Francesco Faà di Bruno

Blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno
Priest, Religious founder and Friend of the Poor
Born	(1825-03-07)7 March 1825 Alessandria, Piedmont, Kingdom of Sardinia
Died	25 March 1888(1888-03-25) (aged 62) Turin, Savoy, Kingdom of Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church (Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Turin)
Beatified	25 September 1988, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	Church of Our Lady of Suffrage Turin, Italy
Feast	27 March

Francesco Faà di Bruno
Faà di Bruno ca. 1860
Nationality	Italian
Alma mater	University of Paris
Known for	Elliptic functions Combinatorics Invariant theory Faà di Bruno's formula
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Turin
Doctoral advisor	Augustin Louis Cauchy
Notable students	Giuseppe Peano Corrado Segre

Francesco Faà di Bruno (7 March 1825 – 25 March 1888) was an Italian priest and advocate of the poor, a leading mathematician of his era and a noted religious musician. In 1988 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II.^[1] He is the eponym of Faà di Bruno's formula.

Life

Early life

Faà di Bruno was born in Alessandria, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, on 7 March 1825. He was of noble birth, being the twelfth and youngest child of the Marchese Luigi Faà di Bruno and the Lady Carolina Sappa de' Milanesi. He was raised in a home marked by happiness, the arts and a concern for the poor arising from the parents' strong Catholic faith.^[2]

As a young man, he entered the Royal Army and held, at one time, the rank of Staff Officer. He resigned from his commission and went to Paris, where he did doctoral studies in mathematics under Augustin Cauchy, and Urbain Le Verrier, who both shared in the discovery of the planet Neptune.^[3] He was in close contact with the mathematicians François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno and Charles Hermite.

On his return to Turin, he took up the position of Professor of Mathematics at the local university. In recognition of his achievements as a mathematician, the degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on him by the Universities of Paris and Turin.^[3]

Social reformer

While carrying out his career responsibilities, Faà di Bruno also became actively involved in the social outreach to the poor being developed by leading figures of the Catholic Church in Turin. He became a close friend of John Bosco,^[4] and helped establish refuges for the elderly and the poor. He oversaw the construction of a church in Turin, Our Lady of Suffrage.^[5]

Priest and founder

Somewhat late in his life, Faà di Bruno came to feel that pursuing Holy Orders would help him in his religious activities and commenced the necessary studies in theology. What he found, however, was that the Archbishop of Turin at that time would not accept an older man for ordination, Faà di Bruno being in his late 40s at that time. For centuries, the traditional route for this profession began in a boy's mid-teens.

Faà di Bruno appealed to Pope Pius IX and received his support, finally being ordained at age 51. He founded the Minim Sisters of St. Zita in 1881 to provide help for maids and domestic servants, later expanding its outreach to include others, such as unmarried mothers. With their help, he also established another refuge, one dedicated to taking in prostitutes.

Faà di Bruno died in Turin on 25 March 1888.

Veneration

The cause for the canonization of Faà di Bruno opened in the early 20th century by the Archdiocese of Turin and he was declared a Servant of God. His spiritual writings were approved by theologians on 22 May 1935.^[6] He was declared Venerable by Pope Paul VI in 1971, and beatified by Pope John Paul II on the centennial of his death in 1988.^[1]

In an address to the Minim Sisters in 2002, Pope John Paul II said, ""Francesco Faà di Bruno", I said, is "a giant of faith and charity", for his message of light and love, "far from being exhausted, seems timelier than ever, urging all those who have Gospel values at heart to action"" (Homily, 25 September, n. 4; ORE, 24 October 1988, p. 15).^[5]

Research in mathematics

In addition to some ascetical writings, the composition of some sacred melodies, and the invention of some scientific apparatus, Faà di Bruno made numerous and important contributions to mathematics. Today, he is best known for Faà di Bruno's formula on derivatives of composite functions although it is now certain Louis François Antoine Arbogast had priority for its discovery and use. Faà di Bruno should be credited only for the formula's determinant form.^[7] However, his work is mainly related to elimination theory and to the theory of elliptic functions.^[8]

He was the author of about 40 original articles published in the "Journal de Mathématiques" (edited by Joseph Liouville), Crelle's Journal, "American Journal of Mathematics" (Johns Hopkins University), "Annali di Tortolini", "Les Mondes", "Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences", etc.; the first half of an exhaustive treatise on the theory and applications of elliptic functions which he planned to complete in three volumes; "Théorie générale de l'élimination" (Paris, 1859); "Calcolo degli errori" (Turin, 1867), translated into French under the title of "Traité élémentaire du calcul des erreurs" (Paris, 1869); and most important of all, "Théorie des formes binaires" (Paris, 1876), translated into German (Leipzig, 1881). For a list of the memoirs of Faà di Bruno, see the "Catalogue of Scientific Papers of the Royal Society: (London, 1868, 1877, 1891), t. II, vii, and ix.

Among his students were the noted mathematicians Corrado Segre and Giuseppe Peano.

See also

• Elimination theory
• Elliptic functions
• Faà di Bruno, for other members of the family
• Faà di Bruno's formula
• List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

Notes

1. See the Vatican News Service, "Papal Office for Liturgical Celebrations" (in Italian).
2. See Solari (2008, pp. 44–47).
3. (Linehan 1909).
4. See Patrizia Solari (2007, 2008)
5. Pope John Paul II, Message to the Institute of the Minim Sisters of Our Lady of Suffrage, September 2, 2002
6. Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 76.
7. See the paper of Craik (2005, pp. 233–234): this well written and informative paper details also the works of other earlier scientists.
8. See Tricomi (1962) and various papers in the volume edited by Giacardi (2005): particularly the later reference states that he introduced the Faà di Bruno's formula to deal with problems in elimination theory.

