Bortolotti was born in
Bologna. He studied
mathematics under
Salvatore Pincherle and
Cesare Arzelà in Bologna. He graduated in mathematics in 1889 at the
University of Bologna, under Pincherle. He was appointed as lecturer to the Lyceum of Modica in
Sicily in 1891, then studied for one year in
Paris as a post-graduate, before lecturing at the
University of Rome in 1893. In 1900, he became a professor of
infinitesimal calculus at
Modena. There, he became dean from 1913 to 1919, then moved back to the University of Bologna, where he retired in 1936. He was an Invited Speaker of the
ICM in 1924 in Toronto and in 1928 in Bologna. Bortolotti must also be considered a differential geometer and a relativist, too. In fact, in the year 1929, he commented on the geometric basis for
Einstein’s
absolute parallelism theory in a paper entitled "Stars of
congruences and absolute parallelism: Geometric basis for a recent theory of Einstein". His son
Enea was a mathematician too. Bortolotti died in
Bologna. == Selected works ==