78 JVOMAN IN SCIENCE 



the degree of doctor in both canon and civil law in the 

 University of Pavia and with it the doctor 's cap berreto 

 dottorale. But more remarkable for learning than any of 

 these university graduates was Maria Gaetana Agnesi, one 

 of the most extraordinary women scholars of all time. On 

 account of her wonderful knowledge of languages she was 

 called "The Oracle of Seven Tongues." This, however, is 

 not her chief title to fame. It is rather her marvelous 

 achievements in the domain of the higher mathematics. 

 After the appearance of her most noted work, Instituzioni 

 Analytiche, she would at once have been elected a member 

 of the French Academy of Sciences had not the laws of this 

 learned body precluded the admission of women. 1 That 

 great Maecenas of learning, Benedict XIV, showed his ap- 

 preciation of Maria Gaetana 's exceptional attainments by 

 appointing her motu proprio to the chair of higher 

 mathematics in the University of Bologna. A similar hon- 

 or had, in the preceding century, been conferred on Marta 

 Marchina, of Naples, when, on account of her rare knowl- 

 edge of letters, philosophy and theology, she was offered a 

 chair in the Sapienza, in Rome, an honor which her modesty 

 and love of retirement caused her to decline. 



We have seen that women professors achieved distinction 

 in the Italian universities even as early as the closing cen- 

 turies of the Middle Ages. The same was true during the 

 Renaissance, and it has been equally true during the period 

 that has elapsed since the cinquecento. 



Among the most eminent of those who taught in the uni- 

 versities were Laura Bassi, who had the chair of physics 

 in the University of Bologna, and Clotilde Tambroni, pro- 

 fessor of the Greek language and literature in the same 

 institution of learning. So thorough was her knowledge 

 of the language of Plato that it was the opinion of her con- 

 temporaries that there were then only three persons in 



iM. Thureau Dangin, the perpetual secretary of the French 

 Academy, wrote, "La tradition ne veut pas d 'academieiennes. ' ; 



