Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan to a wealthy and literate family.
She was recognized as a child prodigy. In her teens, Maria mastered
mathematics. The Agnesi home was a gathering place of the most distinguished
intellectuals of the day. Maria participated in most of the seminars, engaging
with the guests in abstract philosophical and mathematical discussions. Maria
was very shy in nature and did not like these meetings. She continued
participating in the home gatherings to please her father until the death of
her mother. Her mother's death provided her the excuse to retire from public
life.
In 1738 she published a collection of complex essays on natural science
and philosophy called Propositiones Philosophicae, based on the
discussions of the intellectuals who gathered at her father's home. In many of
these essays, she expressed her conviction that women should be educated. By
the age of twenty, she began working on her most important work, Analytical
Institutions, dealing with differential and integral calculus. It is said
that she started writing Analytical Institutions as a textbook for her
brothers, which then grew into a more serious effort. When her work was
published in 1748, it caused a sensation in the academic world. It was one of
the first and most complete works on finite and infinitesimal analysis. The
book was widely translated and used as a textbook. She discussed the curve
which came to be known as the "witch of Agnesi".
After the success of her book, Maria was elected to the Bologna Academy
of Sciences. Maria gained such reputation as a mathematician that she was
appointed by Benedict XIV to teach mathematics in the University of Bologna.
However, there is a debate over whether or not Maria accepted this appointment
since by this time she had devoted herself to her work with charity - for some
years she was director of the Hospice Trivulzio of the Blue Nuns in Milan.
Eventually she joined the order and died a member of it, in her eighty-first
year.
