Domenico Guglielmini

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Domenico Guglielmini, engraving by C. Rampoldi, 1821
Natura de 'fiumi

Domenico Guglielmini (born September 27, 1655 in Bologna , † July 12, 1710 in Padua ) was an Italian mathematician , chemist and doctor .

Live and act

Guglielmini studied medicine at the University of Bologna and graduated from Marcello Malpighi with a doctorate in 1678 . At the same time he studied mathematics with Geminiano Montanari . In 1686 he was appointed director of the waters ( intendente generale delle acque ) of the Bolognese area; an important task, because the many bodies of water in the area required careful monitoring to prevent flooding. In 1697 he published the experience he gained in his work on the hydraulics of the rivers Della natura dei fiumi .

Guglielmini was married to the Bolognese Costanza Gioannetti. From this marriage three daughters and the son Giuseppe Ferdinando, who wrote a biography of the father, sprang up.

In 1690 Guglielmini was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna and in 1694 to that of hydrometry, which was specially established for him. Due to his fame in hydrometry , Domenico Guglielmini received several commissions from the Venetian Maritime Republic and in 1698 he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Padua . There he was able to continue his studies in medicine, so that in 1702, after the resignation of Pompeo Sacchi (1634–1718), he also took over the chair of medicine. He held these two chairs until his death.

At the end of 1709 he fell seriously ill and was forced to give up teaching; eight months later he died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 54. He was buried in the church of San Massimo in Padua (in the same church where his biographer Giovanni Battista Morgagni was later buried); A memorial was erected in his honor in the Basilica of Sant'Antonio da Padova in Padua.

Scientific work

Domenico Guglielmini was one of the few scientists of his time who recognized the great importance of mathematics in the empirical sciences. His scientific researches included hydraulics, chemistry and crystallography, medicine, astronomy, physics and mathematics. His investigations into hydraulics are considered fundamental and his fame in the history of this science was long due to his studies of the mechanics of fluids.

In the field of chemistry and crystallography , Guglielmini was the first to be interested in the crystal formation of salts. During his many examinations under the microscope , he always observed the same crystal shape . He showed that the angles formed by the surfaces of the crystals are constant and that the same substance always has the same crystal shape. With his studies he expanded and generalized the law of the constancy of angles , which had been found by Nicolaus Steno during investigations on quartz. Guglielmini traced the angular constancy back to the existence of molecular forces with unchangeable and constant laws. Guglielmini is therefore one of the fathers of crystallography, along with Jean-Baptiste Romé de L'Isle and René Just Haüy .

Guglielmini's research in the field of medicine was primarily concerned with the composition and nature of blood. It seems that Guglielmini was the first to prove the existence of crystallizable salts in the blood ; He also discovered that a blood clot consists of red blood cells that are enclosed in a fibrin network.

In the field of physics , Guglielmini accepted the wave theory of light , which was first postulated by the Bolognese monk Francesco Maria Grimaldi . Guglielmini also published some astronomical observations. His astronomical interest was aroused by the comet C / 1680 V1 , which could be seen in Bologna in the winter of 1680–1681 of that year , and by the solar eclipse of July 12, 1684.

Works

Collected Works
  • Opera omnia mathematica, hydraulica, medica, et physica. Accessit vita autoris, a Jo. Baptista Morgagni ... cum figuris et indicibus necessariis . Sumptibus Cramer, Perachon et socii, Geneva 1719 - Online: Volume 1  ; 2nd volume
Hydraulics
Chemistry and crystallography
medicine
Physics and astronomy

Honors

literature

  • Cesare F. Maffioli, "Domenico Guglielmini", in Professori e scienziati a Padova nel Settecento , ed. by Sandra Casellato e Luciana Sitran Rea, Treviso: Antilia, 2002, pp. 505-530.
  • Eustachio Manfredi: Vita di Domenico Guglielmini in the foreword of Della natura de 'fiumi trattato fisico matematico di Domenico Guglielmini con le annotazioni di Eustachio Manfredi . Tipografia Marsigli, Bologna 1821, pp. VII-XXXVI
  • Icilio Guareschi: Domenico Guglielmini e la sua opera scientifica , excerpt from the Supplemento annuale all'Enciclopedia di Chimica , directed by Icilio Guareschi. XXX. Band, Unione Tipografico Editrice Torinese, Turin 1914.
  • Alberto Vanzo, " Corpuscularism and Experimental Philosophy in Domenico Guglielmini's Reflections on Salts, " in The Idea of ​​Principles in Early Modern Thought. Interdisciplinary Perspectives , ed. by Peter Anstey, New York: Routledge, 2017, pp. 147-171.
  • Giovanni Battista Morgagni : Dominicus Guglielminius , in: Vitarum Italorum doctrina excellentium, qui saeculo duodevicesimo floruerunt, decas prima, ed. by Angelo Fabronio, Rome 1766, pp. 42-57 (online) .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letters to Leibniz and Magliabecchi  : Giovanni Cinelli Calvoli, Andrea Sancassani: Biblioteca volante di Giovanni Cinelli Calvoli continuata dal dottor Dionigi Andrea Sancassani . Volume 3, 2nd edition, p. 95.
  2. ↑ Thomas Readur and François Jacquier .
  3. ^ Entry on Guglielmini, Domenico (1655 - 1710) in the archive of the Royal Society , London
  4. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter G. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 20, 2019 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Guglielmini, Domenico
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian mathematician, chemist and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1655
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1710
Place of death Padua