Francesco was born in Messina with the surname of Marulì, although the surname is sometimes reported as "Mauroli". He was the son of Antonio Marulì, master of the Messina coin factory who had studied with the famous Neoplatonic Hellenist Constantine Lascaris. Francesco therefore received a "Lascarian" education through the father, and from Francesco Faraone and Giacomo Genovese, also disciples of Lascaris, whose influence is recognizable. In 1534 Francesco Marulì changed his surname to Mauro Lyco, after having adopted for eight years, uninterruptedly, the name of Mauro Lycio as a member of a Messina academy. Having already obtained priestly ordination since 1521 and, consequently, some ecclesiastical benefit, he was appointed abbot of the monastery of Santa Maria del Parto in 1550 by Simone Ventimiglia marquis of Geraci, pupil and patron of Maurolico. He died in 1575 of natural death, during a plague epidemic due to which the mathematician had retired to Contrada Annunziata: a hilly area north of Messina, where the Marulì family owned a villa that probably had hosted, sometimes, the academy of which the scientist-humanist had been part. He is buried in the church of San Giovanni di Malta in Messina, where his nephews Francesco and Silvestro Maurolico erected an artistic marble sarcophagus, accompanied by the uncle’s bust and Maurolico’s coat of arms with the wolf and the star Sirius.
Accomplishments
In 1535 Maurolico collaborated with the painter Polidoro da Caravaggio in designing triumphal arches for the entry into the city of Messina by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Like his father, he also became head of the Messina mint and for a time was in charge of maintaining the fortifications of the city on behalf of Charles V. Maurolico tutored the two sons of Charles's viceroy in Sicily, Juan de Vega, and had the patronage of many rich and powerful men. He also corresponded with scholars such as Clavius and Federico Commandino. In 1547 he collaborated with the sculptorGiovanni Angelo Montorsoli for the creation of the famous Orion Fountain in Messina. By Maurolico are the Latin inscriptions on the ground-level basin of the fountain and, probably, most of the Neoplatonic program for this monumental civic sculpture. Between 1548 and 1550, he stayed at the castle of Pollina in Sicily as a guest of the marquis Giovanni II Ventimiglia, and utilized the castle tower in order to carry out astronomical observations. Maurolico's astronomical observations include a sighting of the supernova that appeared in Cassiopeia in 1572. Tycho Brahe published details of his observations in 1574; the supernova is now known as Tycho's Supernova. In 1569, he was appointed professor at the University of Messina.
Works
Maurolico's Photismi de lumine et umbra and Diaphana concern the refraction of light and attempted to explain the natural phenomenon of the rainbow. He also studied the camera obscura. Photismi were completed in 1521, Diaphana first part 1523, the second and third ones in 1552, but all the material was published posthumously only in 1611.
His De momentis aequalibus attempted to calculate the barycenter of various bodies.
In his Sicanicarum rerum compendium, he presented the history of Sicily, and included some autobiographical details. He had been commissioned to write this work, and in 1553 the Senate of Messina granted him a salary of 100 gold pieces per year for two years so that he could finish this work and his works on mathematics.
His De Sphaera Liber Unus contains a fierce attack against Copernicus' heliocentrism, in which Maurolico writes that Copernicus “deserved a whip or a scourge rather than a refutation”.
Maurolico published a Cosmographia in which he described a methodology for measuring the earth, which was later employed by Jean Picard in measuring length of meridian arc in 1670.
Maurolico published an edition of Aristotle'sMechanics, and a work on music. He summarized Ortelius's Theatrum orbis terrarum and also wrote Grammatica rudimenta and De lineis horariis. He made a map of Sicily, which was published in 1575.
He died at Messina. The lunar crater Maurolycus is named after him. There is a school in Messina with his name. In 2009 the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage has ordained the establishment of the Edizione nazionale dell'opera matematica di Francesco Maurolico.
