Graph transformation from Llull to Brunel
H. Gropp
University Heidelberg
Muehlingstr. 19
69121 Heidelberg
Germany
d12@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de
Abstract
This talk will consider the "early days of graphs" starting with the Catalonian
scientist Ramon Llull (1232-1316) who was born in Mallorca and worked mainly
in Catalonia and Southern France. Llull can be regarded as the first combinatorialist
in Christian Europe. The main part will deal with the development at the
end of the 19th century, the beginning of modern graph theory. The main mathematicians
involved are the Italian Martinetti, the Dutch de Vries, and last but not
least the French Georges Brunel (1856-1900) who worked in Bordeaux from 1884
till his early death in 1900. While Martinetti and de Vries worked in the
language of configurations (which can be translated into the language of
regular graphs), Brunel really presented his research in the language of
graphs and prepared the later book of Sainte-Lague of 1926. Unfortunately,
Brunel's work is not much known today, although he was a pioneer in early
modern graph theory. In a certain sense this talk will connect Barcelona
and Bordeaux from the historical point of view of graph theory.