The Scientific Revolutions of the 16th and 17th Centuries

# seminar: The diophantine equations in Viète and its scholars

speaker: Paolo Freguglia (Università dell'Aquila, Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Scieze dell'Infoemazione e Matematica (DISIM))

abstract: In the second half of XVI century the Diophantus's "Arithmetic" was particularly studied. The manuscripts of the "Arithmetic" were discovered and translations were realized by A.M.Pazzi, by R.Bombelli (1567, 1572), by G.Xylander (1575) and by S.Stevinus (1585). François Viète bears the Xylander's text in mind. The aim of this contribution is an analysis of some aspects of Viète's "Zeteticorum libri quinque" (1593). This work represents historically an original interpretation and an elaboration, according to his methods (logistica speciosa), by Viète of Diophantus's "Arithmetic". In particular we examine some zetetici which concern the indeterminate problems of second degree (and the methodological links with some propositions which we find in the part "Genesis Triangulorum" of "Notae Priores") and of third degree (with a comparison with some remarks by Fermat). These indeterminate problems were considered a traditional part of algebra. Besides, it is interesting to consider also the geometrical interpretation of zetetici by some scholar of Viète (see in particular J.L.Vaulézard (1630)).

timetable:
Sat 17 Sep, 12:30 - 13:30, Aula Dini
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