Luigi Poletti (31 December 1864 – 10 March 1967) 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and poet. He was born in

Pontremoli Pontremoli (; local egl, Pontrémal; la, Apua) is a small city, ''comune'' former Latin Catholic bishopric in the province of Massa and Carrara, Tuscany region, central Italy. Literally translated, Pontremoli means "Trembling Bridge" (from ''pon ...

, where he also died, age 102. He attended the episcopal seminary in Potremoli, then the high school of

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

, graduated in Turin and started to study mathematics there. He did not finish and took a job in a bank. 1911 he accidentally found the book of

prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only way ...

tables written by Lehmer, a mathematician from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in the house of professor Gino Loria, a friend of his family, when he visited

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

. Since then he spent many years to extend the first table in order to simplify "Eratosthenes Crivello" (

sieve of Eratosthenes In mathematics, the sieve of Eratosthenes is an ancient algorithm for finding all prime numbers up to any given limit. It does so by iteratively marking as composite (i.e., not prime) the multiples of each prime, starting with the first prime ...

), a method from ancient

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

to find

prime numbers A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

. He gave his method a new name: "Neocribrum" (Novum Eratosthenes Cribrum) and he got recognition from the scientific community. Apart from that, he was, together with André Gerardin, member of a study commission of the Association française pour l'avancement des sciences (1946). With the assistance of N. G. W. H. Beeger he had the possibility to extend the table of Lehmer beyond the number 10 006 721. 1955 he was awarded a gold medal and the order of the Republic of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

by Italian president

Giovanni Gronchi Giovanni Gronchi, (; 10 September 1887 – 17 October 1978) was an Italian politician from Christian Democracy who served as the president of Italy from 1955 to 1962 and was marked by a controversial and failed attempt to bring about an "openi ...

. In his long life (102 years) he was a member of the city council in the rank of Commissario Prefettizio. He was a

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

in his native dialect Pontremolese (poems and texts for popular music). He wrote for example Al Campanon d‘ Pontrémal, La Zumniana (for which he also composed the

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

) or Al cant dal Cont Ugolìn. He translated XXXIII of " Dantes Inferno". As an amateur he wrote poems in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

language.

Notes

Article on "Lungiana Net":"Famous people from Pontremoli"
1864 births 1967 deaths People from the Province of Massa-Carrara 19th-century Italian mathematicians 20th-century Italian mathematicians Italian centenarians Men centenarians {{Italy-mathematician-stub