Barocci, Francis

, a patrician or senator of Venice, distinguished for his knowledge in mathematics, flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century. Some of his translations, as well as original works, were published in his life-time, as 1. “Heronis liber de machinis bellicis, necnon liber de Geodiesia, ex Graeco Latine,” Venice, 1572, 4to. 2. “Procli in primuin elementorum Euclidis libri quatuor,” translated into Latin, Padua, 1560, fol. He was only twenty-two years of age, when he published this work. 3. A commentary on Plato, “de numero geometrico,” Boulogne, 1556; and 4. A system of Cosmography, Venice, 1585, 8vo. We have an account likewise of one of his writings, entitled “Cryptographia,” (or according to the Dict. Hist. “Rytmomachia,”) describing an ancient game attributed to Pythagoras. This was translated by Augustus duke of Brunswick and Lunenburgh, under the name of Gustavus Seienus. On Barocci’s death, his manuscripts were sold by his heirs, and came to the Bodleian library, as part of Langbaine’s collection. ²