Del Monte was born in
Pesaro. His father, Ranieri, was from a leading wealthy family in
Urbino. Ranieri was noted for his role as a
soldier and also as the author of two books on
military architecture. The Duke of Urbino, Duke Guidobaldo II, honoured him with the title Marchese del Monte so the family had only become a noble one in the generation before Guidobaldo. On the death of his father Guidobaldo inherited the title of Marchese. Guidobaldo studied
mathematics at the
University of Padua in 1564. While there he became a friend of the great Italian poet
Torquato Tasso. In fact Guidobaldo may have known Tasso before they studied at Padua together, for Tasso was almost exactly the same age as Guidobaldo and had been educated at the court of the Duke of Urbino, with the duke's son, from 1556. Guidobaldo then served as a soldier in the ensuing conflict in
Hungary between the
Habsburg Empire and the
Ottoman Empire. After serving in the army, Guidobaldo returned to his estate of (Monte Baroccio)
Mombaroccio in the
Marche, where he was able to spend his time doing research into mathematics,
mechanics,
astronomy and
optics. He studied mathematics under
Federico Commandino during this period and became one of his most staunch disciples. He also became a friend of
Bernardino Baldi, who was also a student of Commandino around the same time. He corresponded with several mathematicians including
Giacomo Contarini,
Francesco Barozzi and
Galileo Galilei. His invention of a
drafting instrument for constructing regular
polygons and dividing a line into any number of segments was incorporated as a feature of Galileo's
geometric and military compass. Guidobaldo was also important in helping Galileo Galilei in his academic career. Galileo, then a promising, but unemployed 26-year-old, had written an essay on
hydrostatic balance, which struck Guidobaldo as being nothing short of genius. He then commended Galileo to his brother, the
Cardinal Del Monte, who referred him to the powerful Duke of
Tuscany,
Ferdinando I de' Medici. Under his patronage, Galileo got an indication to a professorship of mathematics at the
University of Pisa, in 1589. Guidobaldo became a staunch friend of Galileo and helped him again in 1592, when he had to apply to the chair of mathematics at the
University of Padua, due to the hatred and machinations of
Giovanni de' Medici, a son of
Cosimo I de' Medici, against Galileo. Notwithstanding their friendship, Guidobaldo was a critic of Galileo's principle of the
isochronicity of the
pendulum, a major discovery which Guidobaldo thought was impossible. Guidobaldo wrote an influential book about
perspective, titled
Perspectivae Libri VI, published at
Pesaro in 1600. Several painters, architects and the theater
stage designer
Nicola Sabbatini used this geometrical knowledge in their works. He died at
Mombaroccio in 1607. == Works ==