We were pleased and surprised to see that Google has marked with a special doodle the 296th anniversary of the birth of the Italian mathematician and philosopher Maria Gaetana Agnesi. She was the first woman in the West to gain recognition as a mathematician and is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus.
She was born in Milan on May 16 1718, to a wealthy and literate family, and was a child prodigy. At the age of nine she composed and delivered an hour-long speech in Latin to a crowd of distinguished intellectuals of the time about women's right to be educated and when she was eleven years old she already spoke Italian, French, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, German and Spanish.
Her father, Pietro Agnesi, was a mathematics professor at the University of Bologna and following on her father's foot steps, she became an honorary member of the faculty, becoming the second woman in the West ever to be given a professorship at a university.
The most valuable result of her academic work was the Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana, (Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth) which was published in Milan in 1748 where she worked on integrating mathematical analysis with algebra.
Today's Google doodle features her Gaetana Agnesi with the 'Witch of Agnesi Curve' in the background.
The mathematical curve, which is named after her - but was not discovered by her - was used by mathematicians in later years for work on things like X-rays and electrical circuits.
In later life she devoted herself to studying theology and to charitable work. She died aged 80 in January 1799.
