MORPHOLOGY OF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES IN COMPACT-GROUPS .1.

Investigations on the morphology of early-type galaxies in compact groups should help us to understand if we are looking at objects which have jet experienced encounters and merging events. In this paper, which is the first of a series of papers we plan to publish, we present geometrical and luminosity profiles of a sample of 55 early-type galaxies belonging to 18 Hickson Compact Groups. Although a comprehensive discussion of the morphological properties of this class of objects cannot be tried at this stage, some morphological trends are suggested by the data. In particular, an indication that boxy ellipticals are less frequent in compact groups than in different environments is found.