Maria Gaetana Agnesi Research Articles

Education, Equality, and Proto-Feminism in Maria Gaetana Agnesi

Abstract In this paper, I analyse the works of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an Italian mathematician of the eighteenth century. I specifically focus on the themes of proto-feminism, equality, and educational rights as persistent threads of her philosophical and scientific production. I emphasize her continuous efforts to highlight the place of women in the history of philosophy, presenting three chief texts in which these efforts are expressed. In her first work, the Academic oration, in which it is demonstrated that the studies of the liberal arts by the female sex are by no means inappropriate, I show how she articulates a rhetoric defence of women's educational rights. In her second work, the Philosophical propositions, I highlight how she combines Cartesian metaphysics and philosophy of mind to justify women's belonging to the history of philosophy. In analysing her final masterpiece, the Analytical institutions, I interpret the dedication to the Austrian empress Maria Theresa as a proto-feminist text, vindicating the leading role of women in history and society.

Hidden in the Archive of Gender and Science: The Agonistics of Knowledge and Learning

ABSTRACT In this article the author looks at processes of becoming a woman philosopher and scientist in eighteenth-century Europe, by focusing on educational experiences, discourses and practices revolving around the Italian mathematician, scientist and philosopher Maria Gaetana Agnesi. The author uses the Arendtian notion of agonism as a lens through which she reads Agnesi’s manuscripts at the Ambrosiana Biblioteca in Milan, by pointing to the non-discursive affects that these documents emanate. By tracing women mathematicians’ historical emergence as subjects of knowledge, as well as creators of philosophy and culture, the author proposes a reconsideration of the history of women’s science education as an agonistic process that has left traces in various archives of gender and science.

Exceptional women in science education? Émilie Du Châtelet and Maria Gaetana Agnesi

ABSTRACT In this paper the author considers the educational experiences and ideas of Émilie Du Châtelet and Maria Gaetana Agnesi, two women mathematicians, scientists and philosophers in eighteenth-century Europe. By tracing their historical emergence as subjects of scientific knowledge, as well as creators of philosophy and culture, the author argues that we need to revisit the history of women’s science education and deconstruct the image of “the exceptional woman”. In doing so the author proposes the notion of the event as a useful theoretical lens through which we can understand women’s historical constitution as mathematicians, philosophers and scientists.

The Witch of Agnesi: Thematic Fulcrum for a Shared Learning Path in the Classroom

In this article, we propose an educational path to learn mathematics in the framework of the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (ERASMUS) project developed in an Italian high school class on the topic of the contribution of women in science. The choice of the educational path fell on Maria Gaetana Agnesi and the particular curve, the “versiera” (witch), studied by her. During the experimentation, the students have been divided into four groups, each one taking care of particular aspects of the human and cultural experience of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, and the construction of her famous curve under different mathematical registers: the geometric, algebraic, analytical, mechanical and computer science, as well as non-mathematical ones such as the gestural and voice registers. The effectiveness of the proposed educational path was evaluated through interviews with the students during the course and at the end of the activities. All the students, even those less skilled in mathematics, have shown enthusiasm and satisfaction by recognizing the mathematical object, the “witch”, presented by using different languages.

Agnesi’s Problem III … Could the Textbook Be Wrong?

Summary In the pre-calculus portion of her book Instituzioni Analitiche (1748), Maria Gaetana Agnesi presents the following problem and its solution: “Given two circles EGF, BNO, and given their centers C, A; if from any point G on the periphery of the circle EGF one draws the tangent GNO that meets the other circle BNO in the points N, O, and from these two points draw two tangents NM, OM, find the locus of all the points M in which said tangents meet.” The problem’s solution is complicated by the need to consider several cases, and Agnesi’s work contained errors. We discuss her work and present an illustrated and complete solution. In doing so, we hope not only to introduce a problem of geometric interest, but also to contribute to the historical understanding of Agnesi’s work.

