Gennaro Maria D'Afflitto was born into a noble family in Naples in 1618. On 16 September 1633, he entered the Dominican convent of Santa Maria della Sanità, Naples.[1] He received a good scientific and humanistic education, and developed a keen interest in mathematics. In 1647 he met Don John Joseph of Austria, who had been sent to Naples to quell the rebellion of Masaniello.[1] He followed him in the campaign to recapture Orbetello and Porto Longone (1650) and later served as military engineer in the Spanish Army in Catalonia, Portugal and the Southern Netherlands.[1] In 1663 the Supreme Council of War appointed him as professor of mathematics in the Real Academia de Matemáticas, Artillería y Fortificación of Madrid.[2] He was in charge of the chair until 1665. In the following years, he came under the service of Ferdinando II of Tuscany again as a teacher of mathematics and military engineer. At the end of 1667 he became an advisor to the Republic of Genoa on engineering matters, and worked on the fortifications of Savona and Vado Ligure.[1] D'Afflitto is also credited with fortification works in Cuneo and Nizza Marittima on behalf of the House of Savoy.[1] He died at Naples in 1673.[3]
Works
D'Afflitto published at Madrid a treatise on fortifications in two volumes, De Munitione et Fortificatione, Libri duo. The first volume is dedicated to Don John Joseph of Austria.[4] Abstracts of this work were published at Florence in 1665, by Captain Giovanni Battista Sergiuliani, and in 1667 by Filippo Domenico Mazzenghi. Likewise, he is the author of Compendio de modernas fortificaciones (Compendium of Modern Fortifications), translated into Spanish in 1657 by Baltasar Siscara.[5] D'Afflitto wrote also a treatise on fire and explosive weapons, De igne et ignivomis (Zaragoza, 1661). The work is divided into two parts: the first deals with the nature of fire and the different kinds of fuels; the second describes various types of explosives.[6] He left in manuscript Terra seu quadripartites orbis, Compendio della Sfera universale, and a number of poems and miscellaneous tracts on philosophical and theological topics. Jonas Moore considered D'Afflitto, together with Francesco Tensini and Pietro Sardi, one of Italy's foremost experts on fortification.[7]
^Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain) (1842). Biographical Dictionary. London: Longman. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^Moore, Jonas (1673). Modern Fortification or Elements of Military architecture. London: W. Godbid. pp. 21–24.
Bibliography
Toppi, Niccolò (1678). Biblioteca napoletana, et apparato a gli huomini illustri in lettere di Napoli. Naples: Antonio Bulifon. p. 105.
Addizioni copiose di Lionardo Nicodemo alla Biblioteca napoletana del dottor Niccolò Toppi. Naples: per Salvator Castaldo regio stamp.: a spese di Giacomo Raillard. 1683. p. 85.
Quétif, Jacques; Échard, Jacques (1721). Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum. Vol. 2. Paris: apud J-B-C. Ballard, et N. Simart. p. 646.
Napoli Signorelli, Pietro (1811). Vicende della Coltura nelle Due Sicilie. Vol. 5. Naples. pp. 340–1.
Gatto, Romano (1994). Tra scienza e immaginazione: le matematiche presso il collegio gesuitico napoletano (1552-1670 ca.). Florence: Leo S. Olschki. pp. 156–7. ISBN978-8822242280.
Espino López, Antonio (2001). Guerra y cultura en la Época Moderna. La tratadística militar hispánica de los siglos XVI y XVII. Autores, libros y lectores. Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa. ISBN84-78-23860-3.
