WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



ing to Franciscus Ambrosius, who edited the works of 

 Abelard and Heloise in 1616, the famous prioress of The 

 Paraclete was a prodigy of learning, for besides having a 

 knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, which was some- 

 thing extremely rare in her time, she was also well versed 

 in philosophy, theology and mathematics, and inferior in 

 these branches only to Abelard himself, who was prob- 

 ably the most eminent scholar of his age. 1 



Many Italian women, as we have seen in a preceding 

 chapter, were noted for their proficiency in the various 

 branches of mathematics. Some of the most distinguished 

 of them flourished during the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries. Among these were Elena Cornaro Piscopia, cel- 

 ebrated as a linguist as well as a mathematician; Maria 

 Angela Ardinghelli, translator of the Vegetable Statics of 

 Stephen Hales; Cristina Roccati, who taught physics for 

 twenty-seven years in the Scientific Institute of Rovigo, and 

 Clelia Borromeo, fondly called by her countrymen gloria 

 Genuensium the glory of the Genoese. In addition to a 

 special talent for languages, she possessed so great a ca- 

 pacity for mathematics and mechanics that no problem in 

 these sciences seemed to be beyond her comprehension. 2 

 Then there was also Diamante Medaglia, a mathematician 

 of note, who wrote a special dissertation on the importance 

 of mathematics in the curriculum of studies for women, 

 Alle matematiche, alle matematiche prestino V opera loro le 

 donne, onde non cadano in crassi paralogismi ' ' To mathe- 



1 Ambrosius in his preface to the works of Abelard and Heloise 

 refers to the latter as ' ' Clarum sui sexus sidus et ornamentum, ' ' and 

 declares "necnon mathesin, philosophiam et theologiam a viro suo 

 edocta, illo solo minor f uit. ' ' 



2 Mazzuchelli says of her in his Museo, ' l Sembra non avervi nella 

 Natura cosa la piu intralciata ed oscura nelle storie, ne finalemente 

 la piu astrusa nelle matematiche e nelle mecchaniche, che a lei conta 

 non sia e palese, e che sf ugga la capacita del suo spirito. ; ' Dizionario 

 Biografico, Vol. I, p. 122, by Ambrogio Levati, Milano, 1821. 



