Jacopo Riccati

Jacopo Riccati
Jacopo Francesco Riccati (1676-1754)
Born	28 May 1676 Venice, Venetian Republic (now Italy)
Died	15 April 1754 (1754-04-16) (aged 77) Treviso, Venetian Republic (now Italy)
Residence	Italy
Nationality	Italian
Fields	Mathematician
Alma mater	University of Padua (LL.D., 1696)
Notable students	Vincenzo Riccati
Known for	Riccati equation
Influences	Stefano degli Angeli
Notes
Father of Vincenzo Riccati and Giordano Riccati.

Jacopo Francesco Riccati (28 May 1676 – 15 April 1754) was an Italian mathematician and jurist from Venice. He is best known for having studied the equation which bears his name.

Riccati was educated first at the Jesuit school for the nobility in Brescia, and in 1693 he entered the University of Padua to study law. He received a doctorate in law (LL.D.) in 1696. Encouraged by Stefano degli Angeli to pursue mathematics, he studied mathematical analysis.

Riccati received various academic offers, but declined them in order to devote his full attention to the study of mathematical analysis on his own. Peter the Great invited him to Russia as president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He was also invited to Vienna as an imperial councilor and was offered a professorship at the University of Padua. He declined all these offers.

He was often consulted by the Senate of Venice on the construction of canals and dikes along rivers.

Some of his work on multinomials was included by Maria Gaetana Agnesi, at Riccati's request, in the book on integral calculus of her Analytical Institutions.

The Riccati equation is named after him.

His father, Conte Montino Riccati, came from a noble family who owned land near Venice. His mother was from the powerful Colonna family. His father died in 1686, when Riccati was only ten, leaving the youth a handsome estate.