Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia

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Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia

Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (born June 25, 1646 in Venice , † July 26, 1684 in Padua ) was a Venetian Benedictine oblate and scholar. She was the first woman in the world to receive a doctorate degree .

Life

Piscopia was the fifth of seven children of the procurator of San Marco (Sestiere di Venezia) , Gianbattista Corner, and his future wife Zanetta Boni. Already in early childhood Piscopia received lessons in the classical languages Latin and Greek , to which later Hebrew , Arabic , French and Spanish were added. She was also interested in mathematics , philosophy and theology . She despised the frivolity of Venetian society and therefore became a Benedictine wafer at a young age.

In 1677 Piscopia, who wanted to devote herself entirely to the sciences, had her first public dispute at the University of Padua . The efforts of her philosophy professor Carlo Rinaldini , a friend of Galileo Galilei , to get her a doctorate in theology were unsuccessful: A woman had to be silent in the church ( 1 Cor 14.34  EU ) and could therefore not receive a teaching license, which was especially the case Bishop of Padua and Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo represented. Finally, a compromise was reached that allowed Elena to do a PhD on a philosophical topic from Aristotelian logic . On June 25, 1678, she was the first woman in the world to receive a doctorate.

She spent the next six years writing, translating, studying, lecturing, and debating. Since 1669 she had joined various important academies as a member, such as the Academy of Ricovrati in Padua and the academies in Rome , Venice and Siena .

Piscopia died of tuberculosis at the age of 38 . Her grave is in the Basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua . Her papers appeared in Parma in 1688 .

The impact crater Piscopia with a diameter of 26 km on the planet Venus was named after Elena Lucrezia.

literature

Web links

Commons : Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abbazia di Santa Giustina. In: Pandovando Magazine. January 17, 2013, accessed June 25, 2021 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Piscopia on Venus. In: planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov . May 15, 2010, accessed June 25, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Cornaro Piscopia, Elena Lucrezia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Piscopia; Corner
SHORT DESCRIPTION Italian philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1646
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1684
PLACE OF DEATH Padua