Tartaglia, Nicholas

, a noted mathematician, was born at Brescia in Italy, probably towards the conclusion of the fifteenth century, as we find he was a considerable master or preceptor in mathematics in 1521, when the first of his collection of questions and answers was written, which heafterwards published in 1546, under the title of “Quesiti et Invention! diverse,” at Venice, where he then resided as a public lecturer on mathematics, he having removed to this place about 1534. This work consists of nine chapters, containing answers to a number of questions on all the different branches of mathematics and philosophy then in vogue. The last or ninth of these, contains the questions in algebra, among which are those celebrated letters and communications between Tartalea and Cardan, by which our author put the latter in possession of the rules for cubic equations, which he first discovered in 1530.

The first work of Tartalea’s that was published, was his “Nova Scientia inventa,” Venice, 1537, in 4to. This is a treatise on the theory and practise of gunnery, and the first of the kind, he being the first writer on the flight and path of balls and shells. This work was translarH into English by Lucar, and printed at London in 1588, folio, with many notes and additions by the translator. Tartalea published at Venice, 1543, in folio, the whole books of Euclid, accompanied with many curious notes and commentaries. But the last and chief work of Tartalea was his “Trattato di Numeri etMisure,” 1556, and 1560, fol. This is an universal treatise on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, mensuration, c. It contains many other curious particulars of the disputes between our author and Cardan, which ended only with the death of Tartalea, before the last part of this work was published, or about 1558. ²