L’Umanesimo matematico a Urbino dal Tardo Rinascimento alla Rivoluzione galileiana

According to the historian of art André Chastel, during the fifteenth century Urbino was the centre of the “mathematical humanism”. Indeed, in this period, well-known architects, artists and mathematicians (for example Piero della Francesca, Luca Pacioli, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Leonardo da Vinci, Paolo da Middelburg) met up to the Montefeltro’s court. This cultural vivacity was facilitated by the patronage of the Montefeltro and the building of Palazzo Ducale. However, if we interpreted “mathematical humanism” as the activity of translation of mathematical ancient works, then this tag would be more appropriated for the cultural and scientific milieu of Urbino of sixteenth century. In fact, at the court of della Rovere, during the Late Renaissance, an innovative recovery of ancient science texts took place. In these years Federico Commandino started the so-called mathematic school. He had famous pupils like Guidobaldo del Monte and Bernardino Baldi. They translated a lot of works of Archimedes, Euclid, Pappus, Apollonius and Hero. These works were fundamental for the scientific revolution of Galileo Galilei. The architect Muzio Oddi was the last exponent of this eminent tradition. The research provides an overview of the scientific milieu of Urbino from the Late Renaissance to the Galilean revolution through the examination of the crucial figures of Federico Commandino, Guidobaldo del Monte, Bernardino Baldi and Muzio Oddi. This work connects the recent studies published on the subject and establishes the link between the so-called “mathematical school” of Commandino and the Galilei’s scientific thought. In order to give a general description and to analyse some specific arguments, the thesis is written on two levels. In the first level we provide biographical references of the protagonists of science of Urbino and we situate their scientific contributions in context. In the second level, that coincides with the part called Appendice, we discuss specific topics and we propose some interpretative hypotheses. The first level consists of seven chapters. The first chapter of the thesis concerns the science of dukedom of Urbino in the fifteenth century, namely the cultural environment where the “mathematical humanism” of sixteenth century plunges one’s roots. The second chapter concerns Federico Commandino, the translator, mathematician and the initiator of the “mathematical school” of Urbino. The third chapter focuses on the figure of the mathematician Guidobaldo del Monte. The fourth chapter has as protagonist the versatile Bernardino Baldi. The fifth chapter concerns the workshops of scientific instruments of the dukedom of Urbino and their connection with the protagonists of the “school of Commandino”. The sixth chapter is dedicated to the architect Muzio Oddi. The final chapter concerns the impact of the “mathematical school” of Urbino to the science of Galileo, the important novelties of the science of Urbino during the Late Renaissance, open problems and research perspectives in order to situate definitely the “mathematical school of Urbino” into the more general scientific revolution.