Guido Grandi

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Luigi Guido Grandi (October 1, 1671 – July 4, 1742) was an Italian priest, born in Cremona who was Jesuit-educated and became a member of the Camaldolese order. He became a professor of philosophy at the Camaldolese monastery in Florence in 1700 and a professor of mathematics in 1714. He used knowledge in both of these fields to (falsely) prove that God could create the universe out of nothing; see Grandi's series.^{[citation needed]}

In math Grandi is best known for studying the rose curve, a curve which has the shape of a petalled flower. He named it rhodonea. He also contributed to Note on the Treatise of Galileo Concerning Natural Motion in the first Florentine edition of Galileo Galilei's works and helped introduce Gottfried Leibniz's ideas on calculus to Italy. He also worked as an engineer, being superintendent of water at Tuscany, and in that capacity he was involved in the drainage of the Chiana Valley. In 1709 he visited England where he was named a member of the Royal Society.

[edit] External links

• O'Connor, John J. & Robertson, Edmund F., “Guido Grandi”, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive 
• Galileo Project: Guido Grandi