Prince Baldassarre Boncompagni-Ludovisi (10 May 1821 – 13 April 1894), was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and aristocrat.

Biography

Boncompagni was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, into an ancient noble and wealthy Roman family, the Ludovisi-

Boncompagni The Boncompagni is a princely family of the Italian nobility who settled in Bologna around the 14th century, but which was probably originally from Umbria. In 1572 they obtained the papal throne thanks to Ugo Boncompagni, who, with the name of Po ...

, as the third son of Prince Luigi Boncompagni Ludovisi and Princess Maria Maddalena

Odescalchi The House of Erba-Odescalchi () and the House of Odescalchi are branches of an Italian noble family formed by the union of the Erba and Odescalchi families. The Odescalchi family was, since the election of Benedetto Odescalchi as Pope Innocen ...

. He studied under the mathematician Barnabas Dotterel and astronomer Ignazio Calandrelli, developing an interest in the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

. In 1847

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

appointed him a member of the

Accademia dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...

. Between 1850-1862 he produced studies on mathematicians of the

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and in 1868 founded the '' Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche''. After the annexation of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

into the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

(1870), he refused further participation in the new Academy of the Lincei, and did not accept the appointment as Senator of the Kingdom offered by

Quintino Sella Quintino Sella (; 7 July 1827 – 14 March 1884) was an Italian politician, economist and mountaineer. Biography Sella was born at Sella di Mosso, in the Province of Biella. After studying engineering at Turin, he was sent in 1843 to study mi ...

. He did, however, serve as a member of several other Italian and foreign academies. Boncompagni edited ''Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche'' ("The bulletin of bibliography and history of mathematical and physical sciences") (1868–1887), the first Italian periodical entirely dedicated to the

history of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...

. He edited every article that appeared in the journal.A. Favaro, `Don Baldassarre Boncompagni e la storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche ', Atti del Regio Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (1894–5), 6, pp. 509–21, 514, cited in Massimo Mazzotti (2000)
''For science and for the Pope-king: writing the history of the exact sciences in nineteenth-century Rome''
, BJHS, 33, pp. 257–282 He also prepared and published the first modern edition of

Fibonacci Fibonacci (; also , ; – ), also known as Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Bigollo Pisano ('Leonardo the Traveller from Pisa'), was an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be "the most talented Western ...

's ''

Liber Abaci ''Liber Abaci'' (also spelled as ''Liber Abbaci''; "The Book of Calculation") is a historic 1202 Latin manuscript on arithmetic by Leonardo of Pisa, posthumously known as Fibonacci. ''Liber Abaci'' was among the first Western books to describe ...

''.

Selected works

* ''Recherches sur les integrales définies''. ''Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik'', 1843, XXV, pagg. 74-96 * '' Intorno ad alcuni avanzamenti della fisica in Italia nei secoli XVI e XVII''. ''Giornale arcadico di scienze, lettere ed arti'', 1846, CIX, pagg. 3-4

* ''Della vita e delle opere di Guido Bonatti, astrologo e astronomo del secolo decimoterzo''. Roma, 1851 * ''Delle versioni fatte da Platone Tiburtino, traduttore del secolo duodecimo''. ''Atti dell'Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei, 1850–51, IV, pagg. 247-286 * ''Della vita e delle opere di Gherardo Cremonese, traduttore del secolo decimosecondo, e di Gherardo da Sabbioneta, astronomo del secolo decimoterzo''. ''Atti dell'Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei'', 1850–51, IV, pagg. 387-493 * ''Della vita e delle opere di Leonardo Pisano, matematico del secolo decimoterzo''. ''Atti dell'Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi lincei'', 1851–52, V, pagg. 208-245
Intorno ad alcune opere di Leonardo Pisano
(Roma : tipografia delle belle arti, 1854) * ''Opuscoli di Leonardo Pisano, pubblicati da Baldassarre Boncompagni secondo la lezione di un codice della Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano'', Firenze, 1856 * ''Trattati d'aritmetica pubblicati da Baldassarre Boncompagni, I, Algoritmi de numero Indorum; II, Ioannis Hispalensis liber Algoritmi de practica arismetice''. Roma, 1857 * ''Scritti di Leonardo Pisano, matematico, pubblicati da Baldassarre Boncompagni''. 2 voll., Roma, 1857–62 * ''Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche''. Tomi I-XX, Roma, 1868-1887

References

External links

''Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche''
at the

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boncompagni, Baldassarre 1821 births 1894 deaths Baldassarre Writers from Rome 19th-century Italian mathematicians Italian historians of mathematics Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities