Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian Mathematician
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (May 16, 1718 - January 9, 1799) was an Italian mathematician and philosopher. She was a child prodigy who could speak both Italian and French at five years of age. By her thirteenth birthday she had acquired Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Latin, and was referred to as the "Walking Polyglot". She studied both differential and integral calculus and is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus, Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventÌ_ italiana, a work of great merit, which was published at Milan in 1748 and was regarded as the best introduction extant to the works of Euler. In 1750 she was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy and physics at Bologna (the first woman to be appointed professor at a university). After the death of her father in 1752 she carried out a long-cherished purpose by giving herself to the study of theology, and especially of the Fathers and devoted herself to the poor, homeless, and sick. She died in 1799 at the age of 80.
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