Italy’s Diabolical World Of Renaissance Math
When I last signed off, it was 1535, and Tartaglia had won the Tartaglia-Fiore mathematical duel. Tartaglia was a rock star on the mathematical scene. He had solved all Fiore’s problems and was also able to find a solution for the cubic equation
However, before I begin my story, I want to backtrack to the late fifteenth century, around 1482, when a man named Bartolomeo Ferrari had two sons, Vincent and Alexander. Alexander had two children: a daughter named Maddalena and a son named Lodovico, who was born in 1522. Sadly, like Tartaglia, Lodovico and Maddalena became orphaned when their father was killed. As a result, Lodovico was raised by his uncle Vincent and grew up with his cousin Luca. Luca was a troublemaker and was written into history as a difficult young man. Luca likely felt equally challenged by his father. So, he ran away from home. Luca thus found himself in Milan, looking for work. Eventually, he landed a position working as a servant for the 35-year-old mathematician Girolamo Cardano.
