The letters of Eugenio Beltrami in the correspondence with Ernesto Cesàro (Q1913674)

The ``Fondo Cesàro'' is located in the University of Naples. It contains several correspondences, among these the Beltrami-Cesàro-correspondence: there are 17 letters from Beltrami to Cesàro, dating from 1883 to 1900, the year of Beltrami's death. During this period Beltrami was professor of mathematical physics in Pavia (since 1876) and in Rome (since 1891). In 1898, he also became President of the Accademia dei Lincei. Cesàro was professor of higher algebra in Palermo (since 1886/7) and of higher analysis in Naples (since 1891). Cesàro's interests not only were focused on mathematics but also they included mathematical physics. During the time of his correspondence with Beltrami he published several textbooks: a) Introduzione alla teoria matematica dell'elasticità (Torino 1894), b) Corso di analisi algebrica (Torino 1894), c) Lezioni di geometria intrinseca (Naples 1896) and d) Elementi di calcolo infinitesimale (Naples 1899). As far as the Beltrami-Cesàro correspondence is concerned, only the letters written by Beltrami have survived, they are published here for the first time. There are treated mainly scientific and academic questions, mostly problems of mathematical physics, as elasticity theory, Maxwell equations, and potential theory, and details of Cesàro's textbooks.