Talk:Gino Fano

Father of Finite Geometry

There are several references that indicate that the study of finite geometry originated with Gino Fano. It is appropriate to call him the "Father of Finite Geometry" and this has been on the page since 2013, predating Roberts' book. Putting aside my role as an editor, I am a finite geometer and I have been using this locution since the early 1980's. We (finite geometers) are a very small community of mathematicians and not everything we say makes its way into print. I am pretty sure that I did not come up with the phrase (but I did put it into the article), but can't, at this point find it in print after a hurried attempt to do so. I would suggest leaving it in (perhaps with a {{cn}} tag) as it is not really controversial and an earlier reference is sure to pop up. Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 19:05, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

A respected and reliable colleague has informed me that there may be some controversy associated with this sobriquet since finite projective spaces can be traced back to von Staudt (1856) and even the Fano plane makes an earlier appearance (Kirkman, 1847). Fano's contribution appears to be axiomatizing the subject, and so, from a certain point of view there is a strain of legitimacy to saying that he originated the field. However, I now think that the term should be removed until a source for it is found. Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 23:37, 23 July 2015 (UTC)