Pietro De Martino or Di Martino (31 May 1707 – 28 January 1746) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer.[1]

Pietro Di Martino
Born(1707-05-31)31 May 1707
Died28 January 1746(1746-01-28) (aged 38)
NationalityItalian
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy, Mathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Naples
Nuove instituzioni di aritmetica pratica, Section One, 1762 ed.

Biography

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Born in Faicchio, he was brother of Angelo, professor first of medical physics then of mathematics at the University of Naples; and of Nicola Antonio De Martino, professor di mathematics and director of the Real Corpo degli Ingegneri (Royal Engineers Corp) and Marine Guard. Pietro De Martino was a pupil of Agostino Ariani and of Giacinto De Cristoforo (1650-1730). In 1735 he was assigned of the astronomical and nautical chair at the University of Naples.[2]

He disputed with Roger Joseph Boscovich on the question if it is possible to gain a right result starting from a wrong hypothesis.[1]

He authored various works; his Nuove istituzioni di aritmetica pratica, published originally in 1739 in Naples, had many reprints (the better known of the 1758; one also in Turin in 1762).[1] He died in Naples in 1746.[2]

Works

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  • Degli elementi della geometria piana composti da Euclide Megarese, e tradotti in italiano, ed illustrati (in Italian). Naples: Alessio Pellecchia. 1785 [1736].
  • Philosophiae naturalis institutionum libri tres (in Latin). Naples: Felice Carlo Mosca. 1738.
  • Nuove istituzioni di aritmetica pratica (in Italian). Naples: Felice Carlo Mosca. 1739.
  • Nuove instituzioni di aritmetica pratica (in Italian). Turin: Stamperia Reale. 1762 [1739].
  • De luminis refractione et motu (in Latin). Naples. 1740.
  • De corporum quae moventur viribus, earumque aestimandarum ratione (in Latin). Naples: Felice Mosca. 1741.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Pietro Nastasi (1990). "DE MARTINO, Pietro". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 38: Della Volpe–Denza (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
  2. ^ a b Gargano, Mauro (2012). "Pietro Di Martino". Stardust: the cultural heritage of Italian astronomy (in Italian).