| Mathematician, born at Sinigaglia,
Italy, 26 September, 1682; died there 18 May, 1766. He made his higher
studies at the Collegio Clementino in Rome and there won great distinction,
exception in the one subject which has made him famous; in fact his aversion
to mathematics was extreme, and it was only after his college course that
he took up the study of this branch,but then he did so with such earnestness
and ability that, without the help of any teacher, he mastered it from
its foundations. Most of his important researches were published in the
current numbers of the "Giornale de' Letterati d'Italia". He is best known
on account of his investigations on the length and division of arcs of
certain curves, especially the lemniscate; this seems also to have been
in his own estimation his most important work, since he had the figure
of the lemniscate with the inscription: "Multifariam divisa atque dimensa
Deo veritatis gloria", engraved on the title-page of his "Produzioni Matematiche",
which he published in two volumes (Pesaro, 1750), and dedicated to Benedict
XIV. The same figure and words "Deo veritatis gloria" also appear on his
tomb, a testimony to the earnest devotion to science and the deeply practical
piety which characterized his entire life; his attachment to the sovereign
pontiff was warm and sincere, and of his twelve children one became archdeacon
of the cathedral of Sinigaglia and another a Benedictine nun. As a writer
he is praised by his contemporaries for his great mildness in controversy,
as well as for his clearness and accuracy of thought and diction.
EDWARD C. PHILLIPS
Transcribed by Christine J. Murray
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume V
Copyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
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