''For the painter Bonifazio de' Pitati, see

Bonifazio Veronese Bonifacio Veronese, birth name: Bonifacio de' PitatiAlso known as Bonifazio Veneziano (1487 – 19 October 1553) was an Italian Renaissance painter who was active in the Venetian Republic. His work had an important influence on the younger ge ...

.'' Pietro Pitati (in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, Petrus Pitatus) (?-fl. ca. 1550) was an Italian astronomer and mathematician. Bernardino Baldi, in his ''Cronica de matematici'' (1707) calls Pitati a noble

Veronese Veronese is the Italian word denoting someone or something from Verona, Italy and may refer to: * Veronese Riddle, a popular riddle in the Middle Ages * ''Veronese'' (moth), a moth genus in the family Crambidae * Monte Veronese, an Italian chees ...

who was trained in mathematics by a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

friar named Innocentio da Novara. It is known that he was the author of several astronomical works and

almanac An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...

s. His ''Paschales atque nouiluniorum mensurni canones. De varia paschalis solemnitatis obseruatione...De Hebraica anni quantitate...Calendarium nouum cum noua aurei numeri positione, ortu quoque, & occasu stellarum fixarum'' (

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, March 1537) is one of many sixteenth century attempts to reform the

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

, and establish, among other things, the correct day of

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

. This was his first work. Pitati also wrote another book bearing on the length of the solar and lunar year, the fixed stars, and calendar reform, entitled: ''Compendium . . . super annua solaris atque lunaris anni quantitate Paschalis item solennitatis juxta veteres ecclesiae canones recognitione Romanique calendarii instauratione deque vero Passionis Dominicae die ortu quoque et occasu stellarum fixarum, in tres divisum Tractatus''. Pitati's proposal for calendar reform "pleaded for the rule whereby three out of four centennial years be ordinary (non leap-years). This is owthe Gregorian rule."J D North
"The Western Calendar - 'Intolerabilis, Horribilis, et Derisibilis': Four Centuries of Discontent"
pages 75-113 in G.V. Coyne (ed.), ''The Gregorian Reform of the Calendar: Proceedings of the Vatican conference to commemorate its 400th anniversary.'' (Vatican City: Specola Vaticana), 1983, at page 101. Pitati compiled

ephemerides In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly vel ...

, to which he added supplements over the years, such as ''Almanach nouum...Superadditis annis quinque supra ... Ephemeridas 1551. ad futurum Christi annum 1556. Isagogica in coelestem Astronomicam disciplinam ... Tractatus ''tres perbreues de Electionibus, Reuolutionibus annorum, & mutatione aeris. Item horariae tabulae per altitudinem solis in die, ac stellarum in nocte ad medium sexti climatis.''(

, 1542). The

lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The wor ...

Pitatus is named after him. The mathematician and astronomer

Giovanni Padovani Giovanni Padovani (or Paduani) (b. c. 1512) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer. He lived in Verona and was a student of Pietro Pitati. He published a number of esteemed treatises on various astronomical and mathematical subjects, the mos ...

was a student of Pitati.

Works

* * *

References

Sources

Euromusicology

Cronica de Matematici
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitati, Pietro 1550 deaths Scientists from Verona 16th-century Italian astronomers 16th-century Italian mathematicians Year of birth unknown Gregorian calendar