WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS 141 



Neo-platonist philosopher, Synesius, who became the Bishop 

 of Ptolemais in the Pentapolis of Libya. His letters con- 

 stitute our chief source of information respecting this re- 

 markable woman. Seven of them are addressed to her, and 

 in four others he makes mention of her. In one of them 

 he writes : ' ' We have seen and we have heard her who pre- 

 sides at the sacred mysteries of philosophy." In another 

 he apostrophizes her as "My benefactress, my teacher, 

 magistra my sister, my mother. ' ' 



In science Hypatia was among the women of antiquity 

 what Sappho was in poetry and what Aspasia was in phi- 

 losophy and eloquence the chiefest glory of her sex. In 

 profundity of knowledge and variety of attainments she 

 had few peers among her contemporaries, and she is en- 

 titled to a conspicuous place among such luminaries of 

 science as Ptolemy, Euclid, Apollonius, Diophantus and 

 Hipparchus. 1 



It is a matter of regret to the admirers of this favored 

 daughter of the Muses that she is absent from Raphael's 

 School of Athens; but, had her achievements been as well 

 known and appreciated in his day as they are now, we can 

 readily believe that the incomparable artist would have 

 found a place for her in this masterpiece with the matchless 

 form and features of his beloved Fornarina. 



After the death of Hypatia the science of mathematics 

 remained stationary for many long centuries. Outside of 

 certain Moors in Spain, the only mathematicians of note 

 in Europe, until the Eenaissance, were Gerbert, afterward 

 Pope Silvester II, and Leonardo da Pisa. The first woman 

 to attract special attention for her knowledge of mathe- 

 matics was Heloise, the noted pupil of Abelard. Aecord- 



1 Among modern works on Hypatia may be mentioned Hypatia, 

 die PJiilosophin von Alexandria, by St. Wolt, Vienna, 1879; Hypatia 

 von Alexandria, by W. A. Meyer, Heidelberg, 1886; Ipazia Alessan- 

 drina, by D. Guido Bigoni, Venize, 1887, and De Hypatia, by B. 

 Ligier, Dijon, 1879. 



