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Laura Bassi and Science in 18th Century Europe: The Extraordinary Life and Role of Italy's Pioneering Female Professor
This book presents the extraordinary story of a Bolognese woman of the settecento. Laura Maria Caterina Bassi (1711-1778) defended 49 Theses at the University of Bologna on April 17, 1732 and was awarded a doctoral degree on May 12 of the same year. Three weeks before her defense, she was made a member of the Academy of Sciences in Bologna. On June 27 she defended 12 additional Theses. Several of the 61 Theses were on physics and other science topics. Laura was drawn by the philosophy of Newton at a time when most scientists in Europe were still focused on Descartes and Galen. This last set of Theses was to encourage the University of Bologna to provide a lectureship to Laura, which they did on October 29, 1732. Although quite famous in her day, Laura Bassi is unfortunately not remembered much today.
This book presents Bassi within the context of the century when she lived and worked, an era where no women could attend university anywhere in the world, and even less become a professor or a member of an academy. Laura was appointed to the Chair of experimental physics in 1776 until her death. Her story is an amazing one. Laura was a mother, a wife and a good scientist for over 30 years. She made the transition from the old science to the new very early on in her career. Her work was centered on real problems that the City of Bologna needed to solve. It was an exciting time of discovery and she was at the edge of it all the way.
This book presents Bassi within the context of the century when she lived and worked, an era where no women could attend university anywhere in the world, and even less become a professor or a member of an academy. Laura was appointed to the Chair of experimental physics in 1776 until her death. Her story is an amazing one. Laura was a mother, a wife and a good scientist for over 30 years. She made the transition from the old science to the new very early on in her career. Her work was centered on real problems that the City of Bologna needed to solve. It was an exciting time of discovery and she was at the edge of it all the way.
215 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 23, 2020
1.5 stars
This is a lazily researched, poorly-organized and poorly-written book, that nevertheless proved interesting to me by covering the biographies of 18th century female Italian scientists, which I have not found elsewhere. Biographies available in English are overwhelmingly Anglocentric and a historical biography of a non-English speaking woman without an adventurous sex life is a rare find indeed.
But unless you have a strong interest in that subject, you probably shouldn’t read this book. First of all, it’s poorly researched. The author apparently cribbed most of it from the dissertation of a researcher who died prematurely, and that researcher appears to have done much more work on it than this author, who regularly cites to Wikipedia (!). Second, she seems to run out of material about halfway through after already having covered Laura Bassi’s biography and some background on science at the time, so spends the rest of the book summarizing letters Bassi exchanged with various men (unclear why this isn’t simply incorporated into the biography portion) and providing mini-biographies of other Italian women active in science.
Third, the writing is just bad; I think the author is a science professor who is interested in the subject but very much not a writer. She struggles with appropriate prepositions, capitalization, and hyphenation, and there’s frequent awkward sentence structure and word use (words like “obtention” and “embracement”). She also frequently reminds readers of things we’ve already been told, going so far as to use Bassi’s full name and remind us of basic facts such as the city in which she lived well into the book, giving the impression that no final read-through was conducted to streamline the writing. Overall, it’s just rather awkward and jagged.
That said, it definitely is an interesting subject: Laura Bassi was a professor of science in 18th century Italy, which was quite an achievement for a woman at the time, and if the book doesn’t exactly bring her to life, it definitely introduces a lot of facts about her. As it turns out, Italy offered somewhat more opportunities for educated women in the 18th century than other European countries, largely based on the notion of the “exceptional woman,” whose brilliance reflected well on her family and city because since women were assumed to be less intelligent than men, if a woman was that smart, how brilliant must their men be? In general, these “exceptional women” were expected to adorn civic occasions rather than make actual careers, and to be very much the exceptions to the rule: the father of one of them, who had championed his own daughter’s advancement, argued successfully against the same university granting a degree to any other woman on the grounds that it would somehow cheapen his daughter’s achievement. Bassi managed to turn her degree into an actual career though, with some help from unexpected places, namely the Pope, an old friend of hers who wanted to improve the state of science in Bologna at the time.
I would love to see someone write biographies of the women discussed here for a general audience; there’s so much rich material that would be new to most English-speaking readers, and the information included here certainly expanded my understanding of history a little. That said, it is very difficult to recommend this particular book.
