Giuseppe Peano served most of his adult life as professor of mathematics at the University of Turin. His name is probably best known today for the contributions he made to the development of symbolic logic. Indeed, many of the symbols that he introduced in his research on logic are still used in the science today. In Peano's own judgment, his most important work was in infinitesimal calculus, which he modestly described as "not ... entirely useless." Some of Peano's most intriguing work involved the development of cases that ran counter to existing theorems, axioms, and concepts in mathematics.

Peano was born in Spinetta, near the city of Cuneo, Italy, on August 27, 1858. He was the second of five children born to Bartolomeo Peano and the former Rosa Cavallo. At the time of Peano's birth, his family lived on a farm about three miles from Cuneo, a distance that he and...