Gennaro Maria D'Afflitto (1618 – 1673) was an Italian Dominican friar and military engineer.
Biography
editGennaro Maria D'Afflitto was born into a noble family in Naples in 1618. On 16 September 1633, he entered the Dominican convent of Santa Maria della Sanità, Naples.[1] He received a good scientific and humanistic education, and developed a keen interest in mathematics. In 1647 he met Don John Joseph of Austria, who had been sent to Naples to quell the rebellion of Masaniello.[1] He followed him in the campaign to recapture Orbetello and Porto Longone (1650) and later served as military engineer in the Spanish Army in Catalonia, Portugal and the Southern Netherlands.[1] In 1663 the Supreme Council of War appointed him as professor of mathematics in the Real Academia de Matemáticas, Artillería y Fortificación of Madrid.[2] In the following years, he came under the service of Ferdinando II of Tuscany again as a teacher of mathematics and military engineer. At the end of 1667 he became an advisor to the Republic of Genoa on engineering matters, and worked on the fortifications of Savona and Vado Ligure.[1] D'Afflitto is also credited with fortification works in Cuneo and Nizza Marittima on behalf of the House of Savoy.[1] He died at Naples in 1673.[3]
Works
editD'Afflitto published at Madrid a treatise on fortifications in two volumes, De Munitione et Fortificatione, Libri duo. The first volume is dedicated to Don John Joseph of Austria.[4] Abstracts of this work were published at Florence in 1665, by Captain Giovanni Battista Sergiuliani, and in 1667 by Filippo Domenico Mazzenghi. Likewise, he is the author of Compendio de modernas fortificaciones (Compendium of Modern Fortifications), translated into Spanish in 1657 by Baltasar Siscara.[5] He left in manuscript Terra seu quadripartites orbis, Compendio della Sfera universale, and a number of poems and miscellaneous tracts on philosophical and theological topics. Jonas Moore considered D'Afflitto, together with Francesco Tensini and Pietro Sardi, one of Italy's foremost experts on fortification.[6]
Published works
edit- De igne et ignivomis. Zaragoza: Diego Dormer. 1661.
- De munitione et fortificatione (Matriti s. d.)
- Breve trattato delle moderne fortificazioni. Florence: all'insegna della Stella. 1665.
- Introduzione alla moderna fortificazione. Florence: nella stamp. di s.a.s. per il Vangelisti, e Matini. 1667.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Signorelli 1985.
- ^ Capel Saez, Horacio; Sanchez, Joan-Eugeni; Moncada, Omar (1988). De Palas a Minerva: la formación científica y la estructura institucional de los ingenieros militares en el siglo XVIII (in Spanish). Ediciones del Serbal i CSIC. pp. 99–100. ISBN 84-00-06829-7.
- ^ Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain) (1842). Biographical Dictionary. London: Longman.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Quétif & Échard 1721, p. 646.
- ^ Espino López 2001, p. 239.
- ^ Moore, Jonas (1673). Modern Fortification or Elements of Military architecture. London: W. Godbid. pp. 21–24.
Bibliography
edit- Toppi, Niccolò (1678). Biblioteca napoletana, et apparato a gli huomini illustri in lettere di Napoli. Naples: Antonio Bulifon. p. 105.
- Addizioni copiose di Lionardo Nicodemo alla Biblioteca napoletana del dottor Niccolò Toppi. Naples: per Salvator Castaldo regio stamp.: a spese di Giacomo Raillard. 1683. p. 85.
- Quétif, Jacques; Échard, Jacques (1721). Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum. Vol. 2. Paris: apud J-B-C. Ballard, et N. Simart. p. 646.
- Signorelli, Bruno (1985). "D'AFFLITTO, Gennaro Maria". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 31: Cristaldi–Dalla Nave (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
- Albornoz y Galbeño, Juan Carrillo de. "Genaro María Aflitto". Diccionario biográfico español. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- Gatto, Romano (1994). Tra scienza e immaginazione: le matematiche presso il collegio gesuitico napoletano (1552-1670 ca.). Florence: Leo S. Olschki. pp. 156–7. ISBN 978-8822242280.
- Espino López, Antonio (2001). Guerra y cultura en la Época Moderna. La tratadística militar hispánica de los siglos XVI y XVII. Autores, libros y lectores. Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa. ISBN 84-78-23860-3.