Laura Bassi. Emblema e primato nella scienza del Settecento

摘要

The first woman to be awarded a doctoral degree in Europe was Elena Corn-aro Piscopia, who was conferred the laurea at the University of Padua in 1678 for her remarkable literary and linguistic achievements. The next woman to receive such recognition was Laura Bassi at the University of Bologna for her excellence in both physic and physics. But this only occurred in 1732, fifty-four years later ! Too little has been made of her accomplishments, and it is gratifying that two distinguished historians of science, Luisa Cifarelli and Raffaella Simili, have now edited an interesting and scholarly collections of seven essays on Laura Bassi which appear, under the same cover, in both Italian and English. In this review we refer to the English version.