Famiano Michelini
Famiano Michelini , religious name Brother Francesco di San Giuseppe, (born August 31, 1604 in Rome , † January 20, 1665 in Florence ) was an Italian mathematician, engineer and clergyman ( piarist ).
Life
Michelini studied in Genoa in the school of the Piarists, whose order he joined under the name of Francesco di San Giuseppe. His math teacher there was Antonio Santini (1557–1662), Galileo's correspondent. He was a lay brother from 1619 or 1621 (and was not ordained until 1636). The Piarists received religious status in 1621. In 1629 he was sent by the Piarists to Florence, where the order had opened a new school and where he was a math teacher. He was introduced to Galileo Galilei in Florence with a letter of recommendation from Giovanni Battista Baliani , was a follower of his doctrine and later corresponded with Galileo. In addition to his work as a teacher at the Piarist School, he taught privately, including the brothers of Ferdinando II. De 'Medici (Cardinal Gian Carlo and Prince Leopold ). He started private lessons when the Piarist school was temporarily closed due to the plague. Under the influence of Michelini, the Piarist School became a center of modern scientific teaching in the sense of Galileo. He had the protection of the order leader José Calasanz , who sent him suitable young religious. At the request of the Medici, she opened a special class only for noblemen in 1638.
When the Galileo affair was boiling over, he was sent by the order to Rome in 1632, where he came into close contact with Galileo's confidante, hydraulic specialist, Benedictine priest and professor in Rome Benedetto Castelli (also a former teacher of the Medici princes). But under pressure from the Medici princes he came back to Florence. During Galileo's final years under house arrest in Arcetri, Michelini and his students were in contact with him. Michelini sent him gifts and selected religious like Clemente Settini. Michelini was in Rome again in 1637 and in Pisa in 1638, where he began teaching mathematics to the Medici princes Gian Carlo and especially Leopoldo von Medici and traveled around with his court. He may also have taught astronomy to Duke Ferdinand de Medici.
In 1648 he became professor of mathematics in Pisa as the successor to Vincenzo Renieri (1606–1648). In 1655 he lost this chair. There are many indications that he lost the favor of Prince Ferdinand de Medici. He was then for a time vicar to the Bishop of Patti in Sicily and then returned to Florence, where he again sought the favor of the Medicis and he was at least supported by Leopold von Medici, who financed his book on hydraulics.
He was not a member of the Accademia del Cimento , founded in 1657 , which the Medici founded. The reasons are not exactly known, but his closeness to Galileo, which the Inquisition did not like and for which the Medici showed strong consideration, may have been decisive. The Piarist School in Florence and Michelini also felt the inquisition's displeasure because of their proximity to Galileo. But he was a math teacher to several members of the academy (Candido del Buono, Paolo del Buono and, as mentioned, the Medici princes, Vincenzo Viviani was a pupil of the religious teacher Clemente Settini)
He also represented the priority of experiment and science in medicine (but did not have a degree) and was one of the pioneers in the field of hydraulics, in which he was involved in a long-standing controversy with Evangelista Torricelli .
In medicine, he advocated weight control and use of the juice from citrus fruits. As a proponent of the experiment in medicine, he paved the way for Francesco Redi and Giovanni Alfonso Borelli .
He worked in Florence as a hydraulic engineer (drainage, straightening of the Arno and other rivers). He also advised on the silting up of the Venice Lagoon. From him comes a Trattato della direzione de Fiumi (Florence 1664, reprinted 1700 in Bologna and 1723 by the professor in Bologna Domenico Guglielmini (1655-1710) in his Raccolta d'autori che trattano dell'acque ) on rivers and their straightening . The book is dedicated to the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand de Medici.
Works
literature
- Karen Liebreich: Fallen Order: Intrigue, Heresy and Scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio, Grove Press 2004
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ With whom Michelini worked as a hydraulic engineer on the Arno. He left Florence in 1655 and went to the German Emperor, the same year that Michelini lost his post in Pisa.
- ↑ title page
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Michelini, Famiano |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian mathematician, engineer and clergyman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 31, 1604 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rome |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 20, 1665 |
| Place of death | Florence |