Angelo Genocchi

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Angelo Genocchi

Angelo Genocchi (born March 5, 1817 in Piacenza , † March 7, 1889 in Turin ) was an Italian mathematician and mathematician .

Genocchi stood out at school for his gift for mathematics, but could only study law in his hometown of Piacenza. In 1838 he received a laureate as a lawyer and became a lawyer in his hometown, where he was also professor of Roman law from 1845. He dealt with mathematics only privately. He was portrayed as an introvert , but he could become impatient in scientific discussions. He took an active part in the wars of independence against Austria and after the defeat in 1849 went to Turin, where he began to study mathematics with Felice Chiò and Giovanni Plana . From 1857 he taught algebra and complements to geometry at the university at the suggestion of Chiò and quickly made a career. In 1860 he became a professor of higher analysis. One of his students was Giuseppe Peano , who also published his analysis lectures in 1884 (with his own additions), a very influential analysis textbook at the time. At times he was rector of the University of Turin.

In addition to analysis, he also dealt with number theory (which hardly anyone in Italy did in his time) and in the history of mathematics with Leonardo of Pisa . His interest in it began in the 1850s with the publication of the Liber Quadratorum by Leonardo of Pisa by Baldassare Boncompagni . Genocchi discovered some errors in the edition and entered into an extensive correspondence with Boncompagni (preserved in the archive of the library in Piacenza). He was skeptical of non-Euclidean geometry (especially the model of Eugenio Beltrami ) and also undertook historical studies, in which he discovered an essay by François Daviet de Foncenex (1734–1799) on the relationship between the principles of mechanics (lever principle, etc.) and the parallel postulate .

According to him, Genocchi figures named. They are defined by , rational numbers and connected to the Bernoulli numbers by:

Genocchi was one of the first to introduce (more stringent) analysis in the style of Augustin-Louis Cauchy in Italy, until then the style of Joseph-Louis Lagrange dominated . He also influenced his student Peano, who took an even stricter view of mathematics and wanted to build it on a logical basis.

His extensive estate is in the Passerini-Landi library in Piacenza.

Since 1871 he was a corresponding member of the Accademia dei Lincei , in 1875 he became socio nazionale . From 1885 until his death he was President of the Academy of Sciences in Turin . In 1886 he became senator of the Kingdom of Italy.

Fonts

  • Calcolo differenziale e principii di calcolo integrale publicate con aggiunto dal Dr. Peano, Rome: Bocca 1884, Archives

literature

Web links

  • Genòcchi, Angelo. In: Enciclopedie on line. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome. Retrieved April 12, 2017.

Remarks

  1. Annuario dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2011, p. 446
  2. There is no entry about him in the senatorial database of the Italian Senate .