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MacTutorVincenzo Viviani
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Florence (now Italy)
Florence (now Italy)
Biography
Vincenzo Viviani's father was Jacopo di Michelangelo Viviani and his mother was Maria Alamanno del Nente; both were members of a noble families. Vincenzo studied at a Jesuit school where he learnt the humanities. He was taught mathematics by Clemente Settimi, a Scolopian friar and a friend of Galileo. Settimi quickly saw Viviani's exceptional intelligence and, in 1638, presented him at court to Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The court was in Livorno, so Viviani had to make the long journey from Florence. While on the road he did not waste his time but spent the many hours studying the first three books of Euclid's Elements. He made a presentation to the Tuscan Court explaining the first sixteen propositions in the first book of the Elements. Famiano Michelini, Ferdinando's Court mathematician, then set him a problem to which he responded confidently. Ferdinando was greatly impressed and provided a monthly salary for Viviani that enabled him to purchase mathematical books. He also arranged for Viviani to meet Galileo, who was living in his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, where he had been put under house arrest by the Catholic Church. Despite the house arrest, Galileo was still Ferdinando's Tuscan Court Mathematician.Galileo, who by this time was totally blind, was very impressed by Viviani's knowledge and abilities. In 1639, he took Viviani into his home as a companion, student and collaborator, and Viviani continued in this role until Galileo died in January 1642. Viviani learnt much from Galileo over this period, working with him on physics and geometry. However, as Viviani relates himself, their relationship went well beyond that of scientist and assistant, becoming much more like that of a father and son. He wrote (see for example [4]):-
Soon after the unexpected publication of 'Discourses and mathematical demonstrations concerning the two new sciences', Signor Galileo allowed me into his villa in Arcetri where he was staying. I was able to benefit from our intelligent conversations and his precious teachings and he was content that in the study of mathematics, which I had only recently begun, I could turn to his own voice for the solution of those doubts and difficulties that I often found through the natural weakness of my intellect.In October 1641, Galileo and Viviani were joined in the villa at Arcetri by Evangelista Torricelli when he moved from Rome. After Galileo's death, Torricelli was appointed to fill Galileo's post as Ferdinando II de' Medici's Tuscan Court Mathematician and Viviani continued his collaboration with him. Torricelli is most famed as the first person to create a sustained vacuum and to discover the principle of a barometer. In 1643 Torricelli proposed an experiment which would demonstrate that atmospheric pressure determines the height to which a fluid will rise in a tube filled with a liquid, then inverted over the same liquid. In 1644 Viviani, as Torricelli's collaborator, carried out the experiment which proved a major scientific advance and led to the development of the barometer. When Torricelli died in 1647, Viviani was appointed to fill the lectureship at the Accademia del Disegno in Florence, holding this post for two years. The Grand Duke also appointed Viviani as mathematics teacher to the Medici family at Court, and as engineer with the Uffiziali dei Fiumi, a position he held for the rest of his life [4]:-
While his responsibilities as a Court Mathematician often varied according to the desires of the Grand Duke, the travels of the Tuscan Court, and the arrival on the scene of other thinkers, all his life he was kept busy by his duties to the Medici Court. Particularly exhausting for him was his role of engineer, which required substantial travel on horseback and led to illness on more than one occasion.The main thrust of Viviani's life, however, was to keep Galileo's memory alive and he wanted to do so by publishing his collected works. Michael Segre writes [15]:-
Viviani had in mind a grand edition of Galileo's works, in which the Latin works would be translated into Italian and vice versa, and throughout his life he collected an enormous quantity of material related to Galileo .... But he never brought this ambitious project to completion, mainly because he was too much of a perfectionist, never entirely satisfied with the material he had amassed and reluctant to stop collecting and begin publishing. For much the same reason, most of Viviani's own scientific work remained unpublished, and an edition of Galileo's works, as Viviani would have liked to see it, only ap