Giovanni Salvemini

Johann Castillon or Giovanni Francesco Salvemini de Castillon, born Giovanni Francesco Mauro Melchiorre Salvemini da Castiglione, ( born January 15, 1704 Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, † October 11, 1791 in Berlin) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher and university professor.

Life

Giovanni Francesco Melchiorre Mauro Salvemini da Castiglione studied mathematics in Pisa and then went to Switzerland, where he changed his name. He taught in Lausanne and Bern. In 1751 he went to the University of Utrecht to teach mathematics and astronomy. He received in 1754 a PhD place in Utrecht and in 1755 professor. Three years later he became rector of the university.

In 1764 he went to Berlin, where he first astronomer at the Royal Berlin Observatory was in the following year.

His first two essays he wrote on the cardioid, to which he gave the name. He also dealt with conic sections and quadratic equations.

Castillon published the correspondence between Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli, edited works of Leonhard Euler and published a review of Newton's Arithmetica Universalis. He also translated Locke's basic concepts of physics into French.

In 1753 he became a member of the Royal Society of London.

The only one of his children who survived him, was his son Friedrich Gustav of Castillon.

Works (selection)

• Discours sur l' origine de l' inégalité parmi les hommes ( rebuttal to le Discours de Jean -Jacques Rousseau ), (1756 )
• Vie d' Apollonius de Tyane, par Philo rate, (1774 )
• Les Académiques de Cicéron, (1779 ), 2 volumes.
• Observations sur le système de la nature. Decker, Berlin ( 1779)