The first woman to graduate in the world was a Venetian
1678 in Padua: the year of the first graduate in the world. One of the most important milestones for women.
The first step was taken by Elena Lucrezia Cornaro. A strong sign. An imposing female voice in the society of the 1600s. It is a privilege for Italy to remember such an icon. She who modestly believed in her possibilities and made room for herself in a world of men. Despite the opposition of Cardinal Gregorio Barborigo, she managed to enroll at the university, at the faculty of theology. Consistent with her life choices that saw her already very young in a convent. Elena Lucrezia took vows when she was only nineteen as a Benedictine oblate. Thus deciding to deepen his life by combining studies of theology and philosophy. With great humility Elena Lucrezia Cornaro decided to undertake her studies. This made Elena Lucrezia a model, to be considered today an example for her values and her tenacity.
Elena Lucrezia's family
In support of the daughter's dream is her father. A sui generis man. Also seen the support that he himself offered his daughter to see her fulfilled in her dream. Obtain a degree and cultural independence.
Elena Lucrezia was born from a good family albeit under the critical eyes of the inhabitants. Critics because his father chooses to marry a woman of lower rank than his. So as to create the first family "scandal". Already this could not testify well for the cultural growth of Elena Lucrezia. Moreover, it was still absurd to think that a woman of the church could undertake a training course with the best teachers of the moment.
Culture in the hands of a woman
His studies took place between the Accademia dei Ricoverati of Padua, of the Infecondi of Rome, of the Intronati of Siena, of the Erranti of Brescia, the Academy of the Donodei and of the Pacifici of Venice.
Thus she became the only erudite woman in Italy, with mastery and in-depth knowledge of Greek and Latin with an intellectual and cultural autonomy. The possibility of being able to provide for a course of study was a feat never thought of in Italy in the late 1600s.
Moving to different places in Italy to be able to satisfy his thirst for education, his fame becomes world-wide becoming a character capable of arousing curiosity even in the foreign noble spheres.
The places that remember Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia
The city of Padua honors the young Venetian today remembering her with a statue inside the university.
But the name of Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia really went around the world becoming a figure to be taken as an example. The woman who with humility and culture settled in a macho society overcoming difficulties with lightness and stubbornness. For this reason also a library of Vassar College in New York has a stained glass window that sees it illustrated, and a municipal library in Cyprus is named after Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia.
But the young Venetian has not only broken through the borders of Italy: on the planet Venus the Piscopia crater takes its name from the first woman to graduate in the world. Venus, the symbol of the woman par excellence that has in itself a crater of the first revolutionary woman in the world, obviously made in Italy.
