Maria was precocious, and published an essay advocating higher education for women when she was nine years old. The essay was actually written by one of her tutors, but she translated it into Latin and delivered it from memory to an academic gathering in the garden of the family home. Her father also arranged for her to debate philosophy in the presence of prominent scholars and public figures. She disliked making a public spectacle of herself and asked her father for permission to become a nun. When he refused, she extracted an agreement that she could attend church whenever she wished, wear simple clothing, and be spared from all public events and entertainments.

Love how this passage appeared out of nowhere in Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.

Maria is labeled a mathematician, but she was also a philosopher, a master of languages, and also would run hospices.

Next level polymath.

Stewart, Ian. Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities. United States, Basic Books, 2009.