[HM] The Tartaglia/Cardano controversy
John W. Dawson, jr. (jwd7@psu.edu)
Thu, 20 May 1999 10:45:21 -0400
The controversy between Tartaglia and Cardano was certainly acrimonious,
but given Cardano's explicit acknowledgment of Tartaglia's and Ferro's
priority, it would not seem on the face of it to have been a priority
dispute, but rather a matter of betrayal of confidences and disclosure of
trade secrets. On the other hand, Cardano brought up Ferro's priority as
justification for his actions. It would qualify as a real priority dispute
if Tartaglia questioned Ferro's priority, or if there were any implication
that Tartaglia's discovery was not independent of Ferro's. Did either of
those issues arise?
Two other questions occur to me: If Ferro made his discovery 20 years
before Tartaglia and divulged it to his students, why did they not take
advantage of that information and compete with Tartaglia in those
mathematical competitions? Also, once the formulas for solving cubic and
quartic equations became know, were there then competitions for solving
*quintics*?
Dr. John W. Dawson, Jr.
Professor of Mathematics
Penn State York
1031 Edgecomb Avenue
York, PA 17403 U.S.A.
Tel.: 717-771-4131 (work)
717-846-1225 (home)
FAX: 717-771-8404