The correspondence that Hoüel maintained with Luigi Cremona , from 1867 to 1878, deals above all with his activity as a disseminator of non-Euclidean geometry by means of his numerous translations, and the necessity, which he felt deeply, of reforming the teaching of elementary geometry, a concern that was shared by Cremona. As to the first point, the letters focus particularly on the translation by Hoüel of the important Riemann’ lecture Ueber die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen (1854). Concerning the second point, letters pay special attention to the 1869 debate which arose following the publication in Battaglini’s Giornale of the translation of an article by the English mathematics and science teacher James M. Wilson, who considered the Elements “antiquated, artificial, unscientific and ill-adapted for a text-book”. The correspondence of Hoüel with Cremona illustrates his attitude towards scientific problems: his critical spirit, his openness towards new theories, and his desire to spread and popularize new ideas. He wrote: “Il y a tant de gens qui ont l’oreille dure qu’il est bon de reprendre les vérités de cent façons différentes jusqu’à ce qu’on en ait trouvé une qu’ils puissent entendre”.
Letters from Jules Hoüel (1867-1878)
Livia Giacardi
2017-01-01
Abstract
The correspondence that Hoüel maintained with Luigi Cremona , from 1867 to 1878, deals above all with his activity as a disseminator of non-Euclidean geometry by means of his numerous translations, and the necessity, which he felt deeply, of reforming the teaching of elementary geometry, a concern that was shared by Cremona. As to the first point, the letters focus particularly on the translation by Hoüel of the important Riemann’ lecture Ueber die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen (1854). Concerning the second point, letters pay special attention to the 1869 debate which arose following the publication in Battaglini’s Giornale of the translation of an article by the English mathematics and science teacher James M. Wilson, who considered the Elements “antiquated, artificial, unscientific and ill-adapted for a text-book”. The correspondence of Hoüel with Cremona illustrates his attitude towards scientific problems: his critical spirit, his openness towards new theories, and his desire to spread and popularize new ideas. He wrote: “Il y a tant de gens qui ont l’oreille dure qu’il est bon de reprendre les vérités de cent façons différentes jusqu’à ce qu’on en ait trouvé une qu’ils puissent entendre”.
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