Piola's contribution to continuum mechanics

This paper examines the contribution of Gabrio Piola to continuum mechanics. Though he was undoubtably a skilled mathematician and a good mechanician, little is commonly known about his papers within the international scientific community, principally because a large part of the Italian school of mechanics was isolated in the first half of the XIXth century. We examine and comment on Piola's most important papers, and compare them with those of his contemporaries Cauchy, Poisson and Kirchhoff.