Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti (29 October 1711 – 20 February 1778) was an Italian physicist and academic. Recognized and depicted as "Minerva" (goddess of wisdom), she was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was the first salaried female teacher in a university. At one time the highest paid employee of the university, by the end of her life Bassi held two other professorships. She was also the first female member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 at 21.
Bassi did not receive formal education; instead, she was privately tutored from the age of five until she was twenty. By then, she was well-versed in major disciplines, including sciences and mathematics. Noticing her ability, Prospero Lambertini, the Archbishop of Bologna (later Pope Benedict XIV), became her patron. With Lambertini's arrangement, she publicly defended forty-nine theses before professors of the University of Bologna on 17 April 1732, for which she was awarded a doctoral degree on 12 May. A month later, she was appointed by the university as its first female teacher, albeit with the restriction that she was not allowed to teach all-male classes. Lambertini, by then the Pope, helped her to receive permissions for private classes and experiments, which were granted by the university in 1740.
Bassi became the most important populariser of Newtonian mechanics in Italy. She was inducted by the Pope to the Benedettini (similar to modern Pontifical Academy of Sciences) as an additional member in 1745. She took up the Chair of Experimental Physics in 1776, the position she held until her death. She is interred at the Church of Corpus Domini, Bologna.
Laura Maria Caterina Bassi was born on 29 October 1711 in Bologna, then part of the Papal States. She was the only daughter of Maria Rosa Cesari and Giuseppe Bassi, a lawyer originally from Scandiano in the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. Giuseppe Bassi had recently acquired citizenship in Bologna. Bassi's parents belonged to the city's lower middle class.
Bassi was educated at home rather than attending a school. From the age of five to thirteen, she studied Latin, French, and arithmetic with her cousin, Father Lorenzo Stegani. She learned to speak and write Latin as well as read it, and later used the language for her university lectures and publications.
From age thirteen to twenty, Bassi studied with Gaetano Tacconi, her family's physician and a professor of medicine at the University of Bologna. Her studies included philosophy, logic, metaphysics, mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, languages, and natural history. Tacconi also trained Bassi in academic debate.
As Bassi's reputation grew, Tacconi introduced her to Bologna's academic circles, where she demonstrated her knowledge in philosophical debates. Among the scholars who became interested in her work was Prospero Lambertini, the archbishop of Bologna and later Pope Benedict XIV. Lambertini became one of Bassi's principal supporters and helped her gain formal recognition from the city and university.
On 20 March 1732, aged twenty, Bassi became the first woman elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna. Less than a month later, on 17 April, she publicly defended forty-nine philosophical theses in the Sala degli Anziani of Bologna's Palazzo Pubblico. The event drew a large audience that included university scholars and leading political and religious figures.
On 12 May, the university awarded Bassi a doctorate in philosophy. She became the second woman known to earn a doctorate in philosophy, fifty-four years after Venetian scholar Elena Cornaro Piscopia received one in 1678, and the first woman to receive a doctorate in science. She also became an honorary member of the university's College of Philosophers. Her achievements made her famous in Bologna, where she became known as the "Bolognese Minerva", after the Roman goddess of wisdom.
Bassi continued her education after receiving her doctorate. She studied the works of Isaac Newton with Italian scientist Jacopo Bartolomeo Beccari and mathematical analysis with Italian mathematician Gabriele Manfredi.
On 7 February 1738, Bassi married Giuseppe Veratti, a doctor of medicine and a fellow lecturer in anatomy at the University of Bologna. They shared a sophisticated working relationship; it is argued that through their marriage, Bassi was inspired to begin studying experimental physics. The exact number of their children is not clear, as some reports say it is eight, while others say twelve. Baptismal records held only eight. Caterina (born 1739), Caterina (born 1742), and Flaminio (born 1751) died in infancy. But five survived infancy: Giovanni (1738–1800), who became a canon of San Petronio and professor of theology in the Collegio Montalto; Ciro (1744–1827); Caterina (1745–1768), who became a nun; Giacomo (1749–1818), who became a canon; and Paolo (1753–1831), who became a doctor and professor of experimental physics at the Institute of Science and the only one to produce heirs.
On 27 June 1732, about six weeks after receiving her doctorate, Bassi defended twelve additional theses at the Archiginnasio, then the main building of the University of Bologna. The defence formed part of her petition for a university teaching position. Her theses covered chemistry, physics, hydraulics, mathematics, mechanics and technical subjects.
On 29 October, her twenty-first birthday, the university senate approved her candidacy, and in December she was appointed professor of natural philosophy. The position was largely honorary, but made Bassi the first salaried woman lecturer in the world.
Bassi's first university lecture was titled De aqua corpore naturali elemento aliorum corporum parte universi ("Water as a natural element of all other bodies"). Despite her appointment, the university restricted her public teaching because she was a woman and was not permitted to lecture to all-male classes.
Bassi also had a public ceremonial role at the university. Beginning in 1734, two years after her appointment, she attended the annual Carnival Anatomy, a public dissection that was a major event in university and civic life and attracted visitors and prominent members of the community.
In 1739, seven years after her appointment, Bassi sought permission to undertake the same teaching duties as her male colleagues. Her request was supported by Prospero Lambertini and Flaminio Scarselli, secretary to the Bolognese ambassador at the papal court, but was denied.
Experimental physics and teaching
After her marriage in 1738, Bassi gained greater freedom to teach and conduct experiments in her home. Her principal interest was Newtonian physics, the study of motion, forces and other physical phenomena based on the work of Isaac Newton. She taught the subject for 28 years and became an important figure in introducing Newtonian physics and natural philosophy in Italy.