Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan, Italy, to a wealthy family. Recognized as a child prodigy, she spoke Italian and French by age five and Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, and German by eleven. From an early age, she showed interest in mathematics and philosophy, and with her father’s encouragement, Agnesi learned with the best available tutors. At 15, her father started hosting regular gatherings of the most educated men in Bologna, and Agnesi presented and defended a series of theses on profoundly complex philosophical questions. A compilation of 191 essays based on her discussions was published in 1738. By then, 20 years old Agnesi, who became strongly religious, intended to join a convent, but her father refused since she was the oldest child and he wanted her to teach her siblings. Instead, he agreed that she could live in a semi-retirement form, with no social interactions, so that she could devote her time to learning mathematics. Her father hired the monk and professor of mathematics, Ramiro Rampinelli, to tutor her; Rampinelli introduced her to the new fields of differential and integral calculus. Around that time, Agnesi wrote a commentary on the work of the Marquis de l’Hôpital, Traité antique des sections coniques, but it was never published. In 1748, at 30, Agnesi published a two-volume book titled The Instituzioni Analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana (Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth). In this work, she discussed integral and differential calculus and defined the cubic curve, today known as the ‘witch of Agnesi.’ Her work got recognized as the finest existing introduction to the works of the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, translated into French and English, and received praise even from Pope Benedict XIV, who appointed her professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna. Even though she never served in the position, she is considered the second woman ever to be granted a professorship at a university, Following her father’s death in 1752, Agnesi became free to devote her time to charitable work and theological studies. She worked with sick and poor people and founded several hospices. In 1783, at 65, she established a home for Milan’s elderly and moved to live there. She died at 81 and was buried in a mass grave for the poor. Read more...

Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, Italy, and grew up in Rome. At 16, after graduating from the Regia Scuola Tecnica Michelangelo Buonarroti, she enrolled in the technical institute Regio Istituto Tecnico Leonardo da Vinci intending to become a doctor. Due to her gender, she got rejected from the medical program and studied natural sciences; with her diploma di licenza, she enrolled in medical school at the University of Rome. There, she suffered hostility from students and professors because of her gender. While in school, she specialized in pediatrics and psychiatry, worked at a pediatric consulting room and emergency service, and became an expert in pediatric medicine. In 1896, 26 years old Montessori became the first woman in Italy to become a doctor of medicine. With her new degree, she began to work as an assistant at the University hospital and opened a private practice. At the time, she developed an interest in the educational challenges of intellectually disabled children, visiting asylums to observe the children and their behavior. In 1898, she began publishing articles on the subject and giving lectures in which she urged the need to establish separate institutions for children with learning difficulties. A year later, Montessori joined the National League for the Protection of Retarded Children and gave lectures on hygiene and anthropology in teachers’ seminars. The following year, she was appointed director of the State Orthophrenic School of Rome, which trained teachers in educating children with learning difficulties. In 1907, Montessori opened the first Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House), a school for children aged three to six in the poor San Lorenzo district of Rome. There, she applied her educational theories to neurotypical children. According to her teaching method, later called the Montessori system, children can independently learn from their environment, provided with designed learning materials and surroundings that foster their natural interest and desire to learn through stimulation and practical play. Teachers should offer and demonstrate didactic apparatus but essentially to remain in the background. Her program was proven successful, and the Montessori Method began to draw the attention of educators and journalists. Within only a few years, the system was adopted in schools worldwide, from Paris and Stockholm to the US and New Zealand. Over the next three decades, she wrote, lectured, and established teacher-training programs according to the Montessori Method worldwide. In 1922, at 52, Montessori was appointed government inspector of schools in Italy, serving in this position until 1934, when she left the country because of the Fascist regime. She traveled to Spain and lived in India for seven years before settling in the Netherlands, where she died at the age of 81. Read more...

