Mathematics and Culture in Europe

It is not true that mathematics has never been able to arouse people's interest. At least, this is our feeling as mathematicians when we meet the general public to explain what we are dealing with in our work, what is the usefulness of mathematics and how it becomes possible to catch its harmony and beauty.§In the past years, also the cinema changed its attitude on the matter, and some screenplays started to show mathematicians engaged in their work, not only teachers!, while some recent theatrical pieces have a mathematician as a main character, and people like it.§These considerations stimulated some of us to organize, for the first time in Italy, in Bologna, the review Mathematics and Theatre, which offered to a general audience the opportunity to attend agreeable performances and, at the same time, to hear something about the prime numbers, the theory of Galois, or simply about the relationship between science, mathematics and power at Napoleon's times. §This volume, which has its origin in the activities performed in Bologna in 2004, within the framework of the European project Mathematics in Europe, is dedicated to all those who are curious about mathematics, but also more generally about theatre, cinema, literature, arts and science.§Thanks to the DVD enclosed with the volume, edited by Marco Di Girolami, Elisa Lauretani and Camilla Valentini, one can relive various events through the voices and the images of the participants. Predicated on the notion that mathematics has been a growing source of aesthetic inspiration in culture, this volume celebrates where the two intermesh. It is a meditation on the performances and cultural events, all mathematics-related, performed in Bologna in 2004, is dedicated to all those who are curious about mathematics, but also more generally about theatre, cinema, literature, arts and science. Thanks to the DVD, one can readers can relive various events through the voices and the images of the participants.