Agnesi, Maria Gaetana

AGNESI, MARIA GAETANA. - Scholar of mathematical sciences and educator, b. in Milan on May 16, 1718, and d. there on Jan. 9, 1799. Of precocious intelligence, she took part, while still a child, in the academies held in the house of her father, a professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna, and in one of these, at the age of 9, she delivered a discourse of her teacher, which she had translated into Latin: «oratio qua ostenditur artium liberalium studia foemino sexu neutiquam abhorrere». She studied, besides the classical languages, French, German, and Spanish; she applied herself to history and, particularly, to philosophy; but the true field of her genius was mathematics. Her Istituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana (1784) were so appreciated that they were translated into French (by D'Antelmy) and into English (by Colson). Pope Benedict XIV himself expressed his satisfaction with her and offered her the chair of mathematics at the University of Bologna. She did not accept and instead followed her vocation, devoting herself entirely to the care of the sick, first in her own house, where she had set up a hospital, then in the «Luogo pio Trivulzio», a home for destitute old men and women, where she was called in 1771 by the archbishop of Milan, and where she died after spending there, as directress, teacher and nurse, the last 15 years of her life.