 thumb|180px|niccolÃ² fontana tartaglia. niccolÃ² fontana tartaglia (; 1499/1500, brescia &ndash; 13 december 1557, venice) was an italian mathematician, engineer (designing fortifications), a surveyor (of topography, seeking the best means of defense or offense) and a bookkeeper from the then-republic of venice (now part of italy). he published many books, including the first italian translations of archimedes and euclid, and an acclaimed compilation of mathematics. tartaglia was the first to apply mathematics to the investigation of the paths of cannonballs, known as ballistics, in his nova scientia, âa new science;â his work was later partially validated and partially superseded by galileo's studies on falling bodies. he also published a treatise on retrieving sunken ships. ==personal life== niccolÃ² fontana was the son of michele fontana, a dispatch rider who travelled to neighboring towns to deliver mail. but in 1506, michele was murdered by robbers, and niccolo, his two siblings, and his mother were left impoverished. niccolÃ² experienced further tragedy in 1512 when the king louis xii's troops invaded brescia during the war of the league of cambrai against venice. the militia of brescia defended their city for seven days. when the french finally broke through, they took their revenge by massacring the inhabitants of brescia. by the end of battle, over 45,000 residents were killed. during the massacre, niccolÃ² and his family sought sanctuary in the local cathedral. but the french entered and a soldier sliced niccolÃ²'s jaw and palate with a saber and left him for dead. his mother nursed him back to health but the young boy would never recover the power of speech, prompting the nickname "tartaglia" ("stammerer"). after this he would never shave, and grew a beard to camouflage his scars. there is a story that tartaglia learned only half the alphabet from a private tutor before funds ran out, and he had to learn the rest by himself. be that as it may, he was essentially self-taught. he and his contemporaries, working outside the academies, were responsible for the spread of classical works in modern languages among the educated middle class. ==major works== his edition of euclid in 1543, the first translation of the elements into any modern european language, was especially significant. for two centuries euclid had been taught from two latin translations taken from an arabic source; these contained errors in book v, the eudoxian theory of proportion, which rendered it unusable. tartaglia's edition was based on zamberti's latin translation of an uncorrupted greek text, and rendered book v correctly. he also wrote the first moder
1557_deaths 15th-century_births 16th-century_Italian_mathematicians Ballistics_experts Italian_engineers Italian_mathematicians Italian_military_engineers People_from_Brescia Renaissance_engineers