Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Martin Frank

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Ph.D.

Residence: May 1–August 1, 2013


Profile

Martin Frank is a researcher in the history of Renaissance mathematics and mechanics.

His research is particularly focused on investigations into the work of important Renaissance scholars such as Federico Commandino, Guidobaldo dal Monte and Giovanni Battista Benedetti. 
Moreover, research into their scientific environments and the "minor" figures constituting them (such as Ettore Ausonio, Francesco and Felice Paciotti, Giulio da Thiene, etc.) permits to carve out interesting features of the cultural and scientific background in which they worked and contributes, thus, to a better contextualisation of these Cinquecento mathematicians' scientific activity. 

Current work:

Edition of Guidobaldo dal Monte's correspondences and of his manuscript Meditatiunculae


Selected publications

M. Frank, C. Pogliano. Scorci di storia della scienza. Contributi al seminario congiunto dei dottorati, Bari, 26-28/6/2006. Pisa: Edizioni Plus, 2010.

M. Frank. "Mathematics, Technics and Courtly Life in the Late Renaissance Urbino. " Archive of History of Exact Sciences LXVII 3 (2013)

M. Frank. "A Proposal for a New Dating of Guidobaldo’s "Meditatiunculae". " Bollettino di Storia delle Scienze Matematiche XXXIII/2 (2013)

M. Frank. Fortezze, trattati e strumenti scientifici: ricerche sull'ambiente tecnico-scientifico della corte sabauda nel tardo Rinascimento. Torino: Fondazione Filippo Burzio, 2013.

M. Frank. "Dating Federico Commandino’s Teaching Activity in Urbino. " Galilaeana (2013)

Talks and presentations

26-29/9/2012
Science et Représentations, Colloque international en mémoire de Pierre Souffrin – Guidobaldo e il giovane Galileo
1-3/11/2012
V International Conference of the European Society of History of Science (ESHS), Athens (Greece) – Mechanics, Mathematics and Architecture: Guidobaldo dal Monte in Urbino and Giovanni Battista Benedetti in Turin
8-10/11/2012
XII national Conference of the Italian Society of History of Mathematics (SISM), Brescia (Italy) – Scienza e tecnica a Torino e Urbino nel tardo Rinascimento a confronto
6-8/10/2011
International symposium on ancient science and its transmission, Gargnano (Italy) – Ipotesi sulla meccanica di Guidobaldo dal Monte: aspetti innovativi e incongruenze
17-19/11/2011
XI national Conference of the Italian Society of History of Mathematics (SISM), Genoa (Italy) – Guidobaldo dal Monte e l’ambiente scientifico a Urbino