Cesare Burali-Forti (13 August 1861 – 21 January 1931) was an Italian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, after whom the

Burali-Forti paradox In set theory, a field of mathematics, the Burali-Forti paradox demonstrates that constructing "the set of all ordinal numbers" leads to a contradiction and therefore shows an antinomy in a system that allows its construction. It is named after Ces ...

is named.

Biography

Burali-Forti was born in Arezzo, and was an assistant of

Giuseppe Peano Giuseppe Peano (; ; 27 August 1858 – 20 April 1932) was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation. The sta ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

from 1894 to 1896, during which time he discovered a theorem which

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

later realised contradicted a previously proved result by

Georg Cantor Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor ( , ; – January 6, 1918) was a German mathematician. He played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance of ...

. The contradiction came to be called the

of Cantorian

set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly conce ...

. He died in Turin.

Books by C. Burali-Forti

Analyse vectorielle générale: Applications à la mécanique et à la physique.
with Roberto Marcolongo (Mattéi & co., Pavia, 1913).
Corso di geometria analitico-proiettiva per gli allievi della R. Accademia Militare
(G. B. Petrini di G. Gallizio, Torino, 1912).
Geometria descrittiva
(S. Lattes & c., Torino, 1921).
Introduction à la géométrie différentielle, suivant la méthode de H. Grassmann
(Gauthier-Villars, 1897).
Lezioni Di Geometria Metrico-Proiettiva
(Fratelli Bocca, Torino, 1904).
Meccanica razionale
with

Tommaso Boggio Tommaso Boggio (22 December 1877 – 25 May 1963) was an Italian mathematician. Boggio worked in mathematical physics, differential geometry, analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance in ...

(S. Lattes & c., Torino, 1921).

Logica Matematica (Hoepli, Milano, 1894).

Complete listing of publications and bibliography, 8 pages.

Bibliography

Primary literature in English translation: *

Jean van Heijenoort Jean Louis Maxime van Heijenoort (; July 23, 1912 – March 29, 1986) was a historian of mathematical logic. He was also a personal secretary to Leon Trotsky from 1932 to 1939, and an American Trotskyist until 1947. Life Van Heijenoort was born ...

, 1967. ''A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879-1931''. Harvard Univ. Press. **1897. "A question on transfinite numbers," 104-11. **1897. "On well-ordered classes," 111-12. Secondary literature: * Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. ''The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870-1940''. Princeton Uni. Press.

References

External links

*
"Introduction to Differential Geometry, following the method of H. Grassmann"
(English translation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Burali-Forti, Cesare 1861 births 1931 deaths 20th-century Italian mathematicians Set theorists