Michelangelo Ricci (1619–1682) was an Italian mathematician and a
Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Col ...
.
Biography
Michelangelo Ricci was born on 30 January 1619 in Rome, then capital of the Papal States, to a family of low social standing that originated in Bergamo.
He studied theology and law in Rome, where he was a contemporary of
René-François de Sluse
René-François Walter de Sluse (; also Renatius Franciscus Slusius or Walther de Sluze; 2 July 1622 – 19 March 1685) was a Walloon mathematician and churchman, who served as the canon of Liège and abbot of Amay.
Biography
He was born in Vis ...
. He also studied mathematics under Benedetto Castelli who himself had been a student of Galileo Galilei. He was a friend of Evangelista Torricelli, kept close links with contemporary scientific culture, and played an important role in the development of the Galilean school.
Like de Sluze, he spent his entire career in the Roman Catholic Church and served the pope in various roles on several occasions. A trained theologian, he acted as consultant to various Congregations of the Roman Curia. Having suffered from epilepsy since his birth, he was (according to canon law of the time) disqualified from ordination. Nonetheless, he was created a Cardinal-Deacon in the Consistory of 1 September 1681 by Pope Innocent XI, with the title 'Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Aquiro'. His position in the church was very useful for protecting his friends and fellow scientists in their controversies with the opposing scholastic school.
He played a significant part in the theoretical debates and experiments that led up to Torricelli's discovery of atmospheric pressure and invention of the mercury barometer. In particular he followed the experiments in this field by Gasparo Berti, in Rome.
There is an unpublished manuscript by Ricci, devoted to algebra, in the library of the Mathematical Institute of Genoa. It shows that by 1640 he was familiar with the '
New Algebra
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
Ragusa Ragusa is the historical name of Dubrovnik. It may also refer to:
Places Croatia
* the Republic of Ragusa (or Republic of Dubrovnik), the maritime city-state of Ragusa
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in his ''De Resolutione et Compositione Matematica'' to the problems posed by
Apollonius of Perga
Apollonius of Perga ( grc-gre, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Περγαῖος, Apollṓnios ho Pergaîos; la, Apollonius Pergaeus; ) was an Ancient Greek geometer and astronomer known for his work on conic sections. Beginning from the contribution ...
.Ronald Calinger Vita mathematica: historical research and integration with teaching /ref>
His published mathematical work is summarised in a treatise of nineteen pages, ''Exercitatio geometrica, de maximis et minimis'' (1666) in which he studies the maxima of functions of the form and tangents to curves with equation , using methods that are an early form of induction. This treatise was much admired by his contemporaries and has recently been republished as an appendix to Mercator's 'Logarithmo-Technia' (1688). He also studied
spiral
In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point.
Helices
Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:cycloids (1674) and recognised that the study of tangents and the calculation of areas are reciprocal operations.
Ricci is also known for his correspondence with Torricelli, Vincenzo Viviani, René de Sluze and Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici, founder of the
Accademia del Cimento
The Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment), an early scientific society, was founded in Florence in 1657 by students of Galileo, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Vincenzo Viviani and ceased to exist about a decade later. The foundation of Acade ...
. These letters give his thoughts on paraboloids and
hyperboloid
In geometry, a hyperboloid of revolution, sometimes called a circular hyperboloid, is the surface generated by rotating a hyperbola around one of its principal axes. A hyperboloid is the surface obtained from a hyperboloid of revolution by defo ...
s when cut by parallel planes, on the surface of a ring, and on the properties of the vacuum. It was Ricci who welcomed
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or ''le Père'' Mersenne; ; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for ...
, when he came to Italy to present the work of René Descartes. In optics he studied the magnifying effect of lenses. With Giovanni Battista Baliani he discussed the Galilean revolution. Ricci was also a close associate of
Antonio Nardi
Antonio Nardi (1598-1648?) was a Tuscan man of letters known for his geometrical work with Galileo Galilei and his disciples, Michelangelo Ricci and Evangelista Torricelli. He is also the author of the ''Scene'' (sometimes referred to as the ''S ...
, another mathematician in Rome. He collaborated with Nardi on his ''Scene'', an unpublished manuscript that circulated among Torricelli and others, in which Ricci included some of the material that would later appear in his 1666 ''Geometrica Exercitatio.''
Following the death of Torricelli and the disappearance of Bonaventura Cavalieri, he was requested to collate and publish his correspondence with these two men. However he declined the invitation, leading to Torricelli's work being forgotten for some time.
He endeavoured to defend
Francesco Redi
Francesco Redi (18 February 1626 – 1 March 1697) was an Italian physician, naturalist, biologist, and poet. He is referred to as the "founder of experimental biology", and as the "father of modern parasitology". He was the first person to cha ...
against Cardinal Leopold when Redi published his ''Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti'', arguing against the spontaneous generation of insects.
Ricci was also the backer of Abbot Francisco Nazzari in the publication of the first review of Italian literature, the '' Giornale de' Letterati'' (1668-1683).
He died in Rome, age 63, on 12 May 1682.
Works
* ''Michaelis Angeli Riccii Geometrica exercitatio'', Romae: apud Nicolaum Angelum Tinassium, 1666
* ''Decretum sacrae Congregationis indulgentijs, sacrisque reliquijs praepositae'', Romae et Pataui: typis reuerendae Camerae Apostolicae, 1678
* ''Decretum Aloysius card. Homodeus'', Romae, et Pataui, Romae et Pataui: typis reuerendae Camerae Apostolicae, 1678
* ''Decretum sacrae Congregationis Indulgentiarum'', Romae: typis reuerendae Camerae Apostolicae, 1679
* ''Logarithmotechnia Nicolaus Mercator. Beigebunden Exercitatio geometrica'', Hildesheim; New York: Olms, 1975
References
Sources
* «RICCI MICHELANGELO, Cardinale». In: Gaetano Moroni, ''Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica'', Vol. LVII, Venezia: Tipografia Emiliana, 1852, p. 177
* ''Vitarum Italorum doctrina excellentium qui saeculo XVIII floruerunt decas I-VI. Auctore
Angelo Fabroni
Angelo Fabroni (September 25, 1732September 22, 1803) was an Italian biographer and historian.
Biographie
Angelo Fabroni was born at Marradi in Tuscany to Alessandro and Giacinta Fabroni, of a banking family formerly of great fortune. After st ...
o'', Romae: typis S. Michaelis apud Junchium: prostant venales apud Natalem Barbiellini in foro Pasquini, 1769, Vol. II, p. 200