scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1500606

Scipio del Ferro, Nicoló Tartaglia, Girolamo Cardano, Ludovico Ferrari and Rafaelo Bombelli developed procedures for solving equations of degree three and degree four during the 16th century in Italy. Four questions are answered: how were the calculations done, were there square roots of negative numbers, who found the procedure(s) first, and should oaths be given -- broken -- changed in various circumstances? There is the usual lack of key documentary evidence -- there are no smoking guns. Scipio del Ferro gave the first description of how to solve a cubic equations \(x^3=px+q\) and \(x^3+px=q\) (\(p, q\) positive constants) but did not publish. Tartaglia had a dispute with Scipio del Ferro's pupil Antonio Maria dei Fiori in 1535, where the existence of procedures for solving cubic equations was revealed. Cardano tried to get this solution from Tartaglia and eventually succeeded in 1539 under oath: he swore, on God's Holy Gospels and on his honour as a true gentleman, not only never to publish \textit{Tartaglia}'s invention but not to do so even if Tartaglia allowed him to; moreover, he promised and engaged his faith in the true Christ, to transcribe it in a secret code, so that no one could discover it after his (Cardano's) death. Tartaglia gave him the recipe. Cardano found it difficult to understand the procedure, and when he did, he then discovered to Tartaglia's embarrassment the irreducible cases where the square roots of negative numbers were involved. In 1542 Cardano and his pupil Ludovico Ferrari went to Milan where they inspected certain notes of \textit{Scipio del Ferro} (he died in 1526) which contained the solutions of cubic equations (naturally, these papers are now lost) -- these notes were held by with Annibale della Nave, another pupil of Scipio del Ferro. In 1545 Cardano published the great mathematical work, the \textit{Ars Magna, sive de Regulis algebraicis liber unus}. This work contained geometric proofs of the method of solution of certain types of cubic equations (with the square term missing: \(x^3+px=q\)), and with the formula \[ x = \root 3 \of {{q\over 2} + \sqrt{\left({q \over 2}\right)^2 + \left({p \over 3}\right)^3}} - \root 3 \of {-{q\over 2} + \sqrt{\left({q \over 2}\right)^2 + \left({p \over 3}\right)^3}} \] (modern notation) expressed in words, without letters \(p,q\) for the coefficients. Ferrari was able to find solutions for quartic equations by reducing them to two squares via a cubic equation. All this appeared in Cardano's \textit{Ars Magna} with attributions to Scipio del Ferro, Nicolò Tartaglia and Ferrari. This publication led to immediate trouble with Tartaglia. Challenged by Ludovico Ferrari on Cardano's behalf, 1547-1549, Tartaglia was unable to solve certain cubics, unable to give proofs for his procedure, and finally gave up the quarrel over priority and publication. Tartaglia and Ferrari died soon after. Cardano died in 1575. The whole matter of the irreducible cases was cleared up by Rafaelo Bombelli in his \textsl{Algebra} published in 1570-1572. Bombelli introduced complex numbers, their algebra, a cumbersome notation finally cleaned up by Albert Giraud and René Descartes in the 17th century. Bombelli's complex numbers were cumbersome because he treated taking a square root such as \(\sqrt{-121}\) as an operation on the number 121. He gave rules for combinations of two such operations: these are the rules of complex algebra as we know today. Please note towards the foot of page 65 the formula should give \[ \root 3 \of {2-\sqrt{-121}} + \root 3 \of {2+\sqrt{-121}} \] [this makes the computations at the top of page 66 understandable] and that the appropriate line on page 66 should read \centerline{più via meno di meno fa meno di meno \qquad\qquad \((+)(-i) = -i\)} This is a clear and easy-to-read article, though a non-Francophone will need a dictionary at hand. The effort is worth it, and reviewer wishes more papers were written to this standard of clarity. There are about 30 references in the footnotes. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0940.00005].

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