DEL MUSCIO, GIAN GAETANO. - Scolopian, mathematician, born in Foggia on 5 February 1746, died in Naples, Archbishop of Manfredonia, on 25 December 1808. Among the most distinguished Neapolitan mathematicians of the 18th century, he was the first to introduce the teaching of infinitesimal calculus in public instruction.
He was a reader in mathematics at the newly founded University of Malta, and upon his return to his homeland, he taught for many years at the military college of the Nunziatella in Naples, at the Collegio Ferdinandiano, and finally at the University of Naples itself, where he obtained by competition the chair of physics.
The number of students he trained in the various disciplines was countless; at the Nunziatella, moreover, he was first among the professors of the college and always enjoyed the esteem of the military cadets. Even after 70 years, the so-called "formulette" of Father Del Muscio were still praised at that college, with which no problem of ballistics remained unsolved. In 1792 he was made Bishop of Cerignola and San Severo, and at the customary examination before Pope Pius VI, he refuted with mathematical arguments the work of Krag, which amazed all present, and especially the Pope, who, rising, exclaimed: «And who would have said that in this very hall, where once someone was condemned for having, with mathematics, seemed to have offended the faith, now with the same science its stability should be confirmed?»
From Cerignola he later moved to Manfredonia; however, the years of his episcopate were disturbed by the events of the time.
DEL LOCIS SANCTORUM MARTYRUM:
See ITINERARI.