Maria Gaetana Agnesi died in Milan on January 9, 1799, in poverty, having devoted her final decades to charitable work among the poor and sick.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi died on January 9, 1799, in Milan, at the age of 80. In the decades following her mathematical career, Agnesi had turned almost entirely away from academic life and devoted herself to religious devotion and charity, particularly the care of the poor, elderly, and sick women of Milan.
After her father's death in 1752, she used much of the family's wealth to fund a hospice, the Pio Albergo Trivulzio, eventually becoming its director and living an austere, self-sacrificing life within its walls. She gave away her possessions and much of her fortune to charity, and by the time of her death she had few personal resources remaining; she was buried in a mass grave with fifteen other paupers, reflecting the depth of her final commitment to religious humility and service to the poor.
Her death marked the end of a remarkable life that spanned two very different vocations: as a celebrated Enlightenment-era mathematician whose calculus textbook shaped European mathematical education, and later as a devoted religious and charitable worker. Her mathematical legacy was rediscovered and honored by later generations, and the curve now known as the Witch of Agnesi continues to bear her name in calculus courses worldwide, ensuring her place in the history of science long after her death.