Francesco Severi (13 April 1879 – 8 December 1961) was an Italian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. He was the chair of the committee on Fields Medal on 1936, at the first delivery. Severi was born in Arezzo, Italy. He is famous for his contributions to algebraic geometry and the theory of functions of several complex variables. He became the effective leader of the

Italian school of algebraic geometry In relation to the history of mathematics, the Italian school of algebraic geometry refers to mathematicians and their work in birational geometry, particularly on algebraic surfaces, centered around Rome roughly from 1885 to 1935. There were 30 ...

. Together with

Federigo Enriques Abramo Giulio Umberto Federigo Enriques (5 January 1871 – 14 June 1946) was an Italian mathematician, now known principally as the first to give a classification of algebraic surfaces in birational geometry, and other contributions in algebrai ...

, he won the '' Bordin prize'' from the French Academy of Sciences. He contributed in a major way to

birational geometry In mathematics, birational geometry is a field of algebraic geometry in which the goal is to determine when two algebraic varieties are isomorphic outside lower-dimensional subsets. This amounts to studying mappings that are given by rational ...

, the theory of algebraic surfaces, in particular of the curves lying on them, the theory of moduli spaces and the theory of functions of several complex variables. He wrote prolifically, and some of his work (following the intuition-led approach of

) has subsequently been shown to be not rigorous according to the then new standards set in particular by

Oscar Zariski , birth_date = , birth_place = Kobrin, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = Brookline, Massachusetts, United States , nationality = American , field = Mathematics , work_institutions = ...

and Andre Weil. Although many of his arguments have since been made rigorous, a significant fraction were not only lacking in rigor but also wrong (in contrast to the work of Enriques, which though not rigorous was almost entirely correct). At the personal level, according to he was easily offended, and he was involved in a number of controversies. Most notably, he was a staunch supporter of the Italian fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and was included on a committee of academics that was to conduct an anti-semitic purge of all scholarly societies and academic institutions.

Selected publications

All the mathematical works of Francesco Severi, except all books, are collected in the six volumes of his "''Opere Matematiche''". *, available at Gallica. The paper containing the first proof of

Morera's theorem In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, Morera's theorem, named after Giacinto Morera, gives an important criterion for proving that a function is holomorphic. Morera's theorem states that a continuous, complex-valued function ''f'' defined ...

for holomorphic functions of several variables. *. The announce of the solution of the

Dirichlet problem In mathematics, a Dirichlet problem is the problem of finding a function which solves a specified partial differential equation (PDE) in the interior of a given region that takes prescribed values on the boundary of the region. The Dirichlet prob ...

for

pluriharmonic function In mathematics, precisely in the theory of functions of several complex variables, a pluriharmonic function is a real valued function which is locally the real part of a holomorphic function of several complex variables. Sometimes such a functi ...

s for domains with real analytic boundaries. *. In this paper Severi describes the "'' passage from real to complex''" method he developed in order to deal with several problems in the theory of functions of several complex variables. *. In this work Severi gives his proof of the Hartogs' extension theorem. *. Notes from a course held by Francesco Severi at the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (which at present bears his name), containing appendices of Enzo Martinelli, Giovanni Battista Rizza and

Mario Benedicty is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cr ...

