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Her book was a model of mathematical typography. The two volume work opens with simple algebra and continues for 1,020 pages of increasingly difficult propositions, 49 pages of illustrations, and one page of "Errori" with "Correzioni." |
.....from one of the first pages. Math students will recognize an
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MGA wrote "for her own enjoyment and to help
her brother." While most of her contemporaries were publishing in
Latin, she chose to publish in an Italian written dialect, a more or less
purified Tuscan. Purified Tuscan was a written language created by
Dante and others, but little spoken until almost 100 years after Agnesi's
death. Her native dialect was Milanese. MGA enjoyed learning
and speaking different languages.
With wide margins, large fonts, and many illustrations, the book was easy to read. In order to closely supervise its production and design, she had the local print shop move the presses into her father's house where she worked while surrounded by 20 younger brothers and sisters. |
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