Selected Works of Giuseppe Peano

Book excerpt: In the decade before 1900, the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano was one of the most original and influential pioneers of modern mathematical logic. He made significant contributions to the development of the foundations of mathematics and the axiomatic method (for example, his postulates for the natural numbers), dimension theory (including the space-filling curve), measure theory, vector analysis, differential equations, and the rigorization of analysis. Several of Peano's works have been translated into other languages; here for the first time is a generous selection of works translated into English. Fifteen articles, one booklet, and parts of two books and one monograph, published between 1883 and 1921, chosen with the interests of mathematicians and logicians in mind, are included. Each selection is preceded by an introductory note. The volume also contains a biographical sketch, a chronological list of Peano's publications (larger by one fifth than any previously published list), and a bibliography on the life and work of Peano. This selection will appeal especially to historians of mathematics and logic, but also to those mathematicians and logicians who wish to know more about how their subject came to be.