Hypatia of Alexandria was a Greek astronomer and philosopher, great math. Experienced between the fourth and fifth centuries, there are no extant writings, perhaps because of the fire rushed to the library of Alexandria, but they’ll be philosophers of later centuries to invoke his figure as a symbol of knowledge and freedom of thought.
They were not only scientific discoveries make it illustrious (invented astrolabe; suggested the elliptical motion of the Earth) but above all the political engagement that assumed and that of dissatisfaction with the work of dissemination of knowledge among the people (went into the squares discussing science, explain the philosophers of the past, astonomici).

With the accession of Episcopal Bishop Cyril, Hypatia, partly as a result of political power that was given, became an awkward: in this climate of religious fanaticism, she is murdered in a brutal (stoned to church, mutilated and burnt alive) by a group of Christian monks.
But this was not enough to bury his work: he is still a symbol of freedom of the sciences and the emancipation of women.