Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Volterra (Vito) Offprints Collection
mssVolterra
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Vito Volterra offprints collection
Creator:
Volterra, Vito, 1860-1940
Identifier/Call Number: mssVolterra
Physical Description:
166.8 Linear Feet
(400 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1754-1956
Abstract: Collection comprises approximately
17,000 offprints, reprints, and pamphlets related to the history of science collected by
Vito Volterra (1860-1940), an Italian mathematician. The offprints focus primarily on the
physical sciences, with emphasis on works on astronomy, mathematics, fluid mechanics,
energetics, and chemistry and date from 1754 to 1956.
Language of Material: Materials are in Italian, French,
German, English, and other languages.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Vito Volterra offprints collection, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Burndy Library Collection, Gift of Dibner Family, November 2006.
Vito Volterra collected offprints until his death in 1940. A small number of papers are
dated between 1941 and 1956; it is unknown when or by whom they were added to the
collection. After Volterra's death, Bern Dibner was the intermediary between Brandeis
University Libraries and Volterra's son Enrico. In 1980 and 1981, Volterra's collection of
books, offprints, and other materials was sold to Brandeis University and sent in three
shipments, two-thirds of which remained on deposit from the Italian government. The entire
Volterra collection was transferred to the Dibner Institute at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1999. In 2006, Volterra's collection, including the offprints, was gifted
to The Huntington, along with the entirety of the Burndy Library.
Vito Volterra (1860-1940) was an Italian mathematician noted for his role in the
development of calculus. He defined permutable functions and elaborated systematic equations
and worked on applications in analysis, physics, and biology. Volterra was born in Ancona,
Italy in 1860 to parents Abramo Volterra and Angelica Almagia. He graduated from the
University of Pisa in 1882. He was a professor at Pisa from 1883 to 1892, the University of
Turin from 1892 to 1900, and the University of Rome from 1900 to 1931. In 1905 he became a
Senator of the Kingdom of Italy and in 1921 was awarded an honorary knighthood from King
George V of England. During World War I Volterra served in the Italian Air Force. Because he
refused to swear allegiance to the Fascist government, in 1931 he was forced to resign from
the university and went abroad to teach and travel. He retired to Ariccia, Italy, where he
died on October 11, 1940. The death went unnoticed by the authorities and on October 16,
1943, the Nazi Party's SS went to his home in Rome to arrest him for deportation.
Collection contains approximately 17,000 offprints, reprints, and pamphlets on the history
of science collected by Vito Volterra, many of which are dedicated by the authors to
Volterra. Materials date from 1754 through 1956; however, the bulk of the papers date to the
first few decades of the twentieth century. Materials relate to Volterra's involvement with
the international scientific community of the time, especially in Europe and the United
States. Subjects represented are primarily the physical sciences, in particular astronomy,
mathematics, fluid mechanics, energetics, and chemistry.
Materials include works by many of Volterra's Italian and European mathematician
contemporaries, including Beppo Levi, Tullio Levi-Civita, Gösta Mittag-Lefler, Jacques
Hadamard, G. H. Hardy, and Paul Lévy, as well as inaugural lectures of many noted scholars
and theses of their students. Of note is the most complete collection of reprints pertaining
to the first phase of general relativity, which includes the works of Élie Cartan, Arthur
Eddington, Albert Einstein, David Hilbert, Levi-Civita, and Hermann Weyl. However, the
collection also includes papers and lectures by lesser-known scholars.
Please see the Other Finding Aids note for more information on the materials within the
collection.
Processed in 2022. Maggie Hughes created the finding aid. Carlos Diaz and Emily Neis
labeled the folders and boxes. The offprints remain in the order in which they were received
from the Dibner Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006 and the box
numbers were retained; there are no boxes with numbers 322-360 in the collection.
Brandeis University Libraries cataloged the items in boxes 1-421 in
The Vito
Volterra history of science collection: a checklist of offprints
(1990). Each
publication was assigned an index number, which matches the order in which they are listed
in Brandeis' checklist. Index number order is alphabetical by subject and, within subjects,
by author last name. The index numbers appear in Brandeis' checklist, but they are not
written on the materials or their folders. Entries in the checklist also include a "Volterra
number" which is comprised of two parts: box number and folder number, separated by a dash.
The box numbers for boxes 1-206 appear as roman numerals in the "Volterra number". Users
should reference the "Volterra number" when determining which boxes materials are in.
The materials in boxes 422-432 are not individually listed in Brandeis' checklist. The
original box titles were retained for these boxes, "miscellaneous offprints" and
"institutional publications".
The books from the Volterra collection consist of approximately 8,000 volumes in the
history of science, most in their original bindings, and are cataloged in the
Huntington Library .
Brandeis University Libraries published a list of the materials contained in boxes 1-421 of
the collection:
The Vito Volterra History of Science Collection: a checklist of
offprints
(1990). This three volume bibliography is available in the
Huntington Library, call
number Z7401 .B795 1990
, and attached here as three PDF files:
Entries in the Brandeis checklist include a "Volterra number" which is comprised of two
parts: box number and folder number, separated by a dash. The box numbers for boxes 1-206
appear as roman numerals in the "Volterra number". Users should reference the "Volterra
number" when determining which boxes materials are in.
The collection in the order in which it was received; it is unknown if this is Volterra's
original order.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Astronomy
Calculus
Electricity
Mathematics
Physics
Science
Offprints
Pamphlets
Reprints
Dibner, Bern