All the writings of Hypatia, among them her treatise “On the Astronomical Canon of Diophantus” and another “On the Conics of Apollonius” are lost. Most probably they too were destroyed by the fanatic Christian mobs, who, after the murder of Hypatia, extinguished the Greek School of philosophers and scientists at Alexandria.—
Astronomy, probably the most ancient of the sciences, has since early days exerted a singular attraction on women.
Herman Davis, in his essay “Women Astronomers,” published in the reports of Columbia University, New York, gives the names of a large number of women astronomers, beginning with several of classic times. Of the Egyptians he mentions Aganice, Athyrta, Berenice, Hipparchia and Occelo, who were connected with the Alexandrian School. Of the Greeks he names Aristocle and Athenais, and of Thessaly Aglaonice. But nothing definite is known about their achievement.
Davis likewise gives an account of Hildegarde, abbess of the monastery on Mount St. Rupert near Bingen on the Rhine. This learned woman, who lived from 1099 to 1180, wrote a book in Latin, in which some marvelous statements are claimed to have been made: 1. that the Sun is in the midst of the firmament retaining by its force the stars which move around it; 2. that when it is cold in the Northern hemisphere it is warm in the Southern, that the celestial temperature may thus be in equilibrium; 3. that the stars not only shine with unequal brilliancy but are themselves really unequal in magnitude; 4. that as blood moves in the veins and makes them pulsate, so do the stars move and send forth pulsations of light. “If even one-half of these marvelous statements are found in Hildegarde’s writings as early as the 12th Century,” says Davis, “then this woman may well be classed with the great forerunners of modern astronomy, with Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, for she was three centuries earlier than the first of them.”
The first female astronomer of whom we have more intimate information, was Marie Cunitz, born in 1610 as the eldest daughter of a physician in Silesia. Commanding an extraordinary general culture, her principal study was mathematics and astronomy. Her tables, published under the title “Urania Propitia, sive Tabulæ Astronomicæ,” gained for her a great reputation, and the by-name “the Silesian Pallas.” Dedicated to the Emperor Ferdinand III. the book was published in Latin and in German in 1650 and 1651.
Another noted astronomer was Caroline Lucretia Herschel, born in 1750 at Hanover, Germany. In 1772 she accompanied her brother William to England, and when he accepted the office of astronomer-royal, she became his constant assistant in his observations. In this capacity she succeeded in discovering independently eight comets, five of which had not been observed before. Also she discovered many of the small stellar nebulæ which were included in her brother’s catalogue. For her many contributions to astronomy in 1835 she was presented by the Astronomical Society with their gold medal, and was also elected an honorary member.
When the memoirs of Miss Herschel were published, the editor, in describing her character, said: “Great men and great causes have always some helper of whom the outside world knows but little. These helpers and sustainers have the same quality in common—absolute devotion and unwavering faith in the individual or the cause. Seeking nothing for themselves, thinking nothing of themselves, they have all the intense power of sympathy, a noble love of giving themselves for the service of others. Of this noble company of unknown helpers Caroline Herschel was one.”—
This capacity of self-denial distinguished likewise a number of other women, whose names are known in the history of astronomy, as for instance Theresa and Madeline Manfredi, the daughters of Eustachio Manfredi, from 1674 to 1739 director of the observatory of Bologna. Further, Marie Margarethe Kirch, who assisted her husband, the astronomer Kirch, in the upper Lausatia; Madame Lepante, the wife of the famous clock-maker Jean Andre Lepante; and nearer our own time, there is Maria Mitchell, born 1818 at Nantucket, Mass., who at an early age became the assistant of her father. Carrying on a series of independent observations, she was in 1865 appointed professor of astronomy in Vassar College.
Emilie de Bréteuil, Antonie C. Asher, Elizabeth von Matt, Wilhelmine Witte and Agnes Mary Clerke likewise distinguished themselves in astronomy. The last named lady published in 1885 a “History of Astronomy” and in 1890 “The System of the Stars.” These writings, conspicuous for a careful sifting and due assimilation of facts, with a happy diction that is at the same time both popular and scientific, place the author in the foremost rank of writers on astronomy.—
As an eminent mathematician, linguist and philosopher Maria Gaetana Agnesi is known to every student of science. Born 1718 at Milan, she gave early indication of extraordinary ability and devoted herself to the abstract sciences. In mathematics she attained such consummate skill, that, when her father, professor of mathematics at Bologna, died, the Pope allowed her to succeed him. In this capacity she wrote her famous work: “Instituzions Analitiche ad Uso Gioventu Italiana,” which was published at Milan in 1748. Its first volume treats of the analysis of finite quantities, and the second of the analysis of infinitesimals. The able mathematician John Colson, professor at the University of Cambridge, considered this work so excellent, that he studied Italian in order to translate it into English. Under the title “Analytical Institutions” this translation was published in 1801, to do honor to Maria Agnesi, and also to prove that women have minds capable of comprehending the most abstruse studies.