Niccolo tartaglia biography of donald
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Tartaglia (also Tartalea or Tartaia). Niccolò
(b. Brescia, Italy, or ; d. Venice, Italy, 13 December )
mathematics, mechanics, topography, military science.
The surname Tartaglia, which Niccolò always used, was a nickname given to him in his boyhood because of a speech impediment resulting from a wound in the mouth (tartagliare means “to stammer”). According to his will, dated 10 December and now in the Venice State Archives, he had a brother surnamed Fontana, and some historians have attributed that surname to Niccolò as well.
Tartaglia’s father, Michele, a postal courier, died about , leaving his widow and children in poverty. Six years later, during the sack of Brescia, Niccolò, while taking shelter in the cathedral, received five serious head wounds. It was only through the loving care of his mother that he recovered. At the age of about fourteen, he went to a Master Francesco to learn to write the alphabet; but by the time he reached “k,” he was no longer able to p
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Tartaglia versus Cardan
Zuanne de Tonini da Coi: I have heard that some time ago you entered into a disputation with Master Antonio Maria Fior and that in the end you reached agreement whereby he was to propound thirty problems for you, each of a different kind, set down in writing and sealed, to be deposited with Master Per Iacomo di Zambelli, notary, and similarly you would propound thirty problems for him, each of a different kind also. This you both did, fixing a term of forty or fifty days for each of you to solve these problems and agreeing that whichever of you within that time should be adjudged to have solved the greater number of the questions you had been given would take the honours, together with some small reward you s
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