Francesco Maurolico

Francesco Maurolico ( Franciscus Maurolycus in Latin, François Maurolyc at Marine Mersenne and Pierre Fermat, Marulle under the feather of Etienne Pascal), born in Messine on September 16th, 1494, † in Messine the 21 or July 22nd, 1575, is a mathematician and known Italian astronomer for his work and translations of old authors in Géométrie, Optique, Coniques, Mécanique, Musique, and Astronomie.

Biography

Born in Metz-native Greek parents having emigrated in Sicily after the Fall from Constantinople (1453), Maurolico accepted a solid education. His/her Antonio father had exerted medicine with Constantinople and in Messine it became Conservateur Treasury. The Maurolico family lived a Villa around the city.

In 1521, Maurolico entered the orders. In 1550, it joined the Ordre of saint Benoît and entered to the monastery of Santa Maria del Parto to Castelbuono. Two years later, he was high abbot of the Cathedral San Nicolò of Messine.

Like his/her father, Maurolico was Conservateur Treasury and was for a time in load of repair and maintenance of the fortifications of Charles Quint. Maurolico was the tutor of two wire of Juan de Vega, viceroy of Sicily, and profited from the protection of several influential characters. It corresponded with scientists such as Christophorus Clavius and Federico Commandino. Between 1548 and 1550, Maurolico remained with the castle of Pollina in Sicily as a host of the marquis Jean II of Vintimille, and made astronomical observations top of the tower of the keep.

Among the astronomical discoveries of Maurolico, one counts the Supernova appeared in Cassiopée in 1572. Tycho Brahe published the details of its observations in 1574; the supernova is known today under the name of “supernova of 1572”.

In 1569, it was named professor of the Université of Messine.

Works

the Photismi of lumine and will umbra milked Réfraction of the light and tries to explain the Arc in sky. This posthumous work published in 1611 was written in 1521. Maurolyc studied also the Darkroom.
Its Arithmeticorum libri duet (1575) contains the first Raisonnement by recurrence.
Its Opuscula mathematica (1575) is attempts at calculation of the Barycentre of various solids (Pyramide, Parabole, etc).
Its edition of works of Archimedes supplements and improves that of Federico Commandino: Admirandi Archimedis syracusani monumenta omnia mathematica quae extant (1570, réimpr. 1585), in Palermo, impr. D. Cyllenium Hesperium.
In its Sicanicarum rerum compendium , it wrote the history of the Sicily, and includes some autobiographical details there. It was besides about a work of order, for which the senate of Sicily granted to him per annum in 1553 wages of 100 gold coins during two years, which enabled him to write its books of mathematics like this history.
Maurolico published a Cosmographia where it gave a method to measure the extent of the Earth, method employed later on by Jean Picard for measurement of the meridian in 1670.
Maurolico published an edition of the Problèmes of mechanics of Aristote, as well as a treaty of music. It gave a summary of the Theatrum orbis terrarum of Ortelius, wrote Grammatica rudimenta (1528) and a treaty Of lineis horariis on the sundials, where an interesting theory of the sections Coniques is. It made a chart of Sicily, printed in 1575.
Maurolico translated of the Greek the treaties of Théodose of Tripoli, Ménélaüs of Alexandria, Autolycos de Pitane, Euclide, and of Apollonius de Perga.

Sources

Biographie on Mc Tutor Files
The Maurolico project - the project Maurolico
Michel Chasles, Historic insight on the origin and the development of the methods in geometry (1837), impr. Hayez, Brussels

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