Borelli

Borelli, GIOVANNI ALFONSO, a distinguished mathematician and astronomer, and the founder of the iatro-mathematical school, born at Naples 28th January 1608, was educated at Florence, and became professor of Mathematics at Pisa, and of Medicine at Florence. Having taken part in a revolt, he was obliged to leave Messina, and spent the remainder of his life at Rome, where he died 31st December 1679. He carefully observed the motions of the satellites of Jupiter, then little known, and was one of the first to recognise the parabolic paths of comets. He wrote a treatise on fevers, and a number of works on subjects of applied mathematics, of which the most celebrated is that De Motu Animalium (Rome, 1680-81). In this work he applies the laws of mechanics to the motions of animals.