Michelangelo Ricci was an Italian mathematician and a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
11 Facts About Michelangelo Ricci
2.
Michelangelo Ricci studied theology and law in Rome, where he was a contemporary of Rene-Francois de Sluse.
3.
Michelangelo Ricci studied mathematics under Benedetto Castelli who himself had been a student of Galileo Galilei.
4.
Michelangelo Ricci was a friend of Evangelista Torricelli, kept close links with contemporary scientific culture, and played an important role in the development of the Galilean school.
5.
Michelangelo Ricci played a significant part in the theoretical debates and experiments that led up to Torricelli's discovery of atmospheric pressure and invention of the mercury barometer.
6.
Michelangelo Ricci studied spirals and cycloids and recognised that the study of tangents and the calculation of areas are reciprocal operations.
7.
Michelangelo Ricci is known for his correspondence with Torricelli, Vincenzo Viviani, Rene de Sluze and Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici, founder of the Accademia del Cimento.
8.
Michelangelo Ricci was a close associate of Antonio Nardi, another mathematician in Rome.
9.
Michelangelo Ricci collaborated with Nardi on his Scene, an unpublished manuscript that circulated among Torricelli and others, in which Ricci included some of the material that would later appear in his 1666 Geometrica Exercitatio.
10.
Michelangelo Ricci endeavoured to defend Francesco Redi against Cardinal Leopold when Redi published his Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti, arguing against the spontaneous generation of insects.
11.
Michelangelo Ricci was the backer of Abbot Francisco Nazzari in the publication of the first review of Italian literature, the Giornale de' Letterati.