MARIA GAETANA AGNESI, ENFANT PRODIGE, MATEMATICA, PIA NOBILDONNA

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was a prominent figure in eighteenth-century Milan. A child prodigy, and an attraction in the scientific and philosophical disputes organized in the paternal home, she was the first woman to publish a mathematical treatise, the Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana (1748), a clear and systematic presentation of both Cartesian geometry and infinitesimal analysis. Among the curves studied in that work is the versiera, (witch) the cubic curve that is still associated with her name. Appointed by Pope Benedict XIV in 1750 on the chair of mathematics at the University of Bologna, she did not accept that assignment. After her father’s death in 1752, she left mathematics to devote herself entirely to pious works, and to taking care of poor and infirm women in the Pio Albergo Trivulzio, where she spent the last fifteen years of life.

A protagonist of the 18th-century mathematics: Maria Gaetana Agnesi

We revisit the life and work of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Milanese mathematician, whose 300th birthday is being celebrated this year. In particular, we describe the main features of her books Propositiones philosophicae and Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventu italiana. A third appendix is devoted to an algebraic curve that has taken its name from Agnesi: the versiera, or witch of Agnesi.

Mathematicians and their gods: interactions between mathematics and religious beliefs

1. Introduction 2. The Pythagoreans: Number and Numerology 3. Divine light 4. Kepler and his Trinitarian Cosmology 5. The Lull before the storm: combinatorics in the Renaissance 6. Mystical Arithmetic in the Renaissance: From Biblical Hermeneutics to a Philosophical Tool 7. Newton, God, and the mathematics of the Two Books 8. Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God 9. Capital G for Geometry: Masonic lore and the history of geometry 10. Charles Dodgeson's Work for God 11. P. G. Tait, Balfour Stewart and The Unseen Universe 12. Faith and Flatland 13. Godel's proof for the existence of God

Introduction

Introduction

Maria Gaetana Agnesi's Other Curves (More Than Just the Witch)

SummaryMaria Gaetana Agnesi's name is commonly associated with the curve known as “the Witch of Agnesi.” However, the versiera (or versoria), as Agnesi called it, is only one of many curves she introduced in her mathematical compendium, the Instituzioni Analitiche (1748). Some of the other curves are much more interesting and complex than the versiera, and they are grouped in the lengthy section (pp. 351–415) titled “On the construction of Loci of degree higher than second degree.” This article showcases Agnesi's presentation of some of them, made without using calculus. Instead, her tools of choice were geometry, algebra, and the method of using easier and already-known curves to build more challenging ones.

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God by Massimo Mazzotti

The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God by Massimo Mazzotti

Calculations of faith: mathematics, philosophy, and sanctity in 18th-century Italy (new work on Maria Gaetana Agnesi)

The recent publication of three books on Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799) offers an opportunity to reflect on how we have understood and misunderstood her legacy to the history of mathematics, as the author of an important vernacular textbook, Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventú italiana (Milan, 1748), and one of the best-known women natural philosophers and mathematicians of her generation. This article discusses the work of Antonella Cupillari, Franco Minonzio, and Massimo Mazzotti in relation to earlier studies of Agnesi and reflects on the current state of this subject in light of the author’s own research on Agnesi.

The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God (review)

The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God (review)

:The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God.(Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Mathematics.)

:The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God.<i>(Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Mathematics.)</i>

The world of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God

The world of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God

The Contest for knowledge: debates over women's learning in eighteenth-century Italy

At a time when women were generally excluded from scholarly discourse in the intellectual centers of Europe, four extraordinary female letterate proved their parity as they lectured in prominent scientific and literary academies and published in respected journals. During the Italian Enlightenment, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola, Diamante Medaglia Faini, and Aretafila Savini de Rossi were afforded unprecedented deference in academic debates and epitomized the increasing ability of women to influence public discourse. The Contest for Knowledge reveals how these four women used the methods and themes of their male counterparts to add their voices to the vigorous and prolific debate over the education of women during the eighteenth century. In the texts gathered here, the women discuss the issues they themselves thought most urgent for the equality of women in Italian society specifically and in European culture more broadly. Their thoughts on this important subject reveal how crucial the eighteenth century was in the long history of debates about women in the academy.

