Francesco Barozzi

Francesco Barozzi

Francesco Barozzi ( Latinized Franciscus Barocius or Baroccius , Barozzius ; born September 9, 1537 in Heraklion , † November 23, 1604 in Venice ) was a Venetian - Cretan mathematician and philologist of the Renaissance .

Life

Barozzi, who used to refer to himself as Patritio Veneto , "Venetian patrician" on the front pages of his works , was a wealthy nobleman who, as his Inquisition ruling of 1587 stated, had an annual income of 4,000 ducats . His mother, Fiordiligi di Nicolò Dorro, came from Rethymno , his father Iacopo belonged to the Barozzi line, which had its ancestral seat in the parish of San Moisè in Venice since the 12th century . In Crete, his family is said to have been involved in the founding of the Venetian colony in Heraklion since 1252 . In Venice, Barozzi resided in San Moisè, while in Crete he owned a house in Agios Konstandinos in what is now Nikiforos Fokas district.

Barozzi learned Latin in his youth and Greek from Andreas Donos and then studied philosophy and mathematics in Padua , where the philosopher Marco Antonio de 'Passeri , known as Genoa, was one of his teachers. In 1559, in the eighth year of his studies, he began his mathematics lectures there , with an inaugural address that appeared in print the following year. Six lectures from this year, which dealt with Proclus' commentary on the first book of the elements of Euclid , have survived in handwritten form; the following year, Barozzi published his annotated Latin translation of this commentary.

As can be seen from a remark in his Cosmographia (1585), in 1559 he also gave a lecture on the Tractatus de Sphaera by Johannes de Sacrobosco , whose work has been one of the foundations of astronomy at European universities since the late Middle Ages. In his Cosmographia he showed him 84 "errors" about which he then exchanged letters with Christophorus Clavius after the publication of this work .

Barozzi published an annotated Latin translation of the two writings of the so-called Heron of Byzantium on war machines and land surveying (1572), a commentary on the “darkest” point in Plato's work , namely on the geometric number in the eighth book of the Politeia (1566), and one Writing about asymptotes , in which he described a compass for the creation of conic sections (1586). A book he published in Venice in Italian in 1572 about the medieval number fighting game was translated into German by August II of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel ( Rythmomachia. An excellent / and clock-old game / deß Pythagorae ), who then translated this into 1616 under the pseudonym Gustavus Selenus has added a published description of the chess game. Barozzi's interest in prophecy and prognostics is testified by a bilingual handwritten edition of the Leonean Vaticani (see below), a Pronostico universale published by him in Italian in 1566 for the period up to 1570 on the basis of Nostradamus .

There is also only a handwritten speech of January 4, 1562 (dated 1561 in a Venetian account) to the Accademia dei Vivi, which he founded in Crete at that time, philological adaptations and commentaries on works by Pappos , Archimedes and Abraham bar Chija (Savasorda ), a splendidly illustrated arrangement and a Latin translation by the Emperor Leo VI preserved with a dedication from April 13, 1577 . Vatizinien ascribed to it , an explanation of all the stars of the eighth celestial sphere, as well as 30 largely unpublished letters and a geographical description of Crete which is also of epigraphic value. A work he wrote under the title Theoricae planetarum liber , which was supposed to complement his Cosmographia as its fifth book, is considered lost.

Barozzi apparently also dealt with magic , if the confessions are to be trusted, which describes a judgment of the Inquisition of October 16, 1587, which has been preserved in several copies. In this judgment he was found guilty of apostasy and suspicion of heresy and was charged not only with his own practice but also with inciting some relatives to superstition and witchcraft. Specifically, he was accused of having conjured up a spirit in the form of a child and of having practiced or participating in love and rain magic according to the teachings of Cornelius Agrippa and Peter von Abano , sometimes also while abusing the sacraments . He was sentenced to a fine of 50 ducats each to the Archbishop of Heraklion and the Bishop of Rethymno, various fines and imprisonment for an indefinite period, the duration of which the Inquisition reserved the decision.

After his release from prison, the date of which is not known, he should, at least as the ecclesiastical biographer Giovanni degli Agostini claims in the 18th century, led a new life out of insight into his misconduct and mainly occupied himself with biblical and patristic texts to have. In 1604, during a visit to a bookshop in the parish of San Moisè , where his apartment in Venice was also located, he suffered a seizure, referred to in the parish documents as catarrh and later interpreted as a stroke, which caused death within a few hours by suffocation .

Barozzi married Florida Foridi in 1572, the daughter of an Iacopo di Prato (or Prata), with whom he had a daughter named Fiordiligi, who died in 1574. A son named Andrea may have been born before 1572. In his second marriage, he was married to Elisabetta Barozzi di S. Francesco from Venetian nobility from 1585.

