Mathematician:Lodovico Ferrari

Mathematician

Italian mathematician who was a student of Gerolamo Cardano.

First one to devise a solution to the general quartic equation, which was later published by Cardano and is now known as Ferrari's Method.

Nationality

Italian

History

• 2nd February 1522: Born in Bologna, Papal States (now Italy)
• 30th November 1536: Went to work for Gerolamo Cardano, and became his student of mathematics
• 1540: Discovered solution of the quartic equation
• 1541: Became a public lecturer in geometry
• 10th August 1548: Defeated Tartaglia in a public algebra contest
• 1565: Called to a professorship in the University of Bologna
• 5th October 1565: Died in Bologna (supposedly murdered by his sister Maddalena by arsenic).

Theorems

• Ferrari's Method for solving the quartic.

Results named for Lodovico Ferrari can be found here.

Publications

• Collaborated with Gerolamo Cardano on his Artis Magnae, Sive de Regulis Algebraicis

Also known as

Some sources report his forename as Ludovico.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Lodovico Ferrari": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1971: Allan Clark: Elements of Abstract Algebra ... (previous) ... (next): Introduction
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $4$
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $4$
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Ferrari, Ludovico (1522-65)
• 2004: Ian Stewart: Galois Theory (3rd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Historical Introduction: Polynomial Equations
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Ferrari, Ludovico (1522-65)
• 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $4$: Lure of the Unknown: Cubic equations