The book is divided into five parts. The introductory part is concerned with the physical origin and motivations of the model, and contains a collection of mainly historical papers. The remaining four sections are intended to present a coherent scenario of the different approaches to the model solution: exact and rigorous statistical mechanics results; variational methods; perturbative approaches; numerical Quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization studies. Among the applications special emphasis is given to high-Tc superconductivity. Each section is preceded by commentary notes from the editor.