- Giovanni Bianchini
Giovanni Bianchini (in
Latin , Johannes Blanchinus) (1410 – c. 1469) was a professor ofmathematics andastronomy at theUniversity of Ferrara and court astrologer ofLeonello d'Este . He was an associate ofGeorg Purbach andRegiomontanus . In the letters exchanged with Regiomontanus 1463/4 are mentioned works of Bianchini: "Primum mobile" including astronomical tables, "Flores almagesti", "Compositio instrumenti".Bianchini was the first mathematician in Europe to use decimal positional fractions for his trigonometric tables, at the same time as
Al-Kashi inSamarkand . In "De arithmetica", part of the "Flores almagesti", he uses operations with negative numbers and expresses the "Law of Signs".He was probably the father of the instrument maker Antonio Bianchino.
Blanchinus crater, on the
Moon , is named after him.He should not be confused with
Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729) (after whom Bianchini crater is named) orGiuseppe Biancani (1566-1624) (after whom Blancanus crater is named).References
* [http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/genscheda.asp?appl=SIM&xsl=biografia&lingua=ENG&chiave=300065 Institute and History of the Museum of Science]
* [http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/maker.php?MakerID=19 Antonio Bianchini]
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