- At age 9, Maria published a Latin
discourse written by one of her tutors, defending higher education of
women.
- 1750 Maria turned down the appointment
by Pope Benedict XIV, who appointed her to teach mathematics at the
University of Bologna, a very rare position for a woman.
- 1752, after the death of her father, she
stopped scientific work completely and devoted the last 47 years of
her life to care for sick and dying women.
Field:
Math and Languages, Differential Calculus.
Student of:
Ramiro Rampinelli, and various other private tutors, including Isaac
Newton, Descartes, Leibniz and Euler.
Family:
Daughter of Pietro Agnesi, a silk merchant, his oldest daughter of 21
Children.
Awards:
1749 - Pope Benedict XIV awarded her a gold medal
Accomplishments:
Mastered French by Age 5.
Mastered Latin, Greek and Hebrew by the Age
of 9.
Published a Latin Discourse in Defense of Women in Higher Education at the
Age of 9.
1738 - Published Propositiones
Philosophicae, a collection of essays on natural science and
philosophy. She was 20 years old at the time of publication.
1748 - Published Analytical
Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth, a book of differential
and integral calculus (1748). One of the first and most complete
works on finite and infinitesimal analysis. Volume I - Algebra and
precalculus mathematics and Volume 2 - Differential and integral calculus,
infinite series and differential equations.
Created the "Witch of Agnesi"
curve equation (The word "witch" means "curve" when
translated).
1750 - Elected to the Bologna
Academy of Sciences
Information on the
Period:
In the middle ages, the time when Maria Gaetana Agnesis Lived, most
countries did not allow women to receive education due to the principals
of Christianity (education composed temptation and sin). Nunneries
and Monasteries were the only opportunities women had for education.
After the great kingdom of Constantinople
was destroyed, many scholars and thinkers made Rome their home. This
migration of information caused the Renaissance era to begin. In the
Italian Renaissance, women had many educational opportunities available to
them. This allowed Maria to participate in many intellectual
activities. She became the most important figure in 18th century
mathematics. |
