Luigi Cremona

Luigi Cremona had an important influence in the development of algebraic geometry in Italy. He was born in Pavia in 1830 and conducted classical studies. Having enlisted in a battalion of Neapolitan student volunteers that was passing through Pavia, he took part in the 1848 Risorgimento campaign in the Veneto region with an unfortunate outcome. Returning to Pavia, he studied with Brioschi and graduated in engineering in 1853; subsequently he taught in middle schools until the University of Bologna called him in 1860 and he started his own school of algebraic geometry. For example, we owe him a theory of algebraic curves and surfaces, with particular regard to their properties which are invariant under projective or birational transformations. From 1867 he directed the engineering school in Milan and then moved to Rome, where he also assumed the position of Senator and, for a short period, Minister of Education.

(Source: "Il Dipartimento di Matematica dell'Università di Bologna: Personale, strutture, attività di ricerca - Anno accademico 1988-89" a cura di M. Bernabei e P. Negrini, editrice CLUEB)