mathematician and hydrologist, considered a founder of the Italian school of hydraulics, which dominated the science in the 17th and early 18th centuries. His field observations of the flow of rivers resulted in the earliest qualitative understanding of the equilibrium between the velocity of the water and the resistance to flow of the riverbed. They tended to disprove entrenched misconceptions about the distribution of velocity through the depth of the river.

His work on hydraulics was completed while he was professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna. He also practiced medicine and eventually abandoned his studies of hydraulics to devote himself completely to medicine.