In the first specific objective (SO1), I examined key sites in the Italian peninsula (1720-1750), focussing on the lecture notes by Giovanni Poleni at Venice National Library. In the State Archives of Venice, I explored university administration documents. In Treviso, I collected analysis lessons by Jacopo Riccati. At Padua's university library, I reviewed printed sheets of courses by Giuseppe Suzzi and Giovanni Poleni. In Verona, I examined manuscript lectures by Giuseppe Suzzi and Giovanni Poleni. In Milan, Maria Gaetana Agnesi's student notes were consulted, offering insight into the education of a woman mathematician.
In the second year, I studied the circulation of teaching practices in higher mathematics in the early-modern European Republic of Letters. Collaborating with colleagues, we edited a collective volume on algebra and calculus circulation in Italy and Spain during the 18th century. A conference at Ca' Foscari in June 2023 united experts, with a subsequent publication in the History of Universities series (Oxford University Press), represents the final deliverable of this objective.
For training, I received instruction in Research Methodology in intellectual history, history of mathematics, and mathematical education through various means: workshops and conferences organized by the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage in Venice, and the Center for Renaissance and Early Modern Thought (CREMT) at Ca' Foscari. I attended conferences on the history of mathematics education and intellectual history. At the Sarton Centre, where my secondment took place, I underwent additional training to enhance my understanding of the history of philosophy and science in Italy and Europe from the Renaissance to the 18th century. This included improving my writing and argumentative skills, networking, attending seminars, workshops, and conferences organized by the Sarton Centre in the history of science.
A seminar for philosophy students at Ghent university, and an online presentation for teachers and students of the "Liceo Matematico" (high school specialized in mathematics) enhanced my teaching methodologies for a varied public.
Organization of activities (meetings and conferences) that acknowledge the support of the European Community:
- Invited lecture (online): Paolo Mancosu, How many points are in a line segment? From Grosseteste to numerosities (01/0/6/2022).
- Conference (co-organized with prof. Marco Sgarbi): The crisis of the traditional structure of knowledge: teaching and learning mathematical sciences in the eighteenth century, 10 international speakers, 21-22 June 2023.
I also attended and presented papers at several international conferences attended (that acknowledge the support of the European Community), connected to SO1 and SO2. Among the most prestigious ones:
a) Participation to ESU 9th EUROPEAN SUMMER UNIVERSITY ON THE HISTORY AND EPISTEMOLOGY IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION, 18-22 July 2022, Salerno, Italy, 22 july 2022.
b) “Private and public teaching of mathematics in Padua”, ISIH (International Society for Intellectual History) conference, Venice, 12-15 september 2022.
c) “Teaching mathematics in the 18th century Veneto: the case of Padua”, talk given at the Seventh International Conference on the History of Mathematics Education (ICHME-7) University of Mainz, (Germany), 19. – 23. September 2022.
d) "Teaching mathematics in 18th century Padua: from the Ancients to the Moderns”, talk given at a symposium co-organized with David Mcomish (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice) and Angela Axworthy (MPIWG, Berlin) in Scientiae Congress, Prague, 06/06/2023 – 10/06/2023.
e) “Leibniz on the impossibility of squaring the hyperbola”, talk given at the Leibniz Kongress 2023, 30/07/2023 – 04/08/2023.
