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Laura <I>Bassi</I> Veratti

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Laura Bassi Veratti Famous memorial

Birth
Bologna, Città Metropolitana di Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Death
20 Feb 1778 (aged 66)
Bologna, Città Metropolitana di Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Burial
Bologna, Città Metropolitana di Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy Add to Map
Memorial ID
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Physicist. She gained recognition as a 18th-century female Italian physicist and academic.  Depicted as "Minerva", the goddess of wisdom, Laura Bassi was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was also the first salaried female teacher in a university. At one time the highest paid employee of the university and by the end of her life. Bassi held two other professorships. She was also the first female member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 at 21. Bassi had no formal education and was privately tutored from age five until she was twenty. By then she was well versed in major disciplines including sciences and mathematics. Noticing her ability, Prospero Lambertini, the Archbishop of Bologna (later Pope Benedict XIV), became her patron. With Lambertini's arrangement she publicly defended forty-nine theses before professors of the University of Bologna on 17 April 1732, for which she was awarded a doctoral degree on 12 May. A month later, she was appointed by the university as its first female teacher, albeit with the restriction that she was not allowed to teach all-male classes. Lambertini, by then the Pope, helped her to receive permissions for private classes and experiments, which were granted by the university in 1740. Bassi became the most influential popularizer of Newtonian mechanics in Italy. She was inducted by the Pope to the Benedettini (similar to modern Pontifical Academy of Sciences) as an additional member in 1745. She took up the Chair of Experimental Physics in 1776, the position she held until her death. She is interred at the Church of Corpus Domini, Bologna.

Physicist. She gained recognition as a 18th-century female Italian physicist and academic.  Depicted as "Minerva", the goddess of wisdom, Laura Bassi was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was also the first salaried female teacher in a university. At one time the highest paid employee of the university and by the end of her life. Bassi held two other professorships. She was also the first female member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 at 21. Bassi had no formal education and was privately tutored from age five until she was twenty. By then she was well versed in major disciplines including sciences and mathematics. Noticing her ability, Prospero Lambertini, the Archbishop of Bologna (later Pope Benedict XIV), became her patron. With Lambertini's arrangement she publicly defended forty-nine theses before professors of the University of Bologna on 17 April 1732, for which she was awarded a doctoral degree on 12 May. A month later, she was appointed by the university as its first female teacher, albeit with the restriction that she was not allowed to teach all-male classes. Lambertini, by then the Pope, helped her to receive permissions for private classes and experiments, which were granted by the university in 1740. Bassi became the most influential popularizer of Newtonian mechanics in Italy. She was inducted by the Pope to the Benedettini (similar to modern Pontifical Academy of Sciences) as an additional member in 1745. She took up the Chair of Experimental Physics in 1776, the position she held until her death. She is interred at the Church of Corpus Domini, Bologna.

Bio by: Elisa Rolle


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  • Maintained by: Find a Grave
  • Originally Created by: Elisa Rolle
  • Added: May 14, 2020
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210092177/laura-veratti: accessed ), memorial page for Laura Bassi Veratti (29 Oct 1711–20 Feb 1778), Find a Grave Memorial ID 210092177, citing Santuario del Corpus Domini, Bologna, Città Metropolitana di Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy; Maintained by Find a Grave.