Una «signora nelle matematiche»: Faustina Pignatelli

In the early years of the 18th century, Cartesian thought seemed to be superseded by Newton’s, the expression of a new science, worthy of popularisation, which also found enthusiastic ambassadors in southern Italy. In Naples, these ideas spread relatively quickly thanks to the contribution of scholars such as the brothers Niccolò and Pietro De Martino, but also to the passion for ‘mathematics’ of certain aristocrats, as well as the establishment of salons born on the wave of experimentalism. The Neapolitan princess Faustina Pignatelli (1702-1785) succeeded in embodying all these roles: a pupil of Niccolò De Martino, she initiated one of the most popular Neapolitan salons and took part in the main scientific disputes, which earned her election as a member of the Bologna Academy of Sciences in 1732, the second woman to receive this recognition. Excluded from the University, she was never a member of the Neapolitan Academy, although she undoubtedly had the merit of bringing the scientific innovations of the time to the attention of the Neapolitan nobility, the Bourbon rulers and the scientists who frequented her salon.