The Contest for Knowledge: Debates over Women's Learning in Eighteenth-Century Italy by Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Rebecca Messbarger, Paula Findlen

MLR, I0 I .3, 2006 867 many of the issues she is concerned with have been dealt with in those more northerly traditions that have preoccupied recent emblem studies. The book also contains a dismaying number of typographic widows, and its publishers urgently need to review their policy for the final editing of camera-ready copy. All future work, however, not just on these Italian theorists themselves but on the wider use of emblematic forms both within and beyond Italy, will need henceforth to be grounded in a thorough knowledge of this book. UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW MICHAEL BATH The Contest for Knowledge: Debates over Women's Learning in Eighteenth-Century Italy. By MARIA GAETANA AGNESI and others. Ed. and trans. by REBECCA MESSBARGERand PAULAFINDLEN. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2005. xxxi+i8Ipp. $45 (pbk $i8). ISBN 0-226-OI054-6 (pbk 0-226-O0055-4). The eighteenth century in Italy witnessed a significant increase in both women's writing and writing about women, with women's education the most frequent topic of debate. Should women be educated at all? If so, inwhat fields and towhat extent? Would the education of women undermine the family as one knew it?Would they in fact still be 'women' once they acquired an education? Are women's minds up to the task anyway? These were the concerns that dominated both men's and women's writings on the subject. While some men were against women's education, those who upheld its validity did so for the sake of something else, be itmaking them better home-makers and mothers or improving their defective judgement. Similar lines of argument were adopted by women, generally accompanied by a host of self legitimation techniques. The present volume contains translations of texts by both women and men on the topic of women's education spanning the century in its Enlightenment period, from Neapolitan philosopher Eleonora Barbapiccola's introduction to her transla tion of Descartes's Principia philosophiae (I722) to philosopher and mathematician Diamante Medaglia Faini's I763 oration Quali studi convengano alle donne, via the dispute held in 1723 at the Accademia de' Ricovrati in Padua with the specific remit 'se debbano ammettersi le donne allo studio delle scienze, e delle belle arti', which was the most visible episode in this continuing debate. Although the Padua dispute began as a debate among men, in its published version (I729) it included two con tributions by women, Aretafila Savini de' Rossi's Apologia in favore degli studii delle donne, and an Oratio, qua ostenditur artium [not 'atrium', p. 120] liberalium studia a femineo sexo neutiquam abhorrere by the nine-year-old Maria Gaetana Agnesi, later to become one of the most distinguished mathematicians of the century. The writings by Barbapiccola, Savini de' Rossi, Agnesi, and Medaglia Faini are translated here in their entirety, while the original male participants in the Padua dispute are whittled down to two, Antonio Vallisneri, who defended women's education, and Giovanni Antonio Volpi, who attacked it. The volume opens with a general introduction by Rebecca Messbarger. This be gins with a contrastive analysis in both diachronic and synchronic terms. It situates the eighteenth-century debate on women's education within the context of the age old querelle des femmes, highlighting its specificity and innovations with regard to the tradition, and also within the context of contemporary women's contribution to in tellectual activity and scholarship, and male views of this. It then focuses on women's own contribution to the debate, highlighting the ambivalences and nuances of their ar gumentative strategies. It concludes with a survey of the studies so far on the subject. This is very informative and stimulating. One minor inaccuracy: Eleonora Fonseca 868 Reviews Pimentel's journal was called Monitore napoletano (Monitore repubblicano by Croce), not Monitore partenopeo (p. io). The translations, which are each preceded by very useful introductions on the authors, read well on the whole. I especially liked the renditions of Agnesi (no mean feat, as her Latin is often hard to unravel) and Barbapiccola, which read as if they were not translations at all. On the other hand, the versions of Volpi, Vallisneri, and Savini de' Rossi are occasionally...

