|
Livia Giacardi, editor |
|
The Manuscript Section of the ‘G.Peano’ Library of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Turin has in its keeping an important collection of manuscripts by Corrado Segre (Saluzzo 1863-Turin 1924), the founder of the Italian school of algebraic geometry, in whose ranks are numbered such distinguished mathematicians as Guido Castelnuovo, Francesco Severi, Federigo Enriques and Gino Fano. The most important part of this collection is in the form of forty books of lecture notes, together with Segre’s degree dissertation, memoirs, articles, notes and a card index, containing a valuable collection of bibliographical indications divided according to topic. In particular, the notebooks in which, every summer, Segre made a careful record of his lectures for the courses he was to teach in the following autumn are not only extraordinary evidence of his gifts as a teacher, but also important historical documentation on his research activity, of which, as Alessandro Terracini remarks, they are sometimes ‘a preliminary stage’, sometimes ‘a reflection’. His students bear copious witness to this. Castelnuovo, who spent four years of fertile academic activity in Turin, writes: “He devoted himself to teaching with the fervour of an apostle”, and Fano, who was lucky enough to follow his university courses, stresses his great gifts as a teacher in the following words: “He considered it a true mission to direct his students towards the upper levels of mathematics, and especially of geometry, encouraging them whenever possible to produce original work … He lavished infinite care and treasures of knowledge on his 36 courses of advanced geometry, the subjects of which he himself expounded in writing, in his clear, distinct hand, in little books which his old and recent students were very familiar with, always very precisely worded and with numerous bibliographical quotations, with complements which gradually occurred to him, often with original ideas and opinions, with indications of topics for further research, from which he drew the subjects he suggested for degree dissertations”. “He was one of the most careful in the preparation of his Lectures, that I have ever known”, writes Severi. “In fact they were written in advance word for word and in definitive form in little booklets, which he took with him to his lectures, so that he could give bibliographical indications from them, always exact and exhaustive”. “Corrado Segre’s lectures were rather serious”, recalls Terracini. “He came into the lecture room very punctually carrying one of those famous little books or notebooks which he used to write, in a perfect hand with no erasures, during the preceding summer … Segre taught standing sideways, in his typical position with his hands clasped behind his back. He referred to his booklet only to copy a formula, or to give some bibliographical information”. The notebooks begin in 1888-89, the
year in which Segre took possession of the Chair of Advanced Geometry at
the University of Turin, and end in 1923-24, covering 36 years during which
he dealt with different subjects each year. 34 of the notebooks deal with
topics of advanced geometry, three are on mathematical physics and correspond
to the years 1895-97, during which Segre was also responsible for the teaching
of this subject, and the remaining two deal respectively with an overall
picture of various problems of analysis and geometry and the lectures he
gave at the Scuola di Magistero (teacher training school), where, starting
from a number of interesting considerations on the nature of mathematics,
on method, on the importance of intuition and on “rigor”, he gave future
teachers valuable suggestions which were the fruit of his own teaching
experience. A final notebook includes, among other material, a list of
the students who attended Segre’s courses from 1883 to 1892, with the marks
they obtained.
Clearly and simply written, Segre’s
notebooks are rich in bibliographical indications which show marked attention
to sources, including the most recent. There are interesting quotations
and short historical notes, born of his conviction “that one arrives at
complete, general knowledge of the fact or of the exact result, not in
a single stroke or through a single individual’s work, but by means of
several people working together or separately, going through various degrees
of both generalisation and exactness!” and that “the study of great scientists
is perhaps the best suggestion one can offer to the young person who wants
to learn and to judge the importance of the subjects”. Segre often made
annotations or additions either before a specific lecture or years later:
these are bibliographical clarifications, complements to the discussion,
advice to the students or changes in the order of the exposition. He not
infrequently proposes exercises, suggests topics for research or faces
problems which have remained open because, in his view, the main purpose
of an advanced course is to initiate students into research by putting
tools and methods at their disposal and stimulating them. It is no mere
chance that the first efforts of Severi on numerative geometry, or
those of Giovanni Z. Giambelli, or again some of Fano’s work, such as the
paper quoted earlier, show the influence of Segre’s lectures.
Given the historical and scientific
importance of the collection, it has been decided to reproduce all the
lecture notebooks (approximately 8000 pages) on CD-ROM, with critical and
bibliographical material consisting of:
|
 |
Last update, 18/2/2002
|