Dear Professors and Students,

We are most pleased to invite all to attend the following Book Presentation Ceremony and Seminar on February 27, 2024 (Tuesday), at 16:00, at the University of Macau Library (E2), Library Auditorium, Room G012.

BOOK PRESENTATION CEREMONY

“Os Lusíadas do Grande Luis de Camoens”, published in 1613

“Os Lusíadas do Grande Luis de Camoens” published in 1613, in a rare and annotated edition of the most important Portuguese poetic-epic text “Os Lusíadas”, as part of the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the poet and playwright Luís de Camões (born in Lisbon, ca. 1524-10 June, 1580). The preliminary pages of this edition contain what is considered to be the first biography of the poet, written by Pedro de Mariz, a person close to his time and whose biographical testimony is of great authentic value.

Considered one of the most important figures in Portuguese literature, Luís de Camões is acclaimed as one of the most important voices in the world of epic literature. It is believed that the recent acquisition by the University of Macau of this rare book of Portuguese poetry would be beneficial for the academic and cultural exchanges among UM, other higher education institutions and the Chinese and Portuguese communities.

SEMINAR

“Mathematics and Literature”

If Mathematics and Literature are two very different ways of understanding the Cosmos and Life, they nevertheless have surprising interactions that deserve to be known beyond the specialists in each area. Based on the recent four-year experience of FOLIO (Óbidos Literary Festival), from 2016 to 2019, this communication aims to present some notable examples of these interactions. From the mathematical elements in Os Lusíadas to Galileo’s Discorsi and Dialoghi, from the poems of José Anastácio da Cunha and António Monteiro to the literary writings of Sofia Kovaleskaya and Felix Hausdorff (Paul Mongé), not forgetting Bourbaki or Oulipo, there are unexpected and profound relationships between mathematics and literature.

by Professor José Francisco Rodrigues

University of Lisbon, Academy of Sciences of Lisbon

José Francisco Rodrigues is a Portuguese Professor of Mathematics at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. He works in mathematical analysis of nonlinear partial differential equations and, in particular, in free boundary problems. He had studied in Lisbon and in Paris, and he has visited and has given lectures in many Mathematical Institutes, Conferences and Universities in Europe, USA, Brazil, Russia, Japan, Australia and China (Suzhou, Macau, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing). He has also interdisciplinary interests and activities in the relations and interactions of Mathematics with other Sciences and with General Culture, including Communication, History, Music, Literature and Architecture. He was Director of the research center CMAF/Univ. Lisboa and of the Portuguese CIM (Centro Internacional de Matemática). He served in several European Mathematical Society (EMS) Committees and is, since 2022, Vice-General-Secretary of the Lisbon Academy of Science, to which he belongs since 1994.