Benedetto da Firenze (Benedetto di Antonio di Cristofano) (c. 1429-1479/81)

Mathematician, author of a treatise on abacus and of a Pratica di Aritmetica [Exercises in arithmetic] known as «maestro Benedetto», he also held the position of procurator of the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli. His name recurs several times in the deeds notarised by Ser Piero, Leonardo's father, around 1476 (documents now in the Florence State Archive). He is mentioned by Leonardo as «Benedetto of the abacus». This definition might indicate that Benedetto could have been Leonardo's master of abacus, who was instead, according to other hypotheses, Giovanni del Sodo, another Florentine mathematician mentioned in the Codex Arundel and the Codex Atlanticus.