{{short description|Italian mathematician and physicist (1697–1759)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = <!-- defaults to article title when left blank --> | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Ramiro Rampinelli.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | landscape = <!-- yes, if wide image, otherwise leave blank --> | alt = | caption = Ramiro Rampinelli | birth_name = Lodovico Rampinelli | birth_date = {{birth date |1697|08|09|df=y}} | birth_place = Brescia, Republic of Venice (now Italy) | death_date = {{death date and age |1759|02|08 |1697|08|09|df=y}} | death_place = Milan, Duchy of Milan (now Italy) | death_cause = <!-- should only be included when the cause of death has significance for the subject's notability --> | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!--{{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}--> | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship = <!-- use only when necessary per WP:INFONAT --> | nationality = <!-- use only when necessary per WP:INFONAT --> | fields = {{hlist|Mathematics|Physics}} | workplaces = University of Pavia | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = University of Bologna | thesis_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )--> | thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )--> | thesis_year = <!--(or | thesis1_year = and | thesis2_year = )--> | doctoral_advisor = <!--(or | doctoral_advisors = )--> | academic_advisors = Gabriele Manfredi | doctoral_students = | notable_students = {{hlist|Maria Gaetana Agnesi|Paolo Frisi}} | known_for = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = <!--(or | spouses = )--> | partner = <!--(or | partners = )--> | children = | parents = Marchesio and Angelica Rampinelli | father = | mother = | relatives = | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_type = <!--(defaults to "Signature")--> | signature_alt = | website = <!--{{URL|www.example.com}}--> | footnotes = }} '''Ramiro Rampinelli''', born Lodovico Rampinelli (10 August 1697{{snd}}8 February 1759), was an Italian mathematician and physicist. He was a monk in the Olivetan Order. He had a decisive influence on the spread of mathematical analysis, algebra and mathematical physics in the best universities of Italy.<ref name=encyclopedia>A. Fappani, ''Enciclopedia Bresciana'', Brescia: La Voce del Popolo, 1997 {{in lang|it}}</ref> He is one of the best-known Italian scholars in the field of infinitesimal mathematics of the first half of the 18th century.
==Biography== He was born in Brescia into the noble Rampinelli family and educated by the Jesuits; he learned the rudiments of mathematics from Giovan Battista Mazini.<ref>P. Guerrini, ''La scuola cattolica'', XVII, 1919.</ref>
He studied first at the University of Bologna, where he was a disciple of Gabriele Manfredi, and took his monastic vows on 1 November 1722 at San Michele in Bosco.<ref name=encyclopedia/>
In 1727, after a brief stay at the Monastery of St. Helen in Venice, he entered the Abbey of St. Benedict in Padua, where he made the acquaintance of the best-known professors of mathematics at the University of Padua, such as Marquess Giovanni Poleni and Count Jacopo Riccati; he formed a lasting friendship with the latter's family.<ref>D. Bonsi, ''Giordano Riccati, illuminista veneto ed europeo'', Florence: Olschki, 2012 {{in lang|it}}</ref>
In 1731 he was in Rome for a year, spending time with Celestino Galiani and Antonio Leprotti, studying subjects including architecture.<ref name=encyclopedia/>
After a period at the University of Naples Federico II, during which time he was always in contact with the best mathematicians, such as Nicola Antonio De Martino, he was assigned by his superiors to the University of Pavia for a year. He then returned to the University of Bologna in 1733 to teach mathematics.<ref name=encyclopedia/> Here he completed his ''Istituzioni Fisiche con il metodo analitico''.<ref name=Succi>Carlo Succi, ''Un Matematico Bresciano Ramiro Rampinelli Monaco Olivetano 1697–1759'', Rodengo-Saiano (BS): Centro storico olivetano / Brescia: Ateneo di Brescia, 1992, {{OCLC|797874024}} {{in lang|it}} ([https://www.ateneo.brescia.it/controlpanel/uploads/supplementi-ai-commentari/S-1992%20SucciRamiroRampinelli.pdf pdf])</ref>
In 1740, after a stay at the monastery of St. Francis in Brescia, he transferred to the Olivetan monastery of San Vittore al Corso in Milan, where he was also mathematics tutor to the noblewoman Maria Gaetana Agnesi, who remembered him with gratitude in the preface to her ''Instituzioni Analitiche per la gioventù d'Italia''.<ref>Giovanna Tilche, ''Maria Gaetana Agnesi: la scienziata santa del Settecento'', Milan: Rizzoli, 1984, {{ISBN|9788817537841}} {{in lang|it}}</ref>
In 1747, the Senate of Milan appointed him (at double salary) to the chair in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Pavia.<ref>U. Baldini, ''Economia, istituzioni, cultura in Lombardia nell'Età di M. Teresa'', Milan: Il Mulino, 1980 {{in lang|it}}</ref> His expertise in river hydraulics also earned him the appointment as supervisor both for the construction of the Pavia-Milan canal and for the construction of the embankment to contain the Po River at Parpanese, in the Oltrepò Pavese.<ref name=Succi/> thumb|upright|Frontispiece of Rampinelli's ''Lectiones opticæ'' In 1758, his ''Lectiones opticæ Ramiri Rampinelii brixiani Congregationis Montis Oliveti monachi et in gymnasio Ticinensi Matheseos Professoris'' was published with the prestigious Brescia printer Bossini.<ref name=encyclopedia/> This work on optics was to have been followed by ''Trigonometria'' and ''Applicazione dei principi matematici alla fisica pratica'', but Rampinelli suffered a stroke on 10 April 1758.<ref>P. Guerrini, ''Il maestro di M. G. Agnesi'', Brescia, 1918 {{in lang|it}}</ref>
