Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe: A Transnational History

Chapter 13: Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799)

13 R Maria Gaetana Agnes i ( 17 18 –17 9 9 ) Science and Mysticism MASSIMo MAzzottI Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan, then the capital of a Duchy under Austrian rule, on 16 May 1718. She was the daughter of Pietro Agnesi (1690–1752), the scion of a family of wealthy merchants who traded in luxury textiles. At the age of five, Maria Gaetana was already known in her native city as a prodigy, well versed in languages, memorizing lengthy Latin speeches, and performing effortlessly in front of an audience in her family palazzo. Available descriptions of her skills may contain symbolic elements—for example, her alleged ability to speak seven languages fluently—but it is clear that the young girl was highly talented, and most intriguingly for her contemporaries , she would soon excel in the typically masculine art of philosophical disputation. A booklet dated 1727 celebrated Agnesi’s wit and the female intellect through a collection of poetry composed within a circle of family friends, and included a Latin oration in defense of the right of women to pursue any kind of knowledge (Agnesi 289 290 Massimo Mazzotti 1727). that oration had been written in Italian by one of Agnesi’s tutors , and she had translated and memorized it as part of her studies. In the following years she studied natural philosophy and mathematics with prominent local scholars. Her studies were interrupted in the early 1730s by a mysterious and persistent malady, coincident with a period of repeated performances, the departure of her favorite tutor, and the death of her mother. Her “convulsions” eluded any diagnosis or treatment until about 1733, when she apparently recovered and returned to her studies. Her healing was attributed to the direct intervention of Saint Cajetan (San Gaetano), for whom the family had a particular devotion, as evidenced by her name, Maria Gaetana. Saint Cajetan was the founder of the theatine order, to which Maria Gaetana kept a lifelong, profound spiritual connection. In 1738, aged twenty, Agnesi concluded her studies with the publication of her thesis, under the title Philosophical Propositions (Propositiones philosophicae), thus mimicking the academic path of male students in contemporary colleges (Agnesi 1738). By this time she had achieved the status of a minor celebrity in northern Italy and was the protagonist of the conversazione (literally, “conversation”) that met regularly at palazzo Agnesi. A year later, at the height of her career as a filosofessa (woman philosopher), Agnesi expressed the desire to abandon the very public life imposed on her by her father. She longed for a more secluded life, in which she could dedicate herself entirely to the study of mathematics, as well as to charitable activities and devotional practices. After initial resistance, Pietro eventually accepted his daughter’s requests. on her part, she promised that she would still participate in the conversazione, although only sporadically (Frisi 1799, 28–30). the following decade of intense mathematical study culminated in the publication of Analytical Institutions (Instituzioni analitiche ; 1748), a remarkable introduction to the new techniques of differential and integral calculus “for the Italian youth,” and the first book of mathematics to be authored by a woman. Institutions was well received in Italy and was later translated into French and English (Agnesi 1775; Agnesi 1801). In the aftermath of its publication, Agnesi was invited to join various literary and scientific academies, and in 1750 she was offered an honorary lectureship in mathematics at the Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799) 291 University of Bologna, then under the control of the pontifical government . However, she did not accept the position, considering her work in mathematics concluded with the Institutions. Pietro’s sudden death in 1752 made it possible for Agnesi to cut her last ties with the world of the conversazioni, give up her wealth and inheritance rights, and devote the rest of her life to charitable activities—such as teaching children in parish churches and assisting infirm women at the Ca’ Granda, the ancient city hospital. In 1771 the archbishop of Milan, Giuseppe Pozzobonelli (1696–1783), offered Agnesi the directorship of the female section of the Pio Albergo trivulzio , a new institution created to house invalid and chronically ill patients from the lower urban social strata. She took up the job with her usual determination, steering the Albergo through the jurisdictional conflicts that characterized the reformist age and the turbulent close of the century. Maria Gaetana Agnesi died of pneumonia...