![]() ![]() ![]() Using newly discovered archival documents, Massimo Mazzotti reconstructs the wide spectrum of Agnesi's social experience and examines her relationships to various traditions-religious, political, social, and mathematical. Indeed, the life of Maria Agnesi reveals a complex and enigmatic figure-one of the most fascinating characters in the history of mathematics. In later years, however, she became a prominent figure within the Catholic Enlightenment, gave up the academic world, and devoted herself to the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the homeless. She wrote one of the first vernacular textbooks on calculus and was appointed chair of mathematics at the university in Bologna. She was a child prodigy who frequented the salon circuit, discussing mathematics, philosophy, history, and music in multiple languages. She is best known for her curve, the witch of Agnesi, which appears in almost all high school and undergraduate math books. ![]()
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