Maria Gaetana Agnesi

16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, and theologian, celebrated as the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first appointed as a mathematics professor at a university. Her 1748 treatise Instituzioni analitiche systematically presented algebra and the new calculus, and the curve known as the 'witch of Agnesi' bears her name. In later life she devoted herself entirely to charity and the care of the poor and sick in Milan.

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Life events

Born in Milan
16 May 1718

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan, then part of the Habsburg domains, the eldest of the many children of Pietro Agnesi, a wealthy silk merchant.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Recognized as a child prodigy in languages
c. 1730

By her early teens Agnesi had mastered several languages, including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and delivered learned discourses at gatherings in her father's house.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published Propositiones philosophicae
1738

Agnesi published a collection of nearly 200 philosophical and scientific theses she had defended in her father's salon.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Published Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana
1748

Agnesi published her two-volume textbook covering algebra, analytic geometry, and differential and integral calculus, regarded as the first mathematics book written by a woman.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Appointed to the chair of mathematics at the University of Bologna
1750

Pope Benedict XIV appointed Agnesi to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Bologna, making her the second woman granted a university professorship, though she never actively taught there.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Withdrew from mathematics after her father's death
1752

Following the death of her father in 1752, Agnesi gradually abandoned scientific work to study theology and devote herself to charitable service.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Became director of the women's ward at the Pio Albergo Trivulzio
1771

Agnesi was appointed director of the women's section of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio, a Milanese home for the elderly and infirm, where she cared for the sick for the rest of her life.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Died in Milan
9 January 1799

Agnesi died in poverty at the Pio Albergo Trivulzio in Milan, having given away her wealth to the poor, and was buried in a mass grave.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