In the theory of partial differential equations, the study of elliptic equations occupies a preeminent position, both because of the importance which it assumes for various questions in mathematical physics, and because of the completeness of the results obtained up to the present time. In spite of this, even in the more classical treatises on analysis the theory of elliptic equations has been considered and illustrated only from particular points of view, while the only expositions of the whole theory, the extremely valuable ones by LICHTENSTEIN and AscoLI, have the charac ter of encyclopedia articles and date back to many years ago. Consequently it seemed to me that it would be of some interest to try to give an up-to-date picture of the present state of research in this area in a monograph which, without attaining the dimensions of a treatise, would nevertheless be sufficiently extensive to allow the expo sition, in some cases in summary form, of the various techniques used in the study of these equations.
