33^ ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



education in New England generally until as late as 1852 ; and 

 altogether the attitude was against their education. 



On the other hand, in Catholic countries there were no re- 

 strictions upon the higher education of women. Bettina Goz- 

 zadini occupied a professorship of law at the University of 

 Bologna, in 1236, and Novilla d'Andrea often acted as a sub- 

 stitute for her father, a professor of canon law at the same 

 university. Shakespeare makes Portia a lawyer in Venice. 

 Dorotea Bucca lectured on medicine at Bologna ; Laura Cer- 

 retti gave lectures on philosophy. Fulvia Olympia Morati was 

 professor of Greek and Latin literature, and called from Italy 

 to the chair of Greek literature at Heidelberg University. 



In Spain, Beatriz Galindo was a professor of rhetoric at 

 the University of Salamanca in the time of Ferdinand and 

 Isabella ; Francisca de Lebrixa, professor of history and 

 rhetoric in the University of Alcala, and Isabella Losa, of 

 Cordova, taught Greek and Hebrew. 



One of the great mathematicians of Italy was Maria Gaetana 

 Agnesi, who was born in Milan, in 1718, and died there at eigh- 

 ty-one years of age. Her monumental work was "Le institu- 

 zioni Analitiche" — a treatise in two large volumes on differ- 

 ential and integral calculus. Pope Benedict XIV paid her sig- 

 nal honor. He caused her, of his own accord, to be appointed 

 professor of higher mathematics in the University of Bologna, 

 but she refused to leave Milan, and became towards the end 

 of her life a sister of charity devoted to hospital work. 



The first woman to occupy a chair of physics in a university 

 was Laura Maria Bassi. She was born in Bologna, in 171 1, 

 and besides her native Italian was proficient in Latin and 

 French. Her knowledge of physics was shown in a public 

 disputation and demonstration at which Pope Benedict XIV 

 was present. The University of Bologna not only made her 

 professor, but coined and presented her with a medal contain- 

 ing her effigy. She corresponded with nearly all the great 

 scholars of Europe, and was earnestly besought by Voltaire to 

 advocate his election to the Academy of Sciences. She was 

 deeply religious and was as pious as she was intelligent, at- 

 tending Mass and her church duties with regularity. She was 

 the mother of twelve children, and never permitted her scien- 

 tific and literary work to interfere with her domestic duties. 

 At all times she had firm friends in the Pope and in the Arch- 



