The name of Vitali Giordano (or Giordani, 1633-1711) is essentially known by the scholars of history of elementary geometry for his presentation of Euclid's Elements in Italian: the "Euclide restituto", whose first edition was published in Rome, in 1680, in a beautiful volume in folio. He also published an incomplete treatise on conic sections and three pamphlets on mechanics, related to a scientific polemic on a problem of statics. But this is a very scarce production, if we compare it with Giordani's ambitious program to give a complete treatise of all the various parts of mathematics, which he wrote 1685 on the occasion of the competition for a chair of mathematics at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Fortunately, most of these manuscripts are preserved in the Biblioteca dell'Accademia dei Lincei e Corsiniana in Rome: 7 volumes which include a careful treatment of Euclid's Data, the theory of conics, almost all Archimedes' works, and Geostatics. The purpose of the present study is to give a first contribution to a more comprehensive knowledge of Giordani's mathematical works: an appendix contains the bibliography of Giordani's printed works and a description of Giordani's manuscripts. In the introduction the short correspondence between Leibniz and Giordani is analyzed: two letters of Leibniz and one of Giordani (in Latin). They deal with Giordani's definition of straight line, and clarify Leibniz' position on the foundations of elementary geometry and the role of axioms in a deductive science.
Unpublished manuscripts of Vitale Giordani, correspondent of Leibniz
BORGATO, Maria Teresa
1988
Abstract
The name of Vitali Giordano (or Giordani, 1633-1711) is essentially known by the scholars of history of elementary geometry for his presentation of Euclid's Elements in Italian: the "Euclide restituto", whose first edition was published in Rome, in 1680, in a beautiful volume in folio. He also published an incomplete treatise on conic sections and three pamphlets on mechanics, related to a scientific polemic on a problem of statics. But this is a very scarce production, if we compare it with Giordani's ambitious program to give a complete treatise of all the various parts of mathematics, which he wrote 1685 on the occasion of the competition for a chair of mathematics at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Fortunately, most of these manuscripts are preserved in the Biblioteca dell'Accademia dei Lincei e Corsiniana in Rome: 7 volumes which include a careful treatment of Euclid's Data, the theory of conics, almost all Archimedes' works, and Geostatics. The purpose of the present study is to give a first contribution to a more comprehensive knowledge of Giordani's mathematical works: an appendix contains the bibliography of Giordani's printed works and a description of Giordani's manuscripts. In the introduction the short correspondence between Leibniz and Giordani is analyzed: two letters of Leibniz and one of Giordani (in Latin). They deal with Giordani's definition of straight line, and clarify Leibniz' position on the foundations of elementary geometry and the role of axioms in a deductive science.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.