. * (available from the "
Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana
'"). His "''Mathematical works, Memoirs and Notes''": the complete collection, with the exception of books, of Francesco Severi's scientific contributions. The reprinted works, written in Italian, French, German, retain their original language in an improved typographical form amended from typographical errors and author's oversights: also, a comment of Severi was added to several papers. Volume I collects works published from 1900 to 1908. * (available from the "
Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana
'"). His "''Mathematical works, Memoirs and Notes''": the complete collection, with the exception of books, of Francesco Severi's scientific contributions. The reprinted works, written in Italian, French, German, retain their original language in an improved typographical form amended from typographical errors and author's oversights: also, a comment of Severi was added to several papers. Volume II collects works published from 1909 to 1917. * (available from the "
Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana
'"). His "''Mathematical works, Memoirs and Notes''": the complete collection, with the exception of books, of Francesco Severi's scientific contributions. The reprinted works, written in Italian, French, German, retain their original language in an improved typographical form amended from typographical errors and author's oversights: also, a comment of Severi was added to several papers. Volume III collects works published from 1918 to 1932. * (available from the "
Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana
'"). His "''Mathematical works, Memoirs and Notes''": the complete collection, with the exception of books, of Francesco Severi's scientific contributions. The reprinted works, written in Italian, French, German, retain their original language in an improved typographical form amended from typographical errors and author's oversights: also, a comment of Severi was added to several papers. Volume IV collects works published from 1933 to 1941. * (available from the "
Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana
'"). His "''Mathematical works, Memoirs and Notes''": the complete collection, with the exception of books, of Francesco Severi's scientific contributions. The reprinted works, written in Italian, French, German, retain their original language in an improved typographical form amended from typographical errors and author's oversights: also, a comment of Severi was added to several papers. Volume V collects works published from 1942 to 1948. * (available from the "
Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana
'"). His "''Mathematical works, Memoirs and Notes''": the complete collection, with the exception of books, of Francesco Severi's scientific contributions. The reprinted works, written in Italian, French, German, retain their original language in an improved typographical form amended from typographical errors and author's oversights: also, a comment of Severi was added to several papers. Volume VI collects works published from 1949 to 1961.

Articles on ''Scientia''

*
Ipotesi e realta nelle scienze geometriche
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 8, 1910, pp. 1–29 *
Esame delle obiezioni d'ordine generale contro la relatività del tempo
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 37, 1925, pp. 77–86 *
Elementi logici e psicologici dei principi di relatività
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 37, 1925, pp. 1–10 *
Materia e causalità, energia e indeterminazione
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 81, 1947, pp. 49–59 *
Leonardo e la matematica
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 88, 1953, pp. 41–44 *
I fondamenti logici della relatività
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 90, 1955, pp. 277–282 *
La matematica nella prima metà del secolo XX
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 92, 1957, pp. 20–26

Reviews

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

,
L'ether et la theorie de la relativité
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 91, 1956, pp. 42–43 *

Eric Temple Bell Eric Temple Bell (7 February 1883 – 21 December 1960) was a Scottish-born mathematician and science fiction writer who lived in the United States for most of his life. He published non-fiction using his given name and fiction as John Tain ...

,
Les mathematiques reines et servantes des sciences
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 90, 1955, pp. 371–372 * Nikolaus Von Cues,
Die Mathematische Schriften
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 89, 1954, pp. 34–34 *

Ludovico Geymonat Ludovico Geymonat (May 11, 1908 – November 29, 1991) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher and historian of science. As a philosopher, he mainly dealt with philosophy of science, epistemology and Marxist philosophy, in which he gave an orig ...

,
Saggi di Filosofia neorazionalista
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 89, 1954, pp. 176–176 * Norbert Wiener,
Introduzione alla cibernetica
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 88, 1953, pp. 312–313 *

,
I grandi Matematici
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 86, 1951, pp. 183–184 *

Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of real ...

Herbert Robbins Herbert Ellis Robbins (January 12, 1915 – February 12, 2001) was an American mathematician and statistician. He did research in topology, measure theory, statistics, and a variety of other fields. He was the co-author, with Richard Co ...

,
Che cos'è la matematica?
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 86, 1951, pp. 278–279 *

Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic ph ...

,
Aritmetica e Logica
', Scientia: rivista internazionale di sintesi scientifica, 84, 1949, pp. 144–144

References

Biographical and general references

*. The "''Yearbook''" of the renowned Italian scientific institution, including an historical sketch of its history, the list of all past and present members as well as a wealth of information about its academic and scientific activities. *. *. *. *. *, available at Gallica. A detailed description of the Bordin prize winning work of Francesco Severi and

. *. *. *. A report of the fourth International Congress of Mathematicians with a short exposition of the motivation for the awarding of the Guccia medal to Severi. *. The relation by

Max Noether Max Noether (24 September 1844 – 13 December 1921) was a German mathematician who worked on algebraic geometry and the theory of algebraic functions. He has been called "one of the finest mathematicians of the nineteenth century". He was the f ...

