Lorenzo Mascheroni

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Born: 13 May 1750 in Bergamo, Lombardo-Veneto (now Italy)
Died: 14 July 1800 in Paris, France

Lorenzo Mascheroni was ordained as a priest at the age of 17. At first he taught rhetoric then, from 1778, he taught physics and mathematics at the seminary at Bergamo.

In 1786 Mascheroni became professor of algebra and geometry at the University of Pavia. He later became rector of the university.

In Adnotationes ad calculum integrale Euleri (1790) Mascheroni calculated Euler's constant to 32 decimal places. In fact only the first 19 places were correct and the rest was corrected by Johann von Soldner in 1809. Mascheroni's work shows a deep understanding of the Euler's calculus.

Mascheroni is also known as a poet and he dedicated one of his books Geometria del compasso (1797) to Napoleon in verse. In this work Mascheroni proved that all Euclidean constructions can be made with compasses alone, so a straight edge in not needed. In fact this was (unknown to Mascheroni) proved in 1672 by a little known Danish mathematician Georg Mohr.

Mascheroni also wrote a well-composed book Nuove ricerchi su l'equilibrio delle vòlte (1785) on statics.