Massimo Mazzotti discusses female prodigies and mathematics in Enlightenment Italy in the latest edition of the LA Review of Books Quarterly Journal.

The myth of the child prodigy is familiar to all of us. A boy, tutored by his father, captures the public imagination. He achieves remarkable things by adolescence; his genius is performed for public spectacle; his life and work become part of public record. The young man makes history.

Most often, of course, the recognized genius is indeed male.

And yet, for a brief period in European history, the story went a little differently.”

Read the rest of “From Genius to Witch: The Rise and Fall of a Filosofessa” here.