Between Padua, Bologna and Ferrara: Torquato Tasso student and professor

by Luigi Pepe

The greatest mathematical achievement of the 16th century was the solution to the general third-degree polynomial equation and was published for the first time in Italian, in verse, by Niccolò Tartaglia (Venice 1546): "Quando chel cubo con le cose appresso, se agguaglia a qualche numero discreto... ('cose', literally 'things', was the ancient Italian word for variables). Astounding relations between science and literature, and some intriguing clarifications on the relations between universities and academies in Italy during the second half of the 16th century, emerged in the 1995 celebrations held on the fourth centenary of Torquato Tasso's death. The conference on "Tasso and the University" promoted at the University of Ferrara by Walter Moretti was of particular interest. Son of a scholar and court functionary (Bernardo Tasso), Torquato studied with the Jesuits in Naples and then in Urbino where he was educated at the court of Guidubaldo II della Rovere. Here he was the study companion of Guidubaldo's son, Francesco Maria. In Urbino, Torquato had Federico Commandino (1509-1575) as his tutor - the editor of Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Ptolemy and Pappus - and thus the greatest representative of mathematical humanism in Italy. His study companion was Guidubaldo del Monte (1545-1607), the author of Mecchaniche, of Prospettiva and Problemi astronomici - the main reference of young Galileo. The school of Urbino influenced Tasso - leading him towards a sort of compromise between the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. Bernardo Tasso knew that a degree in law was very important for his son's career as a court functionary. Thus Torquato began his university studies at Padua (1560-1562) - though without foregoing his literary and scientific interests. Between 1562 and 1564 Torquato moved to the University of Bologna, attracted by a scholarship. But he was forced to leave Bologna after a series of defamatory verses regarding students and professors were attributed to him and eventually led to a trial (illustrated much later in the Almanacco statistico bolognese per l'anno 1838). Tasso returned to Padua to then move to Ferrara in September 1565 as part of the entourage of Cardinal Luigi d'Este. At Ferrara, Torquato tried unsuccessfully to find a position at court. The only professional activity we know of is a lectureship in mathematics (Sphere and Euclid) at the Studio of Ferrara, which was awarded him for the academic years 1573-74 and 1574-75, and for which he was paid. As it was customary also in Bologna up to a few years before, Tasso's lectureship consisted only of festive readings. Public holidays, however, were numerous (we may thus estimate roughly thirty lessons per year). Numerous extant books (among which the first Latin translation of Ptolemy's Almagest) containing Tasso's marginalia, offer additional evidence of his philosophical and scientific culture.

Address: Luigi Pepe, Department of Mathematics, University of Ferrara, Via Machiavelli 35, 44100 Ferrara.