Jacopo Riccati

Jacopo Francesco Riccati, who lived from 1676 to 1754, was a Venetian mathematician and jurist, known for his influential work on solving differential equations and above all for the equation that bears his name. Born to a noble family, with a mother from the Colonna family of Rome, he was educated at the Jesuit school for the nobility in Brescia and took a doctorate in law at the University of Padua in 1696. Encouraged by Stefano degli Angeli, he turned to mathematical analysis, introducing methods such as separation of variables and lowering the order of an equation, and corresponded with Euler and the Bernoullis. He declined offers from Peter the Great, from Vienna and from Padua in order to work privately in Treviso, helped spread Newton's ideas in Italy, advised the Venetian Senate on canals and dikes, and was named an honorary academician of the Bologna Institute in 1723.