| Julio Cesar Firrufino | |
| Birth Place: | probably Seville, Spain |
| Death Place: | Madrid, Spain |
| Field: | Mathematics, artillery |
| Notable Students: | Luis Carducho |
Julio Cesar Firrufino or Ferrufino (16th century) was an engineer and mathematician who had a chair in mathematics in Madrid from 1604 to 1650.
He was the son of Julian Firrufino (ca 1535–1604), born in Alessandria (Duchy of Milan) who had also a chair in Geometry and Artillery granted by the king of Spain.[1] However, we know few biographical data of Julio Cesar, his son.[2] Only from a document dated 1644, we know he was 66 years old, so we can suppose he was born in 1578, when his father had a chair of Naval Artillery in the Casa de Contratación and, probably, he was born in Sevilla.[3]
In 1600 he was assistant of the Spanish minister of Artillery[4] and from 1604, after the death of his father, he was appointed to a chair on Mathematics and Fortification,[5] after the approval of Andrés García de Céspedes and João Baptista Lavanha who examined him.[6] He was in charge of the chair until 1650, one year before his death; in this date he was replaced by his student Luis Carduchi, member of a family of old friends of Firrufino.[7]
In 1626 he published Plática Manual y Breve Compendio de Artillería, which was an abstract of a treatise of artillery that he was not allowed to publish by political reasons.[8]
In 1638 he was accused by fraud in the production of 66 artillery guns in Sevilla; for this reason he was imprisoned during some time in 1644.[9]
In 1648 was published his most important work: El perfecto artillero, which is an encyclopedic treatise, but not much original, based in Tartaglia ideas.[10]