Note 119 — Chapter III
Reading edition
It is surprising how many legends have obtained respecting the life of Agnesi after the publication of her Instituzioni Analitiche. Thus, the writer of the article in the Edinburgh Review, above quoted, declares that "she retired to a convent of blue nuns,"—a statement that has frequently been repeated in many of our most noted encyclopedias.
In a Prospetto Biografico delle Donne Italiane, written by G. C. Facchini and published in Venice in 1824, it is stated that Maria Gaetana was selected by the Pope to occupy "the chair of mathematics which had been left vacant by the death of her father," while Cavazza in his work "Le Scuole dell," Antico Studio Bolognese, pp. 289-290, published in Milan in 1896, assures us that Gaetana Agnesi taught analytical geometry in the University of Bologna for full forty-eight years. The facts are that neither the father nor the daughter ever taught even a single hour either in this or in any other university. Cf. Maria Gaetana Agnesi, p. 273 et seq., by Luisa Anzoletti, Milano, 1900. This is far the best life of Milan's illustrious daughter that has yet appeared. The reader may also consult with profit the Elogio Storico di Maria Gaetana Agnesi, by Antonio Frisi, Milano, 1799, and Gli Scrittori d'Italia, of G. Mazzuchelli, Tom. I, Par. I, p. 198 et seq., Brescia, 1795.