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Giovanni CampanoItalian mathematician
Country:
 Italy |
Content:
- Giovanni Campano: Italian Mathematician and Astrologer
- Notable Contributions
- Theory of the star pentagon
Giovanni Campano: Italian Mathematician and Astrologer
Early Life and InfluencesGiovanni Campano, a 13th-century Italian mathematician and astrologer, is renowned for his translation of Euclid's Elements into Latin. This influential work became a standard textbook from the 13th to the 16th centuries.
Notable Contributions
Campano's annotations to Euclid's Elements included significant contributions to mathematics, including:
Theory of the star pentagon
Division of a line in the golden ratioSolution to the angle trisection problem
Construction of a regular inscribed nonagon
Diverse Opinions on Biography
The details of Campano's life have been subject to debate over the centuries.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, scholars such as Claude Milliet Dechales and Johann Heinrich Voss proposed different versions of his name and origin.
Trithemius placed him as a renowned philosopher and astrologer in the court of Henry III in 1030.
In the 19th century, Moritz Cantor presented a more specific account, identifying Campano as Johann von Navarra, a chaplain to Pope Urban IV (1261-1264) and later a canon in Paris.
Despite these varying interpretations, Campano's mathematical legacy remains significant, his translation of Euclid's Elements continuing to shape the teaching and development of mathematics in Europe for centuries to come.