After a short period of recuperation in Brescia, he returned to the monastery of San Vittore al Corso in Milan, where, on 8 February 1759, he had a second stroke and died.<ref name=Succi/>
Giordano Riccati wrote in a supplement to his eulogy dated 9 January 1760: <blockquote>In him were united doctrine and an indescribable modesty, and firm religious faith accompanied by all the moral and Christian virtues. His only thoughts were ever to fulfill the obligations of his own condition, and study his only innocent passion, by which he let himself be dominated, virtuously directing it outward in indefatigable service of his Religion and the Public. He dedicated himself willingly to others' benefit, and of benefits received, an indelible, grateful memory was preserved.<ref>Giordano Riccati, "Supplemento all'elogio del P.D.R. Rampinelli", ''Nuove memorie per servire alla Storia Letteraria'', Venice, 1760: "Accoppiò egli colla dottrina una indicibile modestia, ed una soda religione accompagnata da tutte le virtù morali e cristiane. Furono sempre gli unici suoi pensieri l'adempiere gli obblighi del proprio stato, e lo studio unica innocente passione, da cui si lasciò dominare, indirizzandola per altro virtuosamente al servigio indefesso della sua Religione, e del Pubblico. S'impegnava volentieri in giovamento altrui, e dei ricevuti benefici ne conservava indelebile, grata memoria."</ref></blockquote>
==Works==
* {{cite book|title=Lectiones opticæ Ramiri Rampinelii brixiani Congregationis Montis Oliveti monachi et in gymnasio Ticinensi Matheseos Professoris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPl5H-wgTCUC|publisher=excudebat Joannes Baptista Bossini|year=1760|location=Brixiæ}}
Other works by Rampinelli, said by contemporaries to be preserved in manuscript at the monastery of San Vittore in Milan, are now lost.<ref name=encyclopedia/> * ''Applicazione de' principi alla fisica pratica'' * ''Trattato di trigonometria piana e sferica'' * ''Istituzioni Fisiche con il metodo analitico'' * ''Trattato di idrostatica (ad integrazione delle istituzioni fisiche)''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources and further reading== {{Refbegin|30em}} * {{MacTutor|id=Rampinelli|title=Ramiro Lodovico Rampinelli}} * {{cite journal |date = 1759 |title = Elogium Patris D. Ramiro Rampinelli Brixiani |journal = Excerpta Totius Italiae necnon Helvetiae literaturae |volume = III |location = Bern |pages = 103-107 }} * {{cite journal |last1 = Pozzi |first1 = Giacomo Ippolito |date = 1760 |title = Elogio del P.D. Ramiro Rampinelli Bresciano |journal = Giornale de' Letterati |volume = |location = Rome |pages = 87-97 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Torriceni |first1 = Francesco |date = 1760 |chapter = De Vita Rampinelli Epistola |title = Lectiones Opticae |location = Brescia |publisher = Giovanni Battista Bossini |pages = XIII-XXXI }} * {{cite book |last1 = Fabroni |first1 = Angelo |author-link = Angelo Fabroni |date = 1781 |title = Vitae Italorum doctrina excellentium |volume = VIII |location = Pisa |publisher = Giuseppe Giovannelli |pages = 143-178 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Brognoli |first1 = Antonio |date = 1785 |title = Elogi de' Bresciani per dottrina eccellenti nel secolo XVIII |location = Brescia |publisher = Vescovi |pages = 63-88 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Verri |first1 = Pietro |author-link = Pietro Verri |date = 1787 |title = Memorie appartenenti alla vita ed agli studi di P. Frisi |location = Milan |publisher = Giuseppe Marelli }} * {{cite book |last1 = Frisi |first1 = Antonio Francesco |author-link = Antonio Francesco Frisi |date = 1799 |title = Elogio storico di Donna Maria Gaetana Agnesi Milanese |location = Milan |publisher = Galeazzi }} * {{cite book |last1 = Peroni |first1 = Vincenzo |date = 1821 |volume = III |title = Biblioteca Bresciana |location = Brescia |publisher = Bettoni & Soci |pp = 92-94 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Gambara |first1 = Giovanni Francesco |date = 1840 |volume = IV |title = Ragionamenti di cose patrie |location = Brescia |publisher = Venturini |pp = 162-165 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Poggendorf |first1 = Johann Christian |author-link = Johann Christian Poggendorff |date = 1863 |title = Biographisch-literarisches Handwörterbuch zur Geschichte der exakten Wissenschaften |volume = II |location = Leipzig |publisher = J.A. Barth |p = 566 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Cocchetti |first1 = Carlo |date = 1880 |title = Del movimento intellettuale nella provincia di Brescia |location = Brescia |publisher = Libreria antica e moderna |p = 64 }} * {{cite book |last1 = Baldini |first1 = Ugo |date = 1980 |chapter = L'insegnamento fisico matematico a Pavia alle soglie dell'età Teresiana |title = Economia, istituzioni, cultura in Lombardia nell'età di Maria Teresa |volume = III |location = Milan |publisher = Il Mulino |pages = 863-886 }} * {{cite journal|journal=Historia Mathematica|volume=42|year=2015|pp=296-314|doi=10.1016/j.hm.2014.12.001 |title=M.G. Agnesi, R. Rampinelli and the Riccati Family: A Cultural Fellowship|first=Clara Silvia|last=Roero|hdl=2318/1514382|hdl-access=free}} {{Refend}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rampinelli, Ramiro}} Category:Italian mathematicians Category:University of Bologna alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Bologna Category:Academic staff of the University of Pavia Category:1697 births Category:1759 deaths Category:Scientists from Brescia Category:Emigrants from the Republic of Venice Category:Immigrants to the Papal States Category:Scientists from the Papal States