Elena Cornaro Piscopia

Timeline

1. 1646–1672Venice · VeniceHer father was Giovanni Battista Cornaro Piscopia, procurator of St Mark's in Venice, and her mother was of humble origin. From childhood she was taught Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and other languages as well as music, mathematics, and philosophy by family tutors. She later became a Benedictine oblate, taking the name Scholastica, refusing marriage to devote herself to scholarship and devotion.
2. 1672–1678Padua · PaduaHer philosophy teacher Carlo Rinaldini and others applied for a doctorate in theology on her behalf, but Gregorio Barbarigo, Bishop of Padua, refused on the grounds that women could not be granted theological degrees, while permitting her to sit for philosophy instead. On 25 June 1678 she defended in Latin at Padua Cathedral selected passages from Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and Physics, and was awarded the doctorate in philosophy (Magistra et Doctrix Philosophiae), becoming often cited as one of the earliest women to earn a university doctorate.
3. 1678–1684Padua · PaduaHer degree did not establish a general institutional precedent for women's admission to universities, and she herself turned to devotion, correspondence, and charity. Long in frail health, she died in Padua on 26 July 1684 and was buried in the Basilica of Saint Justina. Her surviving letters, poems, and treatises were later collected and published in 1688.