普兰纳Giovanni Plana

普兰纳的父亲是Antonio Maria Plana，母亲是Giovanna Giacoboni。普兰纳的两个叔叔住在格勒诺布尔，1796年，他大约15岁时，父亲把他送到那里完成学业。在格勒诺布尔，他与Henri Beyle成为密友，后者是法国著名作家，以笔名Stendhal更为人所知。

我们应当提到这一时期前后在欧洲发生的政治事件，这些事件对本档案中研究的许多数学家的生活产生了很大影响。1796年4月，拿破仑指挥的法国军队入侵意大利。随后的一段时期里，许多知识分子转向新的思维方式，并热情地参与民主运动。普兰纳虽然当时还年轻，但肯定是拥抱这种新方式的人之一。他在1796年至1799年间生活的这一方面在[4]中得到了研究。

1800年，普兰纳进入巴黎的综合工科学校。在那里，他深受约瑟夫·拉格朗日的影响，后者是他的老师之一，当然也是意大利出身的人。约瑟夫·傅里叶和约瑟夫·拉格朗日一样，对普兰纳的能力印象极为深刻，他试图安排他获得格勒诺布尔炮兵学校的数学讲席。然而，约瑟夫·傅里叶为普兰纳所作的尝试失败了，于是他又试了一次，这次是让普兰纳获得皮埃蒙特炮兵学校的数学讲席，该校一部分位于都灵，一部分位于亚历山德里亚。这次尝试成功了，普兰纳于1803年回到意大利就任此职。

拿破仑取得进一步胜利后，奥地利和法国于1805年12月26日签署了《普雷斯堡和约》。奥地利被迫将大片领土割让给法国，特别是拿破仑希望将奥地利的影响完全逐出意大利。因此，皮埃蒙特被划归法国，于是普兰纳发现自己未挪一步又身处法国了！1811年，约瑟夫·拉格朗日推荐普兰纳担任都灵大学的天文学讲席，普兰纳被任命担任该职位。他将在都灵度过余生，教授天文学和数学，既在大学任教，也在那里的炮兵学校任教。

普兰纳除了天文学之外，还研究积分、椭圆函数、热学、静电学和大地测量学。在天文学方面，他最著名的工作与月球运动有关。普兰纳已经与Francesco Carlini在大地测量学方面有过合作，米兰天文台台长建议普兰纳可以与Carlini合作研究月球运动相关问题。这一事件在[5]中有详细描述，我们在此引用该论文摘要的一部分：——

1818年，皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯提议由巴黎的Académie des Sciences设立一项奖，授予任何成功构建仅基于万有引力定律的月球表的人。1820年，该奖由一个委员会授予Carlini和普兰纳以及Damoiseau，皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯是该委员会成员。但皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯强烈批评了Carlini-普兰纳的月球理论方法。随后发生了争论……Carlini-普兰纳与皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯之间互致信件，并且……论文发表在Connaissance des temps和Zach's Correspondance上。在Carlini-普兰纳与皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯之间公开和私下的交流之后，后者得出结论：意大利天文学家的结果与Damoiseau按照皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯的《Mecanique céleste》方法所得的结果相当接近，Académie设立该奖的目的已合理实现。

事实上，普兰纳与Carlini闹翻了，Carlini退出了合作。普兰纳独自继续这项工作，并于1832年在都灵出版了Théorie du mouvement de la lune。此时普兰纳已是皇家天文学家，他后来于1844年成为世袭男爵，1848年成为参议员。1860年，当他年近80岁时，他当选为巴黎的Académie des Sciences院士。

最后，让我们回来稍微谈谈普兰纳与都灵科学院的联系。描述科学院的文章[3]指出，普兰纳关于月球运动的研究是十九世纪初提交给科学院的最重要研究。1832-33年奥古斯丁·路易·柯西住在都灵期间，对都灵的数学来说发生了一件重要事件。他在都灵大学担任数学物理讲席，那段时间他研究极为活跃，然而政治事件迫使他离开巴黎。奥古斯丁·路易·柯西和普兰纳在这段时间肯定有互动，他们的关系在[6]中有所讨论。

另一位与普兰纳有过交往的著名科学家是查尔斯·巴贝奇。他于1841年当选为都灵科学院院士，文章[7]考察了他与该科学院及其部分成员的关系，特别是与普兰纳的关系。

也许普兰纳贡献中最重要的方面由弗朗切斯科·特里科米在[1]中总结如下：-

普兰纳通常被认为是其时代意大利主要科学家之一，因为在意大利大学的教学质量已大大恶化的时期，他的教学具有最高质量，与他曾就读的巴黎大学校不相上下。

Giovanni Plana's father was Antonio Maria Plana while his mother was Giovanna Giacoboni. Two of Giovanni's uncles lived in Grenoble and his father sent him there in 1796, at age about 15, to complete his schooling. In Grenoble he became a close friend of Henri Beyle, the famous French author better known by his pseudonym Stendhal.

