Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia is known as the first female graduate in the world, having obtained a degree in philosophy from the University of Padua in 1678.
The natural daughter of the nobleman Giovanni Battista Cornaro, procurator of San Marco, and the commoner Zanetta Boni, she was born in Venice in 1646, the fifth of seven children. She was enrolled in the roll of honour of the nobles at the age of 18, when her father paid 100,000 ducats to raise her and her brothers to patricians.
She soon became passionate about her studies, in which she was followed by her father, who was determined to redeem the prestige of the Cornaro family thanks to Elena's talents; for this purpose he entrusted it to the theologian Giovanni Battista Fabris, the Latinist Giovanni Valier, the Greek scholar Alvise Gradenigo, the professor of theology Felice Rotondi and the rabbi Shemel Aboaf, from whom Elena learned Hebrew. He also studied Spanish, French, Arabic, Aramaic, and came to possess a profound musical culture. He also deepened eloquence, dialectics and philosophy, taking lessons from Carlo Rinaldini, professor at the University of Padua and friend of his father.
Alongside her passion for study, Elena cultivated an authentic religious vocation, which led her to become, at the age of nineteen, a Benedictine oblate. This choice displeased her parents, who intended to marry her, but it spared them the disappointment of monastic confinement and allowed the young woman to live according to the Benedictine rule.
To crown his studies, in 1677 he applied for a doctorate in theology. The College had favorably accepted his request, but Gregorio Barbarigo, bishop of Padua and therefore also chancellor of the Paduan Studio, opposed a firm refusal, arguing that it was "a mistaken doctoral a woman" and that it would have been a "making us ridiculous to the whole world".
After much insistence and thanks to the mediation of her teacher Carlo Rinaldini, Elena Lucrezia was finally able to graduate on 25 June 1678 in philosophy, and therefore not in theology, as initially desired.
Elena, who had conducted her studies entirely in Venice, moved to Padua only after graduating, going to live in Palazzo Cornaro, near the Saint. His constitution, already weak, had been put to the test by study and ascetic macerations; He fell ill frequently and even for long periods, until he died in July 1684. She was buried in the church of Santa Giustina in Padova.
For a long time, she was considered by her family to be a phenomenon to be exhibited, an erudite woman able to recite philosophical dissertations and dialogue in Latin. Solitude surrounded by amazement, hers, made up of exceptional intellectual gifts in a woman's body. But for Piscopia they were not an instrument of affirmation of women's dignity, nor of the right to compete with men in the intellectual field. Her graduation was nothing more than a glimmer of hope that was immediately closed, so much so that it was only in 1732 that another woman, Laura Bassi, graduated in Italy.
In 1773 Caterina Dolfin donated to the University of Padua the statue depicting Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, which is now placed at the foot of the Cornaro staircase, in the Ancient Courtyard of Palazzo Bo. A tribute to the world's first female graduate, but today also a symbol of female emancipation.
In the name of Elena, the University of Padua established in 2018 the "Elena Cornaro" University Center, which promotes research and training activities in a gender perspective and aims to spread greater awareness on gender issues in the University of Padua and in society.
