Ancient Roots of Getaldić’s Work on the Development of Mathematical Analysis and Synthesis

Abstract

: Ancient methods of analysis and synthesis created in Greek philosophy transformed during the Renaissance and developed within the field of mathematics, which can also be noticed in the works of Marin Getaldić. His successful restorations and reconstructions of the missing works of Apollonius of Perga are a telling example of a transfer of the lost ancient theories widely echoed in the literature of the early modern period. Getaldić was also concerned with the focal area of the Renaissance mathematics⸺symbolic algebra. With his new methods Getaldić made a step towards the founding of a new mathematical area, analytic geometry. Equally, in the field of natural philosophy (physics), he successfully combined ancient tradition with the modern problem of method, and in his first work Promotus Archimedes used experimental and mathematical method, which is an early example of the modern approach to the study of natural sciences.