The Contest for Knowledge by Maria Gaetana Agnesi

Although the Padua dispute began as a debate among men, in its published version (I729) it included two con tributions by women, Aretafila Savini de' Rossi's Apologia in favore degli studii delle donne, and an Oratio, qua ostenditur artium liberalium studia a femineo sexo neutiquam abhorrere by the nine-year-old Maria Gaetana Agnesi, later to become one of the most distinguished mathematicians of the century. The present volume contains translations of texts by both women and men on the topic of women's education spanning the century in its Enlightenment period, from Neapolitan philosopher Eleonora Barbapiccola's introduction to her transla tion of Descartes's Principia philosophiae (I722) to philosopher and mathematician Diamante Medaglia Faini's I763 oration Quali studi convengano alle donne, via the dispute held in 1723 at the Accademia de' Ricovrati in Padua with the specific remit 'se debbano ammettersi le donne allo studio delle scienze, e delle belle arti', which was the most visible episode in this continuing debate. Similar lines of argument were adopted by women, generally accompanied by a host of self legitimation techniques. While some men were against women's education, those who upheld its validity did so for the sake of something else, be itmaking them better home-makers and mothers or improving their defective judgement. Should women be educated at all? If so, inwhat fields and towhat extent? Would the education of women undermine the family as one knew it?Would they in fact still be 'women' once they acquired an education? Are women's minds up to the task anyway? These were the concerns that dominated both men's and women's writings on the subject. The eighteenth century in Italy witnessed a significant increase in both women's writing and writing about women, with women's education the most frequent topic of debate. UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW MICHAEL BATH The Contest for Knowledge: Debates over Women's Learning in Eighteenth-Century Italy. All future work, however, not just on these Italian theorists themselves but on the wider use of emblematic forms both within and beyond Italy, will need henceforth to be grounded in a thorough knowledge of this book.

The book also contains a dismaying number of typographic widows, and its publishers urgently need to review their policy for the final editing of camera-ready copy. 3, 2006 867 many of the issues she is concerned with have been dealt with in those more northerly traditions that have preoccupied recent emblem studies. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The Contest for Knowledge by Maria Gaetana Agnesi