Between Raphael and Galileo: Mutio Oddi and the mathematical culture of late Renaissance Italy

Abstract

Although largely unknown today, during his lifetime Mutio Oddi of Urbino (1569-1639) was a highly esteemed scholar, teacher, and practitioner of a wide range of disciplines related to mathematics. A prime example of the artisan-scholar so prevalent in the late Renaissance, Oddi was also accomplished in the fields of civil and military architecture and the design and retail of mathematical instruments, as well as writing and publishing. In Between Raphael and Galileo, Alexander Marr resurrects the career and achievements of Oddi in order to examine the ways in which mathematics, material culture, and the book shaped knowledge, society, and the visual arts in Renaissance Italy. Marr scrutinizes the extensive archive of Oddi's papers, documenting Oddi's collaboration with prominent intellectuals and officials and shedding new light on the practice of science and art during his day. Drawing the reader into Oddi's world, Marr reveals how scientific change during this formative age was multivalent and contested. Science, he finds, was governed as much by friendship as by principle and determined as much by places as by purpose.