Ferro, Scipione

Scipione Ferro, also called Dal Ferro, (born 1465, Bologna—died 1526, Bologna, Papal States), Italian mathematician who is believed to have found a solution to the cubic equation x³ + px = q where p and q are positive numbers.

Ferro attended the University of Bologna and, in 1496, accepted a position at the university as a lecturer in arithmetic and geometry; he remained at the university until his death. Although none of his work survives, he is known to have influenced the study of fractions with irrational denominators.