Giovan Battista Nicolosi

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Giovan Battista Nicolosi
Born(1610-10-14)14 October 1610
Paternò
Died19 January 1670(1670-01-19) (aged 59)
Rome
NationalityItalian
OccupationGeographer and scholar
Known forNicolosi globular projection

Giovan Battista Nicolosi, D.D., was a Sicilian priest and geographer. Nicolosi proposed a new projection for the construction of the world map in two hemispheres, known today as the Nicolosi globular projection, in which the parallels and meridians are arcs of the circle and equidistant along the equator and central meridian.[1]

Biography[]

Giovan Battista Nicolosi was born in Paternò, on October 14, 1610. After an early stay in Rome, between 1640 and 1645,[2] from 1645 to 1647 he lived at the court of Ferdinand Maximilian, margrave of Baden.[3] In 1647 he returned to Rome, and was made chaplain at Santa Maria Maggiore.[4] He quickly gained favor with the city's most powerful families and in 1652 was appointed to produce a geographical work for use by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. After twelve years of study and research, he published the Dell’Hercole e studio geografico, in two volumes with twenty-two newly devised maps.[1] In his Dell’Hercole, Nicolosi reinvented Al-Biruni's projection as a modification of Fournier's first projection. It is unlikely Nicolosi knew of al-Biruni's work, and Nicolosi's name is the one usually associated with the projection.[5] This became a standard method of showing the two hemispheres of earth during the nineteenth century after the equatorial stereographic projection popularized by Gerardus Mercator finally fell into disuse.[5]

Giovan Battista Nicolosi died in Rome on January 19, 1670. A skilled linguist, he published several geographical works and left unpublished an important relation of his trip to Germany (Viagio di Germania in tante lettere al cardinale Rinaldo d’Este e Parentele della casa di Baden con le corone e principi di Europa).[4]

Works[]

Mexicum in hac forma in lucem edebat Joannes Baptista Nicolosius, 1671
  • Nicolosi, Giovan Battista (1642). Teorica del globo terrestre et esplicatione della Carta da Navigare. Roma. per Manelfo Manelfi. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  • Nicolosi, Giovan Battista (1660). Dell'Hercole e studio geografico. 1. Roma. Nella stamperia di Vitale Mascardi. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  • Nicolosi, Giovan Battista (1660). Dell'Hercole e studio geografico. 2. Roma. Nella stamperia di Vitale Mascardi. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  • Nicolosi, Giovan Battista (1662). Guida allo studio geografico. Roma. Appresso Vitale Mascardi. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  • Nicolosi, Giovan Battista (1670). Hercules Siculus sive Studium Geographicum (in Latin). 1. Roma. typis Michaëlis Herculis. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  • Nicolosi, Giovan Battista (1671). Hercules Siculus sive Studium Geographicum (in Latin). 2. Roma. typis Michaëlis Herculis. Retrieved 12 September 2019.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Matthew H. Edney; Mary Sponberg Pedley, eds. (2020). The History of Cartography. 4. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 830–831. ISBN 9780226339221.
  2. ^ Spinelli 1930, p. 351.
  3. ^ Hilgers 1997.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Ottaviani 2013.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Snyder, John P. (1993). Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. p. 41. ISBN 0-226-76746-9.

Bibliography[]

  • Hilgers, Robert (1997). Die Deutschlandreise des Giovan Battista Nicolosi: erstmals aus seinem Handschriften herausgegeben, kommentiert und eingeleitet. Rheinfelden: Schäuble. ISBN 3877187811.
  • Antonio Mongitore, Bibliotheca sicula, I, Palermo 1708, pp. 332-334.
  • Giuseppe Emanuele Ortolani, Biografia degli uomini illustri della Sicilia, vol. III, Napoli, Gervasi, 1819.
  • John McClintock; James Strong (1894). "Nicolosius, Johannes Baptista". Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. 7. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 80.
  • Spinelli, Luisa (1930). "La carta del Reame di Napoli di Giovan Battista Nicolosi". Atti Dell'XI Congresso Geografico Italiano. Naples. 2: 351–354.
  • Brancaccio, Giovanni (1991). Geografia, cartografia e storia del Mezzogiorno. Napoli: Guida Editori. pp. 169–171. ISBN 978-8878351219.
  • Feeman, Timothy G. (2002). Portraits of the Earth: A Mathematician Looks at Maps. American Mathematical Soc. p. 47. ISBN 9780821872611.

External links[]

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