WOMEN IN PHYSICS 



203 



Catarina Bassi. She was born in Bologna in 1711 but 

 five years after the birth of Madame du Chatelet and 

 from her most tender years she exhibited an exceptional 

 facility for the acquisition of knowledge. 



After she had, through the assistance of excellent mas- 

 ters, become proficient in French and Latin, she took up 

 the study of logic, metaphysics and natural philosophy. In 

 all these branches of learning her progress was so rapid 

 that it far exceeded the fondest expectations of her parents 

 and teachers. Thanks to a wonderful memory and a highly 

 developed reasoning faculty, she was able, while still a 

 young maiden, to prove herself the possessor of knowledge 

 that is ordinarily obtained only in the maturity of age 

 and after long years of systematic study. 



"When she had attained the twenty-first year of her age 

 she was induced by her family and friends much against 

 her own inclination, however to take part in a public 

 disputation on philosophy. Her entering the lists against 

 some of the most distinguished scholars of the time was 

 made the occasion for an unusual demonstration in her 

 honor. The hall of the university in which such intellectual 

 jousts were generally held was too small for the multitude 

 that was eager to witness the young girl's formal appear- 

 ance among the scholars and the notables of the old uni- 

 versity city. It was, accordingly, arranged that the dis- 

 putation should be held in the great hall of the public Pal- 

 ace of the Senators. 



Among the vast assemblage present at the disputation 

 were Cardinal Grimaldi, the papal legate; Cardinal Arch- 

 bishop Lambertini, afterwards Pope Benedict XIV; the 

 gonfalonier, senators, literati from far and near, leading 

 members of the nobility and representatives of all the re- 

 ligious orders. 



When the argumentation began the young girl found 

 herself pitted against five of the most distinguished scholars 

 of Bologna. But she was fully equal to the occasion and 



