Enzo Martinelli (11 November 1911 – 27 August 1999 writes that his death year is 1998, unlike to , and , but it is probably a typographical error.) was an Italian mathematician, working in the theory of functions of several complex variables: he is best known for his work on the theory of integral representations for holomorphic functions of several variables, notably for discovering the Bochner–Martinelli formula in 1938, and for his work in the theory of multi-dimensional residues.
Biography Life He was born in Pescia on 11 November 1911, where his father was the Director of the local agricultural school.The contents of this section are mainly sourced from reference . His family later went to Rome, where his father ended his working career as the Director-general of the Italian Ministry of Public Education. Enzo Martilnelli lived in Rome almost all of his life: the only exception was a period of nearly eight years, from 1947 to 1954, when he was in Genova, working at the local university.See , and . In 1946 he married in Rome Luigia Panella, also her a mathematician, who later become an associate professor at the faculty of Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome, and who was his loving companion for the rest of his life. They had a son, Roberto, and a daughter, Maria Renata, who later followed her parents footsteps becoming also her a mathematician:According to , around 2002 she worked as a research fellow at the faculty of Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome four grandchildren completed their family.According to .
Academic career According to , Enzo's talent for mathematics was already evident when he was only a lyceum student. In 1933 he earned his laurea from the Sapienza University of Rome: the title of his thesis was "Sulle funzioni poligene di una e di due variabili complesse",An English translation reads as "Polygenic functions of one and of two complex variables". and his thesis supervisor was Francesco Severi.See reference . From 1934 to 1946 he worked as an assistant professor first to the chair of mathematical analysis held by Francesco Severi and then to the chair of geometry held by Enrico Bompiani. In 1939 he became "Libero Docente" (free professor) of Mathematical analysis: he taught also courses on analytic geometry, algebraic geometry and topology as associate professor.See references and . In 1946 he won a competitive examination by a judging commission for the chair of "Geometria analitica con elementi di Geometria Proiettiva e Geometria Descrittiva con Disegno",According to references and . An English translation reads as "Analytic Geometry with elements of Projective Geometry and Descriptive Geometry with Drawing". awarded by the University of Genova: the second place and the third place went respectively to Giovanni Dantoni and Guido Zappa.As himself remembers. See also the official communication in the , where all the winners of the chairs are listed, irrespectively of their placement. Martinelli held that chair from 1946 to 1954, teaching also mathematical analysis, function theory, differential geometry and algebraic analysisAccording to : this topic is not the modern algebraic analysis founded by Mikio Sato, Masaki Kashiwara and collaborators, but an old standard Italian course topic in mathematics. as associate professor. In 1954 he went back in Rome to the chair of Geometry at the university, holding that chair up to his retirement, in 1982: he also taught courses on topology, higher mathematics, higher geometry upon charge. In the years 1968–1969, during a very difficult period for the Sapienza University of Rome,It was the season of the protests of 1968: a few more detail about Martinelli's work during this season can be found in the section describing his personality. he served the university as the director of the Guido Castelnuovo Institute of Mathematics.
He attended various conferences and meetings. In 1943 and in 1946 he was invited in Zurich by Rudolf Fueter, in order to present his researches: later and during all his career he lectured in almost all Italian and foreign universities.According to : Rizza also lists a few universities where Martinelli lectured.
He was also a member of the UMI Scientific Commission (from 1967 to 1972), of the editorial boards of the Rendiconti di Matematica e delle sue Applicazioni (from 1955 to 1992) and of the Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata (from 1965 to 1999).See .
Personality traits Unanimously remembered as a real gentleman,See and : the exact Italian word they use to characterize him is signorilità, which is somewhat untranslatable in its exact meaning. gifted by a caring attention, politeness, generosity and the rare ability to listen to colleagues and students alike,See . and remember long conversations with him on various mathematical research topics,They mean "mathematical research" in a broad sense: precisely states that Martinelli was interested in all fields of mathematics, not only the ones within his personal research interest. and his disposability to give help and advice to whoever asked for it. In particular recalls the time when he was his doctoral student at the University of Genova: they meet every Sunday in the afternoon at Martinelli's home, since Martinelli was not able to meet him during the week. During one of their meetings, lasting a little more than two hours, Martinelli taught him Élie Cartan's theory of exterior differential forms, and Rizza used successfully this tool in his first research works.See and the entry about him for more details. Another episode illustrating this aspect of Martinelli's personality is recalled by Gaetano Fichera.Fichera sketches the episode in his "last lesson" : see also and the entry about Gaetano Fichera for further information. When he was back in Rome in 1945, at the end of World War II, he exposed to Martinelli a theory identical to the theory of differential form: he developed it while being prisoner of the nazists in Teramo during wartime. Martinelli, very tactfully,According to himself. told him that the idea was already being developed by Élie Cartan and Georges de Rham.
