Marin Getaldic

Marin Getaldic

Marin Getaldić ( Latin Marinus Ghetaldus , Italian Marino Ghetaldi ; born October 2, 1568 in Dubrovnik , Republic of Ragusa ; † April 8 or 11, 1626 ibid) was a mathematician and physicist . He studied in Rome and Leuven . He worked in particular in the fields of optics and mathematics .

Life

His family was originally from Taranto in Italy and was one of the wealthy patricians in Dubrovnik. He went to the Franciscan school in his hometown, where, in addition to a good humanistic education, he also received lessons in mathematics. After he had finished school around 1588, he continued to study mathematics and astronomy in a scientifically interested circle of friends. From 1590 he held various administrative offices in the Office of Armaments and Salt Trade (salt was one of the main sources of income for Dubrovnik). In 1595 he went on a trip to Europe with his friend Marin Gucetic (who accompanied him constantly until his return) and attended the lectures of Christophorus Clavius on the parable in Rome , visited England for two years around 1597, was in Antwerp with Michel Coignet in 1599 and in 1600 Paris , where he came under the influence of François Viète , who encouraged him to do his own mathematical work. Then he was back in Italy, where he heard lectures from Galileo Galilei in Padua in 1600 , who also explained his proportional circle to him. In 1601 he left Padua and in 1602 was in Rome. In 1603 he left Rome and returned to Dubrovnik via Venice. The exact reason is not known, but he probably feared persecution. On his long trip to Europe, according to the words of his friend Gucetic, he also visited northern and southern Germany, almost all of France and Italy. He turned down an offer to become a professor in Leuven . It is not known exactly how he financed himself on these trips, but he was inherently wealthy. In Dubrovnik he first became a judge at the court of appeal and then inspected the fortifications of the republic, particularly in Ston . He continued to correspond with scientists like Clavius, Galilei, Christoph Grienberger and Paul Guldin , but complained about his scientific isolation. In 1606 he was sent on a mission to Istanbul by the Republic of Dubrovnik . After his return he held various administrative offices and was again at the court of appeal. In 1620 he was back in Rome and was elected to the Accademia dei Lincei in 1621 , but previously left Rome for Dubrovnik.

Ghetaldi was married and had three daughters.

plant

Variorum problematum collectio , 1607

Of particular importance is his book on hydrostatics according to Archimedes from 1603 (Promotus Archimedis), in which also experimental data of specific weights of different solids and liquids are listed. In the same year he also published a work on parables and conic sections. He also continued a project by Viète, the reconstruction of lost books by Apollonios von Perge , about which he published books in 1607 and 1613. He even looked in vain for an Arabic edition of Apollonius in Istanbul. In 1607 he published a collection of mathematical problems, including early applications of algebra in geometry (in solving a problem by Apollonios with the algebraic methods of Viète, an exchange with Alexander Anderson in Paris developed). He is thus a forerunner of René Descartes , the founder of analytical geometry, who knew his book De resolutione et de compositione mathematica published posthumously in 1630 . However, he did not take Descartes' step to represent geometric objects entirely through algebraic equations.

He builds some of Galileo's instruments, including his telescope. He carried out his optical experiments with mirrors in the cave "Betina špilja" not far from Dubrovnik (it is named after him, his nickname was Bete ). Among other things, he melted metals using parabolic burning mirrors.

Most recently he dealt with triangulation and wanted to use it to determine the diameter of the earth, for which purpose he planned experiments with two Jesuits in 1626. But he died before that.

Fonts

Entrance to Villa Getaldić in Dubrovnik

• Marini Ghetaldi: Patricii Ragvsini promotvs Archimedis sev de varijs corporum generibus grauitate et magnitudine comparatis . Rome 1603.
• Marini Ghetaldi: Nonnvlla Propositiones De Parabola . Rome 1603.
• Marini Ghetaldi: Variorum problematum Collectio . Venice 1607.
• Marini Ghetaldi: Apollonius redivivus . Seu Restituta Apollonii Pergaei Inclinationum geometria. Venice 1607.
• Marini Ghetaldi: Apollonius redivivus. Seu Restituta Apollonii Pergaei De inclinationibus geometriae liber secundus . Venice 1613
• Marini Ghetaldi: De Resolutione et Compositione Mathematica. Opus Posthumum. Rome 1630.
• Žarko Dadić (ed.): Marin Getaldić: Sabrana djela. (Opera omnia) . Zagreb 1968 (modern work edition).

literature

• Karin Reich : Quelques remarques sur Marinus Ghetaldus et François Viète . (= Publications of the research institute of the Deutsches Museum for the history of natural sciences and technology. 53).
• Zarko Dadic: The early geometrical works of Marin Getaldic, in: Ronald Calinger (Ed.), Vita Mathematica, MAA 1996

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Marin Getaldić. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
• Getaldić in the Galileo Project
• Marin Getaldić (Croatian)