Tullio Levi-Civita, 1873-1941

Abstract

The death of Tullio Levi-Civita, following within fifteen months on that of Vita Volterra, removes from the roll of foreign members of the Royal Society the last representative of a great school of mathematics. Both of these mathematicians had in the course of active lives contributed greatly to the high reputation enjoyed by Italian mathematics in general, and the school of mathematics in Rome in particular; both had made many contributions which have found a permanent place in mathematical literature, and both ended their days as victims of a political system which destroyed institutions and liberties in which they were firm believers. Levi-Civita was born in Padua on 29 March 1873, the son of Giaccomo Levi-Civita and his wife, Bice Lattis. The family was a wealthy one, well known for its strong liberal traditions. Giaccomo Levi-Civita was a barrister, jurist and politician, and was for many years mayor of Padua, and a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy. As a young man he had served as a volunteer and fought with Garibaldi in the campaign of 1866, and he had played an important part in the Risorgimento. Giaccomo Levi-Civita was anxious that his son should follow in his footsteps as a barrister, but Tullio’s interest in the physical and mathematical sciences was apparent even in early childhood, and when he expressed a wish to follow his own inclinations his father never opposed him; and in later years the son’s eminence in the scientific world was a source of great pride to the father. Consequently, when he completed his classical studies at the Ginnasio-Liceo Tito Livio in his native city at the age of seventeen, Tullio Levi-Civita entered the faculty of science at the university of Padua as a student of mathematics, and four years later he took his degree. Amonst his teachers at the university of Padua were D ’Arcais, Padova, Veronese, and Ricci-Curbastro (known to the scientific world simply as Ricci). The two last-named were the most distinguished, and both had considerable influence on the future career of their brilliant pupil.