RICERCA ITALIANA     

History of Mathematical Sciences

Università degli Studi di Firenze

Abstract

The general purpose of the research program is the understanding the historical
development of mathematics, with particular but not exclusive attention to
mathematics in Italy. The main goal consists in the development and the
circulation among scholars of some essential tools for historical research; in
particular the stress is put on critical editions of unpublished texts and
correspondence, on the constitution and distributions of bibliographies, on the
digitalization of texts and manuscripts, on the diffusion in CD form of works of
difficult access.
Special attention is devoted to electronic critical editions, in particolar to the
edition of the Works of Francesco Maurolico, which sees the co-operation of
researchers from several units, as well as of Italian and foreign scholars not
directly involved in the present research project.
At the same time, the project includes studies and researches in the history of
mathematics, that will be discussed in details in the specific programs of the
research units.

Principal Investigator

Enrico GIUSTI Università degli Studi di FIRENZE

Research Objectives

The purpose of the research program is twofold. On one side, the aim of the proponents is to furnish the tools necessary for any research in the field of history of mathematics, on the other they shall provide a new comprehension of mathematics in its historical development.

These goals are methodologically structured as follows:

(A) building-up the necessary tools for pursue researches in history of mathematics able to meet the international standards of rigor: sources research, critical editions of texts, bibliographies, languages and software for the preparation of electronic critical editions, etc.

(B) perform specific researches in the various aspects of the history of mathematics, with particular but not exclusive attention to Italian mathematics.

The various "Research Units" engaged in this project aim to achieve both of these goals. By its definition and nature the project demands the presence of researchers with very different competence, and the single Research Units can provide them.

The project is centered on three vast historical period: Middle Ages and Renaissance; XVII and XVIII centuries; the Mathematics post 1860 (i.e. after the Italian unification) in Italy and its international relationships.

Between the specific goals and themes:


1. MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE.
1.1. The "Scuole d'abaco"
Archive research on abaco teachers in >>>

First Results

1] Unit of FIRENZE
Responsible ENRICO GIUSTI
1.1 Completion of the preliminary studies for the edition of the works of Galileo's disciples: acquisition of the relevant works, manuscripts and documents, and their transportation on CD-rom (in collaboration with POTENZA Research Unity (RU)).
1.2 Beginning of the edition: transcription of works of Bonaventura Cavalieri and Evangelista Torricelli (in collaboration with PISA RU).
1.3 Researches within the medieval Florentine archives, aimed to the discovery of information relevant to the abacus schools and scholars (in collaboration with SIENA RU).
1.4 Research and edition of manuscripts and correspondence relative to the Bologna school of mathematics in the early XVIII century (in collaboration with ROMA and TORINO RUs).
1.5. Edition of the works by Johann Bernoulli in infinitesimal geometry.

2] Unit of ROMA "La Sapienza"
Responsible GIORGIO ISRAEL
2.1. Studies on the origin of the mathematization of social sciences between the end of the XVIII century and the beginning of the XIX century (in collaboration with FERRARA RU) and critical edition of the unpublished treatise by E. E. Duvillard de Durand on population statistics.
2.2. Researches on the history of mathematical biology.
2.3. Edition of correspondences and other unpublished material about XVIII Century Italian Mathematics (in collaboration with FIRENZE and TORINO RUs).
2.4 >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The proponents of the project form long since a group of scholars of strong methodological cohesion, and with original experience of team work. Since the 1985 they have begun a yearly seminar, in which a relevant number of researchers were involved, dedicated to a specific subject, and organized around three or four joint workshops. In this way, though respecting the obvious difference of points of view, a unitary research methodology has emerged, that has contributed substantially to the success of Italian historians of mathematics within the international community. This process of progressive confluence of methods and aims has generated a network of cooperations among scholars of different provenance and belonging to different local units, thus creating a community of researches that would be difficult to separate into units on a territorial basis.
The most significant example of this joint work is the project of edition of the works of Francesco Maurolico. It was born from a national seminar, that has been held for three consecutive years (1993-1996), around which a considerable number (about thirty) of scholars of different nationalities has gathered. From that experience has developed the Maurolico project. The edition began in 1997, and proceeds according to the established schedule with a scientific committee composed by researchers from different local units (Freguglia, Garibaldi, Giusti, Napolitani) and by other scholars from different countries:
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