Gregorio Fontana

Gregorio Fontana, born Giovanni Battista Lorenzo Fontana (7 December 1735 to 24 August 1803), was an Italian mathematician and a religious of the Piarist order. He held the chair of mathematics at the University of Pavia, succeeding Roger Joseph Boscovich, and was also entrusted with the post of curator of the university library. He has been credited with the introduction of polar coordinates and played a pivotal role in the systematic introduction in Italy of the study of Leonhard Euler's treatises on mathematical analysis. Born at Nogaredo in Trento, he was the brother of the physicist Felice Fontana and a close friend of Giulio Carlo de' Toschi di Fagnano. Though an abbot, he was sympathetic to the ideals of the French Revolution.