CAVALIERI, BONAVENTURA. — Gesuato, born in Milan probably in 1598, died in Bologna on 30 November 1647. He was initiated into mathematical studies by the Benedictine B. Castelli; he made such rapid and brilliant progress that he was subsequently appointed professor at the University of Bologna. To him are owed the introduction of logarithms into Italy, several discoveries concerning optics and mechanics, and the theory of indivisibles, which led his contemporaries to proclaim him a “new Archimedes.”
Among his numerous works, the following should be mentioned: Geometria indivisibilibus continuorum nova quadam ratione promota (Bologna 1635); Trigonometria plana et spherica linearis et logarithmica (ibid. 1643).
BIBL.: G. Piola, Elogio (on the occasion of the inauguration in Milan of the monument erected to C.), Milan 1844; G. Favaro, Amici e corrispondenti di Galileo Galilei, biografia 31ª, in Atti del R. Istituto veneto, 74 (1914-15), pp. 700-67.