Mathematician:Francesco Faà di Bruno

Mathematician

Italian mathematician and priest, most famous (in mathematics) for Faà di Bruno's Formula on derivatives of composite functions.

Also notable for his beatification on 25th September 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

Nationality

Italian

History

• Born: 29 March 1825, Alessandria, Piemonte, Italy
• 1871: Became a professor at the University of Turin
• 1876: Appointed to the Chair of Higher Analysis at the University of Turin
• 22 October 1876: Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in Rome
• Died: 27 March 1888, Turin, Italy

Theorems and Definitions

• Faà di Bruno's Formula

Results named for Francesco Faà di Bruno can be found here.

Publications

• 1855: Sullo sviluppo delle funzioni ("On the development of the functions") (Annali di Scienze Matematiche e Fisiche Vol. 6: pp. 479 – 480) (in which Faà di Bruno's Formula is presented)
• 1857: Note sur une nouvelle formule de calcul differentiel (The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Vol. 1: pp. 359 – 360)
• 1859: Théorie générale de l'élimination
• 1867: Calcolo degli errori
• 1869: Traité élémentaire du calcul des erreurs (a translation into French of Calcolo degli errori)
• 1876: Théorie des formes binaires (notably translated into German by Max Noether in 1881)

Also known as

His full name was Francesco da Paola Virgilio Secondo Maria Faà di Bruno.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Francesco Faà di Bruno": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive