Laura Bassi ...Who?
Lindsey Nagy
Hood College
Frederick, Maryland
Laura’s Stats
• Born October 1711 in Bologna, Italy
• Death 1778
• Age of 5 she was taught by
Father Lorenzo Stegani
•Age of 13 was privately tutored
by Gaetano Tacconi
•Child Prodigy
Patrons
• Jacopo Beccari
• Gabriele Manfredi
• Giulio Alberoni
• Prospero Lambertini
(Pope Benedict XIV)
The Great Year of 1732
March 26th
April 17th
Became a voting member
of the Bologna Academy of
Science
Defended her set of 49
theses for the University of
Bologna
May 12th
June 27th
Awarded a degree at the
University of Bologna
Defended 12 more theses
October 29th
December 18th
University of Bologna
grants her a lectureship
Bassi gives her first lecture
Early Teaching
• First lecture – Newtonian physics
“De aqua corpore natuarili elemento aliorum
corporum parte universi”
• Taught physics at the University
• Salary 500 lire annually
• Did not teach regularly
• Limited resources
Career Expansion
1735 – Was given access to a special collection of
books in the Vatican
Index Liborum Prohibitorium
Spent 3 years studying advanced mathematics under
Gabriele Manfredi
Set-up laboratory in her own home to use conduct
experiments and teach
1738 – Married Giovanni Guiseppe Veratti
Advancing Recognition
• Full classes
• 1745 – she lobbies for a position as the 25th member of
the Benedettina Academy within the Academy of
Science formed by Pope Benedict XIV
• 1746 – Voltaire writes to Bassi requesting to be a
member of the Academy of Science
“Dear Madam, I have been wishing to journey to Bologna in order to
be able one day to tell my countrymen I have seen Signora Bassi?
There is not a Bassi in London, and I should be more happy to be a
member of the Academy of Bologna than that of the English,
although it has produced a Newton. If your protection should obtain
for me this title, of which I am so ambitious, the gratitude of my heart
will be equal to my admiration for yourself…”
Dissertations
Why did she not publish much
of her work?
• Children
• Married life
• Did not seek recognition & fame
• What she did publish was in Latin
1757: “De problemate quodam hydrometrico”
1757: “De problemate quodam mechanico”
1745: “De aeris compressione”
(presented in 1746)
Boyle’s Law: P ∙ V = k
1791: “De immixto fluids aere”
(presented in 1747)
Poetry
Recognition
• 1200 lire salary in 1760
• Appointed to the Chair of Experimental
Physics at the Institute of Sciences in 1776
• Medal
• Street in Bologna
•Liceo Laura Bassi
in Bologna, founded 1860
Special Thanks
 Hood College – Student Research Institute
Advisors: Dr. Kimber Tysdal & Dr. Betty Mayfield
Melissa Barrick, Laura Printz, & Chelsea Sprankle
 Pi Mu Epsilon, Maryland Delta Chapter
 University of Bologna
References
•Algarotti,
F.C. (1739). Il newtonianismo per le dame, ovvero Dialoghi sopra la luce, i colori, e l’attrazione. A
spese di Giambatista Pasquali, libraro e stampatore di Venezia. Napoli.
•Algarotti,
F.C. (1739). Sir Isaac Newton’s philosophy explain’d for the use of the ladies : in six dialogues on light
and colours / from the Italian of sig. Algarotti.. London.
•Bassi,
L. (1732). Miscellanea (M. Cavazza & P. Bertucci, Eds.). Bologna: mss.
•Bassi,
L. (1757). “De problemate quodam hydrometrico.” De bononiensi scientiarum et artium Instituto atque
Academia commentarii, 4, 61-73.
•Bassi,
L. (1757). “De problemate quodam mechanico.” De bononiensi scientiarum et artium Instituto atque
Academia commentarii, 4, 74-79.
•Bassi,
L. & Canterzani, S. (1791). “De immixto fluids aere.” De bononiensi scientiarum et artium Instituto atque
Academia commentarii, 7, 44-47.
•Bassi,
L. & Zanotti, F.M.. (1745). “De immixto fluids aere.” De bononiensi scientiarum et artium Instituto atque
Academia commentarii , 2(1), 347-353.
•Bochner,
S. (1966). The Role of Mathematics in the Rise of Science. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
•Bologna,
Instiutio magistrale. (1960). Studi e inediti. Bologna: 1960.
•Buell,
H.S.J. (1853). “Laura Maria Caterina Bassi.” Women’s Record. London. 204-205.
•Cavazza,
Marta. “Laura Bassi” Bologna Science Classics Online
•Ceranski,
B. (1996). Und sie furchtet sich vor niemandem: Die Physikerin Laura Bassi 1711-1778. Frankfurt:
Campus Verlag.
•Chandrasekhar, S.
•Cieslak-Golonka,
•Elena,
(1995). Newton’s Principia for the Common Reader. NewYork: Oxford University Press.
M. & Morten, B. (2000). “The Women Scientists of Bologna.” American Scientist, 88(1), 68.
A. (1991) “In lode della filosofessa di Bologna: An Introduction to Laura Bassi” Isis, 82(3), 510-518.
•Findlen,
P. (1993) “Science as a Career in Enlightenment Italy: The Strategies of Laura Bassi” Isis, 84(3), 441-469.
•Findlen,
P. (2003) “The Scientist’s Body: The Nature of a Woman Philosopher in Enlightenment Italy.” In L.
Daston & G. Pomata (Eds.), The Faces of Nature in Enlightenment Europe (211-236). Berlin: BWVBerliner Wissenschafts-Verlag.
•Garelli,
A. (1883). Laura Bassi, biografia. Bologna.
•Goldsmith,
L.T. (1987). “Girl Prodigies, Some Evidence and Some Speculations.” Roeper Review , 10(2), 74-82.
•Logan,
G.B. (1999). “From Learned Ladies to Teachers of Men: Doctors of Philosophy.” Chap 8 in Italian Women
in Science from the Renaissance to the Nineteenth Century. Proquest Digital Theses, University of
Ottowa, Canada.
•Logan,
G.B. (1994) “The Desire to Contribute: An Eighteenth Century Italian Women in Science.” The American
Historical Review, 99(3), 758-812.
•Mazzotti,
•Nies,
Massimo. (2004) “Newton for Ladies: gentility, gender,and radical culture.” British Journal for the History
of Science, 37(2), 119-146.
K.A. (1999). “Laura Bassi: A Physicist Supported by the Church.” Retrieved June 14, 2007, from Hypatia
Website: http://www.hypatiamaze.org/laura/bassi.html.
•Oglive,
M.B. (2000) “Laura Maria Caterina Bassi.” In Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science. (Vol. 1, pp.8889). New York.
•Roero,
C.S. (2004). “Gabriele Manfredi’s treatise De constructione aequationum differentialium primi gradus
(1707).” Oberwolfach Report, 51, 2734-2737.
•Schiebinger,
L. (1993). “Women in Science: Historical Perspective.” In C.M. Urry, L. Danly, L.E. Sherbert, & S.
Gonzaga (Eds.) Women at Work: A Meeting on the Status of Women in Astronomy (11-19).
Maryland.
Images (in order of appearance)

