Chris,

      This is a very good paper on the life and contributions of 
   Nicolo Fontana ("Tartaglia"), focusing on the ways the mathematical
   contests he specialized in shaped his career  I'm happy to see you 
   bring in some additional material beyond what we discussed in 
   class, for instance, some of the information from 

   http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Tartaglia_v_Cardan.html

   (linked from our course homepage).   The translation of the actual 
   text of Tartaglia's poem on the solution of the cubic is a nice 
   addition.  But then you don't really make use of it other than 
   quoting the poem.  I think you could have said a bit more about how
   the poem correlates with the actual formulas we discussed (it's 
   almost a recipe for writing Tartaglia's formulas down if you look
   carefully at what it says). On the other hand, the point you make 
   just before the end about the parallels between the way Ferrari 
   defeated Tartaglia (ending his career) and the way Tartaglia 
   defeated Fior (starting his career) is a nice touch.  "Live by 
   the sword, die by the sword" comes to mind(!)  

    I also thought you were going to try to say more about whether the 
   whole Renaissance Italian mania for the mathematical contests was 
   ultimately good or bad for the subject.  Your last sentence expresses 
   an opinion about that, but it would have been good to say more, and 
   maybe give some justification.  For instance, I think it is pretty clear that 
   mathematics as a whole advances more quickly and more new discoveries
   are made in times when mathematicians share their ideas with their
   colleagues.  Today's mathematical community, for instance, has 
   many mechanisms for letting people publicize their findings, even
   before they are formally published (preprint archives, mathematical
   blogs, etc.)  Even though there is some concern about having one's
   ideas stolen by unscrupulous colleagues (this is fortunately rather
   rare!), people generally are making use of these avenues for disseminating
   their work and mathematics is "moving ahead" very rapidly at present.
   The secrecy of the Italian algebraists is very strange for us, and
   it would have been good to try to say more about that aspect.  
   
   Grade:  A-