Grazia Deledda: A Legendary Life by Martha King

868 Reviews Pimentel's journal was called Monitore napoletano (Monitore repubblicano by Croce), not Monitore partenopeo (p. io). The translations, which are each preceded by very useful introductions on the authors, read well on the whole. I especially liked the renditions of Agnesi (no mean feat, as her Latin is often hard to unravel) and Barbapiccola, which read as if they were not translations at all. On the other hand, the versions of Volpi, Vallisneri, and Savini de' Rossi are occasionally marred by a tendency to excessive literalness, which can obscure the meaning. For example, Volpi's text laments that learned women, both ancient and modern, 'in their love of learning, care nothing for their "other" spouse' (p. 86), when the original has 'invaghite dell'amor di sapere, d'altro sposo non si curarono': in other words, enamoured as they were of learning, they wanted no spouse at all. And I do not think that 'clear and illustrious blood' (p. ioo) quite renders themeaning of 'chiaro illustre sangue'. On page I i I 'certain unfounded fears that one will oppose with time the honest freedom of the spirit; and instead of this opposition, instill in them a useful and reasonable fear' shows amisunderstanding of the original 'certi timori panici, che si oppongono in progresso di tempo all'onesta liberta dell'animo; ed in vece di questo insinuar loro un timore utile, e ragionevole' (something like 'instil in them auseful and reasonable fear, rather than panic, which in the long run will preclude the honest freedom of the spirit'). I found a few more such infelicities, but not very many, and certainly not enough to spoil the overall effect. The pedant inme was somewhat perplexed by the cover page, where the authors are indicated as 'Maria Gaetana Agnesi, et alia': and one other woman? Surely not-and surely not 'other things' either. Why have recourse to Latin when the happily ungen dered language inwhich the book iswritten would have produced the grammatically and ideologically unproblematic 'and others'? But these aremere nugae, which do not in any way detract from a very good book, an invaluable addition to the splendid 'The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe' series. UNIVERSITY OF READING VERINA R. JONES Grazia Deledda: A Legendary Life. By MARTHA KING. Leicester: Troubador. 2005. X+235 PP. ?I3.99. ISBN I-904744-67-2. At last a biography of Grazia Deledda written in English! This is doubtless in part a result of the renewed interest inDeledda's writings from the perspective of feminist criticism: see Neria De Giovanni, L'ora di Lilith: su Grazia Deledda e la lettera tura femminile del secondo novecento (Rome: Ellemme, i987); Sharon Wood, Italian Women's Writing I860-I994 (London: Athlone, I995); Patrizia Guida, 'Cosima, quasi Grazia: A Novel, Almost an Autobiography', inAcross Genres, Generations and Bor ders: Italian Women WritingLives, ed. by Susanna Scarparo and Rita Wilson (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004), pp. 38-55; and a volume of essays on Deledda soon to be published by Troubador. This is an important potential starting-point for anyone who does not know Deledda and her work, while it should also be of interest to Italianists who may know her rather well. Martha King knows her subject, and the context inwhich she wrote; she is also very familiar with Deledda's writing, having translated four of her works into English. The biography follows a chronological order, beginning with an evocation of the Sardinian society into which Deledda was born and ending with her reassimilation into this world with her final interment in the church at the foot ofMonte Ortobene. Along the way, King stops to focus on particular periods of importance inDeledda's life-her childhood, her love letters, her leaving Sardinia and moving to Rome, her winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature in i926, and her last illness. She also MLR, IOI.3, 2oo6 869 provides interesting readings of particular literary works (from the well-known, such as Cenere and Cosima, to lesser-known works, such asAnime oneste and Nostalgie) in the light of the life. King is good in her evocation of the suffocatingly orthodox Sardinian society of Deledda's youth, and also...