FORTUNATO, FERRARI da BRESCIA. - Franciscan philosopher and mathematician, b. at Brescia on 1 Dec. 1701, d. at Madrid on 11 May 1734. Lecturer in philosophy and theology in his Order and, from 1734, professor at the Brescian Academy. In contact with the finest minds of his time, he received praise and encouragement from Benedetto XIV. A modern and original cultivator of the natural sciences, he is called by Gemelli “the first scholar of morphology and a true pioneer of microscopic anatomy” (Il francescanesimo, Milan 1932, p. 229).
Among his works, repeatedly published in Italy and abroad, the following deserve mention: Geometriae elementa ad philosophiam comparandum (Brescia 1734; new ed. in 1740, in 4 vols., under the title Elementa matheseca); Philosophia sensuum mechanica ad usus academicos accomodata (2 vols., Brescia 1735-36); Philosophia mentis methodice tractata atque ad usus academicos accomodata, etc. (2 vols., Brescia 1741-1742); C. Iansenii systeme de medicinali gratia Christi Redemptoris methodice expositum et theologice confutatum, etc. (Brescia 1751); etc.