Iacopo da San Cassiano (between 1395 and 1410 – c. 1454), also known as Iacobus Cremonensis, was an Italian humanist and mathematician. He translated from Greek to Latin the writings of Archimedes and parts of Diodorus' '' Bibliotheca historica''.

Biography

Youth and early career

He was born near Cremona, probably in the early fifteenth century. From what can be gathered from various documents and testimonies, he became the regular canon of the church of Cremona. In 1432 or early 1433 he entered the Ca' Giocosa, the school of

Vittorino da Feltre Vittorino da Feltre (1378February 2, 1446) was an Italian humanist and teacher. He was born in Feltre, Belluno, Republic of Venice and died in Mantua. His real name was Vittorino Rambaldoni. It was in Vittorino that the Renaissance idea of the com ...

in Mantua. During his studies he quickly became a close associate of Vittorino. In 1440 he was a student of the Faculty of Arts in

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

, where he probably accompanied Gianlucido Gonzaga (son of the Marquis of Mantua Gianfrancesco), who studied law at the same university. In Pavia he met important Quattrocento Italian humanists, including

Francesco Filelfo Francesco Filelfo ( la, Franciscus Philelphus; 25 July 1398 – 31 July 1481) was an Italian Renaissance humanist. Biography Filelfo was born at Tolentino, in the March of Ancona. He is believed to be a third cousin of Leonardo da Vinci. At th ...

, Catone Sacco, Giovanni Marliani, and the Greek Scholar Teodoro Gaza.

From Mantua to Rome

In Mantua in 1446, he succeeded Vittorino, who died in that year, as the director of the Giocosa. The Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga entrusted him with the education of his children Federico (1441–1484) and Francesco (1444–1483). Iacopo left school and the service of the Marquis in 1449, having to bear to Rome to plead "a certain cause of his" in front of Pope

Nicholas V Pope Nicholas V ( la, Nicholaus V; it, Niccolò V; 13 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene made ...

. In that same year, however, he was back in Mantua, and would move permanently to Rome only after April 1451. At the court of Nicholas V, he was entrusted with various scientific tasks, including revising the translation and commentary of the '' Almagest'' done by Trapezuntius. This caused a huge controversy between the two humanists that ended with the flight of Trapezuntius from Rome. In addition to this, he was entrusted with the translation of some books of the ''Bibliotheca historica'' of

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

. It is not clear whether Iacopo had already finished his translation of the Archimedean works in his years in Pavia and Mantua. D'Alessandro and Napolitani have found the autograph of the translation of Iacopo, codex Nouv. Acq. Lat. 1538 of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and have shown that the Cremonese humanist used for his translation a Greek antigraph not traceable to any of the Greek manuscripts of Archimedes known today. It is not known exactly when Iacopo died, but it was probably in 1453 or 1454.

References

* Paolo d'Alessandro e Pier Daniele Napolitani, ''Archimede Latino. Iacopo da San Cassiano e il corpus archimedeo alla metà del Quattrocento'', Paris, Les Belles Lettres 2012 * Stefano Pagliaroli, ''Iacopo Cassiano e l'Arenario di Archimede'', Messina, Centro interdipartimentale di studi umanistici, 2012 * Valerio Sanzotta, ''Il primum exemplar di Diodoro Siculo tradotta da Iacopo di San Cassiano (con correzioni autografe): il codice 709 della Biblioteca Casanatense'', «Segno e testo», V, 2007, pp. 407–420. {{DEFAULTSORT:Iacopo da San Cassiano 1450s deaths Scientists from Cremona 15th-century Italian historians 15th-century Latin writers 15th-century Italian mathematicians Bibliophiles Italian Renaissance humanists Year of birth uncertain 14th-century births 15th-century births Clergy from Cremona