Antonio Collalto (mathematician)


Antonio Collalto was an Italian mathematician and physicist.

Life

He was from a modest and otherwise unrecorded family. According to Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna, his surname did not indicate a connection with the house of Collalto but instead his status as a Jewish convert to Catholicism in his youth. He was unable to study at the Patriarchal Seminary of Venice, run by the Somaschi Fathers, and gained a scientific education from the physicist Vincenzo Miotti. He completed his studies and then became a priest. In 1795 he became professor of maths and physics in the public schools of Venice. In 1806 he became professor of 'introduzione al calcolo sublime' and geodesy at the University of Padua, but was sacked when the Austrian Empire took back control in 1814 for his reputation as a Jacobin. From 1815 onwards he was a member of the Accademia nazionale delle scienze.

Selected works