Abstract
This chapter contains the biographical portraits of the scholars awarded the title of Honorary Member of the Commission on the occasion of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Oslo (1936) and the portrait of Charles-Ange Laisant, one of the founders of L’Enseignement Mathématique, the official organ of ICMI. Among the scholars awarded in Oslo, there was Guido Castelnuovo, a former officer of ICMI, whose portrait is in Chap. 11.
Each of these portraits consists of a section of general biographical information and a section containing contributions to education and dissemination of mathematical culture. In the same vein, the bibliographic references are divided into a part containing a selection of works on the person in question and his mathematical works and a part including publications linked to mathematics education and dissemination of mathematical culture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See Comptes rendus du Congrès International des Mathématiciens, Oslo 1936, Oslo: A. W. Brøggers Boktrykkeri. 1937. Vol. 2, p. 289.
- 2.
The original text is: “classes de lettres des enseignements classique et moderne, de l’enseignement secondaire des jeunes filles, des Ecoles Normales et primaires supérieures, des écoles d’arts et métiers, d’agriculture, de commerce et des diverses administrations”.
- 3.
The original text is: “classes de lettres des enseignements classique et moderne, de l’enseignement secondaire des jeunes filles, des Écoles Normales et primaires supérieures, des écoles d’arts et métiers, d’agriculture, de commerce et des diverses administrations”.
- 4.
The bulk of the personal information concerning Farid Boulad is drawn from obituaries published in French at the time of his death. Jean-Édouard Goby (1947) published his obituary essay in Bulletin de l’Institut d’Égypte. The choice of Goby, a French civil engineer and director of the Suez Canal Company from 1938 until its nationalisation in 1956, to prepare this death notice underlines Boulad’s international reputation and his career as a civil engineer. A second obituary notice appeared anonymously in Le Lien: Revue de Patriarcat (1947), the official journal of the Melkite Catholic Church. I thank Deacon Charbel Nassif from the Secretariat of the Melkite Patriarchate in Beirut for kindly providing me an electronic copy of this obituary notice. Unless otherwise noted, all biographical information derives from these two obituary notices.
- 5.
Boulad would have been among the handful of “outside students” who were admitted each year to l’École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. Among these, the “foreign students” formed an important subunit. Although some were, for political reasons, exempted from the usual entrance examination (Connor 1913, pp. 16–17), this does not seem to have been the case with Boulad, who spent his first year in France studying mathematics in a preparatory school (Goby 1947, p. 22).
- 6.
Even before his arrival in France, Boulad would have been familiar with major iron constructions, having witnessed the completion of the Imbaba railway bridge across the Nile in 1892 as well as the erection of the new terminal building on Ramsis Street in Cairo. This first Imbaba bridge was a “swing” bridge, a kind of bridge discussed by Boulad in the Congrès international de la construction métallique held in Liège (1930).
- 7.
It is noteworthy that Boulad turned first to foreign societies, both mathematical and technical, in order to build his career. It was not until 1921 that he joined Egypt’s premiere intellectual society, the Institut d’Égypte, and only in 1924 did he join the Société Royale Égyptienne des Ingénieurs.
- 8.
The original text is: “Parmi les chercheurs qui, formés à mon école, se sont efforcés d’apporter leur pierre au développement de la nomographie, Farid Boulad est, et de beaucoup, un de ceux qui se sont le plus particulièrement distingués. En outre, plus que tout autre, il a multiplié à mon endroit les marques de la plus chaude gratitude pour les enseignements qu’il m’avait dus, s’indignant même avec une vivacité dont je n’ai pu être que profondément touché, de l’attitude de certains auteurs qui ont fait montre à mon égard d’un oubli volontaire ou non, assez inexplicable. En même temps qu’une belle intelligence, Farid Boulad est un brave coeur”.
- 9.
See Atti del Congresso Internazionale dei matematici, Bologna 3–10 Settembre 1928, 6 Vols. Bologna: Zanichelli, 1929–1932. Vol. I, 1929, p. 27; L’Institut Égyptien d’Actuariat et de Statistique 1947, p. 249.
- 10.
See Comptes rendus du Congrès International des Mathématiciens, Oslo 1936. Oslo: A. W. Brøggers Boktrykkeri. 1937. Vol I, p. 17.
- 11.
See L’Enseignement Mathématique, 1914, p. 166; L’Institut Égyptien d’Actuariat et de Statistique 1947, p. 247.
- 12.
See, for example, d’Ocagne’s concluding speech to the general assembly of the International Commission on the Teaching of Mathematics in Paris during April 1914 (Fehr 1914, pp. 211–222). Although it appears that Boulad did not attend this meeting, he may well have read the published summary and ensuing discussion.
- 13.
See Comptes rendus du Congrès International des Mathématiciens, Oslo 1936. Oslo: A. W. Brøggers Boktrykkeri. 1937. Vol. 2, p. 289.
- 14.
See (III Zjazd Polskiego Towarzystwa Matematycznego 1938).
- 15.
