But the rigorousness of scientific studies, and perhaps also the clarity of the conceptual foundations of mathematics, were decisive for Rampinelli's new and revolutionary attitude towards life: and in him a decisive and sure religious vocation arose.

There he made it known that he had not only the desire for tranquillity and retreat, but much more for the desire to have had a just and good soul had led him to the Cloisters. Accuracy in the duties of the Order, modesty in all its acts, fervour in piety, and severity with oneself were his steadfast, and indisputable witnesses.

From June 1731 to the spring of 1732, Rampinelli stayed at the monastery of Santa Maria Nuova in Rome. During this stay, he had the opportunity to exchange ideas with Celestino Galiani and Antonio Leprotti and also to teach mathematics to Giuseppe Orlandi, with whom maintained correspondence for many years.

... whose merit lay in his ability to unite the Galilean tradition with the most recent theories and results of Newton, Leibniz, the Bernoullis, J Hermann and P Varignon that particularly interested Rampinelli.

... from May 1733 to the summer of 1740 he resided at the monastery of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, where he taught courses in mathematics, analysis and physics to the young monks; he often turned to the Riccatis for help and advice on matters of hydrostatics and mathematical physics. Among his students from this period we find Cesareo Giuseppe Pozzi and Cesareo Maria Sommariva.

Shortly after, when I came to Milan, I had the pleasure of meeting Signora Contessa Donna Maria Agnesi who was very well versed in Latin, Greek, and even Hebrew languages, as well as other more familiar ones; moreover, she was very learned in the best Metaphysics, and in the Physics of the day, in Geometry, and in Mechanics for the purposes of Physics; she had some knowledge of Cartesian algebra, but she has acquired that by herself, because she had no one here who could enlighten her. She therefore wanted me to assist her in this study, as I did, and in a short time with extraordinary strength and depth of talent she mastered the Cartesian algebra, and the two infinitesimal calculi, to which she has added the application of them to the most sublime physical matters. I assure you that I have always been and still am amazed to see so much talent, and such depth of knowledge in a woman, that would be remarkable in a man, and especially to see the accompaniment of a very particular Christian moral virtue. She has taken note of all the chit-chat I have heard about Analysis, she has improved it making it much better, ordered, and increased it with her own contributions, and with the reading of books, in sum she has formed a body of it, which can be called an accomplished foundation of Analysis. Her father would love that this work be published; but both because I am incapable and also because in some way I have a small part of it, do not want to judge it; so I ask you and Conte Jacopo, that you kindly would take the trouble to go and read the manuscript, which apart from the other I would send you, when I feel you are to do me the favour, of which I beg.

Among the enormous feelings of obligation I hold towards my esteemed teacher Father Don Ramiro Rampinelli, I count also the honour your Lordship has granted me by deigning to cast your expert eye, and that of your worthy son Count Giordano, over the little that my meagre talents have allowed me to produce under the title of 'Instituzioni analitiche' Ⓣ following the guidance and direction of a man with such great mathematical faculties, with the aim of as far as possible making the study of such a difficult and laborious study in itself easier for the young, by stripping it down to the order and clarity it is capable of, which task, as far as I am aware, none have yet so much as attempted. The fact is that I have in this succeeded at least tolerably well and therefore I turn to the infallible oracle of your Lordship, of whose immense knowledge and learnedness I am assured not only by your public reputation but also by the authoritative testimony of the aforementioned Father Don Ramiro who - oh, how many times! - has worthily and honourably remembered your powers, not without envy towards all those who have the great benefit of communicating with and revering you at close quarters and thus admiring your exceptional gifts. Therefore I beg your most excellent Lordship to honour me with your sage criticisms and at the same time oblige me by placing your corrections in the margins, since Father Rampinelli, as my overly biased - or rather my overly modest - tutor, refuses to pass judgment on my work and has referred me to your infallible and unbiased opinions, advice and aid.

As he completely committed himself to teaching the young, I must add in his praise that is something which appears rather difficult, and is seldom found in those deep thinkers, who, absorbed by their own arcane thoughts do not know how to adapt their intelligence to others with lesser abilities. He was easily accessible, had remarkable modesty, I could say was of an almost childlike bashfulness, full of respect towards his colleagues and totally distant from any controversies; he had nothing more to give of himself than the bending and lowering of his genius to the level of others, seeking the easiest ways to communicate his ideas to others and transmitting his knowledge by following the method he believed best suited and most fitting to the various intellects of his followers. He always tried to encourage and comfort his pupils if he saw that they had been so frightened by the complex horrors of algebra as to throw themselves down and pull back. He faced up to obstinate difficulties, which he endeavoured to overcome, so that many took courage and threw themselves wholeheartedly into overcoming the rough terrain that at first sight had so terrified them. ... Not every learned man makes a good teacher, nor is he able to transmit to others what he knows. Rampinelli, however, was marvellously endowed with this talent.

Here, having thrown away all his treatments, he had regained his strength and almost recovered the vivacity of his soul and body ...

Every time, in fact, that he was stimulated to publish something, he jokingly used to say that, as long as he did not write, he optimally provided a benefit to literate society, which could not exist if some had not kept their hands away from writing. Obviously, when everyone writes about almost any subject, there would be a danger that the excessive multitude of writers would cause an extreme shortage of readers. Nevertheless he did break with his modesty to pay a debt, that is, to attest to the Senate, by which he had been so honoured and exalted, his veneration and respect, and to express in some way even publicly that feeling of gratitude that he had in his soul. Therefore he resolved to publish precisely this treatise on optics under the auspices of that very large Order, and was already preparing the edition, when he began to feel very ill ... Before his death he had highly recommended the edition of 'Lectiones optica' Ⓣ to the illustrious man Cesareo Sommariva, after having already earlier submitted the work itself to his judgment. For the same purpose, towards the end of his life, while still residing in Brescia, he had dealt with the matter with the printer, and for everything to be done with the utmost accuracy, he had requested that the illustrious man Giovanni Battista Scarella, regular cleric, famous for doctrine and for the writings, would preside over the correction of the press: something that ... he faithfully did with great diligence and skill.