Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and cosmographer. Toscanelli is noted for his observations of comets and the painstaking calculation of their orbits. Among these was the comet of 1456; only named Halley's comet when Halley confirmed its return in 1768.

Thanks to his long life, his intelligence and his wide interests, Toscanelli was one of the central figures in the intellectual and cultural history of Renaissance Florence in its early years. His circle of friends included the architect of the Duomo, Filippo Brunelleschi, and the philosopher Marsilio Ficino; he knew Leon Battista Alberti, mathematician, writer and architect; and his closest friend was Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, himself a wide-ranging intellect and early humanist, who dedicated two short mathematical works, both written in 1445, to Toscanelli, and made himself and Toscanelli the interlocutors in a dialogue entitled ‘On Squaring the Circle (De quadratura circuli) written in 1458.... More • http://en.wikipedia. ... Toscanelli View • Books • Images • Videos • Search Related • Astronomers • Mathematicians • Scientists • Astronomy • Cosmology • Florence • Italy • Mathematics • Renaissance • Science • People