Prince Baldassarre Boncompagni-Ludovisi (10 May 1821 – 13 April 1894), was an Italian historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 of mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and aristocrat.

Biography

Boncompagni was born in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, into an ancient noble and wealthy Roman family, the Ludovisi

Ludovisi (family)

The Ludovisi were a noble Italian family, originating from Bologna.Famous members of the family were - among others - Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, who became Pope with the name of Gregory XV, and his nephew, Ludovico Ludovisi, also cardinal...

-Boncompagni

Boncompagni

The Boncompagni is an Italian noble family from Assisi.-History:The family is documented for the first time in 1133, when one Rodolfo Boncompagni, a German nobleman of Saxon origins, was appointed by Lothair II as lord of Assisi...

, as the third son of Prince Luigi Boncompagni Ludovisi and Princess Maria Maddalena Odescalchi. He studied under the mathematician Barnabas Dotterel and astronomer Ignazio Calandrelli, developing an interest in the history of science

History of science

The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....

. In 1847 Pope Pius IX

Pope Pius IX

Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...

 appointed him a member of the Accademia dei Lincei

Accademia dei Lincei

The Accademia dei Lincei, , is an Italian science academy, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy....

. Between 1850-1862 he produced studies on mathematicians of the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 and in 1868 founded the Bollettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche. After the annexation of the Papal States

Papal States

The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...

 into the Kingdom of Italy

Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

 (1870), he refused further participation in the new Academy of the Lincei, and did not accept the appointment as Senator of the Kingdom offered by Quintino Sella

Quintino Sella

Quintino Sella was an Italian statesman and financier.-Biography:Sella was born at Sella di Mosso, in the Province of Biella....

. He did, however, serve as a member of several other Italian and foreign academies.

Boncompagni edited Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche ("The bulletin of bibliography and history of mathematical and physical sciences") (1868-1887), the first Italian periodical entirely dedicated to the history of mathematics

History of mathematics

The area of study known as the history of mathematics is primarily an investigation into the origin of discoveries in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, an investigation into the mathematical methods and notation of the past....

. He edited every article that appeared in the journal. He also prepared and published the first modern edition of Fibonacci

Fibonacci

Leonardo Pisano Bigollo also known as Leonardo of Pisa, Leonardo Pisano, Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo Fibonacci, or, most commonly, simply Fibonacci, was an Italian mathematician, considered by some "the most talented western mathematician of the Middle Ages."Fibonacci is best known to the modern...

's Liber Abaci

Liber Abaci

Liber Abaci is a historic book on arithmetic by Leonardo of Pisa, known later by his nickname Fibonacci...

.

Selected works

• Recherches sur les integrales définies. Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik, 1843, XXV, pagg. 74-96
• Intorno ad alcuni avanzamenti della fisica in Italia nei secoli XVI e XVII. Giornale arcadico di scienze, lettere ed arti, 1846, CIX, pagg. 3-48 http://books.google.it/books?id=xkUEAAAAQAAJ
• Della vita e delle opere di Guido Bonatti, astrologo e astronomo del secolo decimoterzo. Roma, 1851
• Delle versioni fatte da Platone Tiburtino, traduttore del secolo duodecimo. Atti dell'Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei, 1850-51, IV, pagg. 247-286
• Della vita e delle opere di Gherardo Cremonese, traduttore del secolo decimosecondo, e di Gherardo da Sabbioneta, astronomo del secolo decimoterzo. Atti dell'Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei, 1850-51, IV, pagg. 387-493
• Della vita e delle opere di Leonardo Pisano, matematico del secolo decimoterzo. Atti dell'Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi lincei, 1851-52, V, pagg. 208-245
• Intorno ad alcune opere di Leonardo Pisano (Roma : tipografia delle belle arti, 1854)
• Opuscoli di Leonardo Pisano, pubblicati da Baldassarre Boncompagni secondo la lezione di un codice della Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano, Firenze, 1856
• Trattati d'aritmetica pubblicati da Baldassarre Boncompagni, I, Algoritmi de numero Indorum; II, Ioannis Hispalensis liber Algoritmi de practica arismetice. Roma, 1857
• Scritti di Leonardo Pisano, matematico, pubblicati da Baldassarre Boncompagni. 2 voll., Roma, 1857-62
• Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche. Tomi I-XX, Roma, 1868-1887

External links

• Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche at the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...