Bombelli

Rafael Bombelli

Born: Jan 1526 in Bologna, Italy
Died: 1573 in (probably) Rome, Italy 

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Rafael Bombelli was an engineer whose projects included reclaiming land. Bombelli was the first person to write down the rules for addition and multiplication of complex numbers. He showed that, using his methods, correct real solutions could be obtained from the Cardan-Tartaglia formula for the solution to a cubic even when the formula gave an expression involving the square roots of negative numbers.

Bombelli wrote his Algebra in 1560, his only publication, a few years after Cardan's Ars Magna appeared but Algebra was not published until 1572. It was, however, a very influential work and led to Leibniz praising Bombelli saying he was an outstanding master of the analytical art.

Other Web sites:

Rice University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. 1. P L Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics (Geneva, 1975), 146-148.
  3. S A Jayawardene, Unpublished Documents Relating to Rafael Bombelli in the Archives of Bologna, Isis 54 (1963), 391-395
  4. S A Jayawardene, Rafael Bombelli, Engineer- Architect: Some Unpublished Documents of the Apostolic Camera, Isis 56 (1965), 298-306.
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JOC/EFR February 1996