Gian Francesco Malfatti

Gian Francesco Malfatti, born Giovanni Francesco Giuseppe Malfatti in Ala in Trentino in 1731 and dying in Ferrara in 1807, was an Italian mathematician best known for posing the Malfatti problem. He studied at the University of Bologna under mentors including Vincenzo Riccati and Laura Bassi, moved to Ferrara in 1754 and became a professor at the University of Ferrara when it was re-established in 1771. In 1803 he asked how to carve three circular columns from a triangular block of marble using as much of the marble as possible, and conjectured that three mutually tangent inscribed circles, now called Malfatti circles, gave the best answer, a conjecture later proven false. He was also the first mathematician to "solve" the quintic using a resolvent of sixth degree, and in 1782 he helped found the Società Italiana delle Scienze.