Maria Angela Ardinghelli was born in
Naples (
Kingdom of Naples) into a noble family of Florentine origin. Having lost her brother during their childhood, Maria Angela thus became an only child. Her father turned to educating her, and by the age of fourteen she was fluent in Latin. She studied philosophy and physical-mathematical sciences under the physicist and mathematician
Giovanni Maria Della Torre and
Vito Caravelli. She also studied English and French. Ardinghelli was neither an aristocrat nor a member of the ascendant middle class. Her family was from Florence, described as
“one of the most distinguished and ancient of Italy”, in the sixteenth century. When the
Medici family climbed into power in Tuscany the Ardinghelli family fled Tuscany for Naples. As was obligatory for the aristocratic women of the time, Maria Angela was a literate poet and Latinist, as well as an expert in mathematical physics. She belonged to the circle of the prince of
Tarsia, founded in 1747, which, in intellectual circles in Naples, had the strongest association with
Newton, experimental physics and electricity. The library and the laboratory of Tarsia were to be of much use to her. Ardinghelli never wanted to leave Naples. She made it clear that she would never leave her family, rejecting marriage with French architect
Julien Leroy and the possibility of becoming the scientific tutor to the royal princesses at Versailles. She stayed in Naples where she hosted many
conversazioni as meeting points for traveling naturalists and corresponding with the
Paris Academy of Science. Maria Angela Ardinghelli had acted as an informal correspondent for the
Paris Academy of Sciences. She had connected the scientific communities of Naples and France. When Maria Angela reached the apex of her popularity she devised a few strategies to maintain her anonymity, which she succeeded at. In spite of Ardinghelli's historical invisibility, she selectively chose from her works what she wanted visible to specific audiences in order to protect herself from social isolation.
Ardinghelli and Nollet As a correspondent and member of the
Paris Academy of Sciences Maria Angela was catapulted to fame by abbé
Jean-Antoine Nollet. Nollet met Ardinghelli at
conversazioni, hosted by her in Naples during his journey through Italy in 1749. Nollet, an acclaimed celebrity, published a volume on electricity in which he needed to defend his theories against those of
Benjamin Franklin. Nollet wrote nine letters to nine different savants distinguished in the field of physics. The first letter was to Ardinghelli. In the letter he writes about her translation of Hales's
Haemastaticks and writes:
“very virtuous young lady, who in a short time has made a lot of progress in the field of physics.” This public declaration of esteem made Ardinghelli well known. File:Page from Stephen Hales, Emastatica.png|thumb|right|Page from Stephen Hales,
Emastatica, o sia, Statica degli animali [trans. Ardinghelli] (Naples, 1750): the numbered footnote on the bottom left is by De Sauvages, the italicized note marked by an asterisk on the right margin and the italicized text inserted in the main page (on the right) are by Ardinghelli. Courtesy of Medical Historical Library, Yale University. ==Accomplishments==