L A Santaló's obituary of Alessandro Terracini

Luís Antoni Santaló emigrated from Spain to Argentina in 1939 arriving in Buenos Aires about a month after Alessandro Terracini arrived there from Italy. Santaló wrote the obituary 'Alejandro Terracini (1889-1968)', Revisita de la Unión Matemática Argentina 23 (4) (1968), 149-152. We give an English translation.

Alessandro Terracini (1889-1968), by Luís Antoni Santaló.

Professor Alessandro Terracini was born on 19 October 1889 in Turin (Italy). He died in the same city on 2 April 1968. Upon hearing of his death, the Argentine Mathematical Union sent a letter of condolence to the family, expressing the deep sorrow of Argentine mathematicians who with such affection and gratitude always remembered the years spent by Professor Terracini in Argentina and the important work carried out there during those years.

Indeed, when he was removed from his chair in Turin by the anti-Semitic laws of Italian fascism, "it was natural - as Terracini himself says - that the intention to emigrate to freer countries arose and developed in us" and accepting an invitation from the University of Tucumán, he moved to Argentina in September 1939, remaining there until 1948. During these years his influence on Argentine mathematics was great, not only within the scope of the University of Tucumán, whose Mathematics department he greatly contributed to giving the tone and height that it has maintained until the present, but it also radiated to the entire country. In Tucumán, together with the physicist Dr Félix Cernuschi, he founded in 1940 the Revista de Matemáticas y Física Teórica, which continues to be published and to which distinguished figures of physics and mathematics have contributed.

During his entire stay in Argentina he collaborated valuably with the Argentine Mathematical Union, attending and presenting communications at all its scientific meetings. During the period 1945-47 he served as president of the institution and during this time he worked to structure and standardise its operation, drafting the Statutes and establishing procedures. Due to his extraordinary personal sympathy and organising vocation, his lectures in the different "Mathematical Centres" of the country, apart from their mathematical interest, served to link people and institutions together, contributing to giving the Argentine Mathematical Union a truly national character. Let us recall the preamble to the call for the First Argentine Mathematical Conference (held in Buenos Aires and La Plata 27, 28, 29 July 1945):-

For many years, the various scholars of mathematical sciences have acted separately, this isolation preventing from obtaining the maximum performance in the activity in which we are all engaged. We consider the time has come to overcome such a state of affairs. The new generations that are approaching our institutes impose on us the duty of clearly facing these problems and making the maximum efforts to consolidate an effective union of mathematicians in Argentina and to structure an organisation that in the future will promote the progress of mathematical science.

To carry out this programme, at the same First Mathematical Conference, the assembly of the Argentine Mathematical Union elected Alessandro Terracini as president by acclamation.

During his stay in Argentina, Terracini continued working on his geometric research. He published 29 works divided between the Revista de Tucumán, the Revista de la Union Matematica Argentina and the Mathematicae Notae of Rosario, founded by Beppo Levi, another illustrious Italian who arrived in the country in 1939 and remained there until his death (1961).

Studying Terracini as a mathematician and as a man would be an interesting and pleasant task, but it would require time and space. As a man, he himself has presented his vision of the world in his posthumous work "Ricordi di un Matematico, un sessantennio di vita universitaria" (Rome, 1968), an excellent work, interesting as a historical testimony of an era that perhaps the new generations cannot understand, as they are as prone to forgetfulness as to exaggeration. In this work, of admirable style, Terracini shows how he knew how to combine anecdote with profound observations and a firm position with the benevolent indulgence of the Lord in the face of mediocre attitudes.

As a mathematician, his work in the field of projective differential geometry is well known to specialists. The two volumes of "Selecta" (Edizioni Cremonese, Rome, 1968) published with the assistance of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, contain the main works of the 175 he published in his lifetime. Initiated in algebraic geometry by Corrado Segre, he then moved on to differential geometry with Guido Fubini, resulting in a happy conjunction that gives his works an exquisite algebraic-differential flavour, which shares the best of both tendencies.

The Argentine Mathematical Union will always remember Alessandro Terracini for having been one of its most illustrious members.

Last Updated March 2025