Ignazio Danti

Ignazio Danti (1536 to 1586), born Pellegrino Rainaldi Danti, was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate, mathematician, astronomer and cosmographer who served as Bishop of Alatri from 1583 until his death. Born in Perugia to a family of artists and scientists, he learned the rudiments of painting and architecture from his father Giulio and his aunt Teodora, and his brother Vincenzo became a leading court sculptor in Florence. He entered the Dominican Order on 7 March 1555, changing his name from Pellegrino to Ignazio, and after studying philosophy and theology devoted himself to mathematics, astronomy and geography. In 1562 he moved to the monastery of San Marco in Florence, and in September 1563 Cosimo I, Duke of Tuscany, invited him to join his cosmographical project in the Guardaroba of the Palazzo Vecchio, where over the next dozen years he painted thirty maps of regions of the world on the cabinet doors.