Francesco Severi

Francesco Severi (13 April 1879 – 8 December 1961) was an Italian mathematician. He was the chair of the committee on Fields Medal on 1936, at the first delivery.

Francesco Severi
Born13 April 1879
Italy
Died8 December 1961(1961-12-08) (aged 82)
Rome
NationalityItalian
Alma materUniversità di Torino, 1900
Known forAlgebraic geometry, several complex variables
AwardsGold medal of the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL (1906)
Prix Bordin (1907) (jointly with Federigo Enriques)
Guccia Medal (1908)
"Premio reale" of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (1913)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversità di Torino, Università di Bologna, Università di Padova, Università di Roma, Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (now Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica Francesco Severi)
Doctoral advisorCorrado Segre
Other academic advisorsEnrico d'Ovidio, Federigo Enriques, Eugenio Bertini
Doctoral studentsAldo Andreotti, Enzo Martinelli, Guido Zappa
Other notable studentsLuigi Fantappiè, Gaetano Fichera
InfluencedAlgebraic geometry, several complex variables
Francesco Severi (photo by Konrad Jacobs)

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. Together with Federigo Enriques, he won the Bordin prize from the French Academy of Sciences.

He contributed in a major way to birational geometry, 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 Federigo Enriques) has subsequently been shown to be not rigorous according to the then new standards set in particular by Oscar Zariski and David Mumford. 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 Roth (1963) 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.[1] He died in Rome of cancer.

Selected publications

All the mathematical works of Francesco Severi, except all books, are collected in the six volumes of his "Opere Matematiche".

  • Severi, Francesco (2 March 1931), "Sur une propriété fondamentale des fonctions analytiques de plusieurs variables", Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences (in French), 192: 596–599, Zbl 0001.14802, available at Gallica. The paper containing the first proof of Morera's theorem for holomorphic functions of several variables.
  • Severi, Francesco (1931a), "Risoluzione del problema generale di Dirichlet per le funzioni biarmoniche" [Solution of the general Dirichlet problem for biharmonic functions], Rendiconti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, series 6 (in Italian), 13: 795–804, JFM 57.0393.01, Zbl 0002.34202. The announce of the solution of the Dirichlet problem for pluriharmonic functions for domains with real analytic boundaries.
  • Severi, Francesco (1932), "Una proprietà fondamentale dei campi di olomorfismo di una funzione analitica di una variabile reale e di una variabile complessa" [A fundamental property of the domain of holomorphy of an analytic function of one real variable and one complex variable], Rendiconti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, series 6 (in Italian), 15: 487–490, JFM 58.0352.05, Zbl 0004.40702. 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.
  • Severi, Francesco (1942–1943), "A proposito d'un teorema di Hartogs" [About a theorem of Hartogs], Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici (in Italian), 15 (1): 350–352, doi:10.1007/bf02565650, MR 0010730, Zbl 0028.15301. In this work Severi gives his proof of the Hartogs' extension theorem.
  • Severi, Francesco (1958), Lezioni sulle funzioni analitiche di più variabili complesse – Tenute nel 1956–57 all'Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica in Roma [Lectures on analytic functions of several complex variables – Lectured in 1956–57 at the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica in Rome] (in Italian), Padova: CEDAM – Casa Editrice Dott. Antonio Milani, pp. XIV+255, Zbl 0094.28002. 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.
  • Severi, Francesco (1971), Opere matematiche. Memorie e note Vol. I (PDF) (in Italian), Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (distributed by Bardi Editore), pp. XLII+491, MR 0701703, Zbl 0582.01027 (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.
  • Severi, Francesco (1974), Opere matematiche. Memorie e note Vol. II (PDF) (in Italian), Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (distributed by Bardi Editore), p. 567, MR 0701702, Zbl 0582.01027 (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.
  • Severi, Francesco (1977), Opere matematiche. Memorie e note Vol. III (PDF) (in Italian), Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (distributed by Bardi Editore), p. 603, MR 0701700, Zbl 0582.01027 (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.
  • Severi, Francesco (1980), Opere matematiche. Memorie e note Vol. IV (PDF) (in Italian), Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (distributed by Bardi Editore), p. 603, MR 0701701, Zbl 0582.01027 (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.
  • Severi, Francesco (1988), Opere matematiche. Memorie e note Vol. V (PDF) (in Italian), Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (distributed by Bardi Editore), p. 553, MR 1030994 (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.
  • Severi, Francesco (1989), Opere matematiche. Memorie e note Vol. VI (PDF) (in Italian), Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (distributed by Bardi Editore), p. 499, MR 1030995 (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

