Giovanni Poleni

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Giovanni Poleni (around 1683 - 1761) was a Marquess, physicist, mathematician and antiquarian. After studying the classics, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics in Venice, he was appointed (at the age of twenty-five) professor of astronomy at Padua. In 1715 he was assigned to be the chair of physics, and in 1719 he succeeded Nicholas II Bernoulli as professor of mathematics. As an expert in hydraulic engineering he was charged by the Venetian Senate with the care of the waters of lower Lombardy and with the constructions necessary to prevent floods. He was also repeatedly called in to decide cases between sovereigns whose states were bordered by waterways. Poleni was also the first to build a calculator that used a pinwheel design. Made of wood, his calculating clock was built in 1709; he destroyed it after hearing that Antonius Braun had received 10,000 Guldens for dedicating a pinwheel machine of his own design to the emperor Charles VI of Vienna. The city of Padua elected him as magistrate, and after his death erected this statue by Canova.