Codices Barocciani

Barozzi left his nephew Iacopo Barozzi an important collection of manuscripts of ancient, biblical and other texts, which Iacopo expanded to include new acquisitions and listed in a catalog. William Herbert , Third Earl of Pembroke and Chancellor of Oxford University , acquired this collection in 1629 and donated it to the Bodleian Library , where it is still kept today. While Barozzi himself used to publish his works with the name Barocius , the spelling (Codex) Baroccianus has established itself when citing manuscripts from his collection .

Others

The lunar crater Barocius is named after him.

Works

Admirandum illud geometricum problema tredecim modis demonstratum , 1586

Printed in lifetime

• Oratio ad philosophiam virtutemque ipsam adhortatoria, habita Patavii in Academia Potentium the 25 novembri 1557 . Pauda: Grazioso Perchacino, 1558
• Opusculum, in quo una oratio, & duae quaestiones: altera de certitudine, altera de medietate mathematicarum continentur . Padua: Grazioso Perchacino, 1560 ( digital copy ), there p. 3r-6r the inaugural address from 1559: Oratio Francisci Barocii patritii veneti habita in celeberrimo gymnasio patavino cum mathematicas publice profiteri inciperet
• Procli Diadochi Lycii philosophi platonici ac mathematici probatissimi in primum Euclidis elementorum librum commentariorum ad universam mathematicam disciplinam principium eruditionis tradentium libri IIII . Padua: Grazioso Perchacino, 1560 ( e-rara , Google Books )
• Commentarius in locum Platonis obscurissimum, & hactenus a nemine recte expositum in principio dialogi octavi de Rep [ublica] ubi sermo habetur de numero geometrico, de quo proverbium est, quod numero Platonis nihil obscurius. Bologna: Alessandro Benaccio, 1566
• Il nobilissimo et antiquissimo giuoco pythagoreo nominato Rythmomachia cioè battaglia de consonantie de numeri . Venice: Grazioso Perchacino, 1572 (digital copies: Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel , Google Books )
• Heronis Mechanici liber de machinis bellicis, necnon liber de geodaesia . Venice: Francesco de 'Franceschi Senese, 1572 ( Google Books , e-rara )
• Cosmographia in quatuor libros distributa, summo ordine, miraque facilitate, ac brevitate ad Magnam Ptolemaei mathematicam Constructionem ad universamque astrologiam instituens. Venice: Grazioso Perchacino, 1585 ( digitized ); 2. verb. and exp. Edition ibid. 1598 ( BSB digital , e-rara ); 3rd edition ibid. 1607, also in Italian translation:
• Cosmografia in quattro libri diuisa, la quale con sommo ordine, e marauigliosa facilità, e breuità introduce alla grande mathematica costruttione di Tolomeo, & à tutta l'astrologia. Venice: Grazioso Perchacino, 1607
• Admirandum illud geometricum problema tredecim modis demonstratum, quod docet duas lineas in eodem plano designare, quae nunquam invicem coincidant, etiam si in infinitum protrahantur: & quando longius producuntur, tanto sibi invicem propiores evadant. Venice: Grazioso Perchacino, 1586 ( BSB digital , e-rara ); Photomechanical reprint Bologna: CLUEB, 1993 (= Instrumenta Rationis, 8), with an introduction by Luigi Maierù ( Francesco Barozzi between 'certainty' and 'method' )
• Pronostico universale di tutto il mondo. Il qual comincia dal principio dell'anno 1565 & finisce al principio dell'anno 1570. Racolto dalli presagi del divino Michiele Nostradamo, & dalli pronostici di molti altri eccellentissimi autori & con brevi annotazioni illustrato. Bologna: Libraria del Mercurio, 1566

Further

• Lectiones in Procli Commentarios in primum librum Euclidis Elementorum quas publice in Gymnasio Patavino profitebatur anno Christi natali 1559 , ed. by Anna De Pace, Le matematiche e il mondo. Ricerche su un dibattito in Italia nella seconda metà del Cinquecento , Milan: Franco Angeli, 1993, pp. 349-430
• Leonis VI Imperatoris Vaticinia latino sermone donata , in two versions:

• Soo. Codex Bute, created between 1575 and 1577, acquired in the 18th century by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute , privately owned since 1978, ed. by Jeannine Vereecken / Lydie Hadermann-Misguich, Les oracles de Léon le Sage illustrés par Georges Klontzas. La version Barozzi dans le Codex Bute , Venice: Institut Hellénique, Herakleion: Bibliothèque Vikelaia, 2000 (= Oriens Graecolatinus, 7)
• Codex Bodleianus Baroccianus 170, by dedication to Giacomo Foscarini dated April 6, 1577, ed. by Antonio Rigo, Oracula leonis. Tre manoscritti greco-veneziani degli Oracoli attribuiti all'Imperatore bizantino Leone il Saggio (Bodl. Baroc. 170, Marc. Gr. VII.22, Marc. Gr. VII.3) , Padua: Editoriale Programma, 1988 (= Helios, 2 )

