Cremona transformations, surface automorphisms, and plain cubics. With an appendix by Igor Dolgachev (Q2276086)

After recalling some known facts on plane cubics and Cremona transformations, the author looks at quadratic transformations that allow a lift to an automorphism and gives a condition for that. The associated operator allows a simple and explicit representation. Then quadratic transformation that fix irreducible as well as reducible cubics are derived. Attached to this paper the reader can find an appendix (by I.\ Dolgachev) dealing with the group structure on irreducible and reducible plane cubics.