, Henri Poincaré and

Corrado Segre Corrado Segre (20 August 1863 – 18 May 1924) was an Italian mathematician who is remembered today as a major contributor to the early development of algebraic geometry. Early life Corrado's parents were Abramo Segre and Estella De Ben ...

on the motivation for the awarding of the Guccia medal to Severi, read during the fourth International Congress of Mathematicians. *. *. *. *. A description of the scientific work done under the direction of Severi at the "'' Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica during the early forties of the twentieth century, by one of his former doctoral students.

Scientific references

*. The "''Proceedings of the mathematical conference for the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Guido Fubini and Francesco Severi''", including several research as well as historical papers describing the contributions of Guido Fubini and Fracesco Severi to various branches of pure and applied mathematics: the conference was held on 8–10 October 1979 at the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. *. In the paper "''The contributions of Guido Fubini and Francesco Severi to the theory of functions of several complex variables''" (English translation of the title), Gaetano Fichera describes the main contributions of the two scientists to the

Cauchy Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (, ; ; 21 August 178923 May 1857) was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist who made pioneering contributions to several branches of mathematics, including mathematical analysis and continuum mechanics. He w ...

and the

for holomorphic functions of several complex variables, as well as the impact of their work on subsequent researches. *. "''The Severi and Severi–Kneser theorems for analytic functions of several complex variables and their further developments''" (English translation of the title) is an historical survey paper on the

and the

for holomorphic functions of several complex variables, updating the earlier work . *. This paper, included in the Proceedings of the Study Meeting in Memory of Giuseppe Gemignani, is an account of the failures of

Vito Volterra Vito Volterra (, ; 3 May 1860 – 11 October 1940) was an Italian mathematician and physicist, known for his contributions to mathematical biology and integral equations, being one of the founders of functional analysis. Biography Born in An ...

Leonida Tonelli Leonida Tonelli (19 April 1885 – 12 March 1946) was an Italian mathematician, noted for creating Tonelli's theorem, a variation of Fubini's theorem, and for introducing semicontinuity methods as a common tool for the direct method in the calc ...

and Francesco Severi, when dealing with particular research problems during their career. An English translation of the title reads as:-"''Three battles lost by three great Italian mathematicians''". *. In the paper "''The thought of Einstein in the work of Guido Fubini and Francesco Severi" (English translation of the title), Dionigi Galletto describes the main contributions of the two scientists to

special Special or specials may refer to: Policing * Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force * Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer Literature * ''Specia ...

and

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

. *. In this paper, R. Michael Range corrects some inexact historical statements in the theory of holomorphic functions of several variables, particularly concerning contributions of

Gaetano Fichera Gaetano Fichera (8 February 1922 – 1 June 1996) was an Italian mathematician, working in mathematical analysis, linear elasticity, partial differential equations and several complex variables. He was born in Acireale, and died in Rome. Biog ...

and Francesco Severi. *. An historical paper exploring further the same topic previously dealt in the paper by the same author.

External links

*: a very short biography of Severi, with a complete bibliography of his works, available at the
Geometria algebrica italiana (Italian algebraic geometry)
" web site. * Contains also 12 further references. *: a short résumé of his life available at the "". *. Available from th
Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana
*. The web site of the institute Francesco Severi founded. *. {{DEFAULTSORT:Severi, Francesco 1879 births 1961 deaths 20th-century Italian mathematicians 20th-century Roman Catholics Algebraic geometers Italian algebraic geometers Complex analysts Mathematical analysts Members of the Royal Academy of Italy Members of the Lincean Academy People from Arezzo