Maria Agnesi

Maria Gaetana Agnesi, born in 1718, was a brilliant linguist, philosopher, and of course mathematician. She was the oldest in her family, the first of 21 children. Her father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna, so she was able to be educated by private tutors. Similar to Emilie du Chatelet, she spoke many languages including Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and German. Similar to previous Mathematicians that I have blogged about, Maria lived in a time where women did not get an education, but women that had an education were highly renowned. Her father would hold meetings at his house, inviting brilliant intellectuals over, to dispute philosophical and scientific topics. Maria watched these meetings, spoke, and learned from intelligent minds. When she was 20, she wrote a book Propositions Philosophicae, which based on these discussions. In 1748, she published Instituzioni Analitiche, a book used to teach her younger siblings mathematics. It is the first surviving mathematical work written by a woman, to this day. In this book Maria made significant advances in algebra and analysis, and also differential and integral calculus. Maria's book math algebra clear, and people were ecstatic that they could read this exposition. Her most known development is the cubic equation yx^2=a^2(a-y), in which is known as the "witch of Agnesi."

Maria was a women who lived to please her father, and she took on the role of child prodigy mathematician to please him. She did like mathematics,but she had other interests that she pursued more, such as her religion. Once her mother died, Maria gave up going to her father's meetings to tend to the children. Her mother died when Maria was about 20, so Maria was a 20 year old, taking care of 20 children. That's astonishing! Once Maria's father died in 1752, Maria gave up mathematics for life. At this point in time, she decided  she was going to devote the rest of her life to charitable projects and religious meditation. In 1771, she became the directress of a home for the poor and ill, and she stayed directress until her death at age 81. Maria is not like other mathematicians, whose lives were only filled with researching and discovering new mathematics. Maria led a balanced life, and knew that family, and personal morals are much more important in life than being a famous mathematician, and I admire her for that.

References and Photo:
The History of Mathematics- by David Burton

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/agnesi.htm

http://valure.wiki.ccsd.edu/Maria+Agnesi