• Descrittione dell'isola di Creta , ed. by Stephanos Kaklamanēs, Francesco Barozzi, Descrittione dell'isola di Creta - Περιγραφή της Κρήτης (1577/8). Mια γεωγραφική και αρχαιολογική περιγραφή της Kρήτης στα χρόνια της Αναγέννησης , Iraklio: Βικελαία Δημοτική Βιβλιοθήκη, 2004, previously in excerpts: Nobili nozze Elisabetta Barozzi - Cesare Foscari. Descrittione dell'Isola di Creta, composta da Francesco Barozzi fu figliuolo di messer Jacomo Nobile venetiano l'anno 1777 [sic] , ritrovandosi nella detta Isola , Venice: Tipografia Emiliana, 1898

literature

• Baldassare Boncompagni: Intorno alla vita ed ai lavori di Francesco Barozzi , in Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche 17 (1884), pp. 795-848
• Giulio Cesare Giacobbe: Francesco Barozzi (1537-1604) e la 'Quaestio de certitudine mathematicarum' , in: Physis 14 (1972), pp. 357-374
• Luigi Maierù / Emilia Florio: Le dimostrazioni di Francesco Barozzi nell '' Admirandum illud geometricum problema ' , in: Accademia Nazionale Di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Modena, Memorie Scientifiche, Giuridiche, Letterarie, series VIII, volume 11.1 (2008) , Pp. 17-52
• Luigi Maierù: Considerazioni attorno alla dimostrazione nella matematica del Cinque-Seicento. 'Analisi' e 'Sintesi' in Francesco Barozzi e in John Wallis lettori di Pappo , in: Physis 37 (2000), pp. 283-310
• Luigi Maierù: Gli influssi del Narbonense nell'opera di Francesco Barozzi , in: Atti del Simposio Internazionale di «Storia delle Matematiche in Italia», Istituto Italiano di Alta Matematica, Cortona, April 26-29, 1983 , London: Academic Press, 1986 ( = Symposia Mathematica, 27), pp. 23-49
• Marisa Milani: Da accusati a delatori: Veronica Franco e Francesco Barozzi , in: Quaderni veneti 23 (1996), pp. 10-34
• Nikolaos M. Panagiotakis : Ὀ Francesco Barozzi καί ἡ Ἀκαδημία τῶν Vivi τοῦ Ρεθύμνου , in: Πεπραγμένα του 3. Διεθνούς Κρητδρλογικού υ 1974
• Lorena Passalacqua: Le Collezioni di Pappo: polemiche editoriali e circolazione di manoscritti nelle corrispondenze di Francesco Barozzi con il Duca di Urbino , in: Bollettino di storia delle scienze matematiche 14 (1994), pp. 91–156
• Antonio Rigo: L'opera "profetica" di Francesco Barozzi tra Creta e Venezia , in: Roberto Rusconi (ed.), Storia e figure dell'Apocalisse tra '500 e' 600. Atti del IV Congresso internazionale di studi gioachimiti , Rome: Viella, 1996 (= Opere di Gioacchino da Fiore, 7), pp. 77-106
• Paul Lawrence Rose: A Venetian Patron and Mathematician of the Sixteenth Century: Francesco Barozzi (1537-1604) , in: Studi venetiani, Nuova Serie 1 (1977), pp. 119-178
• Sandra Scomparin: La sentenza contro Francesco Barozzi e altri processi per magia nell'Archivio della Curia patriarcale di Venezia (fine sec. 16.) . Tesi di laurea, Università degli studi di Padova, 1996
• Anonymous [Giancarlo Spiazzi]: Art. Barozzi, Francsco , in: Dizionario biografico degli italiani , Volume 6, Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1964, pp. 495-499 ( online version )

Web links

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: Franciscus Barocius
• The Galileo Project
• Moritz Cantor : Lectures on the History of Mathematics 1550–1600 (PDF)

Remarks

1. ↑ Based on a short handwritten biography by Giovanni degli Agostini, quoted by Boncompagni 1884, p. 796, note 2
2. ↑ "nella Parocchia di S. Mosè, dove abitava" (Giovanni degli Agostini), quoted by Boncompagni 1884, S. 799f., N. 4
3. ↑ In the Inquisition's judgment of 1587 "nella Villa di S. Constantino Territorio di Rettimo in Candia (...) in vna tua casa", Boncompagni 1884, p. 840
4. ↑ Barozzi, Oratio habita in celeberrimo gymnasio patavino cum mathematicas publice profiteri inciperet , in: Opusculum, in quo una oratio, & duae quaestiones , Padua: Grazioso Perchacino, 1560, pp. 3r-6r, p. 3v: “cum octauus iamiorum ageretur annus "