Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri (redirected from Giovanni Saccheri)

Saccheri, Giovanni Girolamo 

Born Sept. 5, 1667, in San Remo; died Oct. 25, 1733, in Milan. Italian scientist. Jesuit.

Saccheri taught theology and mathematics at Jesuit colleges in Turin, Pavia, and Milan. He attempted to prove Euclid’s parallel postulate by denying it and seeking a resulting contradiction, but his efforts were doomed to failure (seeLOBACHEVSKIAN GEOMETRY). Saccheri derived some theorems that were rediscovered by A. Legendre, and he in effect discovered some basic propositions of non-Euclidean geometry.

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Euclides ab omni naevo vindicatus; sive conatus geometricus quo stabiliun-turprima ipsa universaegeometriaeprincipia. Milan, 1733.