Person: Vivanti, Giulio
Giulio Vivanti was an Italian mathematician who worked in analysis. He suffered from anti-Jewish legislation later in his life.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- In 1869 Vivanti began his studies at the Liceo-ginnasio Virgilio of Mantua.
- At this stage in his education, Vivanti decided that he wanted to study engineering and he entered the Polytechnic of Turin to study that subject, He was awarded his civil engineering degree in 1881 but the mathematics he had studied as part of this degree convinced him that mathematics was the subject for him and he entered the University of Bologna where he was taught by Cesare Arzelà and Salvatore Pincherle.
- Vivanti obtained his 'libera docenza' (similar to the habilitation in that it is the 'right to teach') in infinitesimal calculus at the University of Bologna on 13 May 1892.
- On 23 October 1892 Vivanti sent a note to Giuseppe Peano from Mantua entitled Sull'uso della rappresentazione geometrica nella teoria aritmetica dei numeri complessi Ⓣ(On the use of geometric representation in the arithmetic theory of complex numbers) for publication in the Rivista di Matematica, of which Peano was the editor-in-chief.
- A committee, with Ulisse Dini as president, considered Vivanti's application along with that of seven other candidates, namely Italo Zignago, Mineo Chini, Onorato Nicoletti, Rodolfo Bettazzi, Domenico Amanzio, Orazio Tedone and Giuseppe Lauricella.
- The numerous works that Vivanti published after 1890 refer in part strictly to calculus, and partly to the most varied branches of mathematics with greater relevance to the chair in this competition.
- The book "The concept of the infinitesimal and its application to mathematics" shows that Vivanti has a vast historical, literary and bibliographical knowledge.
- These qualities are further confirmed by the work "Theory of sets", where Vivanti publishes the complete collection of the propositions so far known relative to the interesting continuous groups, connected sets of points, of transfinite numbers, on the order types, etc., with the bibliographic list of 70 works on this subject.
- There Vivanti tries also to understand and know how to handle the theories of mathematical logic.
- Together with all these works, Vivanti shows that he continues to be an indefatigable worker, and if he does not leave deep footprints in the various parts he has dealt with, he knows how to make himself master of each one, using it with ease.
- The committee ranked Vivanti first followed by Bettazzi and Tedone.
- However, Vivanti must have turned down the chair at the University of Modena for he remained at the University of Messina where he became a full professor in 1901.
- On 1 December 1907 Vivanti requested a transfer to the University of Pavia.
- In 1924 Vivanti moved to the University of Milan.
- Vivanti was, moreover, sensitive to didactic issues.
- Given his training and his academic activities, it was natural that Vivanti's collaboration on the 'Enciclopedia delle Matematiche Elementari' was primarily focused on analytic slope.
- The lecture "was heard with the utmost attention, and when it ended it was greeted by long cordial applause." At the meeting of the Academy on 21 May 1893 a proposal was put forward, signed by seven members of the Academy, proposing that Vivanti be elected to the Academy which was unanimously approved.
- Vivanti responded with a letter sent from Mantua on 24 May expressing his "heartfelt gratitude for the high honour that the Academy wanted to appoint me as an effective member".
- Vivanti wrote to the President of the Academy on 14 November 1935.
- Following this decree, eleven members of the Academy were expelled, including the mathematicians Gino Fano, Gino Loria and Giulio Vivanti.
- Vivanti was in Pavia at this time and he became President of the Pavia Section of the "General Union of Italian Teachers for the National War".
- Vivanti was proposed for the honour of Knight of the Crown of Italy for his deep patriotic commitment during the war.
Born 24 May 1859, Mantua, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, Austria (now Italy). Died 19 November 1949, Milan, Italy.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Italy
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
