Tartaglia, Niccolô

Tartaglia, Niccolô
(Niccolô Fontana, 1499-1557)
   Italian physicist and mathematician. He grew up at Brescia, where at age 12 he suffered the facial wounds that made him a stammerer (the mean-ing of Tartaglia) during French pillaging of the city. His father's early death left him in great poverty, but his love of mathematics and de-termination to learn enabled him to get an education. He worked as a teacher of abaco (commercial arithmetic) at Verona from about 1516 until 1534, when he moved to Venice to teach mathematics. Tartaglia was a close student of the Latin translations of ancient Greek math-ematical authors and edited several of them. His Opera Archimedis / Works of Archimedes (1543), which reprints the medieval translations made by a pupil of Thomas Aquinas, William of Moerbeke, included On Floating Bodies, which was a major influence on the criticism of Aristotelian physics. From this tract, Tartaglia himself derived the hydrostatic principles underlying his treatise on the raising of sunken vessels, Travagliata inventione / A Hard-won Discovery (1551) as well as his posthumously published table of specific gravities. His Ital-ian translation of Euclid's Elements (1543) was the first translation of this fundamental geometrical text into any European vernacular. Other works include Nova scientia /New Science (1537), a treatise on me-chanics which advances an influential theorem defining the proper ele-vation (45 degrees) for attaining the maximum range for a cannon and which also shows some significant departures from Aristotelian physics; Quesiti e inventioni diverse /Various Questions and Inventions (1546); and his last work, General trattato di numeri e misure / General Treatise on Numbers and Measures (1556), a survey of pure and applied mathematics. Tartaglia's greatest single mathematical discovery, the so-lution for cubic equations, was made at Verona. This discovery led to a quarrel with Girolamo Cardano, who published it in 1545 (without Tartaglia's permission, but giving him credit) after Tartaglia had divulged it to him in secret.

Historical Dictionary of Renaissance. . 2004.

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  • TARTAGLIA, Niccolo — (c. 1500 1557) A significant contributor to sixteenth century mathematical scholarship, Nic colo Tartaglia was born into an impoverished family, possibly surnamed Fon­tana, of Brescia in northern Italy. From his very early years, his life was a… …   Renaissance and Reformation 1500-1620: A Biographical Dictionary

  • Tartaglia , Niccoló — (1500–1557) Italian mathematician, topographer, and military scientist Tartaglia was born Niccoló Fontana but as a boy he suffered a saber wound to his face during the French sack of Brescia (1512), his native city; this left him with a speech… …   Scientists

  • Tartaglia, Niccolò Fontana — ▪ Italian mathematician Tartaglia also spelled  Tartalea   born 1499, Brescia, republic of Venice [Italy] died Dec. 13, 1557, Venice       Italian mathematician who originated the science of ballistics.       During the French sack of Brescia… …   Universalium

  • Tartaglia, Niccolò Fontana, llamado — ► (1500 77) Matemático italiano. Se le debe la resolución algebraica de la ecuación de tercer grado y la aplicación de las matemáticas a la artillería …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Tartaglia — Niccoló …   Scientists

  • Niccolo Fontana — Tartaglia Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia [nik:o lɔ fon ta:na tar ta:ʎ:a] (* 1499 oder 1500 in Brescia, Italien; † 13. Dezember 1557 in Venedig) war ein venetianischer Politiker und Mathematiker …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia — Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia [nik:o lɔ fon ta:na tar ta:ʎ:a] (* 1499 oder 1500 in Brescia, Italien; † 13. Dezember 1557 in Venedig) war ein venetianischer Politiker und Mathematiker …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Niccolo Tartaglia — Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia [nik:o lɔ fon ta:na tar ta:ʎ:a] (* 1499 oder 1500 in Brescia, Italien; † 13. Dezember 1557 in Venedig) war ein venetianischer Politiker und Mathematiker …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Niccolò Fontana — Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia [nik:o lɔ fon ta:na tar ta:ʎ:a] (* 1499 oder 1500 in Brescia, Italien; † 13. Dezember 1557 in Venedig) war ein venetianischer Politiker und Mathematiker …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia — Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia [nik:o lɔ fon ta:na tar ta:ʎ:a] (* 1499 oder 1500 in Brescia, Italien; † 13. Dezember 1557 in Venedig) war ein venetianischer Politiker und Mathematiker …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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