Dear George,
According to her bio- or hagiographer Massimliano, Deza, Vita di Helena Lucretia Cornara PIscopia, Venezia: Antonio Bosio, 1668, esp. cap. VIII "Helena Lucretia si addottora in Filosofia", pp. 45ss.,she was awarded both a Laurea (M.A.) and a Doctorate in Philosophy:
"Artium Liberalium, & Philosophiae Magistram, ac Doctricem in Dei Nomine approbamus, & approbatam esse volumus" (p. 48)
https://books.google.de/books?id=MFJpAAAAcAAJ
As a modern study, I have found quoted:
Francesco Ludovico Maschietto, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro PIscopia (1646-1684) - prima donna laureata al mondo, Padova: Antenore, 1978, engl. : Elena Lucrezia Cornaro PIscopia (1646-1684) - The First Woman in the World to Earn a University Degree, tr. by Jan Vairo et al., Philadelphia: Saint Joseph's UP, 2007
A rich bibliography including more recent publications can be found in Patrizia Bettella, Women and the the Academies in 17th Century Italy: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia's Role in Literary Academies, in: Italian Culture [Amaerican Association for Italian Studies] 2018, pp. 1-20, pp. 18s.
As earlier cases, I have found mentioned Costanza Calenda (grandmother of Nicollò Sannazaro) with a doctorate in Medicine of 1422 in Naples, and, ratther fabulous, Bitisia Gozzadini allegedly teaching law in the 13th century at Bologna (on her see Carlo Antonio Machiavelli, Bitisia Gozzadina, seu De Mulierum Doctoratu Apologetica Legalis - Historica Dissertatio, Bologna: Blanchus, 1722, https://books.google.de/books?id=gMZRAAAAcAAJ).
O.
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On 05 June 2019 at 11:46 George Ferzoco <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear medieval-religion colleagues,
First of all: thank you, sincerely if belatedly, to the several of you who so kindly helped me, on list and off, regarding my query as to the numbering of flyleaves in books containing medieval manuscripts. I am truly grateful to each of you!
Secondly: today’s Google Doodle draws attention to Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684) as being the first woman to obtain a doctorate. This is clearly a mistranslation or misunderstanding: the holder of an Italian ‘laurea’ is addressed as ‘dottor[essa]’ but the ‘laurea’ is not the same as a ‘PhD’. Elena got a degree in philosophy on 25 June 1678 from the University of Padua, but this was a ‘laurea’, not a ‘dottorato’ or ‘PhD’ in the modern sense of the term.
Elena’s education made me wonder about women in university education before her time. Was she in fact the first to obtain a university degree? I’ve quickly scanned the matter online, and seen what may be legendary accounts of female university graduates and female university lecturers such as Bettisia Gozzadini (1209-1261) and Novella d’Andrea (b. 1333). I am not aware of documentation for any such pre-Elena university women, and I would be very interested to learn from you if you should know anything about this.
Thanks so much (again, to those who helped me with the manuscript query, as well as with this present one).
Best wishes, George
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