Tra studio e politica:per una biografia di Giuseppe Zwirner

Simone, Giulia

Matematica, cultura e società, Série 1, Tome 3 (2018) no. 2, pp. 123-137

Résumé

Giuseppe Zwirner is known to the wide public as the author of fundamental mathematical textbooks adopted by generations of students. By contrast, his university career is less known, even though he was a professorof mathematical analysis at the Universities of Ferrara and Padova between 1952 and 1975. What remains unexplored is his political activism: he was an important member of the antifascist parties “Giustizia e Libertà”and “Partito d'Azione”. The aim of this study is to outline a biography of Giuseppe Zwirner, largely based on unpublished documents. In this framework, the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Padova has a crucial importance both for Zwirner's intellectual growth (he benefited from the mentoring of brilliant professors) and for his anti-fascist activities. And thanks to the political choice he (and other students and professors) made in favour of freedom and democratic principles, the University of Padova was awarded a gold medal for military valour at the end of World War II, the only university to receive such an honour in Italy.