had a long scientific carrier and published research in mathematical physics, descriptive geometry and technological physics. He taught in several universirties, was director of the Royal Industrial Museum of Turin from 1870 to 1877, and a commissioner at the international exhibitions in Paris (1867) and Vienna (1873). He died in 1877 in Como.