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370 GALLERY OF ILLUSTRIOUS ITALIAN WOMEN...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Four Female Professors Of The University...
raised to the dignity of the professor ' s chair , and has taught jurisprudencephilosophy , and mathematics , in these same halls whence
, so large a portion of human learning was diffused by a series of men of genius . And not alone in modern , but also in ancient times ,
has Italy given proof of her practical civic wisdom , by fully recognising and appropriately honoring , female talent and female
learning . In the thirteenth century , when the science of jurisprudence was
held in such high repute , when Azzo and Accorso lectured , when the university was frequented by 10 , 000 students , ( 2 ) when from the
remotest countries of Europe , Scotch , English and Spaniards thronged thither , Accorsa , the daughter of Accorso , was made Professor of
Philosophy—Bettisia _Gozzadini , " deservedly celebrated , " writes Sigonio , quoting in his History of Bologna from a document of the time , " was
created doctor of law , the 3 rd of June , 1236 , and in the same year she commenced her public lectures , amid the admiration of a densely
crowded audience . She was a woman of immense erudition , of powerful geniusand was for many years the ornament and pride of the
, university . " ( 3 ) These meagre details are unfortunately all that history records concerning these remarkable women .
In the eighteenth century contemporaneously with Zanotti , with Bocconi , Manfredi and others , eminent scholars—Caterina Laura
Bassi occupied the professor's chair of philosophy , and Maria Gaetana Agnesi that of mathematics . Laura ' s lectures and Agnesi's works are
a living protest against the vulgar assertion that the female mind is incapable of the arduous speculations of the superior sciences .
The fame of Agnesi , founded on her mathematical learning , does not suffer from the variations of time , ideas and taste ; it is lasting
as the scientific truths to which she consecrated her vigils and her powerful intellectand in like degree is her protest everlasting .
, Laura Bassi was born in Bologna on the 29 th of October , 1711 . Her father was doctor of law , and his _hoiise was frequented by many
of the literati of Bologna— -by the professors and members of the Institute . The first indications of Laura ' s future talents , given at
an early age , did not escape their perspicacity _; Lorenzo Stegani was remarkabl Cavalieri , author to of the the integr Metodo al calculus degli : IndivisibiU ( Mileo calls _, in him which one of he the a |> princi proac ! pal ied
Portal anatomists mathematicians ( d ) y ' near in and the of was the world her age . faithful . ( c ) " Mal Marcello p artist ighi took ; Mal each p nature ig of hi , his one for observations Ms of model the greatest , ' on 7 says the
"brain , , lungs , the liver , the mystery of generation , etc ., may be regarded electrical as a discovery henomena . " In in the animals eighteenth hears century his name , G-alvani . , whose discovery 6 f p
( d ) _Giornafca Hist , de l prima 'Anat . . DiScorsi Tom . Ill e -, Dimostrazioni p . 151 . _Mafcomafciclio .
( 2 ) Erant hie tune _temporo bene X millia scholares , Odofrodo .
( 3 ) Historia _Bononirc , Lib . V .
370 Gallery Of Illustrious Italian Women...
370 GALLERY OF ILLUSTRIOUS ITALIAN WOMEN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1858, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081858/page/10/
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