Croatian History

Marin Getaldic – Marinus Ghetaldus (1568-1622) born in Dubrovnik, was the most outstanding Croatian scientist of his time. He studied in Italy, England and Belgium. His best results are mainly in physics, especially optics, and mathematics. Among his numerous books let us mention Promotus Archimedus (Rome, 1603) and De resolutione et compositione mathematica (Rome, 1630, in five voluminous books), in which Getaldic appears as a pioneer of algebraization of geometry. Marinus Ghetaldus: De resolutione et compositione mathematica, Rome, 1630. A copy…

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It seems that Dubrovnik was in possession of Archimedes’ telescope, about which a testimony exists written in 1672 by Antun Sorgo (Sorkocevic, son of distinguished Dubrovnik composer Luka Sorkocevic), in his book “Origine et chute de l’ancienne Republique de Raguse”. Antun Sorgo was the last ambassador of the Dubrovnik Republic to France, where he spent 35 years. The Archimedes’ telescope seems to have been lost during the desastrous Dubrovnik earthquake in 1667. The basic idea of Archimedes’ reflecting telescope (3rd…

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One of the most outstanding Dubrovnik mathematicians, physicists and astronomers of the 17th century was Stjepan Gradic (1613-1683), who was a Director of the Vatican Library. Some of his experimental results are cited by Jacob Bernoulli, and his tractate about navigation incited Gottfried Wilhem Leibniz to discuss the problem of steering ships using helms. Gradic’s book Disserationes physisco-mathematicae quatour was published in Amsterdam in 1680. He died in Rome, where according to his last wish he was buried in the…

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Ivo Puljizic, born in Pucisce on the island of Brac, made irrigation plans for the Vatican and projected various Vatican bell-towers in the time of Pope Innocent X, 17th century.

Quite a number of Croats took part in the first Christian Missions, especially in South and North America and Asia. Ferdinand Konscak, or Fernardo Consag (born in Varazdin, 1703-1757), was a Jesuit and a Croatian missionary in North America. In 1752 he discovered that Baja California was not an island, as it had been believed until then, but a peninsula. There is a collection of rocky islets on the north of the Californian bay named in his honour as the…

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Ignacije Szentmartony (1718-1793) was a Croatian Jesuit born in Croatian north (Kotoriba in Medjimurje), of a Croat mother and Hungarian father. After his studies in Vienna and Graz he lectured mathematics in Graz. In 1751 he went to Lisabon, where he obtained the title of royal mathematician and astronomer, and as such was designated to be a member of expedition for determining borders. In 1753 he sailed off from Portugal to the mouth of Amazon river for geographic research there….

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Rugjer Boskovic (1711-1787), the greatest Croatian scientist in history

The oldest Croatian book on arithmetic is Arithmetika Horvatszka (literally Croatian Arithmetic) from 1758, published in Zagreb. It was written by Mijo Silobod Bolsic.

The first balloonist in Croatia was Karlo Mrazovic, who performed two balloon flights in Zagreb with his own balloons in 1789 and 1790. He was born in Boka kotorska. See [Croatia – Europe, III, Barok i prosvjetiteljstvo, p. 426, the article by Vladimir Muljevic].

Simun Stratik (Simone Stratico, 1733-1829), outstanding specialist in nautical theory, was born in Zadar (in the family of Schiavoni which came to Zadar from Crete). He lectured mathematics and nautical theory in Padova, and then nautical theory at the University of Pavia. By the end of his life he prepared a new edition of Vitruvius‘ famous Architecture (1825) in four books accompanied with 320 tables. He published among others his translation into Italian (published in Padova in 1776) and his…

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