Ostilio Ricci

Ostilio Ricci

Ostilio Ricci (1540–1603)
Born 1540
Fermo
Died 1603 (aged 6263)
Florence
Residence Italy
Nationality Italian
Fields Mathematician
Institutions Accademia delle Arti del Disegno
Alma mater Università di Brescia
Academic advisors Niccolò Tartaglia[1]
Notable students Galileo Galilei
Lodovico Cardi

Ostilio Ricci (1540–1603) was an Italian mathematician.

Biography

He was a university professor in Florence at the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, founded in 1560 by Giorgio Vasari. Ricci is also known for being Galileo Galilei's teacher.

Ricci was Court Mathematician to the Grand Duke Francesco in Florence, in 1580, when Galileo attended his lectures in Pisa.

Galileo was enrolled at the University of Pisa, by his father Vincenzo, in order to study medicine. Instead, Galilei became more interested in mathematics, after meeting Ostilio Ricci, a former student of Niccolò Tartaglia. Ricci taught Galileo the mathematics of Euclid and Archimedes, who both deeply influenced Galileo's later work. Ricci considered mathematics not to be a distinct science, but a practical tool for problems in mechanics and engineering. Ostilio Ricci is systematically cited in the various biographies of Galileo Galilei.

Works

Notes

  1. Stillman Drake, Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography, Dover, 1978, p. 3.

References

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