Formerly a student and later a colleague of Fano, Fubini, and Terracini, Bonaparte Colombo was born in Turin on 29 June 1902, to Pacifico and Irma Levi. He spent his childhood and youth in Turin, graduating with honours on 14 July 1924, with a thesis in mathematical physics supervised by Somigliana. Like his fellow freshman Beniamino Segre, Colombo embarked on a university career, publishing some important works linked to the research undertaken in his thesis. In the period 1924–1938, he was an assistant at the University of Turin: first, in the Institute of Projective and Descriptive Geometry with Drawing and then in that of Rational Mechanics. Those were the years of greatest creativity for Colombo, who—thanks also to his relationships of friendship and scientific collaboration with Fubini—published some articles of good value and originality, qualifying to teach Infinitesimal Analysis in 1930. In 1926, he entered the teaching staff of the Royal Military Academy of Artillery and Genius in Turin where he taught Descriptive Geometry from 1926 until the introduction of the racial laws. Contemporary, from 1932 to 1938, he was charged of the course of Complementary Mathematics at the University.