Giuseppe Peano in Germany, His Connections with German Mathematicians, and the First English Translation of Gottlob Frege’s Unpublished Letter to Adolph Mayer on Giuseppe Peano’s Mathematical Logic

The article aims to answer whether Gottlob Frege’s letter to Adolph Mayer, dated 8 July 1896, could help German mathematicians get acquainted with Giuseppe Peano’s mathematical work, including his mathematical logic. It is the first publication of this letter in English. At the beginning, I present the main characters of this story. Next, I refer to the letters concerning Peano and his mathematical results. Thus, I show the background of Frege’s letter to Mayer. In the last part, I collect information about Peano’s contacts with German mathematicians – where he was quoted and by whom, who was quoted by Peano, and in which period of his life. I conclude that Peano was known in Germany before Frege wrote to Mayer in 1896. However, the letter could have helped publish five of Peano’s articles in Germany, where Peano’s mathematical logic was hardly known then. Undoubtedly, the letter promoted that knowledge.