The Astronomical Observatory of Teramo was established as a private observatory by native-born astronomer Vincenzo Cerulli. Named Specola di Collurania by its founder, it started operating in 1893 and was fully equipped. The main instrument was the Cooke equatorial telescope of 40 cm opening, the second largest telescope in Italy. With this instrument, Cerulli performed his observations of Mars during the 1894 and 1896 oppositions, which led him to disprove Schiaparelli's canals, which he interpreted as optical illusions.
Cerulli was one of the main Italian players in the field of astronomical research during the early 1900s. He was the President of the Italian Astronomical Society and the National Astronomical Committee and, as such, was engaged in various matters which kept him away from his Observatory. In order to guarantee its continued functioning, he, thus, donated the Observatory to the Italian state in 1917.
Among the state astronomical observatories, Teramo is, thus, one of the youngest.
There are just few archival records held in the Observatory: the oldest ones date back to 1890, whereas the most recent documents go back to the early 1960s. Such a scant body of records is due both to the relatively recent history of the Observatory, compared with similar institutions, and to the scientific staff being limited to the director and, at times, an assistant; this situation lasted until the 1970s.
The administrative records concerning the management of the Observatory are missing and the documents produced by Vincenzo Cerulli are scarce, probably because they were kept in his private residences.
The most conspicuous and best conserved records are those relating to the work of Mentore Maggini, the astronomer who worked at Teramo from 1926 to 1941, when he died. Maggini did some pioneering work on the applications of photoelectric photometry and the documents relating to this activity is certainly the most valuable part of the entire archives. There is some trace of an initial sorting of Maggini's records, probably made by Giovanni Peisino, who succeeded him as the director of the observatory, but this attempt has been hampered by later sorting.