Departamento de Matemática
A História e a Herança da Matemática
Zoel García de Galdeano y Yanguas (1846-1924) and the
establishment of a Spanish mathematical community
ELENA AUSEJO
Professor of the History of Science - Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain)
Membre effectif de l’Académie Internationale de l’Histoire des Sciences
The establishment of a Spanish mathematical community happened throughout the end of the
19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In 1919 Gino Loria, on reporting of mathematics in
Spain, alluded to three Spanish mathematicians – namely, José Echegaray y Eizaguirre (18331916), Eduardo Torroja Caballé (1845-1918), and Zoel García de Galdeano (1846-1924) – as the
seeders of modernization.
Galdeano was the founder of El Progreso Matemático –the first Spanish mathematical
periodical, and the most internationally connected Spanish mathematician of his time –always
the Spanish representative in international mathematical initiatives, such as international
congresses. By way of mathematical didactics and criticism, Galdeano linked the secondary and
higher education perspectives, and both these in turn with research tasks. Due to his deep
comprehension of the current mathematical developments, he was the great importer of
modern mathematics to Spain. He devoted the decade of 1880 to algebra, the last decade of
the 19th century to geometry, and the first decade of the 20th century to mathematical
analysis, differential equations and a brief approximation to the theory of numbers. In all these
sections the level of modernity of his works was more than acceptable.
Terça-feira, 23 de Junho de 2015, às 11 h 00.
Departamento de Matemática - Sala Sousa Pinto (2º piso)
Elena Ausejo is full professor of the History of Science at the University of Zaragoza (Spain), Membre
effectif de l’Académie Internationale de l’Histoire des Sciences, Secretary of the International
Commission on the History of Mathematics (ICHM, Inter-Union Commission IUHPS/DHST-IMU), and
Editor of LLULL, the Journal of the Spanish Society for the History of Science and Technology. Her
research interests center on the social history of science —especially mathematics— in Spain (16th-20th
centuries) and on the history of scientific institutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.