Giovanni Poleni FRS (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanni ˈpolɛni]; 23 August 1683 – 15 November 1761) was a Marquess, physicist, mathematician and antiquarian.

[1] He was the son of Marquess Jacopo Poleni and studied the classics, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics at the School of the Somaschi Fathers, Venice.

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.

Made of wood, his calculating clock was built in 1709;[2] he destroyed it after hearing that Anton Braun had received 10,000 Guldens for dedicating a pinwheel machine of his own design to the emperor Charles VI of Vienna.

Poleni's observations on the impact of falling weights (similar to Willem 's Gravesande's) led to a controversy with Samuel Clarke and other Newtonians that became a part of the so-called "vis viva dispute" in the history of classical mechanics.