Baldassarre Boncompagni

Prince Baldassarre Boncompagni-Ludovisi (10 May 1821 – 13 April 1894), was an Italian historian of mathematics and aristocrat.

Boncompagni was born in Rome, into an ancient noble and wealthy Roman family, the Ludovisi-Boncompagni, as the third son of Prince Luigi Boncompagni Ludovisi and Princess Maria Maddalena Odescalchi.

[1] He studied under the mathematician Barnaba Tortolini and astronomer Ignazio Calandrelli, developing an interest in the history of science.

In 1847 Pope Pius IX appointed him a member of the Accademia dei Lincei.

Boncompagni edited Bullettino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche ("The bulletin of bibliography and history of mathematical and physical sciences") (1868–1887), the first Italian periodical entirely dedicated to the history of mathematics.