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{{short description|Italian mathematician and philanthropist (1718–1799)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist {{Infobox scientist
|name = Maria Gaetana Agnesi y vianneris reye | name = Maria Gaetana Agnesi
|image = Maria Gaetana Agnesi.jpg | image = Maria Gaetana Agnesi.jpg
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|birth_date = {{birth date |1718|05|16}} | birth_date = {{birth date|1718|05|16|df=y}}
|birth_place = | birth_place = ], ]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1799|01|09|1718|05|16}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1799|01|09|1718|05|16|df=y}}
|death_place = | death_place = Milan, ]
|residence = ] | residence =
| nationality = Italian
|citizenship =
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|nationality = ]
| doctoral_advisor =
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| known_for = Author of ''Instituzioni Analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana'' (English: ''Analytical Institutions for the use of Italian youth'')
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'''Maria Gaetana Agnesi''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|æ|n|ˈ|j|eɪ|z|i}} {{respell|an|YAY|zee}},<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Agnesi,+Maria+Gaetana |title=Agnesi, Maria Gaetana |dictionary=] UK English Dictionary |publisher=]}}{{dead link|date=September 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|US|ɑː|n|ˈ|-}} {{respell|ahn|-}},<ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Agnesi|access-date=6 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|witch of Agnesi|access-date=6 August 2019}}</ref> {{IPA|it|maˈriːa ɡaeˈtaːna aɲˈɲeːzi, -ɲɛːz-|lang}};<ref>Canepari, L. (1999, 2009) '' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515190043/http://venus.unive.it/canipa/pdf/DiPI_3_A-Z.pdf |date=15 May 2013 }}''. Bologna, Zanichelli.</ref> 16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799) was an ] ], ], ], and ]. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the ] at a university.<ref> (] from the original), About Education</ref>
'''Maria Gaetana Agnesi'''<ref>Agnesi: {{IPA-it|a.ˈɲe.zi}}; the "gn" ] is pronounced with the ] {{IPA|/ɲ/}}</ref> (May 16, 1718 – January 9, 1799) was an ] ] and ].


She is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral ] and was an honorary member of the faculty at the ].<ref>According to ], Agnesi is "the first important woman mathematician since ] (fifth century A.D.)".</ref> She is credited with writing the first book discussing both ] and ] and was a member of the faculty at the ], although she never served.


She devoted the last four decades of her life to studying ] (especially ]) and to ] and serving the poor. She was a devout ] and wrote extensively on the marriage between intellectual pursuit and mystical contemplation, most notably in her essay ''Il cielo mistico'' (The Mystic Heaven). She saw the rational contemplation of God as a complement to prayer and contemplation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Mazzotti | first = Massimo | date = December 2001 | doi = 10.1086/385354 | issue = 4 | journal = ] | jstor = 3080337 | pages = 657–683 | title = Maria Gaetana Agnesi: Mathematics and the making of the Catholic enlightenment | url = http://history.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/Maria%20Gaetana%20Agnesi.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141224170023/http://history.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/Maria%20Gaetana%20Agnesi.pdf | archive-date = 24 December 2014 | url-status = dead | volume = 92| hdl = 10036/28899 | s2cid = 143457046 | hdl-access = free }}</ref>
She devoted the last four decades of her life to studying theology (especially ]) and to serving the poor.


], ] and composer, was her sister. ], ] and ], was her sister.


