Edge and Fano on nets of quadrics

Abstract

In a number of papers by Edge, and in a related paper by Fano, several properties are discussed of the family of scrolls of degree 8, in the complex projective space, whose plane sections are projected bicanonical models of a genus 3 curve C. This beautiful subject is implicitely related to the moduli of semistable rank two vector bundles on C with bicanonical determinant. We revisit and reconstruct this matter in modern terms with a modular point of view. This paper is the refereed version of a contribution to a volume in honor of W.L Edge, to be published by European Journal of Mathematics.