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All students of mathematics know of Peano's postulates for the natural numbers and his famous space-filling curve, yet their knowledge often stops there. Part of the reason is that there has not until now been a full-scale study of his life and works. This must surely be surprising, when one realizes the length of his academic career (over 50 years) and the extent of his publica tions (over 200) in a wide variety of fields, many of which had immediate and long-term effects on the development of modern mathematics. A study of his life seems long overdue. It appeared to me that the most likely person to write a biography of Peano would be his devoted disciple Ugo Cassina, with whom I studied at the University of Milan in 1957-58. I wrote to Professor Cassina on 29 October, 1963, inquiring if he planned to write the biography, and I offered him my assistance, since I hoped to return to Italy for a year. He replied on 28 November, 1963, suggesting that we collaborate, meaning by this thatI would write the biography, in English, using his material and advice. I gladly agreed to this suggestion, but work on the project had hardly begun when Professor Cassina died unexpectedly on 5 October, 1964. I then decided to continue the project on my own. I spent the academic year 1966-67 in Turin; completion of the book took ten years.
List of contents
1. Childhood.- 2. Student Years.- 3. University Assistant.- 4. Making a Career.- 5. Extraordinary Professor.- 6. The Formulario Project.- 7. Ordinary Professor.- 8. The Controversy With Volterra.- 9. The First International Congress of Mathematicians.- 10. Contact With Frege.- 11. Peano Acquires a Printing Press.- 12. The School of Peano.- 13. Paris, 1900.- 14. The Decline Begins.- 15. Latino Sine Flexione.- 16. The Cotton Workers' Strike.- 17. Completion of the Formulario.- 18. Academia pro Interlingua.- 19. Apostle of Interlingua.- 20. The War Years.- 21. The Postwar Years.- 22. The Toronto Congress.- 23. The Final Years.- 24. Afterwards.- 25. Summing Up.- Appendix 1. Peano's Professors.- Appendix 2. Members of the School of Peano.- Appendix 3. List of Papers by Other Authors Presented by Peano to the Academy of Sciences of Turin.- Chronological List of the Publications of Giuseppe Peano.- Index of the Publications of Giuseppe Peano.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.