==Early life== ==Early life==
Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in ], to a wealthy and literate family.{{sfn|A'Becket|1913}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.agnesscott.edu/Lriddle/WOMEN/agnesi.htm |title=Maria Gaetana Agnesi |publisher=Agnesscott.edu |access-date=16 May 2014}}</ref><ref name=moar>{{cite book|last=Maor|first=Eli|title=Trigonometric Delights|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691158204|pages=108–111|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iShKAIKrCSoC&q=%22Maria+Agnesi+and+Her+%E2%80%9CWitch%E2%80%9D%22&pg=PA108|chapter=Maria Agnesi and Her “Witch”}}</ref> Her father Pietro Agnesi, a wealthy silk merchant,<ref name=findlen>Findlen, Paula, ''Calculations of faith: mathematics, philosophy, and sanctity in 18th-century Italy (new work on Maria Gaetana Agnesi)'' ''Historia Mathematica'' 38 (2011), 248-291. {{doi|10.1016/j.hm.2010.05.003}}</ref> wanted to elevate his family into the Milanese nobility. In order to achieve his goal, he married ] of the ] family in 1717. Her mother's death provided her the excuse to retire from public life. She took over the management of the household. She was one of 21 children.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia|last=Spradley|first=Joseph|publisher=Salem Press|year=2016|via=Ebsco}}</ref> Her family was recognized as one of the wealthiest in Milan.{{cn|date=May 2021}}
]
Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan on May 16, 1718, to a wealthy and literate family.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Maria Gaetana Agnesi}}</ref><ref></ref><ref>http://press.princeton.edu/books/maor/sidebar_f.pdf</ref> Her father wanted to elevate his family into the Milanese nobility. In order to achieve his goal, he had married in 1717 Anna Fortunata ]. Her mother's death provided her the excuse to retire from public life. She took over management of the household.


]
Having been born in ], Maria was recognized as a ] very early; she could speak both ] and ] at five years of age. By her thirteenth birthday she had acquired ], ], ], ], ], and was referred to as the "Walking Polyglot". She even educated her younger brothers. When she was 9 years old, she composed and delivered an hour-long speech in Latin to some of the most distinguished intellectuals of the day. The subject was women's right to be educated. When she was fifteen, her father began to regularly gather in his house a circle of the most learned men in ], before whom she read and maintained a series of theses on the most abstruse philosophical questions. Records of these meetings are given in Charles de Brosses' ''Lettres sur l'Italie'' and in the ''Propositiones Philosophicae'', which her father had published in 1738. Maria was very shy in nature and did not like these meetings. Although her father refused to grant this wish of joining a convent, he agreed to let her live from that time on in an almost conventual semi-retirement, avoiding all interactions with society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics. During that time, Maria studied both differential and integral calculus. Her father, Pietro Agnesi, also married twice more after Maria's mother died, so that Maria Agnesi ended up the oldest of 21 children. In addition to her performances and lessons, her responsibility was to teach her siblings. This task kept her from her own goal of entering a convent. Fellow philosophers thought she was extremely beautiful and her family was recognized as one of the wealthiest in Milan.
Maria was recognized early on as a ]; she could speak both ] and ] at five years of age. By her eleventh birthday, she had also learned ], ], ], ], and ], and was referred to as the "Seven-Tongued Orator".<ref name="Ogilvie">{{cite book|title=Women in science: antiquity through the nineteenth century : a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography|last1=Ogilvie|first1=Marilyn Bailey|last2=Harvey|first2=Joy|author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie|author2-link=Joy Harvey|publisher=MIT Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-262-15031-6|edition=3rd print|location=Cambridge, Mass.|page=|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/womeninscience00mari}}</ref>
Maria became a professor at the University of Bologna.

Agnesi suffered a mysterious illness at the age of twelve that was attributed to her excessive studying and reading, so she was prescribed vigorous dancing and horseback riding. This treatment did not work; she began to experience extreme convulsions, after which she was encouraged to pursue moderation. By age fourteen, she was studying ] and ].<ref name=Ogilvie /> When she was fifteen, her father began to regularly gather in his house a circle of the most learned men in ], before whom she read and maintained a series of theses on the most abstruse philosophical questions. Records of these meetings are given in ]' ''Lettres sur l'Italie'' and in the ''Propositiones Philosophicae'', which her father had published in 1738 as an account of her final performance, where she defended 190 philosophical theses.<ref name=Ogilvie/>

