Talk:Nicolo Tartaglia

message: The section on the volume of a tetrahedron is anachronistic and should probably be removed. Tartaglia has a numerical example in the General Trattato where he calculates the volume of a tetrahedron with sides 20, 18, 16, 15, 14, 13 ([General Trattato, Part IV, Book 2], p. 35r and following). Ostermann and Wanner have a brief discussion of this construction in Geometry by its History (p. 298-9), asserting mistakes in his calculations and saying that "Many texts or internet sites call [the Cayley-Menger determinant and other determinant formulas] 'Tartaglia's formula', which seems exaggerated."
Tartaglia inscribes the tetrahedron in a sphere and applies Volume = 1/3 Base x Height, a formula originating in antiquity. He uses Thales Theorem and the Pythagorean theorem, certainly showing his mastery of solid geometry and overall genius for calculation, but not quite as anticipatory as the ascription of Cayley-Menger to him suggests.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by MikeB17 (talk • contribs) 15:11, 13 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Volume of a tetrahedron

message: Hi all,
the name should be Niccolò with an accent. "Niccolo" is not a name in Italian. Most Italian pages on the subject report the accented version. What about moving the article? 
Furthermore, there should be a note reporting that tartaglia was actually a nickname, "tartagliare" means "to stutter". Orzetto 06:51, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: I never heard of such translations of Archimedes by Tartaglia and I really doubt that this is true. 
It is well known that he appeared as editor (not translator) for a Latin (not Italian) version of some texts of Archimedes. Tartaglia claimed the authorship for the translation, but it was just a copy of a translation done by William of Moerbeke in the 13th century. 
By the way, categorising his translation of Euclid's Elements as "was especially significant" is venturous. In accordance with Tartaglia's role in mathematics as a sort of private teacher (he never taught at universities) this translation might have been significant for the type of students he had. The lingua franca for renaissance mathematicians was Latin and not Italian. Finally the famous historian of mathematics Moritz Cantor mentioned in his "Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik" that Tartaglias translation was based on two Latin translations and ignored the origininal greek text, which was already available in printed form at that time.
After all the statement about Tartaglia's translation seems to express some sort of admiration for Tartaglia, but it doesn't match our historical knowledge.
Labus (talk) 21:55, 11 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Italian translation of Archimedes and Euclid 

message: Is there any written text about Tartaglia's original solution to x^3 \pm a x^2 = b\,? Also, I read somewhere that Tartaglia stole Scipione del Ferro's solution to x^3 + p x = q\, while he was contesting with Antonio Fiore. Albmont (talk) 19:26, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tartaglia's first solution to the cubic 

message: It looks as if his name is in fact not "Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia", but "Nicolo Tartaglia". His surname is not "Fontana" and he never wrote "Niccolò" himself, as Prof Friedrich Katscher said in the German Wikipedia - he wrote a book about Tartaglia. If you can read German, please have a look at de:Nicolo Tartaglia. Best greetings, --134.130.131.116 (talk) 07:50, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tartaglia's name 

message: This is an interesting compilation of the problems that Tartaglia had to deal in the contests with Antonio Fior and Ferrari: http://www.gap-system.org/~history/HistTopics/Tartaglia_v_Cardan.html. Albmont (talk) 14:09, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tartaglia's cubic problems 

message: In Tetrahedron#Volume it is stated that Tartaglia's formula is is essentially due to the painter Piero della Francesca in the 15th century. If this is the case, it should be also stated in the Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia article. Maxal (talk) 16:54, 22 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tartaglia's formula 

message: It occurs to me to wonder whether the distinction between "Nicolo" (as Tartaglia seems to have written it) and "Niccolò" might be that the latter is in Italian and the former is in Venetian or Brescian?  --Trovatore (talk) 19:36, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  First name and language