Bonaventura Cavalieri
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Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri was an Italian mathematician and a Jesuate. He is known for his work on the problems of optics and motion, work on indivisibles, the precursors of infinitesimal calculus, and the introduction of logarithms to Italy. Cavalieri's principle in geometry partially anticipated integral calculus.
Bonaventura Cavalieri
Geometrical figures from Lo Speccio Ustorio, used in proofs of properties of parabolic reflecting surfaces.
The frontispiece of the Geometria indivisibilibus.
Monument to Cavalieri by Giovanni Antonio Labus, Palazzo di Brera, Milan, 1844
Calculus
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Calculus is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was the first to state clearly the rules of calculus.
Isaac Newton developed the use of calculus in his laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
The logarithmic spiral of the Nautilus shell is a classical image used to depict the growth and change related to calculus.