Mathematics is often seen, among non-mathematicians, as a technical instrument, useful for scientists, engineers, and businesspeople, but relatively obscure, and devoid of any connection with other areas of knowledge. In other words, the public at large (as well as the educational system) thinks of mathematics for its extrinsic value (applications) rather than for its intrinsic value (beauty, conquest of the human spirit). This is in striking contrast with other forms of culture. For example, we all understand that music has extrinsic value (entertainment, for example), but we also attribute to great musicians a special place in the cultural history of the world.
This book proposes that mathematics is indeed a major component of human culture, and great mathematics arose as a response to other cultural developments. It offers a set of snapshots in the history of the role played by mathematics in culture. The authors highlight and subsume the presence and force of mathematics in a set of case studies, providing a sketched historical framework that helps the reader to appreciate their value in the social and cultural context in which they were immersed.

Graziano Gentili. Student of the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, Gentili got his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1981. He has been Research Assistant at the Scuola Normale Superiore until 1986, and then Associate Professor of Mathematics at the International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy. In 1991 he obtained his professorship in Mathematics, and since 1994 he is affiliated at the University of Firenze. His main research interests concern the geometric theory of holomorphic and hyperholomorphic functions,and the study of geometry of complex manifolds. He is author of many research papers, and of books. He is recipient of the 2006 Medal for Mathematics from  the Accademia Nazionale dei XL, and member of the Accademia Toscana La Colombaria.

Luisa Simonutti is a Research Director affiliated at the Istituto per la Ricerca Filosofica e Storica (IRFiS) – National Research Council (CNR) in Italy and a Research Associate affiliated with the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies’ CREMS University of York. Her research focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries' political-theological debate, translation, and philosophy. She also deals with Arab-Islamic thought on European thinkers, as well as the cultural transfer between Europe and the Mediterranean Basin in early modern times. Author of numerous essays and editor of volumes, she is co-editor in chief of SoPhIHAS– Studies on Philosophy, Intellectual History, Arts, Sciences, Brepols, and Associate Editor of Studi lockiani. Ricerche sull’età moderna, ETS, Pisa.

Daniele Struppa is the Kennedy Chair in Mathematics and President Emeritus at Chapman University. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1981 from the University of Maryland, and has since published more than two hundred-fifty articles and books in a variety of areas of mathematics, including Fourier Analysis, Complex and Hypercomplex Analysis and Geometry, Signal Processing, and Philosophy of Science. He is the recipient of the 1981 Bortolozzi Prize from the Italian Mathematical Union and the 2016 Cozzarelli Prize from the US Academy of Sciences.