An excellent teacher himself, capable to arose curiosity and enthusiasm by his lessons,Some information on his teaching commitment can be found in the "Teaching activity" section of this entry. he admired and much respected his own ones:According to . nevertheless, this was quite common for the Italian scientists of the same and the preceding generations, who were advised by some of the best Italian scientists ever in the early days of their scientific career.See the entries about Italian mathematicians and physicists of that period, for example the entries about Renato Caccioppoli, Gaetano Fichera, Francesco Severi. His doctoral advisor was Francesco Severi: other great Italian mathematicians where among his teachers. Guido Castelnuovo, Federigo Enriques, Enrico Bompiani, Tullio Levi-Civita Mauro Picone and Antonio Signorini were all working at the Sapienza University of Rome when Enzo Martinelli was a student there, following their lessons: describes the activity of the institute of mathematics during that period as extremely stimulating.See also the description sketched by .
Another central aspect of his personality was a deep sense of justice and legality: Martinelli was very careful in performing his citizen and university professor duties, and he was also ready to fight for his own rights and for the needs of higher education. Concerned by the growing interference of bureaucracy in university education, already in the 1950s he was heard by complaining that: "In Italia mancano le menti semplificatrici"."Italy lacks of simplifying minds"An Italian translation. Martinelli was also free from every kind of authoritarianism to the point that when, during the protests of 1968 in Italy, many newspapers accused the Italian university scientific community of being so, all the assistant professors and students of Martinelli (and perhaps Martinelli himself) were perplexed.According to . In the same period, while performing his duties as the director of the Guido Castelnuovo Institute of Mathematics at the Sapienza university of Rome, his rare intellectual honestyAccording to and to . and rigorous rationality, according to Rizza, caused him troubles when dealing with many who "believed in everything except the cold light of reason"."... che in tutto credevano salvo nella fredda luce della ragione.", as precisely stated by .
Honors While still attending at the university he won the Cotronei Foundation prize, and after earning his laurea, he was awarded the Beltrami Foundation prize, the Fubini and Torelli prizes, and the Prize for Mathematical Sciences of the Ministry of National Education: this last one was awarded him in 1943, and the judging commission consisted of Francesco Severi (as the president of the commission), Ugo AmaldiUgo was a noted Italian mathematician, a collaborator of Tullio Levi-Civita and Federigo Enriques and the father of noted physicist Edoardo Amaldi. and Antonio Signorini (as the supervisor of the commission).See the inventory of the Reale Accademia d'Italia by : this reference lists and briefly describes the contents of the documents of fascicle 207 of box (Busta) 104 of section VII, titled "Premi di Incoraggiamento e Sussidi" (). In 1948 he was elected Corresponding Member of the Accademia Ligure di Scienze e Lettere:There is a discrepancy in the date of election reported by (1948) and (1986): however, Dionisio Gallarati published his commemoration of Martinelli in the journal (Atti) of this Academy, and therefore his date is reasonably believed to be correct. in 1961 and in 1977 he was elected respectively Corresponding and Full Member of the Accademia dei Lincei, and from 1982 to 1985 he was "Professore Linceo".See : the "Professore linceo" () is a professor which is in charge to the Accademia dei Lincei as a distinguished lecturer. Finally, in 1980 he was elected Corresponding Member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino and then, in 1994, Full Member. Also, in 1986, the Sapienza University of Rome, to which Enzo Martinelli was particularly tied for all his life, awarded him the title of professor emeritus.
Work Research activity
He is the author of more than 50 research works, the first of which was published when Martinelli still was an undergraduate student:According to . precisely, his research production consist of 47 papers and 30 between treatises, textbooks and various other publications.For a complete list of his works, classified between research notes and memoirs or treatises, textbooks and various writings, see the paper : a strictly shorter, chronologically ordered list appears also in the paper . According to , his research personality can be described by two words: "enthusiasm" and "dissatisfaction":Precisely, states the words "entusiasmo" e "insoddisfazione". enthusiasm is meant as his steady interest in mathematics at all levels, while dissatisfaction is meant as the desire to going deeper into all mathematical problems investigated, without stopping at first success and expressing all the results in a simple, elegant and essential form.
Teaching activity Martinelli was also active in teaching.See references and . He wrote at least fifteen textbooks on geometry, topology, and complex analysis His textbooks covered both introductory and more advanced mathematical topics. Martinelli's teaching also used difficult problems to encourage students to continue with mathematical research.
Selected publications . . The first paper where the now called Bochner-Martinelli formula is introduced and proved. . In this paper, Martinelli proves an earlier result of Luigi Amoroso on the boundary values of pluriharmonic function by using tensor calculus. . Available at the SEALS Portal . In this paper Martinelli gives a proof of Hartogs' extension theorem by using the Bochner-Martinelli formula.