``My sincere condolences''. After the death of Henri Poincaré (July--December 1912) (Q6109755)

Henri Poincaré died on 17 July 1912. He was not only a great mathematician and scientist, but also an intellectual with many social contacts (family, friends, and collegues). The \textit{Archives Henri Poincaré} in Nancy possess a file of letters of condolence (38 letters in all) collected by Poincaré's descendants between July and December 1912. The author of the paper under review studies these letters to discover new facets of Poincaré's relations with others. It is likely that the family received many more letters of condolence after Poincaré's death, so this collection probably represents only a part of them. Although the number of letters is small, valuable conclusions can be drawn regarding (new) connections between Poincaré and other actors. In a table, the author lists the names of the correspondents, the places where the letters were sent from and brief biographical information on the correspondents. Many of these letters are from correspondents who are not known to have exchanged letters with Poincaré before. There are letters from France, Germany, the United States, Croatia, The Netherlands, Austria, Greece and also from Japan and Argentina. In addition, excerpts from the letters -- grouped according to their contents: (i) tributes and condolences (ii) expressions of gratitudes sent by several mathematicians and (iii) commemorations in honor of Poincaré after his death -- are given.