Attilio Frajese

Attilio Frajese (born November 11, 1902 in Rome ; † August 5, 1986 there ) was an Italian mathematician .

Frajese received a classical humanistic education and studied at the University of Rome with the Laurea degree as mechanical engineer in 1923. He then worked as a high school teacher. In 1942 he became school inspector and in 1949 director in the Ministry of Education. For three decades after the war he lectured on the history of mathematics at the University of Rome.

His interest in the history of mathematics began in 1934 when he became acquainted with Federigo Enriques through Giorgio de Santillana (who had been his school friend) and heard his lectures on the history of mathematics in Rome. In 1938 he published these lectures by Enriques (Le matematiche nella storia e nella cultura) and held the lectures himself the following year, as Enriques was banned from teaching as a Jew. He stayed in contact with Enriques and in 1943 he hid Enriques and his family, threatened by deportation by the German occupiers.

He dealt mainly with ancient Greek mathematics.

Fonts

• La matematica nel mondo antico, 1951
• Attraverso la storia della matematica, 1962, 2nd edition 1969
• Platone e la matematica nel mondo antico, 1963
• Galileo matematico, 1964

In 1970 he published an Italian edition of Euclid's Elements with commentary and in 1974 an Italian edition of the works of Archimedes.

literature

• Joseph W. Dauben , Christoph J. Scriba (eds.): Writing the history of mathematics , Birkhäuser 2002, p. 428