1647?-1734

Italian Mathematician

As an engineer, Giovanni Ceva concerned himself with applied mathematics; but his other career, as a geometer, took him deep into the realm of pure math. He became the era's foremost authority on geometric problems, working particularly with transversals, and is also credited with Ceva's theorem, on a triangle's center of gravity. Other writings addressed areas of mathematical application ranging from mechanics to economics.

The son of a wealthy and influential family—his younger brother Tomasso (1648-1737), was destined to become a famous mathematician as well—Ceva studied at Pisa. Some of his most significant writing appeared during the late 1670s and early 1680s, when he was in his early to mid-thirties. Perhaps his most notable work was De lineis rectis (Concerning Straight Lines), published in 1678. This work contained Ceva's theorem, on the geometry of triangles, which in turn related to an area...