Bassi, L. (1757). “De problemate quodam hydrometrico.” De bononiensi scientiarum et artium Instituto atque Academia
commentarii, 4, 61-73.

Bassi, L. (1757). “De problemate quodam mechanico.” De bononiensi scientiarum et artium Instituto atque Academia
commentarii, 4, 74-79.

[Untitled photograph of Laura Bassi]. Retrieved July 8, 2007, from: http://www.edu.linkoping.se/berzelius/
Vetenskapskvinnan/bassiutskrift.htm.

Subleyras, P.H. (18th Century). Benedictus XIV, Retrieved July 8, 2007, from: www.romancatholicism.org/beatusandreas.htm.

Sezanne, A. (1888). University of Bologna Seal, Retrieved July 12, 2007, from: http://www.answers.com/topic/history-ofeuropean-research-universities.

Consoli, A. (1732). Insignia, Retrieved July 12, 2007, from: http://www.euarchives.org/index.php3?sch=3&lng=en&pge=
photo&cty=bologna&tmp=&nr=36.

Huff, L. (2000). List of annual lectures, Retrieved July 12, 2007, from: http://www.americanscientist.org/template
/AssetDetail/ assetid/14707/page/2;jsessionid=aaa5LVF0.

[Untitled photograph of woman and child]. Retrieved July 17, 2007, from: http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~jmd/.

[Untitled photograph of Bassi’s bronze medal] Retrieved July 17, 2007, from:http://www.christophereimer.co.uk
/images/m/9566.jpg.