We should mention the political events which occurred in Europe around this time and had a large influence on the lives of many of the mathematicians we study in this archive. In April 1796 the French army under the command of Napoleon had invaded Italy. There followed a period when many intellectuals moved to a new way of thinking and enthusiastically took part in the democratic movement. Plana, although a young man at the time, was certainly one of those who embraced this new way. This aspect of his life between 1796 and 1799 is studied in [4].

In 1800 Plana entered the École Polytechnique in Paris. There he was greatly influenced by Lagrange who was one of his teachers and, of course, also someone of Italian birth. Fourier, like Lagrange, was greatly impressed by Plana's abilities and he tried to arrange for him to be appointed to the chair of mathematics at the school of artillery at Grenoble. However, Fourier failed in his attempt on behalf of Plana, so he tried again, this time to have Plana appointed to the chair of mathematics at the school of artillery in the Piedmont which was located part in Turin and part in Alessandria. This attempt was successful and Plana returned to Italy in 1803 to take up this post.

After further victories by Napoleon, the Treaty of Pressburg was signed by Austria and France on 26 December 1805. Austria was forced to give up much territory to France, and in particular Napoleon wanted Austrian influence completely removed from Italy. As a consequence Piedmont was given to France so Plana found himself in France again without making a move! In 1811 Lagrange recommended Plana for the chair of astronomy at the University of Turin, and Plana was appointed to the position. He would teach in Turin for the rest of his life, teaching both astronomy and mathematics, and teaching both at the university and at the school of artillery there.

Topics Plana worked on, in addition to astronomy, were integrals, elliptic functions, heat, electrostatics and geodesy. In astronomy his most famous work relates to the motion of the moon. Plana had already worked with Francesco Carlini on geodesy, and the director of the observatory in Milan suggested to Plana that he might collaborate with Carlini on problems relating to the motion of the moon. This episode is described in detail in [5] and we quote here part of the summary of that paper:-

In 1818 Laplace proposed that the Académie des Sciences in Paris set up a prize to be awarded to whoever succeeded in constructing lunar tables based solely on the law of universal gravity. In 1820 the prize was awarded to Carlini and Plana and to Damoiseau by a committee of which Laplace was a member. But Laplace strongly criticised the Carlini-Plana approach to lunar theory. A dispute ensued ... letters [were] exchanged between Carlini-Plana and Laplace, and ... papers published in Connaissance des temps and in Zach's Correspondance. After the exchanges, public and private, between Carlini-Plana and Laplace, the latter concluded that the results of the Italian astronomers and those arrived at by Damoiseau following the method of Laplace's 'Mecanique céleste' were fairly close, and that the purpose of the Académie in establishing the prize had been reasonably fulfilled.

In fact Plana fell out with Carlini and Carlini withdrew from the collaboration. Plana continued with the work on his own and published Théorie du mouvement de la lune in Turin in 1832. By this time Plana was astronomer royal, and he went on to become a hereditary baron in 1844 and a senator in 1848. When he was nearly 80 years old, in 1860, he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.

Finally let us return to talk a little of Plana's association with the Turin Academy of Sciences. The article [3] describing the Academy of Sciences states that Plana's studies on lunar motion were the most important presented to the Academy at the beginning of the nineteenth century. An important event for mathematics in Turin occurred when Cauchy lived in Turin during the year 1832-33. He held the chair of mathematical physics at the University of Turin during a period when he was highly active in research, yet political events forced him to leave Paris. Cauchy and Plana certainly interacted during this time and their relationship is discussed in [6].

Another famous scientist who interacted with Plana was Babbage. He was elected to the Turin Academy of Sciences in 1841 and the article [7] examines his relations with the Academy and with some of its members, including in particular Plana.

Perhaps the most important aspect of Plana's contribution is summed up by Tricomi in [1] as follows:-

Plana is generally considered one of the major Italian scientists of his age because, at a time when the quality of instruction at Italian universities had greatly deteriorated, his teaching was of the highest quality, quite comparable with that of the grandes écoles of Paris, at which he had studied.