Her father remarried twice after Maria's mother died, and Maria Agnesi ended up the eldest of 21 children, including her half-siblings. Her father agreed with her that if she were to continue her mathematics research, then she would be permitted to do all the charity work she wanted.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Headstrong 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World|last=Swaby|first=Rachel|publisher=Broadway Books|year=2015|location=New York|pages=179}}</ref> In addition to her performances and lessons, her responsibility was to teach her siblings. This task kept her from her own goal of entering a convent, as she had become strongly religious. Although her father refused to grant this wish, he agreed to let her live from that time on in an almost conventual semi-retirement, avoiding all interactions with society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics.<ref name=Ogilvie/> After having read in 1739 the ''Traité analytique des sections coniques''<ref>{{Cite book|last=L'Hospital|first=Guillaume-François-Antoine de (1661–1704) Auteur du texte|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1042799f|title=Traité analytique des sections coniques et de leur usage pour la résolution des équations... ouvrage posthume de M. le marquis de L'Hospital,...|date=1776|language=EN}}</ref> of the Marquis ], she was fully introduced into the field in 1740 by ], an ] monk who was one of the most notable Italian mathematicians of that time.<ref name=gl/> During that time, Maria studied with him both ] and ] calculus.


==Contributions to mathematics== ==Contributions to mathematics==
===''Instituzioni analitiche''=== ===''Instituzioni analitiche''===
] ]
The most valuable result of her labours was the ''Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana'', a work of great merit, which was published at ] in 1748 and "was regarded as the best introduction extant to the works of ]." <ref></ref> The first volume treats of the analysis of ] and the second of the analysis of ]s. A French translation of the second volume by ], with additions by ] (1730–1814), was published in ] in 1775; and an English translation of the whole work by ] (1680–1760), the ] at ], "inspected" by ], was published in 1801 at the expense of ].<ref>''Analytical institutions...'' (four volumes), London, 1801 {{google books|o54AAAAAMAAJ|vol. 1|page=PR3}}</ref> According to Britannica, she is "considered to be the first woman in the Western world to have achieved a reputation in mathematics". The most valuable result of her labours was the ''Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana'', (Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth) which was published in Milan in 1748 and "was regarded as the best introduction extant to the works of ]".{{sfn|A'Becket|1913}} The goal of this work was, according to Agnesi herself, to give a systematic illustration of the different results and theorems of ].<ref name=gl/> The model for her treatise was ''Le calcul différentiel et intégral dans l’Analyse'' by ].<ref name=gl/> In this treatise, she worked on integrating ] with ].<ref name=Ogilvie/> The first volume treats the analysis of ] and the second of the analysis of ]s.

A French translation of the second volume by ], with additions by ] (1730–1814), was published in ] in 1775; and ''Analytical Institutions'', an English translation of the whole work by ] (1680–1760), the ] at ], "inspected" by ], was published in 1801 at the expense of ].<ref>''Analytical institutions...'' (four volumes), London, 1801 {{google books|o54AAAAAMAAJ|vol. 1|page=PR3}}</ref> The work was dedicated to Empress ], who thanked Agnesi with the gift of a diamond ring, a personal letter, and a diamond and crystal case. Many others praised her work, including ], who wrote her a complimentary letter and sent her a gold wreath and a gold medal.<ref name=Ogilvie/>

In writing this work, Agnesi was advised and helped by two distinguished mathematicians: her former teacher Ramiro Rampinelli and ].<ref name=gl>{{cite web|last1=Gliozzi|first1=Mario|title=Agnesi, Maria Gaetana|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/maria-gaetana-agnesi_(Dizionario_Biografico)/|website=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani|publisher=Enciclopedia Italiana|access-date=17 September 2015|language=it}}</ref>


====Witch of Agnesi==== ====Witch of Agnesi====
{{Main|Witch of Agnesi}} {{Main|Witch of Agnesi}}


The ''Instituzioni analitiche...'', among other things, discussed a curve earlier studied and constructed by ] and ]. Grandi called the curve ''versoria'' in Latin and suggested the term ''versiera'' for Italian,<ref name=truesdell>C. Truesdell, "Correction and Additions for 'Maria Gaetana Agnesi'", ''Archive for History of Exact Science'' 43 (1991), 385-386. {{doi|10.1007/BF00374764}} ] In ''Instituzioni analitiche'', Agnesi discussed a curve earlier studied and constructed by ] and ].
*Per Grandi: "...nata da' seni versi, che da me suole chiamarsi la ''Versiera'' in latino pero ''Versoria''..."</ref> possibly as a pun:<ref>S.M.Stigler, "Cauchy and the witch of Agnesi: An historical note on the Cauchy distribution", '']'', 1974, vol. 61, no.2 p. 375-380</ref> ']' is a nautical term, "]", while ''versiera/aversiera'' is "she-devil", "witch", from Latin ''Adversarius'', an alias for "]" (Adversary of God). For whatever reasons, after translations and publications of the ''Instituzioni analitiche...'' the curve has become known as the "Witch of Agnesi".


