View source for Lodovico Ferrari

{{short description|Italian mathematician (1522–1565)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Lodovico de Ferrari
| birth_date        = {{birth-date|2 February 1522}}
| birth_place       = [[Bologna]]
| death_date        = {{dda|1565|10|5|1522|2|2|df=y}}
| death_place       = Bologna
| nationality       = [[Italy|Italian]]
| field             = [[Mathematics]]
| work_institutions = 
| alma_mater        = 
| academic_advisors = [[Gerolamo Cardano]]
| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = Solving the [[biquadratic equation]]s
}}
[[File:Tartaglia - Terza risposta data a messer Hieronimo Cardano et a messer Lodovico Ferraro.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Niccolò Tartaglia]], ''Terza risposta data a messer Hieronimo Cardano et a messer Lodovico Ferraro'', 1547]]
'''Lodovico de Ferrari''' (2 February 1522 &ndash; 5 October 1565) was an [[Italians|Italian]] [[mathematician]] best known today for solving the [[quartic equation]].

==Biography==
Born in [[Bologna]], Lodovico's grandfather, Bartolomeo Ferrari, was forced out of Milan to Bologna. Lodovico settled in Bologna, and he began his career as the servant of [[Gerolamo Cardano]]. He was extremely bright, so Cardano started teaching him mathematics. Ferrari aided Cardano on his solutions for [[quartic equations]] and [[cubic equation]]s, and was mainly responsible for the solution of quartic equations that Cardano published. While still in his teens, Ferrari was able to obtain a prestigious teaching post in Rome after Cardano resigned from it and recommended him. Ferrari retired when young at 42 years old, and wealthy.<ref>[[David Eugene Smith|Smith, D. E.]], ''History of Mathematics'', Vol 1 (New York: [[Dover Publications]], 1958), [https://books.google.com/books?id=56lzDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA300 p. 300].</ref>{{rp|300}} He then moved back to his home town of Bologna where he lived with his widowed sister Maddalena to take up a professorship of mathematics at the University of Bologna in 1565. Shortly thereafter, he died of white [[arsenic]] poisoning, according to a legend, by his sister.<ref name="ShuchatGindikin2007">[[Simon Gindikin|Gindikin, S.]], ''Tales of Mathematicians and Physicists'' (A. Shuchat, Trans.). Springer; 2007. {{isbn|978-0-387-48811-0}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ng1Vn4byYHUC&lpg=PP1&hl=de&pg=PA18 p. 18].</ref>{{rp|18}}

==Cardano–Tartaglia formula==
In 1545 a famous dispute erupted between Ferrari and Cardano's contemporary [[Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia]], involving the solution to cubic equations. Widespread stories that Tartaglia devoted the rest of his life to ruining Ferrari's teacher and erstwhile master Cardano, however, appear to be fabricated.<ref>[[Tony Rothman|Rothman, T.]], [https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1308/1308.2181.pdf "Cardano v Tartaglia: The Great Feud Goes Supernatural".]</ref> Mathematical historians now credit both Cardano and Tartaglia with the formula to solve cubic equations, referring to it as the "[[Cardano–Tartaglia formula]]".

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{DSB
|first=S. A.
|last=Jayawardene 
|title=Ferrari, Lodovico
|volume=4
|pages=586–8
}}

==External links==
* {{Commons-inline}}
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Ferrari}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrari, Lodovico de}}
[[Category:1522 births]]
[[Category:1565 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Bologna]]
[[Category:Algebraists]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian mathematicians]]


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