Michelangelo Ricci

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Michelangelo Ricci

1619-1682

Italian mathematician whose work represents an early example of induction. A cardinal, Ricci was known in his lifetime for his many letters on mathematical topics, and for his correspondence with mathematicians and scientists including Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647). In later years, however, his fame rested on a 19-page pamphlet called Exercitatio geometrica, De maximis et minimis (1666), in which he found the maximum of xm(a-x)n and the tangents to ym=kxn. Among the other objects of Ricci's study were spirals and generalized cycloids.