Division of the air in niccold tartaglla's quesltl et inventlone diverse (1546)

Abstract

In Quesiti et Inventlone diverse (1546), Niccolfc Tartaglia presented a theory of projectile motion centred on the resistance opposed by air and its subsequent division. I propose that this explanation is based on three different sources: The concept of air fracture formulated by his contemporary Vannoccio Biringuccio to explain the noise produced after a shot; the mediaeval treatise De ratlone ponderis, In which Jordanus Nemorarius (13th century) develops the Idea of a medium's resistance, and the inferences for the materiality of air and Its perturbation put forward by John Philoponus (6th century).