Elipsoid Monge’a i konfiguracje linii krzywiznowych na powierzchniach i przestrzeniach euklidesowych – uwagi historyczne

This is an essay on the historical landmarks leading to the study of principal confgurations on surfaces in R^3 , their structural stability and further generalizations. Here it is pointed out that in the work of Monge, 1796, are found elements of the qualitative theory of differential equations, founded by Poincare in 1881. Recent development concerning the space R^4 are mentioned. Two open problems are proposed at the end.