Agnesi described the curve as ''versiera'' in Italian, which is a synonym for the adjective ''versoria'' meaning "turning in every direction".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mulcrone |first=T. F. |date=1957 |title=The Names of the Curve of Agnesi |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2309605 |journal=The American Mathematical Monthly |volume=64 |issue=5 |pages=359–361 |doi=10.2307/2309605 |jstor=2309605 |issn=0002-9890}}</ref> At the same time ''versiera'' was used as a term for a "she-devil" or "witch", from Latin ''Adversarius'', an alias for "]" (Adversary of God). Future translations and publications of the ''Instituzioni analitiche'' carried forward the former meaning either as a translation error or possibly as a pun.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stigler |first=Stephen M. |author-link=Stephen Stigler |year=1974 |title=Studies in the history of probability and statistics. XXXIII. Cauchy and the witch of Agnesi: an historical note on the Cauchy distribution |journal=] |volume=61 |pages=375–380 |doi=10.1093/biomet/61.2.375 |mr=370838}}</ref> The curve has become known as the "Witch of Agnesi".{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
===Other===
Agnesi also wrote a commentary on the ''Traité analytique des sections coniques du ]'', which, though highly praised by those who saw it in manuscript, was never published.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911, p. 378</ref>


===Other===
]
Agnesi also wrote a commentary on the ''Traité analytique des sections coniques du ]'' which, though highly praised by those who saw it in manuscript, was never published.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911, p. 378</ref>


==Later life== ==Later life==
In 1750, on the illness of her father, she was appointed by ] to the chair of mathematics and ] and physics at ]. She was the first woman to be appointed professor at a university. After the death of her father in 1752 she carried out a long-cherished purpose by giving herself to the study of ], and especially of the ] and devoted herself to the poor, homeless, and sick. After holding for some years the office of director of the Hospice Trivulzio for ] at Milan, she herself joined the sisterhood, and in this ] order ended her days, though the terms of her death are unknown. In 1750, on the illness of her father, she was appointed by ]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} to the chair of mathematics and ] and physics at ], though she never served.<ref name=Ogilvie/> She was the second woman ever to be granted a professorship at a university, ] being the first.<ref>Pickover, Clifford. ''The Math Book''. Sterling Publishing, 2009, p. 180.</ref> In 1751, she became ill again and was told not to study by her doctors. After the death of her father in 1752 she carried out a long-cherished purpose by giving herself to the study of ], and especially of the ] and devoted herself to the poor, homeless, and sick, giving away the gifts she had received and begging for money to continue her work with the poor. In 1783, she founded and became the director of the ], a home for Milan's elderly, where she lived as the nuns of the institution did.<ref name=Ogilvie/> On 9 January 1799, Maria Agnesi died poor and was buried in a mass grave for the poor with fifteen other bodies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.math.twsu.edu/history/Women/agnesi.html|title=Agnesi|website=www.math.twsu.edu|access-date=18 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109004006/http://www.math.twsu.edu/history/Women/agnesi.html|archive-date=9 January 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>


==Remembrance== ==Recognition==
]
*], a curve
In 1996, an asteroid, ], was named after Agnesi.
*A ] on ] <ref>Atlas of Venus, by Peter John Cattermole, Patrick Moore, 1997, ISBN 0-521-49652-7, </ref>

*Asteroid ] (1996)
There is a ] on ] named Agnesi after her.<ref>''Atlas of Venus'', by Peter John Cattermole, Patrick Moore, 1997, {{ISBN|0-521-49652-7}}, </ref>

