Maria Gaetana Agnesi
*May 16, 1718 (Milano)
†January 1799 (Milano)
Italian mathematician and philosopher
Maria Gaetana Agnesi rose to fame in her lifetime as a child prodigy in her native Milan. Later she became known mostly for her 1748 Instituzioni Analitiche, a calculus textbook, that caught the attention of mathematicians throughout Europe, including Leonhard Euler. This work earned her an honorary place in the Academy of Sciences of Bologna.
Il diploma di nomina dell’ Agnesi all’ Università di Bologna. 15 Oct 1750
She has been found to be an enigmatic figure of the history of science, as she gave up her scientific pursuits in her thirties for a life of piety helping the poor.
Agnesi wrote about the rights of women to an education while still a child; she published in 1727 the Oratio in which the worth of women was assessed and defended.
Her scientific interests go from Newtonian mechanics to natural history and the relationship of the soul with the body. Her mathematics combines Leibnizian and Newtonian perspectives on calculus, as well as differential and integral calculus.
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PROJECT: AGNESI ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND MATHEMATICS
by Iulia Mihai
Our research is centered upon Agnesi’s first book, Propositiones philosophicae (1738).
The book is a compendium of science, whose structure is similar to that of textbook introductions to philosophy in the tradition of Latin language philosophy of the early modern period. It starts with topics in logic, the mind, goes on to the nature of body and motion, and ends with topics in meteorology and the organic soul. What is surprising about the book is that, instead of going with either Newtonianism or Cartesianism, Agnesi appeals instead to Stoicism in decisive philosophical matters.Thus, the current project is focused on exploring (i) the extent to which Agnesi embraces Stoic philosophy in her natural philosophy prior to her 1748 Instituzioni analitiche; and (ii) how Newtonian mechanics is incorporated in her views on nature. A critical edition of the Latin text with an English translation of Agnesi’s Propositiones philosophicae is in preparation.
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Primary Sources
Agnesi published three titles under her name, as follows:
1727. Oratio qua ostenditur artium liberalium studia a femeneo sexu netiquam abhorrere, Milano: In Curia Regia.
Translated as The Studies of the Liberal Arts by the Female Sex Are by No Means Inappropriate (1727) in Massbarger, R. and Findlen, P. (eds.) 2005. The Contest for Knowledge: Debates over women’s learning in Eighteenth-Century Italy, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.
1738. Propositiones Philosophicae, Milan: In Curia Regia.
There is also a number of reviews of Agnesi’s 1748 Institutions:
Anon. 1749. Review of Agnesi’s Instituzioni analitiche in Novelle letterarie 10(31), col. 492-496; (37), col. 586-587.
Anon. 1750. Review of Agnesi’s Instituzioni analitiche in Journal des Scavans, 309-310.
Anon. 1750. Review of Agnesi’s Instituzioni analitiche in Nova Acta Eruditorum n. 13, 605-609.
Anon. 1750. Review of Agnesi’s Instituzioni analitiche in Novelle della Repubblica Letteraria n. 23, 180-181.
Anon. 1750. Review of Agnesi’s Instituzioni analitiche in Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps, Tome III, Genève et Amsterdam, Pierre Mortier, p. 66–71.
De Mairan, Dortous 1749. Review of Agnesi’s Instituzioni analitiche in Les registres de l’académie royale des Sciences (republished in A. F. Frisi 1799. Elogio storico di D. Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Milano: Presso Giuseppe Galeazzi).
Other literature:
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Secoundary Sources
Accademia di Padova 2005. The contest for knowledge. Debates over women’s learning in eighteenth-century Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Other voice in early modern Europe).
Anzoletti, Luisa 1900. Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Luisa Anzoletti. Milano: L. F. Cogliati.
Benazzoli, Cornelia 1939. Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Milano: Bocca.Bellù, Adele; Giacometti, Giulio; Sessa, Piero 1999. Maria Gaetana Agnesi ricercatrice di Gesù Cristo. Milano: NED.
Bernardi, Gabriella 2016. The Unforgotten Sisters. Female Astronomers and Scientists before Caroline Herschel. 1st ed. 2016. Cham: Springer.
Betti, Renato 2018. A protagonist of the 18th-century mathematics: Maria Gaetana Agnesi. In: Lettera matematica 6 (2), S. 93–102.
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Coen, S. 2017. Geometry and Complex Variables. 1st ed. London: CRC Press.
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Faulkner, Nicholas 2016. Top 101 Women of STEM. Chicago, IL: Britannica Educational Publishing (People You Should Know II).Findlen, Paula 2011. Calculations of faith. Mathematics, philosophy, and sanctity in 18th-century Italy (new work on Maria Gaetana Agnesi). In: Historia mathematica.
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Frisi, Antonio Francesco 1965. Elogio storico di D.a Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Ristampa della edizione milanese del 1799. Milano.
Guerrini, Paolo 1919. Il maestro di Maria Gaetana Agnesi. In: La scuola cattolica.
Klens, Ulrike 1994. Mathematikerinnen im 18. Jahrhundert. Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Gabrielle-Emilie DuChâtelet, Sophie Germain ; Fallstudien zur Wechselwirkung von Wissenschaft und Philosophie im Zeitalter der Aufklärung. Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Diss., 1992. Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus-Verl.-Ges (Forum Frauengeschichte, 12).
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Mazzotti, Massimo 2007. The world of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Riccati, Vincenzo 1753. Lettera di Vincenzio Riccati della compagnia di Gesù alla Signora D. Gaetana Maria Agnesi intorno alla costruzione di alcune formule senza la separazione delle indeterminate. (Florentiae).
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- Online Sources
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