Mathematician:Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri

Mathematician

Italian mathematician who worked on optics and motion.

His approach to geometry was a precursor to integral calculus.

Introduced the logarithm to Italy.

A disciple of Galileo.

A member of the informal Académie Parisienne.

Nationality

Italian

History

• Born: 1598, Milan, Habsburg Empire (now Italy)
• 1615: Joined the religious order Jesuati in Milan, where he met and was greatly influenced by Galileo
• 1616: Transferred to the Jesuati monastery in Pisa
• 1619: Applied for the chair of mathematics in Bologna but considered too young
• 1621: Became a deacon and assistant to Cardinal Federico Borromeo at monastery in Milan
• 1623: Became prior of St Peter's at Lodi
• 1626: Went to the Gesuati monastery in Parma (note: not the Jesuits)
• 1629: Appointed to chair of mathematics at Bologna, where he taught mathematics till his death
• Died: 30 Nov 1647, Bologna, Papal States (now Italy)

Theorems

• Cavalieri's Principle (also known to Zu Geng)

Results named for Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri can be found here.

Publications

• Lo Specchio Ustorio, overo, Trattato delle settioni coniche (The Burning Mirror, or a Treatise on Conic Sections)
• 1635: Geometria Indivisibilibus Continuorum Nova Quadam Ratione Promota (Geometry, developed by a new method through the indivisibles of the continua)
• Exercitationes geometricae sex
• Directorium Generale Uranometricum
• 1646: Trattato della ruota planetaria perpetua
• Tables of logarithms

Notable Quotes

A line is made up of points like a string of beads; a plane area is made up of lines as a cloth is of threads; and a solid is made up of plane sections as a book is made up of pages.

Critical View

I think sincerely that few men, if any, since Archimedes, have delved as far and as deep into the science of geometry ... he has discovered a new method for the study of mathematical truths; by it he proves in a shorter manner many of the theorems of Archimedes and other mathematicians.

-- Galileo Galilei

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Cavalieri's principle
• 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.14$: Cavalieri ($\text {1598}$ – $\text {1647}$)
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cavalieri, Bonaventura Francesco
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cavalieri, Bonaventura Francesco
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cavalieri, Bonaventura