Francesco Maurolico was born in 1494, and twenty-seven years later, in 1521, he was ordained a priest. At this point, Francesco was the eldest surviving son. This meant that when his father died, Maurolico received the inheritance, which allowed him to “concentrate on his scholarly pursuits [...] and [produce] significant contributions in a broad range of different topics, although his best work was done on mathematics.” (1)
However, Maurolico was not wealthy; at times he was only able to publish works thanks to support from patrons, who were often leading men in Messina. (1)
In 1532, he completed a translation and rearrangement of "part of Euclid's Elements,” although it wasn’t published until fifty-three years later, with the posthumous release of "Opuscula Mathematica” in 1575. The book also contained seven of Maurolico’s treatises, including De instrumentis astronomicis “on the theory and use of the principal astronomical instruments.” (1)
In 1535, Maurolico wrote Cosmographia. In this book, he provided "methods for measuring the Earth … which were later used by Jean Picard in measuring the meridian in 1670.” (1)
Maurolico also wrote important books on Greek Mathematics, restored ancient works, and translated many ancient texts. This was no easy task given that the only surviving pieces of the work often covered only a couple chapters of information. Even without the discoveries that he made on his own, this is a clear demonstration of his intelligence and expertise. In one case, “Maurolico completed a restoration of books V and VI of Apollonius's Conics in 1547 working from the scant details that Apollonius gives in the Preface to the work. [The books] were not published until 1654, about 80 years after his death, as Emendatio et restitutio conicorum Apollonii Pergaei. Both Guglielmo Libri and Gino Loria claimed that this achievement alone showed that Maurolico was a genius.” (1) At the very least, it showed that he was good at convincing his readers that he knew what Apollonius was thinking.
In 1550, Maurolico became a Benedictine. (1) At the time, the Benedictine order was “one of ... two main monastic orders which formed the basis of Christian life in Sicily.” His life as a Benedictine didn’t bring an end to his writing. In fact, from 1552 to 1554, the Senate of Messina paid him to write the history of Sicily and on mathematics texts.” (1) The history was “published under the title Sicanicarum reum compendium in 1562.” (1)
Additionally, in 1558, Maurolico wrote the Theodosii Sphaericorum Elementorum Libri iii, which included 9 separate works by Maurolico himself, translations and commentaries on other works, a table of secants which included a couple original proofs, and a book that he wrote called De Sphaera Sermo.
Then in 1569, Maurolico became a math professor at the Jesuit college in Messina; among the requirements in his contract was the obligation to teach music theory from the angle of mathematics. (1)
Maurolico later became an abbot in Messina.
[Edited for clarity June 30, 2022]
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