The eyes of French mathematicians on Tullio Levi-Civita - the case of hydrodynamics (1900-1930)

Abstract

Before the First World War, Tullio Levi-Civita (1873-1941) was already a well-known mathematician in Italy and abroad, especially in France. Professor at the University of Padua since 1898, he had published important contributions to tensor calculus, theory of relativity, hydrodynamics, and the three-body problem. In 1911 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. From the 1920s, the relationship between Levi-Civita and his French colleagues became stronger. In particular, Levi-Civita was a privileged partner of the director of the Ecole Normale of Paris, Ernest Vessiot, and the Roman stays of French students were becoming more numerous and considered fundamental for their future research. In this paper, we propose to analyze the reasons, both institutional and scientific, which led to this special relationship between Levi-Civita and his French colleagues. Finally, we shall show that not only the mathematicians stricto sensu, but also astronomers, philosophers of science and, more generally, intellectuals took inspiration from Levi-Civita’s ideas for their own work.