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 edit

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 edit

  • 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 edit

  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).