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Tartaglia

Niccolo Fontana, known as Tartaglia, was born in Brescia in 1499 or 1500, the son of an honest mail rider Michele Fontana who was known as 'Micheletto the Rider'. Micheletto would ride his horse between Brescia and other towns in the district making deliveries. Although he was poor, Micheletto did his best for his wife, daughter and two sons, and Niccolo attended school from the age of about four years. Life might have been very different for Niccolo had tragedy not come when he was six years old, for at that time his father was murdered while out making deliveries. From being a child in a poor family, he was suddenly plunged into total poverty.

Niccolo was nearly killed as a teenager when, in 1512, the French captured his home town and put it to the sword. The French army was commanded by Gaston de Foix and they had suffered humiliation at the hands of some determined Brescia militia. They decided to teach the local inhabitants a lesson and retook Brescia during seven days of fighting in which time 46,000 residents of the city were killed in an act of revenge. Amidst the general slaughter, the twelve year old Niccolo took refuge in the cathedral with his mother and younger sister, but was dealt horrific facial sabre wounds by a French soldier that cut his jaw and palate. He was left for dead and even when his mother discovered that he was still alive she could not afford to pay for any medical help. However, his mother's tender care ensured that the youngster did survive, but in later life Niccolo always wore a beard to camouflage his disfiguring scars and he could only speak with difficulty, hence his nickname Tartaglia, or stammerer.

Tartaglia was self taught in mathematics but, having an extraordinary ability, his mother was able to find him a patron. Ludovico Balbisonio took him to Padua to study there, but when he returned with his patron to Brescia he made himself unpopular by having an inflated opinion of himself. He left Brescia to earn his living...