A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Agnezi, (Maria Gaetana)
AGNEZI, (MARIA GAETANA).
A Celebrated female mathematician, on whom a Pope, equally distinguished for his understanding and knowledge, Benedict XIV. bestowed the place of Apostolical Professor, in the university of Bologna, in 1758. She was the daughter of a creditable tradesman in Milan, and famed for her knowledge of the scholastic languages; and a profound treatise on analysis, which, besides eulogies, transmitted to her from all scientific societies, obtained her the professorship. She had an inclination, from her childhood, to enter into the austere order of the blue nuns; and, after the death of her father, who was averse to it, pursued this intention, and sacrificed, to what she considered her duty, all those enjoyments, to which her fine qualities and literary acquirements had already made her way. A translation of her work, by the name of Analytical Institutions, we have understood is speedily to be published.