Maria Gaetana Agnesi

Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Excerpt:
Maria Gaetana Agnesi is best known from the curve called the "Witch of Agnesi" (see illustration from her text Analytical Institutions). Agnesi wrote the equation of this curve in the form y = a*sqrt(a*x-x*x)/x because she considered the x-axis to be the vertical axis and the y-axis to be the horizontal axis [Kennedy]. Reference frames today use x horizontal and y vertical, so the modern form of the curve is given by the Cartesian equation yx²=a²(a-y) or y = a³/(x² + a²). It is a versed sine curve, originally studied by Fermat. "It was called a versiera, a word derived from the Latin vertere, meaning 'to turn', but it was also an abbreviation for the Italian word avversiera, meaning 'the wife of the devil'" [Osen, 45]. However, when Maria's text was translated into English the word versiera was confused with "witch", and the curve came to be known as the witch of Agnesi.
After the success of her book, Maria was elected to the Bologna Academy of Sciences. The university sent her a diploma and her name was added to the faculty. However, there is a debate over whether or not Maria accepted this appointment since by this time she had devoted herself to her work with charity. It seems that her father was the inspiration for her interest in mathematics. When he died in 1752, Maria gave up any further work in mathematics. "When, in 1762, the University of Turin asked her for her opinion of the young Lagrange's recent articles on the calculus of variations, her response was that she was no longer concerned with such interests" [Osen, 47].
Maria was a very religious woman. She devoted the rest of her life to the poor and homeless sick people, especially women. When the Pio Instituto Trivulzo, a home for the ill and infirm, was opened, Maria was given an appointment as the director of the institute. She took care of ill and dying women until her own death.
It seems to me that even though she was a genius, mathematics was only a temporary hobby of hers. It may be that she was only dealing with mathematics to please her father who apparently was expecting his prodigy child to be involved in mathematics. Of course, this is only a personal observation. However, her behavior implies that she was not dedicated to mathematics which I think explains why she gave up mathematics altogether as soon as her father died. She was a very shy and decent person. She was not ambitious to become a well-known mathematician. Her most famous work, Analytical Institutions, was intended to be a textbook for her brothers. Her intelligence and talent made it possible to integrate all the state of the art knowledge about calculus in a very clear way. Religious life and helping the needy seem to have interested her more than mathematics.