148 [WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



when she received her doctorate, and was specially de- 

 lighted when she was made professor of physics in his fa- 

 vored university. Being himself familiar with the higher 

 mathematics, he recognized at once the exceptional merit 

 of Maria Gaetana 's work and showed his appreciation of it 

 not only by letters and presents, but also by having her, 

 motu proprio, appointed by the Bolognese senate as pro- 

 fessor of higher mathematics in the University of Bologna. 



In advising her of this appointment, he writes her that 

 he had in view the honor of the University in which he had 

 always taken a special interest, and that the appointment 

 carried with it no obligation of thanks on her part but 

 rather on his che port a seco ch'ella non deve ringraziar 

 Noi, ma che Noi dobbiamo ringraziar lei. The interest that 

 this wise and broad-minded pontiff exhibited in the ad- 

 vancement of learned women and the rewards he was ever 

 ready to accord to their achievements in science and litera- 

 ture especially in the cases of Laura Bassi and Maria 

 Gaetana Agnesi is in keeping with the policy pursued by 

 his predecessors, and accounts in great measure for that 

 large number of learned women in Italy who, since the 

 opening of the first universities, have been the glory of 

 their sex and country. 



But ardent as was the desire of the Supreme Pontiff to 

 have Agnesi occupy the chair of mathematics, and numer- 

 ous as were the appeals of her friends and the members of 

 the university faculty to have her accept the appointment 

 that carried with it such signal honor, she could never be 

 induced to leave her beloved Milan. For, after completing 

 her masterpiece, she resolved to retire from the world and 

 devote the rest of her life to the care of the poor, the sick 

 and the helpless in her native city. She did not, however, 

 as is so frequently asserted, enter the convent and become 

 a nun. 1 During many years after her retirement from the 



lit is surprising how many legends have obtained respecting the 

 life of Agnesi after the publication of her Instituzioni Analitiche. 



