Noble woman made an important geometrical discovery
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| Clelia Borromeo Arese was from an aristocratic family but was also an eminent scientist |
Borromeo Arese had become known for her outstanding ability to solve difficult mathematical problems and she was also considered to be a natural philosopher, having made a study of how the world worked.
She was born in Genoa in 1684, the daughter of Duke Marcantonio Mondragone and his wife, Antonia.
As young Clelia grew up she received a good education, at first from her mother, Antonia, and then at a convent that she attended. She became proficient in eight languages and was interested in geometry and how things worked.
In 1707 she married Count Giovanni Benedetto Borromeo Arese and they had eight children together. Her husband was the son of Carlo Borromeo Arese, one of the most wealthy and powerful men in Italy at the time.
Borromeo Arese often invited scientists to her home in Milan, both from Italy and abroad. A frequent visitor there was Antonio Vallisneri, who was a physician, naturalist and a professor of Medicine at the University of Padua.
His host was an avid reader of books and journals and visitors to her house were often struck by the breadth and depth of her extensive library.
She started her own academy at her home in 1717, which was called the Academia Vigilantium Cleli and she became famous for being able to solve any mathematical problem that she was given. Her academy also played a major role in the ongoing scientific debates of the time.
Among the Academy’s members were the mathematicians Giovanni Saccheri and Tomasso Ceva, and physicists such as Giovanni Crivelli and Alessandro Volta. The Academy played a prominent role in the dissemination of the physics of Newton and the philosophy of Leibnitz.
.jpg "Scientist Alessandro Volta was a member of Borromeo Arese's academy") |
| Scientist Alessandro Volta was a member of Borromeo Arese's academy |
An independent woman, she formed her own opinions and she chose to support Spain against Austria during the war in 1746, As a result, she had to leave Milan for a while, but when she was allowed to return home she was welcomed back as a heroine by the Milanese people.
Genoa, the city where she was born, honoured her contribution to geometry by awarding her a medal, which was inscribed with the words ‘Genuensium Gloria’, which means ‘The Honour of Genoa’.
After her death in 1777, Clelia Grillo Borromeo Arese was buried in the Church of Santa Maria Podone, a Greek Orthodox church in the centre of Milan.
The Italian monk and mathematician, Luigi Guido Grandi, who had also been a member of Borromeo Arese’s Academy, wrote about the Clelia curve in a book that he dedicated to her. He wrote that ‘Clelia curves are curves on the earth’s sphere for whose points there is a linear relationship between longitude and colatitude’.
A colatitude is the complement of a given latitude. It is found by subtracting the latitude angle from 90 degrees. Instead of measuring distance up or down from the equator, it measures the angle down from the North Pole.
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| The striking black-and-white facade of San Lorenzo Cathedral |
The port city of Genoa, where Clelia Grillo Borromeo Arese was born, is capital of the Liguria region. It has a rich history as a trading centre with wealth built on its shipyards and steelworks. It also has fine buildings, many of which have been restored to their original splendour. The Palazzo Ducale - the Doge's Palace - the 16th century Palazzo Reale, a lavish royal residence with frescoes, tapestries and a rooftop garden, and the Romanesque-Renaissance style San Lorenzo Cathedral, with its striking black-and-white façade, are three examples worth visiting. At the heart of the city centre is the Piazza De Ferrari, which features a monumental bronze fountain and is flanked by the Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo della Borsa and the Teatro Carlo Felice. The area around the restored harbour area has some fascinating alleyways and squares to explore and it has been enhanced in recent years by the Genoa architect Renzo Piano.
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| Palazzo Borromeo is one of the finest examples of a Milanese patrician palace |
The Borromeo family of Milan, into which Clelia Grillo Borromeo Arese married, were rich nobles, who started out as merchants and then became bankers. They played important roles in politics, and as cardinals during the Counter-Reformation movement in Italy. Federico Borromeo, who was Archbishop of Milan, founded the Bibliotheca Ambrosiana in Milan, one of Europe’s first, free public libraries. The ancestral home of the Borromeo family in Milan is Palazzo Borromeo, a late 14th century palace in Piazza Borromeo, about 10 minutes’ walk from the Duomo. It was originally built as both the home and business headquarters of the family. They had moved to Milan after fleeing from San Miniato, outside Florence, when the head of the family, Filippo, was executed. It contains an important fresco cycle from the 1440s and is one of the finest examples of a Milanese patrician palace from the early Renaissance. Parts of the building were badly damaged during Allied bombings in World War II but were reconstructed and restored to their original appearance.
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More reading:
Federico Borromeo, the Archbishop of Milan who founded the Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Saint Charles Borromeo and the movement to combat the spread of Protestantism
Luigi Guido Grandi – monk, philosopher and mathematician
Also on this day:
1923: The murder by Fascist thugs of Catholic priest Don Giovanni Minzoni
1943: The birth of bass player and composer Pino Presti
1945: The birth of teenage singing star Rita Pavone
1974: The death of psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli