Paolo Frisi

Background

Paolo Frisi was born on April 13, 1728, in Melegnano, Italy.

Education

Paolo was educated at the local Barnabite monastery and afterwards in that of Padua.

Career

When twenty-one years of age Frisi composed a treatise on the figure of the earth, and the reputation which he soon acquired led to his appointment by the King of Sardinia to the professorship of philosophy in the College of Casale. In 1753 he became professor of philosophy in the Barnabite College of St Alexander at Milan. In 1756 he was appointed by Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, to the professorship of mathematics in the university of Pisa, a post which he held for eight years. In 1764 he was created professor of mathematics in the palatine schools at Milan.

As an astronomer Frisi concerned himself with the daily movement of the earth, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the movement of the moon, the determination of the meridian circle, and matters concerning gravity in relation to Newton’s general theories.

His mathematical activity included studies on kinematics and, notably, on isoperimetry. He also did work in hydraulics and was called upon to plan works for the regulation of rivers and canals in various parts of northern Italy. He was responsible for laying out the canal built in 1819 between Milan and Pavia.

Frisi wrote critical notes in, honor of Galieo, Cavaliers, Newton, and d’Alembert, illustrating the contributions each had made to science and the influence each had exerted. In Italy during his lifetime he was considered a scientific authority and was also well known abroad, so much so that his major works, which he wrote in Latin, were translated into French and English. Algebra e geometria analitica, Meccancia, and Cosmografia, in which he brought together the best of his work, were, for that era, very up-to-date. Frisi was an editor of Il caffè, a newspaper that was influenced by the thought of the French Illuminati and that exerted a notable influence on the cultural, social, and political life of Milan in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Achievements

• Paolo Frisi was best known for his work in hydraulics, which caused him to be frequently consulted with respect to the management of canals and other watercourses in various parts of Europe. His major work on hydraulics, Del modo di regolare i fiumi, a summary of the best information in this field, was widely used as an engineering handbook. It was through his means that lightning conductors were first introduced into Italy for the protection of buildings. There is a street named after him in Melegnano and a high school in Monza.

Works

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  • Elogio del Galileo 1775
  • Opera: Algebram Et Geometriam Analyticam Continens 1782
  • Dei Fiumi E Dei Torrenti Libri Tre 1770
  • Instituzioni di meccanica, d'istrotatica, d'idrometria e dell' architettura statica, e idraulica 1777
  • Paulli Frizii: De gravitate universall corporum libri tres 1768
  • De Motu Diurno Terrae Dissertatio 1756
  • Cosmographiae Physicae Et Mathematicae 1774
  • De Gravitate Universali Corporum 1768

Religion

Frisi was a member of the Barnabite order.

Membership

Paolo Frisi was an associate of the Imperial Academy of St Petersburg and a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, that of Stockholm, Copenhagen and Bern. He was also a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences.

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography