Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born May 16, 1718, in Milan. Milan was Habsburg crownland at the time, meaning it was owned by the Habsburg family of Germany, who were the reigning monarchs at the time. She is often considered to be the first woman in the Western world to achieve a reputation in mathematics. Maria was the eldest child of a wealthy silk merchant and University of Bologna professor named, Piero Agnesi, who provided her with the best tutors. Her mother died when she was 13 and her father remarried twice, so Maria became the eldest of 21 children. She was an adept learner and mastered five languages; French, Latin, Greek, Spanish and Hebrew, by the time she was 13. Unlike other noblewomen at the time she wasn't solely educated in a convent on subjects like religion, household management and dressmaking. She was so gifted, her father liked to host public gatherings of collogues where Maria would show her off her talents. However Maria disliked these performances but wasn't able to dissuade her father from holding them until she was 20.
Proposistiones philosophicae (Propisitions of Philosophy), a series essays about natural philosophy and history, based on her discussions before said gatherings, was published in 1738. However this series went beyond what we consider philosophy today, Maria included scientific topics like movement of the planets, stars and other celestial bodies and Isaac Newton's gravitation theory. On top of her scientific endeavors, performances and education, Maria also had the duty of educating her younger siblings. This prevented her from entering a convent, as she desired to.
Maria's best known work is, Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventu italiana (Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth), was published in 1748, in two volumes. It provided a detailed, methodical look at algebra and analysis and included the relatively new ideas of integral and differential calculus. This was also the first time someone had published a book about the methods of calculus of both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Liebnitz. Her work on the Instituzioni was commended by the French Academy of Sciences, "We regard it as the most complete and best made trestise", Pope Benedict XIV was likewise impressed and appointed Maria as the professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna in 1750, where her father also taught. However it isn't known whether the position the pope offered Maria, was legitimate or just an honorary one.
Her work compiled the ideas of many contemporary mathematical thinkers, made possible by her adeptness with multiple languages; which impressed other mathematicians and scholars of her day.
Nonetheless, Maria had become increasingly religious and likely never travelled to Bologna. After her father's death 1752, Maria totally dedicated herself to charity and religious studies. She established a number of hospices and on January 9, 1799, she died at one of the poorhouses she helped found, after she had given away everything she owned.
Sidenotes:
Integral calculus- a mathematic system that assigns numbers to functions that describe area, volume, displacement and other concepts, especially that of curved lines.
Differential calculus- the study of the rates at which at which amounts change.
https://www.thoughtco.com/maria-agnesi-biography-3530357
BẠN ĐANG ĐỌC
Women in Science, Medicine and Mathematics
Phi Hư CấuWomen who have contributed to the fields of science, medicine and math. They paved the way for future generations, made groundbreaking discoveries, many times while being outshone or downtrodden by their male counterparts.