Reviews

See also

References
  1. Goodstein, Judith; Babbitt, Donald (2012). "A Fresh Look at Francesco Severi". Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 59 (8): 1064. doi:10.1090/noti881.

Biographical and general references

Scientific references

  • Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, ed. (1982), "Atti del convegno matematico in celebrazione del centenario nascita di Guido Fubini e Francesco Severi. Torino, 8–10 Ottobre 1979", Atti dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. I. Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, Torino: Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, 115 (Supplemento): 243. 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.
  • Fichera, Gaetano (1982), "I contributi di Guido Fubini e di Francesco Severi alla teoria delle funzioni di più variabili complesse", Atti del convegno matematico in celebrazione del centenario nascita di Guido Fubini e Francesco Severi. Torino, 8–10 Ottobre 1979, Atti dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. I. Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, 115, Torino: Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, pp. 23–44, MR 0727484, Zbl 0531.32001. 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 and the Dirichlet problem for holomorphic functions of several complex variables, as well as the impact of their work on subsequent researches.
  • Fichera, Gaetano (1991), "I teoremi di Severi e Severi-Kneser per le funzioni analitiche più variabili complesse e loro ulteriori sviluppi", Recenti sviluppi in analisi matematica e sue applicazioni. Atti del convegno internazionale dedicato al Prof. G. Aquaro in occasione del suo 70º compleanno, Conferenze del Seminario di Matematica dell'Università di Bari, 237–244, Bari: Laterza, pp. 13–25, MR 1185553, Zbl 0836.32001. "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 Cauchy and the Dirichlet problem for holomorphic functions of several complex variables, updating the earlier work (Fichera 1982).
  • Fichera, Gaetano (1995), "Tre battaglie perdute da tre grandi matematici italiani", Atti del convegno di studi in memoria di Giuseppe Gemignani. Modena, 20 maggio 1994, Collana di Studi dell'Accademia (in Italian), 11, Modena: Enrico Mucchi Editore on behalf of the Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Modena, pp. 9–28, MR 1385469. This paper, included in the Proceedings of the Study Meeting in Memory of Giuseppe Gemignani, is an account of the failures of Vito Volterra, Leonida Tonelli 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".
  • Galletto, Dionigi (1982), "Il pensiero di Einstein nell'opera di Guido Fubini e Francesco Severi", Atti del convegno matematico in celebrazione del centenario nascita di Guido Fubini e Francesco Severi. Torino, 8–10 Ottobre 1979, Atti dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. I. Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, 115, Torino: Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, pp. 205–216, MR 0727498, Zbl 0553.01012. 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 and general relativity.
  • Range, R. Michael (2002), "Extension phenomena in multidimensional complex analysis: correction of the historical record", The Mathematical Intelligencer, 24 (2): 4–12, doi:10.1007/BF03024609, MR 1907191. 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 and Francesco Severi.
  • Range, R. Michael (2010), "Some landmarks in the history of the tangential Cauchy Riemann equations" (PDF), Rendiconti di Matematica e delle sue Applicazioni, 30 (3–4): 275–283, MR 2830305, Zbl 1269.11075. An historical paper exploring further the same topic previously dealt in the paper (Range 2002) by the same author.
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