M.G. Agnesi, R. Rampinelli and the Riccati Family: A Cultural Fellowship Formed for an Important Scientific Purpose, the 'Instituzioni analitiche'

The intense correspondence that developed between Ramiro Rampinelli, Maria Gaetana Agnesi and the Riccatis family from 1745 to 1752 documents with a wealth of details the exchange of scientific ideas that developed around the writing and printing of Agnesi’s Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana. Reconstructing the history and significance of this undertaking can help us understand the role that Agnesi’s work played in the mathematics and general culture in Italy at the time, as well as the farsightedness of her tutors and supporters. It can also help demonstrate why today we no longer consider valid the judgments that Gino Loria and Clifford A. Truesdell passed on this exemplar of a female intellectual.