University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rare Book Room Exhibit

The Library's holdings of important early mathematical works grow as opportunities arise. Agnesi's major work in the development of differential calculus, two large quarto volumes of over one thousand pages, is one of several acquired in 1988 on the Robert Carmichael Fund. Its comprehensiveness and the several new concepts modestly introduced in this masterpiece brought its author, a professor of mathematics in Bologna, wide and immediate academic acclaim and eventual recognition as the first woman mathematician.

Maria Agnesi was the eldest of 21 children from a wealthy family in Milan. (Her sister Maria Teresa Agnesi, 1720-1790, was a noted composer). She devoted her life to philosophical, religious and mathematical studies and became a nun. Pope Benedict XIV appointed her to a position at the University of Bologna. Truesdell wrote: "In October [1750, Agnesi] received a papal rescript confirming her appointment. She had already devoted herself to a holy, retired life; while her name remained on the rolls of the university for forty-five years, she never went to Bologna." Her book, Instituzioni Analitiche ad Uso della Gioventu Italiana, was one of the first calculus texts after L'Hosptial. The translation by John Colson was completed in 1760, but not published until 1801.

FOR ARTICLES ON AGNESI CONSULT THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREW'S ONLINE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS DATABASE.

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