A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Agnesi, Maria Gaetana
AGNESI, MARIA GAETANA,
A native of Milan, born March 16th., 1718, gave early indications of extraordinary abilities, devoted herself to the abstract sciences, and at the age of nineteen supported a hundred and ninety-one theses, which were afterwards published. She attained such consummate skill in mathematics, that the Pope allowed her to succeed her father as professor of Bologna. Her knowledge of ancient and modern languages was also extensive. She died in 1799, at Milan, where several years before she had taken the veil Her great work is "Analytical Institutions," and has been translated by the Rev. John Colson, of the University of Cambridge. This able mathematician considered "The Analytical Institutions" of Agnesi such an excellent work, that he studied Italian in order to translate it into English. At his death he left the manuscript ready for publication. The commentators of Newton were acquainted with her mathematical works, while they were in manuscript. In 1801, the works were published in two volumes, at the expense of Baron Maseres, to do honour to her memory, and also to prove that women have minds capable of comprehending the most abstruse studies. Her eulogy was pronounced in Italian by Frisé, and translated into French by Boulard. In her genius she resembled Mrs. Somerville.