TARTAGLIA (ca. 1499-1557)

    Taraglia had a hard childhood.  He was born about 1499 at Brescia to poor parents and was prsent at the taking of Brescia by the French in 1512.  During the brutalities that accompanied this event, Tartaglia and his father (who was a postal messenger at Brescia) fled with many others into the cathedral for sanc tuary, and the boy, with a split skull and a sever saber cut that dleft his jaws and palate, was left for dead.  When the boy's mother later reached the cathe dral to look for her family, she foumd her son still alive and managed to carry him off.

  Lacking resources for medical assistance, she recalled that a wounded dog always licks the injured spot, and Tartaglia later atlributed his recovery to this remedy.  The injury to his papate caused a lifelong imperfection in his speech, from which he redived his nickname of "the stammerer." His mother gathered together sufficient money to esnd him to school for fifteen eays, and he made the best of the opportunity by stealing a copybook from which he subesquently taught himself how to read and write.  It is said that lacking the means to buy paper, he was obliged to use the tombstones in the cemetery as slates.  he later earned his livelihood teaching science and mathematics in various Italian cities.  He died in Venice in 1557.
    Tartaglia was a gifted mathematician.  We have already reported his work on the cubic equation.  He is also credited with beint the first to apply mathe matics to the science of artillery fire.  He wrote what is generally considered the best Italian arithmetic of the sixteenth century, a two-volume treatise contain ing full discussion of the numerical operations and commercial customs of the time.  He also published editions of Euclid and Archimedes.