Since Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646 - 1684), the first woman to attain a doctorate degree (in Philosophy), earned the Doctor's Ring, the Teacher's Ermine cape, and the Poet's Laurel Crown in 1678, a few women had been attending universities and giving occasional lectures. Unlike the privately tutored Piscopia who retired to private life after attaining her degree, Laura Bassi extended women's opportunities by becoming one of the earliest female doctors to become paid professors in an established university. Indeed, some sources indicate that Bassi was the first woman after Piscopia to earn the Doctor's Ring.

      Born on October 31, 1711 in Bologna, Bassi's father was a lawyer. Educated privately, Bassi studied logic, metaphysics, philosophy, chemistry, hydraulics, mathematics, mechanics, algebra, geometry, and ancient and modern languages (Greek, Latin, French, and Italian). Bassi was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bologna in 1731, was elected to the Academy of the Institute for Sciences in 1732, and was given the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Bologna in 1733. In 1738, she married her colleague Dr. Giuseppe Veratti then had 12 children. While raising her family, she successfully petitioned for wider responsibilities and a higher salary to cover the cost of equipment for physical and electrical experiments. She continued her life-long interest in physics, lecturing from her home while her children were small then returning to the university at age 65 as a Professor of Experimental Physics in 1776. Living to the ripe old age of 66, she died on February 20, 1778.

      Newtonian physics, a worldview in which the forces of nature obeyed natural laws which could be quantified, predicted, and at times, controlled, as opposed to a worldview in which nature was subject to the whims and caprices of supernatural forces, still had not conquered the scientific world. Bassi was an early Italian Newtonian physicist and was one of first scholars to teach Newtonian natural philosophy in Italy. In 1732, she wrote a treatise criticizing the theories of Descarte which indicates she was fully aware of all the problems with the Cartesian system.

      An experimental physicist, her courses covered Newton's theory of light, optics, and other subjects from Newton's Principia, such as his laws of motion. Her experiments covered all areas of physics, even electricity, installing the first lightening rod at the University of Bologna. Bassi published several technical papers: 13 on physics, 11 on hydraulics, 1 on mechanics, 1 on chemistry, and 2 on mathematical subjects. Her renown was such that "No scholar would pass through Bologna without being eager for her learned conversation," writes one biographer.

      In Bassi's lifetime, and in part as a result of her path-breaking work, women began making inroads into the universities both as students and professors. Gradually, over the next two centuries, more and more women would attend universities and go on to teach and administer at them until today, when fully half of the university students in the United States are women and the number of female faculty members keeps growing. And women would become more and more interested in the natural sciences, teaching, experimenting, and lecturing in all scientific disciplines. Yes, Bassi was an influential woman, bringing Newtonian science to Italy and helping to open doors of opportunity as both students and university professors to women around the world.

References

      Laura Bassi (U. of Wisconsin, Platteville)

      Women in the University

      Laura Bassi

For More Information:

          Laura Bassi Net

Return to Women's History Month 2001 Table of Contents

e-mail sunshine@pinn.net