Maria Gaetana Agnesi

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was an Italian mathematician and philosopher, considered to be the first woman in the Western world to have achieved a reputation in mathematics after the publication of her 1748 Instituzioni Analitiche, a calculus textbook. The French Academy of Sciences in its review of the Instituzioni, stated that: “We regard it as the most complete and best made treatise.” 

Agnesi was the eldest child of a wealthy silk merchant who provided her with the best tutors available. This work earned her an honorary place in the Academy of Sciences of Bologna. Agnesi defended the rights of women to an education while still a child. Her scientific interests go from Newtonian mechanics to natural history and the relationship of the soul with the body. Her mathematics combines Leibnizian and Newtonian perspectives on calculus, as well as differential and integral calculus.

(sources: Maria Gaetana Agnesi". Encyclopædia Britannica Online; History of Women philosophers).