Giovanni Battista Guccia (21 October 1855 – 29 October 1914) 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 ...

Biography

Guccia was born in Palermo in a rich and aristocratic family. He graduated in mathematics in 1880 at the University of Rome, where he was a student of

Luigi Cremona Antonio Luigi Gaudenzio Giuseppe Cremona (7 December 1830 – 10 June 1903) was an Italian mathematician. His life was devoted to the study of geometry and reforming advanced mathematical teaching in Italy. He worked on algebraic curves and alge ...

. His doctoral thesis was presented at the Reims scientific congress and then published with the title "On a class of surfaces representable point by point on a plane" in the "Comptes-rendus de l'Association française pour l'avancement des sciences". In 1887 the French journal Comptes Rendus published his article "Theorem on the singular points of an algebraic surface".Giovanni Guccia (24 October 1887
Théorème sur les pointes singuliar des surfaces algébrique
Comptes Rendus 1887, second semestre pages 741,2,3 via Gallica, the national library of France In 1889, having applied for a chair, he was appointed full professor of

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

at the

University of Palermo The University of Palermo ( it, Università degli Studi di Palermo) is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties. History The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its ...

, a position which he held for the rest of his life. In 1884 he founded, personally contributing both financially and intellectually, the "

Circolo Matematico di Palermo The Circolo Matematico di Palermo (Mathematical Circle of Palermo) is an Italian mathematical society, founded in Palermo by Sicilian geometer Giovanni B. Guccia in 1884.

" (Mathematical Society of Palermo). The Circolo produced a

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

called ''Rendiconti del Circolo di Palermo'' that attracted quality manuscripts from mathematicians. Michele Gebbia (1854-1929), Giovanni Maisano (1851-1929), Michele Luigi Albeggiani (1852-1943) and Francesco Paolo Paternò (1852-1927) were instrumental in assisting Guccia in bringing the ''Rendiconti'' to press. Guccia was the Mathematical Society's director and essence until his death. His scientific work consists of about 50 papers on algebraic geometry, in particular Cremona transformations, classification of curves and projective properties of curves.

Notes

External links

* *
An Italian short biography of Giovanni Battista Guccia
in ''Edizione Nazionale Mathematica Italiana'' online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guccia, Giovanni Battista 1855 births 1914 deaths Algebraic geometers 19th-century Italian mathematicians 20th-century Italian mathematicians Sapienza University of Rome University of Palermo Mathematicians from Sicily