Bonaventura Cavalieri

Bonaventura Cavalieri was born in 1598, in Milan, Italy, and died November 30, 1647. Cavalieri was greatly influenced by the work of Euclid and Galileo and he went on to become a great mathematician who made developments in geometry that have contributed to fundamental ideas in integral Calculus. In fact Cavalieri's principle, the Method of Indivisibles, is similar to some of Galileo's work. Cavalieri's initial argument for the Method of Indivisibles, Geometria Indivisibilibus Continuorum Nova Quadam Ratione Promota, which is read as A Certain Method for the Development of a New Geometry of Continuous Indivisibles, was highly criticized and was not widely accepted. It was not until Cavalieri wrote his argument for the Method of Indivisibles, Exercitationes Geometricae Sex, or Six Geometrical Exercises, that the Method of Indivisibles was more widely accepted.(“Bonaventura Cavalieri (Italian mathematician) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia”)