Laura Maria Caterina Bassi was born in Bologna, Italy, into a wealthy family. She began her education at the age of five, first by her cousin, who taught her mathematics, Latin, and French, and later by Gaetano Tacconi, a professor of medicine at the University of Bologna, who taught her logic, metaphysics, and natural philosophy. In 1731, Tacconi invited various scholars from the University of Bologna to examine the intellect of 20 years old Bassi. One of them was Prospero Lorenzini Lambertini (who later became Pope Benedict XIV), who was so impressed that he became her official patron. The following year, she was elected as an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, becoming the first woman to join the academy. A month later, she defended her thesis in front of four university professors and received a doctorate in anatomy, which made her, at the age of 21, the first woman to receive a doctorate in science and the second woman to receive a doctorate in philosophy. A few months later, she defended 12 more theses in front of the Senate of the university as a petition to receive a teaching position. Though rejected at first, she eventually was nominated as a professor of natural philosophy, making another history as the first woman in the world to receive a salary as a lecturer. Bassi was not permitted to deliver public speeches but only private lessons. She received funds for the experiments she held at home; she constantly fought for equal teaching rights but to no avail. She explored many fields, including mathematics, mechanics, and chemistry, but her main interest was Newtonian physics. In her research, she became one of the leading figures in Italy to introduce Newton’s physics and natural philosophy. Over the years, she served as a member of numerous literary societies, including the Accademia degli Arcadi di Roma, Universitá degli Apastiti, Firenze, and the Accademia dei Placidi di Recanati. In 1776, at 65, she was appointed Chair of Experimental Physics at the Bologna Institute of Sciences. She died two years later. Read more...

Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi was born in Rome, Italy, the eldest of five children and the single daughter of the Tuscan painter Orazio Gentileschi and his wife, Prudenzia. At 12, after her mother died, she began to work as her father’s apprentice, learning the skills of a professional painter. Showing exemplary talents and with the support of her father, she began to create her artworks, and at 17, she completed her earliest surviving piece Susanna and the Elders. In 1611, at the age of 18, she was rapeed by her father’s colleague, painter Agostino Tassi. After he refused to marry her, a costume meant to restore her dignity, her father pressed charges against him. The main discussion of the trial was not the rape itself but her virginity; if she was not a virgin, there was no legal case. The court exiled Tassi from Rome, though it was never enforced. In the following month, Gentileschi married the Florentine artist Pierantonio Stiattesi, and the couple moved to Florence. There, she became a successful court painter at the House of Medici. She learned to read and write, attended musical and theatrical performances, and befriended many artists, writers, and thinkers, including Galileo Galilei. During this period, she began to develop her painting style. In 1615, at 23, Gentileschi contributed the painting Allegory of Inclination to the ceiling of the Casa Buonarotti, honoring the life of Michelangelo. The following year, she joined the Accademia Delle Arti del Disegno, becoming the first woman accepted to the prestigious art academy. In 1620, at 27, she separated from her husband and returned to Rome. There, she painted in her studio, had freedom and independence that was rare for women at the time and had numerous relationships with men. Due to her growing reputation as an artist, she became associated with various patrons, who commissioned her to paint in various genres, such as the Baroque style, known for its straightforward imagery, as seen in her work, Susanna and the Elders from 1622. In 1626, she moved to Venice before relocating to Naples to seek more job opportunities. Once again, she was able to adapt her style to the demand of her patrons, which at the time requested more religious themes, for example, her painting The Birth of Saint John the Baptist from 1635. During this period, she painted one of her most known self-portraits, Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting. In 1638, at 45, she traveled to London to collaborate with her father on a series of ceiling paintings in the Great Hall in the Queen House, commissioned by King Charles I of England. In 1642, she returned to Naples, managed a successful studio, and painted until she died in her 60s. In her lifetime, she broke barriers for a woman in the male-dominated art world and managed to thrive and become a successful and respectful artist. Despite changing painting genres, she remained true to her unique voice and style, which was reflected in the subjects she chose to depict – heroic female protagonists from history, mythology, and the bible, such as Cleopatra, Bathsheba, the Penitent Magdalenes, and especially Judith. Today, she is recognized as one of the most accomplished artists of the 17th-century. Read more...