She is included in a deck of playing cards featuring notable women mathematicians published by the ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mathematicians of EvenQuads Deck 1 |url=https://awm-math.org/publications/playing-cards/deck1/#agnesi |access-date=2022-06-18 |website=awm-math.org}}</ref>

==See also==
* ]
* ]


==References== ==References==
* {{1911}}
{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}

* ]; Hostetler, Robert P.; and Edwards, Bruce H. (2003). ''Calculus of a Single Variable: Early Transcendental Functions'' (3rd edition). Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-22307-X.
;Attribution
* , ]
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Agnesi, Maria Gaetana|volume=1}}
* ''''
* {{cite CE1913|wstitle=Maria Gaetana Agnesi|first=John Joseph|last= A'Becket}}
*
* D. J. Struik, editor, ''A source book in mathematics, 1200–1800'' (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1986), pp.&nbsp;178–180. ISBN 0-691-08404-1, ISBN 0-691-02397-2 (pbk).
* Agnes Scott College,
*


==Further reading== ==Further reading==
* {{cite Q|Q115389749|editor1=Henry Gardiner Adams}}<!-- ] -->
{{Commons}}
* , ]
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Agnesi, Maria Gaetana}}
* {{mactutor|id=Agnesi|mode=cs1}}
*
* D. J. Struik, editor, ''A source book in mathematics, 1200–1800'' (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1986), pp.&nbsp;178–180. {{ISBN|0-691-08404-1}}, {{ISBN|0-691-02397-2}} (pbk).
*
* {{cite encyclopedia * {{cite encyclopedia
| last = Kramer | last = Kramer
Line 90: Line 102:
| location = New York | location = New York
| year = 1970 | year = 1970
| isbn = 0-684-10114-9 | isbn = 978-0-684-10114-9
}} }}
* Mazzotti, Massimo (2001). "Maria Gaetana Agnesi: Mathematics and the making of the Catholic Enlightenment." ''Isis.'' v. 92, n. 4: pp.&nbsp;657–683. * Mazzotti, Massimo (2007). ''The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Oglivie, Marilyn, Harvey, Joy (2000). ''The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science''. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-92038-8}}
*Mazzotti, Massimo (2007). ''The world of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
* {{cite book |last1=Cupillari |first1=Antonella|author-link= Antonella Cupillari |title=A biography of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an eighteenth-century woman mathematician: with translations of some of her work from Italian into English|title-link=A Biography of Maria Gaetana Agnesi |date=2007 |publisher=] |location=Lewiston, New York |isbn=978-0-7734-5226-8}}


== External links == ==External links==
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Agnesi, Maria Gaetana}}
* *
*
* : bibliographical and biographical references. - ]

{{History of Catholic theology|uncollapsed}}
{{Authority control}}


{{Authority control|VIAF=2459799}}
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see ]. -->
| NAME = Agnesi, Maria Gaetana
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Mathematician
| DATE OF BIRTH = May 16, 1718
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH = January 9, 1799
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnesi, Maria Gaetana}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Agnesi, Maria Gaetana}}
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
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Latest revision as of 01:37, 3 October 2024

Italian mathematician and philanthropist (1718–1799)

Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Born(1718-05-16)16 May 1718
Milan, Duchy of Milan
Died9 January 1799(1799-01-09) (aged 80)
Milan, Cisalpine Republic
NationalityItalian
Known forAuthor of Instituzioni Analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana (English: Analytical Institutions for the use of Italian youth)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Bologna

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (UK: /ænˈjeɪzi/ an-YAY-zee, US: /ɑːnˈ-/ ahn-, Italian: [maˈriːa ɡaeˈtaːna aɲˈɲeːzi, -ɲɛːz-]; 16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university.

She is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus and was a member of the faculty at the University of Bologna, although she never served.

She devoted the last four decades of her life to studying theology (especially patristics) and to charitable work and serving the poor. She was a devout Catholic and wrote extensively on the marriage between intellectual pursuit and mystical contemplation, most notably in her essay Il cielo mistico (The Mystic Heaven). She saw the rational contemplation of God as a complement to prayer and contemplation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini, harpsichordist and composer, was her sister.

