Celebrating Evangelista Torricelli’s Opera Geometrica (1644–2024): Details in History and Historiography of Physics, Geometry and Mathematics

In this essay we describe Torricelli’s life and works in their scientific context, including the Archimedean heritage in Torricelli’s works. We analyse the changes of Torricelli’s works and explain the novelties of the edition we are offering. Then, we provide a picture of the most significant results obtained by Torricelli (1608–1647), particularly in mechanics and geometry. Furthermore, we also focus on the Torricelli’s methodology, specifying how he proved two of his achievements, given their novelty and mathematical meaning: (a) the volume of the “solido acutissimo”; (b) the geometry of the logarithmic spiral. An ad hoc Content of the Opera geometrica is proposed as well. It is based on the original chronological sequences of the contents wrote by Torricelli. This is important to evaluate the birth of the scientific matters presented by Torricelli and the editorial process of the publication.