Most books and works of Dickstein are available in Poland at the National Library in Warsaw, the University of Warsaw Library, the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow, the Library of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, the Library of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Central Mathematical Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and the University of Gdańsk Library.
- 16.
See Comptes rendus du Congrès International des Mathématiciens, Oslo 1936, Oslo: A. W. Brøggers Boktrykkeri. 1937. Vol. 2, p. 289.
- 17.
The original text is: “mi accorsi subito che … Federigo Enriques era un mediocre lettore. Nella pagina che aveva sotto gli occhi egli non vedeva ciò che era scritto, ma quel che la sua mente vi proiettava. Adottai quindi un altro metodo: la conversazione. […] Cominciarono allora quelle interminabili passeggiate per le vie di Roma, durante le quali la geometria algebrica fu il tema preferito dei nostri discorsi. […] Non è esagerato affermare che in quelle conversazioni fu costruita la teoria delle superficie algebriche secondo l’indirizzo italiano”.
- 18.
The original text is: “che assomiglia a quello tenuto nelle scienze sperimentali”. The entire quotation can be found in the biographical portrait of Castelnuovo by Livia Giacardi in the present volume.
- 19.
The original text is: “… oltre che delle questioni sui principii abbiamo discorso molto di questioni didattiche e da lui solo in poche ore ho imparato tante cose interessanti, di cui non avevo mai avuto notizia, sullo sviluppo dell’istruzione matematica in Inghilterra e in Germania”.
- 20.
The original text is: “conquista e attività dello spirito [...] [che] si fonde nell’unità dello spirito colle idee, coi sentimenti, colle aspirazioni che si esprimono nei vari aspetti della cultura”.
- 21.
For further details see Giacardi (2012).
- 22.
The original text is: “1) corsi su quelle parti della scienza che si riattaccano ad una più profonda visione degli elementi, 2) conferenze sulle questioni di pedagogia concreta che interessano i varii rami d’insegnamento, particolarmente in rapporto colla critica dei testi 3) esercitazioni comprendenti il tirocinio parte nell’università e parte in una scuola secondaria, il disegno e la tecnica sperimentale”.
- 23.
See F. Enriques to F. Klein, 10 January 1905, in Giacardi 2012, p. 263.
- 24.
Klein, Felix. 1925–1933. Elementarmathematik vom höheren Standpunkte aus, I Arithmetik, Algebra, Analysis, II Geometrie, III PräzisionsundApproximationsmathematik, II, pp. 245–250. Berlin: Springer (1st ed. 1908–1909).
- 25.
He participated, for example, in the sessions devoted to the commission in ICM 1908 in Rome, in ICM 1912 in Cambridge (intervening on the mathematical training of the physicist at university, L’Enseignement Mathématique 14, 6, 1912: 503) and in the meeting in Milan in 1911 (intervening on rigour in secondary teaching, L’Enseignement Mathématique 13, 1911: 464–468).
- 26.
From 1921 to 1934, he was co-director with Giulio Lazzeri. From 1938 to 1943, Enriques’ name does not appear on the title page as a consequence of the racial laws passed in 1938. In 1946 he was co-director with Oscar Chisini.
- 27.
The original text is: “la scienza sia da loro appresa non soltanto nell’aspetto statico, ma anche nel suo divenire”, “apprenda dalla storia a riflettere sulla genesi delle idee, e d’altro lato partecipi all’interesse per la ricerca”.
- 28.
The original text is: “superiore consapevolezza dell’attività universale del pensiero”.
- 29.
The original text is “l’esprit logique, idéaliste et révolutionnaire de Laisant”.
- 30.
(Loria 1914a, p. V) and Loria, Gino. 1926. Durante quarant’anni d’insegnamento: confessioni e ricordi. Il Bollettino di Matematica s. 2, 5: 65–77.
- 31.
See Comptes rendus du Congrès International des Mathématiciens, Oslo 1936, Oslo: A. W. Brøggers Boktrykkeri. 1937. Vol. 2, p. 289.
- 32.
The original text is: “Chez les nations qui ont à peine dans leur développement, passé les premiers seuils de la civilisation, il n’y a pas de tradition et une idée en générale et surtout une idée nouvelle, dévient très facilement l’idéal même d’une génération. Par conséquence, dans ces circonstances la réalisation de cet idéal n’est pas empêchée ou retardée par des questions de tradition”.
- 33.
See Comptes rendus du Congrès International des Mathématiciens, Oslo 1936, Oslo: A. W. Brøggers Boktrykkeri, 1937, II, p. 289.
- 34.
See Comptes rendus du Congrès International des Mathématiciens, Oslo 1936, Oslo: A. W. Brøggers Boktrykkeri. 1937. Vol. 2, p. 289.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schubring, G. et al. (2022). Other Eminent Figures. In: Furinghetti, F., Giacardi, L. (eds) The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, 1908-2008: People, Events, and Challenges in Mathematics Education. International Studies in the History of Mathematics and its Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04313-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04313-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-04312-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-04313-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)