Maria agnesi short biography

In order to achieve his goal, he had married Anna Fortunata Brivio in 1717. In 1718Grandi gave it the Latin name 'versoria' which means 'rope that turns a sail' and he so named it because of its shape. When she was nine years old, she composed and delivered an hour-long speech in Latin to some of the most distinguished intellectuals of the day.

Although her father refused to grant this wish, he agreed to let her live from that time on in an almost semi-retirement, avoiding all interactions with society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics. He began with a fine discourse in Latin to this young girl, that it might be understood by all.

I was much annoyed to hear it said that she wished to enter a convent, and it was not through need, for she is very rich. In [20]Truesdell explains further about her wishing to become a nun:-

She did ask her father's permission to become a nun. She showed remarkable talents and mastered many languages such as Latin, Greek and Hebrew at an early age.

Then Agnesi was approached by the president of the Academy of Bologna and three other professors of the Academy and invited to accept the chair of mathematics at the University of Bologna. He provided her with an exceptional education, fostering her intellectual growth.

Despite her desire to enter a convent at age 21, Agnesi yielded to her father's wishes and pursued mathematics.

Rend. A French translation of the second volume by P.T. d'Antelmy, with additions by Charles Bossut (1730–1814), was published in Paris in 1775; and an English translation of the whole work by John Colson (1680–1760), the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, "inspected" by John Hellins, was published in 1801 at the expense of Baron Maseres.

Riccati replied quickly to Agnesi's first letter and promised to pass the text to his two sons, Vincenzo Riccati and Giordano Riccati, so that they could also comment on the work. See [21] for a detailed description of how the curve has become known as the 'Witch of Agnesi'. Fellow philosophers thought she was extremely beautiful and her family was recognized as one of the wealthiest in Milan.

Maria became a professor at the University of Bologna.

In 1748, she published her seminal work, "Instituzioni Analitiche" ("Analytical Institutions"), which became a standard textbook in Europe for over a century. It was Rampinelli who suggested that Riccati might offer Agnesi advice and he had clearly contacted Riccati, who had been one of his own teachers, and Riccati had agreed to read the final draft of Agnesi's book and make suggestions.

Again we quote [4] where de Brosses wrote:-

She told me that she was very sorry that the visit had taken the form of a thesis defence, and that she did not like to speak publicly of such things, where for every one that was amused, twenty were bored to death. Agnesi included the work with proper acknowledgement to Riccati.

However, she wished to obtain more input from leading mathematicians so, on the 20 July 1745, she wrote to Riccati. To some extent this must be the case, but it is fair to say that shows of this type were relatively common at the time. She even educated her younger brothers.