11 Facts About Francesco Maurolico

Francesco Maurolico was an Italian mathematician and astronomer from the Kingdom of Sicily.

Francesco Maurolico made contributions to the fields of geometry, optics, conics, mechanics, music, and astronomy.

Francesco Maurolico edited the works of classical authors including Archimedes, Apollonius, Autolycus, Theodosius and Serenus.

Francesco Maurolico composed his own unique treatises on mathematics and mathematical science.

Francesco Maurolico was one of seven sons of Antonio Maruli, a government official, and Penuccia.

Francesco Maurolico's father was a Greek physician who fled Constantinople when the Ottomans invaded the city.

Antonio had studied with the Neoplatonic Hellenist Constantine Lascaris, so Francesco Maurolico received a "Lascarian" education through his father and from Francesco Maurolico Faraone and Giacomo Genovese, disciples of Lascaris, whose influence is recognizable.

In 1534 Francesco Maurolico Maruli changed his surname to Mauro Lyco, after having adopted for eight years, uninterruptedly, the name of Mauro Lycio as a member of a Messina academy.

Francesco Maurolico died in Messina 1575 of natural death, during a plague epidemic due to which the mathematician had retired to Contrada Annunziata: a hilly area north of Messina, where the Maruli family owned a villa that probably had hosted, sometimes, the academy of which the scientist-humanist had been part.

Francesco Maurolico is buried in the church of San Giovanni di Malta in Messina, where his nephews Francesco and Silvestro Maurolico erected an artistic marble sarcophagus, accompanied by the uncle's bust and Maurolico's coat of arms with the wolf and the star Sirius.

Francesco Maurolico corresponded with scholars such as Clavius and Federico Commandino.