Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli

Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1397 – May 10, 1482) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and cosmographer.

He was born at Florence, the son of the physician Dominic Toscanelli. Educated in mathematics at the University of Padua, he left in 1424 with the title of a doctor of medicine.

Toscanelli is noted for his observations of comets and the painstaking calculation of their orbits. Among these was Halley's comet in 1456.

In 1474 Toscanelli sent a letter and a map to his Portuguese correspondent Fernão Martins, priest at the Lisbon Cathedral, detailing a scheme for sailing westwards to reach the Spice Islands and Asia. Fernão Martins delivered his letter to the King Afonso V of Portugal, in his court of Lisbon. The original of this letter was lost, but its existence is known through Toscanelli himself, who later transcribed it along with the map and sent it to Christopher Columbus, who carried them with him during his first voyage to the new world. Toscanelli had miscalculated the size of the earth which resulted in Columbus never realizing he had found a new continent.

References

• Armando Cortesão, Cartografia Portuguesa Antiga, Lisboa, 1960.
• Armando Costesão, História da Cartografia Portuguesa, 2 vols., Lisboa, 1969-1970.
• G. Uzielli, La Vita e i tempi di Paolo di Pozo Toscanelli, Roma 1894.

See also

• Voyages of Christopher Columbus
• The Pinzon Brothers
• Juan de la Cosa

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia entry