Early life

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan, to a wealthy and literate family. Her father Pietro Agnesi, a wealthy silk merchant, wanted to elevate his family into the Milanese nobility. In order to achieve his goal, he married Anna Fortunato Brivio of the Brivius de Brokles family in 1717. Her mother's death provided her the excuse to retire from public life. She took over the management of the household. She was one of 21 children. Her family was recognized as one of the wealthiest in Milan.

Agnesi's diploma from Università di Bologna

Maria was recognized early on as a child prodigy; she could speak both Italian and French at five years of age. By her eleventh birthday, she had also learned Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German, and Latin, and was referred to as the "Seven-Tongued Orator".

Agnesi suffered a mysterious illness at the age of twelve that was attributed to her excessive studying and reading, so she was prescribed vigorous dancing and horseback riding. This treatment did not work; she began to experience extreme convulsions, after which she was encouraged to pursue moderation. By age fourteen, she was studying ballistics and geometry. When she was fifteen, her father began to regularly gather in his house a circle of the most learned men in Bologna, before whom she read and maintained a series of theses on the most abstruse philosophical questions. Records of these meetings are given in Charles de Brosses' Lettres sur l'Italie and in the Propositiones Philosophicae, which her father had published in 1738 as an account of her final performance, where she defended 190 philosophical theses.

Her father remarried twice after Maria's mother died, and Maria Agnesi ended up the eldest of 21 children, including her half-siblings. Her father agreed with her that if she were to continue her mathematics research, then she would be permitted to do all the charity work she wanted. In addition to her performances and lessons, her responsibility was to teach her siblings. This task kept her from her own goal of entering a convent, as she had become strongly religious. Although her father refused to grant this wish, he agreed to let her live from that time on in an almost conventual semi-retirement, avoiding all interactions with society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics. After having read in 1739 the Traité analytique des sections coniques of the Marquis Guillaume de l'Hôpital, she was fully introduced into the field in 1740 by Ramiro Rampinelli, an Olivetan monk who was one of the most notable Italian mathematicians of that time. During that time, Maria studied with him both differential and integral calculus.

Contributions to mathematics

Instituzioni analitiche

First page of Instituzioni analitiche (1748)

According to Britannica, she is "considered to be the first woman in the Western world to have achieved a reputation in mathematics". The most valuable result of her labours was the Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana, (Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth) which was published in Milan in 1748 and "was regarded as the best introduction extant to the works of Euler". The goal of this work was, according to Agnesi herself, to give a systematic illustration of the different results and theorems of infinitesimal calculus. The model for her treatise was Le calcul différentiel et intégral dans l’Analyse by Charles René Reyneau. In this treatise, she worked on integrating mathematical analysis with algebra. The first volume treats the analysis of finite quantities and the second of the analysis of infinitesimals.

A French translation of the second volume by P. T. d'Antelmy, with additions by Charles Bossut (1730–1814), was published in Paris in 1775; and Analytical Institutions, an English translation of the whole work by John Colson (1680–1760), the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, "inspected" by John Hellins, was published in 1801 at the expense of Baron Maseres. The work was dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa, who thanked Agnesi with the gift of a diamond ring, a personal letter, and a diamond and crystal case. Many others praised her work, including Pope Benedict XIV, who wrote her a complimentary letter and sent her a gold wreath and a gold medal.

In writing this work, Agnesi was advised and helped by two distinguished mathematicians: her former teacher Ramiro Rampinelli and Jacopo Riccati.

Witch of Agnesi

Main article: Witch of Agnesi
An illustration of the graphical construction of the Witch of Agnesi
Graphical construction of the Witch of Agnesi

In Instituzioni analitiche, Agnesi discussed a curve earlier studied and constructed by Pierre de Fermat and Guido Grandi.

Agnesi described the curve as versiera in Italian, which is a synonym for the adjective versoria meaning "turning in every direction". At the same time versiera was used as a term for a "she-devil" or "witch", from Latin Adversarius, an alias for "devil" (Adversary of God). Future translations and publications of the Instituzioni analitiche carried forward the former meaning either as a translation error or possibly as a pun. The curve has become known as the "Witch of Agnesi".

