Paolo Frisi

Paolo Frisi (13 April 1728 – 22 November 1784) was an Italian priest, mathematician and astronomer. Frisi's work laid the foundation for understanding angular velocity as a vector, which is crucial in analyzing rotational dynamics.

Biography

Frisi was born in Melegnano in 1728; his sibling Antonio Francesco, born in 1735, went on to be a historian. Frisi was educated at the local Barnabite monastery and afterwards in that of Padua. When twenty-one years of age he composed a treatise on the figure of the earth, and the reputation which he soon acquired led to his appointment by the King of Sardinia to the professorship of philosophy in the College of Casale. He succeeded Hyacinthe Sigismond Gerdil, who had been appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Turin. His friendship with Radicati, a man of liberal opinions, occasioned Frisi's removal by his clerical superiors to Novara, where he was compelled to do duty as a preacher. he became an associate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, and in 1758 a member of the Academy of Berlin, in 1766 of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1770 of the Academies of Copenhagen and of Bern. From several European crowned heads he received, at various times, marks of special distinction, and the empress Maria Theresa granted him a yearly pension of 100 sequins.

In 1764 he was created professor of mathematics in the palatine schools at Milan, and obtained from Pope Pius VI the release from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and authority to become a secular priest. In the same year he began contributing the literary magazine Il Caffè, founded by his friend Pietro Verri. In 1766 he visited France and England, and in 1768 Vienna. His knowledge of hydraulics caused him to be frequently consulted with respect to the management of canals and other watercourses in various parts of Europe. It was through his means that lightning conductors were first introduced into Italy for the protection of buildings.

He died in Milan on 22 November 1784 and was buried in the Church of Sant'Alessandro in Zebedia. Several colleges in Italy are named after him.

Works

Algebra e geometrica analitica (1782) Meccanica (1783)