Luigi Cremona: la prolusione di Milano "Sull'insegnamento della geometria superiore"

Luigi Cremona (1830–1903) was one of the leading figures in Italian mathematics in the 19th century. Twice winner of the Steiner Prize, in 1866 and in 1874, with his discovery of closed birational transformations he closed the age of projective geometry and opened that of algebraic geometry, inaugurating a long Italian tradition in this area. Cremona taught at the University of Bologna, at the Politecnico of Milan, at the Scuola per ingegneri and at the University of Rome. He is also remembered for his commitment to education and the diffusion of mathematical culture in Italy. This paper presents the text of a lecture by Cremona about projective geometry, published in 1860 in a journal for teachers, the Effemeride della Pubblica istruzione, almost unknown until now.