Other

Agnesi also wrote a commentary on the Traité analytique des sections coniques du marquis de l'Hôpital which, though highly praised by those who saw it in manuscript, was never published.

Later life

In 1750, on the illness of her father, she was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy and physics at Bologna, though she never served. She was the second woman ever to be granted a professorship at a university, Laura Bassi being the first. In 1751, she became ill again and was told not to study by her doctors. After the death of her father in 1752 she carried out a long-cherished purpose by giving herself to the study of theology, and especially of the Fathers and devoted herself to the poor, homeless, and sick, giving away the gifts she had received and begging for money to continue her work with the poor. In 1783, she founded and became the director of the Opera Pia Trivulzio, a home for Milan's elderly, where she lived as the nuns of the institution did. On 9 January 1799, Maria Agnesi died poor and was buried in a mass grave for the poor with fifteen other bodies.

Recognition

Bust of Maria Gaetana Agnesi in Milan

In 1996, an asteroid, 16765 Agnesi, was named after Agnesi.

There is a crater on Venus named Agnesi after her.

She is included in a deck of playing cards featuring notable women mathematicians published by the Association of Women in Mathematics.

See also

References

  1. "Agnesi, Maria Gaetana". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
  2. "Agnesi". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  3. "witch of Agnesi". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  4. Canepari, L. (1999, 2009) Dizionario di pronuncia italiana Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Bologna, Zanichelli.
  5. WOMEN'S HISTORY CATEGORIES (archived from the original), About Education
  6. Mazzotti, Massimo (December 2001). "Maria Gaetana Agnesi: Mathematics and the making of the Catholic enlightenment" (PDF). Isis. 92 (4): 657–683. doi:10.1086/385354. hdl:10036/28899. JSTOR 3080337. S2CID 143457046. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2014.
  7. ^ A'Becket 1913.
  8. "Maria Gaetana Agnesi". Agnesscott.edu. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  9. Maor, Eli (2013). "Maria Agnesi and Her "Witch"". Trigonometric Delights. Princeton University Press. pp. 108–111. ISBN 9780691158204.
  10. Findlen, Paula, Calculations of faith: mathematics, philosophy, and sanctity in 18th-century Italy (new work on Maria Gaetana Agnesi) Historia Mathematica 38 (2011), 248-291. doi:10.1016/j.hm.2010.05.003
  11. Spradley, Joseph (2016). Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. Salem Press – via Ebsco.
  12. ^ Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy (1986). Women in science: antiquity through the nineteenth century : a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography (3rd print ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-262-15031-6.
  13. Swaby, Rachel (2015). Headstrong 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World. New York: Broadway Books. p. 179.
  14. L'Hospital, Guillaume-François-Antoine de (1661–1704) Auteur du texte (1776). Traité analytique des sections coniques et de leur usage pour la résolution des équations... ouvrage posthume de M. le marquis de L'Hospital,...{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Gliozzi, Mario. "Agnesi, Maria Gaetana". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  16. Analytical institutions... (four volumes), London, 1801 vol. 1, p. PR3, at Google Books
  17. Mulcrone, T. F. (1957). "The Names of the Curve of Agnesi". The American Mathematical Monthly. 64 (5): 359–361. doi:10.2307/2309605. ISSN 0002-9890. JSTOR 2309605.
  18. Stigler, Stephen M. (1974). "Studies in the history of probability and statistics. XXXIII. Cauchy and the witch of Agnesi: an historical note on the Cauchy distribution". Biometrika. 61: 375–380. doi:10.1093/biomet/61.2.375. MR 0370838.
  19. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  20. Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911, p. 378
  21. Pickover, Clifford. The Math Book. Sterling Publishing, 2009, p. 180.
  22. "Agnesi". www.math.twsu.edu. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  23. Atlas of Venus, by Peter John Cattermole, Patrick Moore, 1997, ISBN 0-521-49652-7, p. 112
  24. "Mathematicians of EvenQuads Deck 1". awm-math.org. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
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