Jacopo Francesco Riccati (28 May 1676 – 15 April 1754) was a Venetian

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 jurist from

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

. He is best known for having studied the equation which bears his name.

Education

Riccati was educated first at the Jesuit school for the nobility in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

, and in 1693 he entered the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...

to study

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. He received a doctorate in law (LL.D.) in 1696. Encouraged by

Stefano degli Angeli Stefano degli Angeli (Venice, September 23, 1623 – Padova, October 11, 1697) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, and Jesuate. He was member of the Catholic Order of the Jesuats (Jesuati). In 1668 the order was suppressed by Pope Clemen ...

to pursue mathematics, he studied

mathematical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series (m ...

Career

Riccati received various academic offers but declined them in order to devote his full attention to the study of mathematical analysis on his own. Peter the Great invited him to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

as president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He was also invited to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

as an imperial councillor and was offered a professorship at the

. He declined all these offers. He was often consulted by the

Senate of Venice The Senate ( vec, Senato), formally the ''Consiglio dei Pregadi'' or ''Rogati'' (, la, Consilium Rogatorum), was the main deliberative and legislative body of the Republic of Venice. Establishment The Venetian Senate was founded in 1229, or le ...

on the construction of canals and dikes along rivers. Some of his work on multinomials was included by

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 ...

, at Riccati's request, in the book on

integral calculus In mathematics, an integral assigns numbers to Function (mathematics), functions in a way that describes Displacement (geometry), displacement, area, volume, and other concepts that arise by combining infinitesimal data. The process of finding ...

of her ''Analytical Institutions''. The

Riccati equation In mathematics, a Riccati equation in the narrowest sense is any first-order ordinary differential equation that is quadratic in the unknown function. In other words, it is an equation of the form : y'(x) = q_0(x) + q_1(x) \, y(x) + q_2(x) \, y^2( ...

is named after him.

Personal life

His father, Conte Montino Riccati, came from a noble family who owned land near Venice. His mother was from the powerful

Colonna The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Martin V) and many other church and politic ...

family. His father died in 1686, when Riccati was only ten, leaving the youth a handsome estate. Jacopo's son, Vincenzo Riccati, a Jesuit, followed his father's footsteps and pioneered the development of

hyperbolic functions In mathematics, hyperbolic functions are analogues of the ordinary trigonometric functions, but defined using the hyperbola rather than the circle. Just as the points form a circle with a unit radius, the points form the right half of the un ...

. A second son, Giordano Riccati was the first to measure the ratio of Young's moduli of metals—preceding the better known Thomas Young by 25 years.

Honors

Jacopo Riccati was named honorary Academician of the

Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna The Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna (''Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna'') is an academic society in Bologna, Italy, that was founded in 1690 and prospered in the Age of Enlightenment. Today it is closely associated ...

in 1723.

Notes and references

Works

* * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riccati, Jacopo 1676 births 1754 deaths Republic of Venice scientists 17th-century Italian mathematicians 18th-century Italian mathematicians