Oratio qua ostenditur artium liberalium studia a femineo sexu neutiquam abhorrere. — Title of Agnesi's speech, 1727 The Latin sentence means: “A speech in which it is shown that the study of the liberal arts is by no means unsuited to the female sex”. Agnesi was nine when she recited it before her father’s guests, in 1727. The text had been written in Italian by one of her teachers; she translated it into Latin and learned it by heart.