Tartaglia's Nova Scientia

Timeline

1. 1537Venice · VeniceTartaglia published Nova Scientia in Italian, discussing cannonball range and trajectory through geometric propositions, and proposing that a gun elevation of forty-five degrees yields maximum range. He also promoted the gunner's quadrant, allowing elevation to be measured within the bore using a plumb line.
2. 1546Venice · VeniceTwo of the nine books of Questions and Inventions (1546) continue the discussion of artillery, placing ballistic problems alongside fortification and surveying. The work also includes examples of cubic equations, intersecting with the priority dispute that followed the publication of Cardano's Ars Magna.
3. 1547–1583Venice and northern Italy · ItalyNova Scientia was reprinted and translated several times during the 16th century, making the geometricization of ballistics common knowledge in gunnery textbooks. Its three-part broken-line-and-arc model was later partly corrected by Galileo's parabolic theory, but is still regarded as the beginning of bringing projectile motion into mathematics.