Elena Cornaro Piscopia

Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, known in English as Helen Cornaro, was an Italian philosopher of noble descent in the Republic of Venice, born in Venice on 5 June 1646 and dead in Padua in 1684. A prodigy, she was taught Latin and Greek from childhood and was proficient in French and Spanish by the age of seven, and she also mastered several instruments and took up physics, astronomy and linguistics. Her philosophy tutor Carlo Rinaldini, chairman of philosophy at the University of Padua, directed her studies. In 1669 she translated the Colloquy of Christ from Spanish into Italian, and in 1670 she became president of the Venetian Accademia dei Pacifici. When the bishop of Padua refused her a degree in theology because she was a woman, she took the degree in philosophy instead, and on 25 June 1678 she spoke for an hour in classical Latin on passages from Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and Physics. She was proclaimed teacher and doctor of philosophy, becoming the first woman appointed a Doctor of Philosophy, and after her death memorial services were held in Venice, Padua, Siena and Rome.