Gaetano Scorza

Bernardino Gaetano Scorza (born September 29, 1876 in Morano Calabro ; † August 6, 1939 in Rome ) was an Italian mathematician who mainly dealt with algebraic geometry .

Gaetano Scorza

Scorza attended the school of the Piarists in Florence and studied mathematics at the University of Pisa with the Laurea degree in 1899 (his dissertation appeared in the Mathematical Annals) with Eugenio Bertini and Luigi Bianchi . Ulisse Dini was one of his teachers . He was assistant for projective and descriptive geometry in Pisa and then in Turin with Corrado Segre . In Turin he made friends with Francesco Severi , who was doing his doctorate there. In 1900 he returned to Pisa, completed his habilitation and gave lectures at the Scuola Normale Superiore. From 1902 to 1912 he taught at technical schools in Terni , Bari and Palermo . In 1912 he won a competition for the chair in projective and descriptive geometry at the University of Cagliari . In 1913 he moved to the University of Parma and from 1916 to 1921 he taught analytical geometry at the University of Catania . In 1921 he went to Naples and in 1934 to the University of Rome .

In 1916 he introduced Riemann matrices to algebraic geometry (theory of Abelian integrals and functions). He also dealt with group theory and mathematical economics (where he got into a dispute with Vilfredo Pareto ). Scorza wrote several textbooks and was in the Italian Commission for Mathematical Education, from 1909 with Guido Castelnuovo and Federigo Enriques in the International Commission for Mathematical Education as representative of Italy and was its vice-president from 1932 to 1939. As a maths didactic, he was an admirer of Felix Klein and his elementary mathematics from a higher point of view . From 1923 to 1932 he was a member of the Consiglio Nazionale della Pubblica Istruzione and shortly before his death he was appointed senator.

In 1926 he became a member of the Accademia dei Lincei .

In 1907 he married Angiola Dragoni, who had studied mathematics in Pisa with the Laurea degree in 1902. With her he had the son Giuseppe Scorza-Dragoni (1908-1996), who received his doctorate from Severi and was professor of analysis in Padua from 1936 onwards Rome, Bologna and finally back to Padua.

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Gaetano Scorza. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .