Guido Grandi Grandi - De infinitis infinitorum, et infinite parvorum ordinibus disquisitio geometrica, 1710 - 1479870 F

Dom Guido Grandi, O.S.B. Cam. (1 October 1671 – 4 July 1742) was an Italian

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

, philosopher,

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

Life

Grandi was born on 1 October 1671 in Cremona,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and christened Luigi Francesco Lodovico. When he was of age, he was educated at the Jesuit college there. After he completed his studies there in 1687, he entered the novitiate of the Camaldolese monks at Ferrara and took the name of Guido. In 1693 he was sent to the Monastery of St. Gregory the Great, the Camaldolese house in Rome, to complete his studies in philosophy and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

in preparation for Holy Orders. A year later, Grandi was assigned as professor of both fields at the Camaldolese Monastery of St. Mary of the Angels in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

. It appears that it was during this period of his life that he took an interest in mathematics. He did his research privately, however, as he was appointed professor of philosophy at St. Gregory Monastery in 1700, subsequently holding a post in the same field in Pisa. By 1707, however, Dom Grandi had developed such a reputation in the field of mathematics that he was named court mathematician to the

Grand Duke of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

, Cosimo III de Medici. In that post, he also worked as an engineer, being appointed Superintendent of Water for the Duchy, and in that capacity he was involved in the drainage of the Chiana Valley. In 1709 he visited

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

where he clearly impressed his colleagues there, as he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

. The

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

named him Professor of Mathematics in 1714. It was there that he died on 4 July 1742.

Mathematical studies

In 1701 Grandi published a study of the conical

loxodrome In navigation, a rhumb line, rhumb (), or loxodrome is an arc crossing all meridians of longitude at the same angle, that is, a path with constant bearing as measured relative to true north. Introduction The effect of following a rhumb li ...

, followed by a study in 1703 of the curve which he named ''versiera'', from the la, vertere (to turn). This curve was later studied by one of the few women scientists to achieve a degree,

Maria Gaetana Agnesi Maria Gaetana Agnesi ( , , ; 16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics profe ...

. Through a mistranslation by the translator of her work into English who mistook the term "witch" ( it, avversiera) for Grandi's term, this curve became known in English as the

witch of Agnesi In mathematics, the witch of Agnesi () is a cubic plane curve defined from two diametrically opposite points of a circle. It gets its name from Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi, and from a mistranslation of an Italian word for a sail ...

. "Maria Agnesi and her Witch"
It was through his studies on this curve that Grandi helped introduce

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...

' ideas on

calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...

to Italy. In mathematics Grandi is best known for his work ''Flores geometrici'' (1728), studying the rose curve, a curve which has the shape of a petalled flower, and for

Grandi's series In mathematics, the infinite series , also written : \sum_^\infty (-1)^n is sometimes called Grandi's series, after Italian mathematician, philosopher, and priest Guido Grandi, who gave a memorable treatment of the series in 1703. It is a divergen ...

. He named the rose curve ''rhodonea''. He also contributed to the ''Note on the Treatise of Galileo Concerning Natural Motion'' in the first Florentine edition of

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He wa ...

's works.

List of works

* * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
Galileo Project:
Guido Grandi {{DEFAULTSORT:Grandi, Guido Engineers from Florence Italian philosophers 17th-century Italian mathematicians 18th-century Italian mathematicians Camaldolese Order Fellows of the Royal Society Catholic clergy scientists 1671 births 1742 deaths Italian Benedictines Benedictine scholars Clergy from Cremona Benedictine writers Grandi's series Scientists from Cremona

Life

Mathematical studies

List of works

See also

References

External links