References

Biographical and general references

• Brigaglia, Aldo (2004), "L'Opera Matematica", in Giacardi, Livia (ed.), Francesco Faà di Bruno. Ricerca scientifica insegnamento e divulgazione [Francesco Faà di Bruno. Scientific research teaching and popularization], Studi e fonti per la storia dell'Università di Torino (in Italian), vol. XII, Torino: Deputazione Subalpina di Storia Patria, pp. 111–171. "The mathematical work" is an essay on mathematical activity, describing both his research and teaching, of Francesco Faà di Bruno.
• Giacardi, Livia, ed. (2004), Francesco Faà di Bruno. Ricerca scientifica insegnamento e divulgazione [Francesco Faà di Bruno. Scientific research teaching and popularization], Studi e fonti per la storia dell'Università di Torino (in Italian), vol. XII, Torino: Deputazione Subalpina di Storia Patria, p. 671. This is a collection of essays, including original documents, related to Francesco Faà di Bruno's scientific work, including his teaching and engineering activity.
• Giacardi, Livia, ed. (2005), L'opera matematica di Francesco Faà di Bruno in Cd-Rom [The Mathematical Works of Francesco Faà di Bruno in Cd-Rom], Collana CD-ROM del Dipartimento di Matematica dell'Università di Torino (in Italian, English, and French), Dipartimento di Matematica dell'Università di Torino, archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Faà di Bruno's "Opera omnia".
• Linehan, P. (1909), "Francesco Faa di Bruno", Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5, New York: Robert Appleton Company, retrieved February 2, 2011. The original article in the Catholic Encyclopedia whose content was originally included in this entry.
• Solari, Patrizia (July 2007), "Beato Francesco Faà di Bruno" [Blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno] (PDF), Caritas Insieme (in Italian), XXV (2): 40–44. This reference and the following one (part two) deal with aspects of the biography of Faà di Bruno other than his scientific achievements.
• Solari, Patrizia (April 2008), "Beato Francesco Faà di Bruno. Seconda parte." [Blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno. Part two.] (PDF), Caritas Insieme (in Italian), XXVI (1): 44–47. This is part two of a biographical article about Francesco Faà di Bruno, concerning aspects of his life other than his scientific achievements.
• Tricomi, G. F. (1962), "Francesco Faà di Bruno", Matematici italiani del primo secolo dello stato unitario (Italian mathematicians of the first century of the unitary state), Memorie dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. Classe di Scienze fisiche matematiche e naturali, series IV (in Italian), vol. I, p. 120, Zbl 0132.24405, archived from the original on 2011-07-09, retrieved 2011-01-04. Available from the website of the.
• Ufficio delle Celebrazioni Liturgiche del Sommo Pontefice (27 June 2002), "Beatificazione 25 settembre 1988: Franciscus Faà Di Bruno", Beati e Santi del Pontificato di Giovanni Paolo II (in Italian), retrieved February 2, 2011. The date of his beatification as listed in the Vatican website.

Scientific references

• Arbogast, L.F.A. (1800), Du calcul des derivations [Calculus of derivation] (in French), Strasbourg: Levrault, pp. xxiii+404. Entirely freely available from Google books.
• Craik, Alex D.D. (February 2005), "Prehistory of Faà di Bruno's Formula", American Mathematical Monthly, 112 (2): 217–234, doi:10.2307/30037410, JSTOR 30037410, MR 2121322, Zbl 1088.01008.
• Faà di Bruno, F. (1855), "Sullo sviluppo delle funzioni" [On the development of the functions], Annali di Scienze Matematiche e Fisiche (in Italian), 6: 479–480. A well-known paper where Francesco Faà di Bruno presents the two versions of the formula that now bears his name, published in the journal founded by Barnaba Tortolini. Available free from Google books.
• Faà di Bruno, F. (1857), "Note sur une nouvelle formule de calcul differential" [Note on a new formula of the differential calculus], The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics (in French), 1: 359–360. Entirely freely available from Google books.
• Faà di Bruno, Francesco (1859), Théorie générale de l'élimination [General theory of elimination] (in French), Paris: Leiber et Faraguet, pp. x+224. Entirely freely available from Google books.
• Faà de Bruno, F. (1876), Théorie des formes binaires [theory of binary forms] (in French), Turin: Librairie Brero, pp. XVI+358, JFM 08.0056.02, archived from the original on 2016-08-09. One of Faà di Bruno's most important works, highly praised by Paul Gordan (see his letter to Faà di Bruno on page V).
• Johnson, Warren P. (March 2002), "The Curious History of Faà di Bruno's Formula" (PDF), American Mathematical Monthly, 109 (3): 217–234, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.109.4135, doi:10.2307/2695352, JSTOR 2695352, MR 1903577, Zbl 1024.01010.

External links

• Dell'Aglio, L. (2008), "FAÀ DI BRUNO, Francesco", Enciclopedia Treccani: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani [Treccani Encyclopedia: Biographical Dictionary of Italians] (in Italian), retrieved February 2, 2011 The (fairly comprehensive) biographical entry about Francesco Faà di Bruno in the biographies section of the Enciclopedia Treccani.
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Francesco Faà di Bruno", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
• Roero, C. S. (May 19, 2005), Francesco Faà di Bruno (29/03/1825 – 27/03/1888) (in Italian), archived from the original on August 14, 2011, retrieved February 2, 2011. A short biographical sketch, available from the website of Torinoscienza.it.
• Rabenstein, K. I. (2003). "Faà Di Bruno, Francesco, Bl.". New Catholic Encyclopedia (2 ed.). New York: Thomson Gale. p. 581. Retrieved 24 July 2024.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Francesco Faa di Bruno". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.