Antonio Manetti
Antonio di Tuccio Manetti (6 July 1423 – May 26, 1497) was an
Italian mathematician and
architect from
Florence. He is particularly noted for his investigations into the site, shape and size of
Dante's ''
Inferno''. Although Manetti never himself published his research regarding the topic, the earliest Renaissance Florentine editors of the poem,
Cristoforo Landino and
Girolamo Benivieni, reported the results of his researches in their respective editions of the ''
Divine Comedy''. Manetti is also famous for his short story, ''The Fat Woodworker,'' which recounts a cruel practical joke devised by Brunelleschi. Furthermore, his supposed authorship of the biography of
Filippo Brunelleschi has been widely discussed and analyzed. Manetti was further a member of the Arte di Por Santa Maria (also known as
Arte della Seta), one of the seven Arti Maggiori guilds of Florence.
Born to a family of
silk merchants, Manetti not only received an excellent education but was confronted with ample free time in which he was able to cultivate his many interests, which included
mathematics,
geometry,
astronomy and
philosophy.
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