Tartaglia (c. 1499–1557)

Italian mathematician and physicist who specialized in military problems, topography, and mechanical physics.

Tartaglia was born in Brescia, Lombardy. He was called Tartaglia (‘stammerer’) because of a speech defect resulting from a wound caused by French soldiers sacking the town when he was 12. Although self-educated, he taught at a school in Verona 1516–33. He then moved to Venice, where he eventually became professor of mathematics.

Tartaglia solved the problems of calculating the volume of a tetrahedron from the length of its sides, and of inscribing within a triangle three circles tangent to one another.

He delighted in planning the disposition of artillery, surveying the topography in relation to the best means of defence, and in designing fortifications. He also attempted a study of the motion of projectiles, and formulated Tartaglia's theorem: the trajectory of a projectile is a curved line everywhere, and the maximum range at any speed of its projection is obtained with a firing elevation of 45°.

When Tartaglia translated Euclid's Elements into Italian in 1543, it was the first translation of Euclid into a contemporary European language.