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Geminiano Montanari, 1633-1687.
Modenese (Italian) inventor, astronomer, mathematician and economist.
Geminiano Montanari was born in Modena and educated in law in Salzburg (Austria). In 1657, he entered the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany as court philosopher and astronomer. He returned to Modena in 1661, in the service of the Duke of Modena. It was around this time that he meant the aristocratic astronomer, the Count Malvasia, who encouraged his interest in the subject. Montanari's work with lenses permitted him to construct a better telescope. Among Montanari's first achievements was his famous "mapping" of the surface of the moon in 1662.
In 1664, through Malvasia's good offices, Montanari acquired a position as professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna, thus permitting him to finally gain some independence from princely patrons. In 1672, Montanari published his detailed observations of several start (notably, Algol), noting that they varied in their degree of brightness over time. Thus, Montanari challenged the old notion of the eternal "incorruptibility" of the heavens. His 1685 tract ridiculed the then-competing "science" of astrology.
In 1678, Montanari acquired a chair in astronomy and meteorology at the University of Padua (in the Republic of Venice), but he had little time for it. Montanari was much consulted by the Venetian authorities on a variety of engineering questions -- including the organization of the Venetian mint. It was as a result of this experience that Montanari published his two main economic texts (1680, 1683). Here, Montanari expounds the metallist thesis and use-value theory of Davanzati almost verbatim.
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