This is a lazily researched, poorly-organized and poorly-written book, that nevertheless proved interesting to me by covering the biographies of 18th century female Italian scientists, which I have not found elsewhere. Biographies available in English are overwhelmingly Anglocentric and a historical biography of a non-English speaking woman without an adventurous sex life is a rare find indeed.
But unless you have a strong interest in that subject, you probably shouldn’t read this book. First of all, it’s poorly researched. The author apparently cribbed most of it from the dissertation of a researcher who died prematurely, and that researcher appears to have done much more work on it than this author, who regularly cites to Wikipedia (!). Second, she seems to run out of material about halfway through after already having covered Laura Bassi’s biography and some background on science at the time, so spends the rest of the book summarizing letters Bassi exchanged with various men (unclear why this isn’t simply incorporated into the biography portion) and providing mini-biographies of other Italian women active in science.
Third, the writing is just bad; I think the author is a science professor who is interested in the subject but very much not a writer. She struggles with appropriate prepositions, capitalization, and hyphenation, and there’s frequent awkward sentence structure and word use (words like “obtention” and “embracement”). She also frequently reminds readers of things we’ve already been told, going so far as to use Bassi’s full name and remind us of basic facts such as the city in which she lived well into the book, giving the impression that no final read-through was conducted to streamline the writing. Overall, it’s just rather awkward and jagged.
That said, it definitely is an interesting subject: Laura Bassi was a professor of science in 18th century Italy, which was quite an achievement for a woman at the time, and if the book doesn’t exactly bring her to life, it definitely introduces a lot of facts about her. As it turns out, Italy offered somewhat more opportunities for educated women in the 18th century than other European countries, largely based on the notion of the “exceptional woman,” whose brilliance reflected well on her family and city because since women were assumed to be less intelligent than men, if a woman was that smart, how brilliant must their men be? In general, these “exceptional women” were expected to adorn civic occasions rather than make actual careers, and to be very much the exceptions to the rule: the father of one of them, who had championed his own daughter’s advancement, argued successfully against the same university granting a degree to any other woman on the grounds that it would somehow cheapen his daughter’s achievement. Bassi managed to turn her degree into an actual career though, with some help from unexpected places, namely the Pope, an old friend of hers who wanted to improve the state of science in Bologna at the time.
I would love to see someone write biographies of the women discussed here for a general audience; there’s so much rich material that would be new to most English-speaking readers, and the information included here certainly expanded my understanding of history a little. That said, it is very difficult to recommend this particular book.
May 18, 2023
Despite being a fascinating example of 18th century scientific achievement, this biography of Italy's most prominent female Enlightenment scholar exhibits levels of writing quality and source citations that would earn an undergraduate student in my courses a low grade.
March 20, 2021
Monique Frize is a biomedical engineer based out of the University of Ottawa. This book is an extension of her ongoing research exploring women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Though these pursuits, Frize has brought forth an often overlooked figure in the scientific community of the eighteenth century. This important contribution to the Enlightenment canon is one of a small number of books dedicated solely to Laura Bassi, and, through its detailed exploration of her scientific pursuits, helps expand our understanding of her role in the Italian Enlightenment.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first, from chapters one to three, provides a summary of women scientists and feminist theorists before, during, and after Laura Bassi’s lifetime. While this background information is helpful in situating the reader in the academic and political climate in which Bassi found herself, the space might have been better used focusing on Bassi alone, rather than listing a myriad of medieval, early modern, and Enlightenment women. In chapters four through nine Frize embarks on an in-depth exploration of Bassi’s career, her critics and allies, and her role in the shifting landscape of eighteenth-century science. Finally, the final two chapters focus once more on other women, this time starting with Bassi’s contemporaries and ending with nineteenth-century Italian women.
Beyond providing a rare look into the life and career of a female scientist, Frize explores Bassi’s role in the debate between “new” and “old” science, beginning with her rejection of her first tutor’s ideology and scientific approach. While emphasizing Bassi’s agency and authority in her fight to not only earn a degree but secure a teaching position at the university, Frize also adds the many restrictions and obstacles placed in her way. Most interesting, however, was the discussion of performative intellect that women had to engage with in order to become a part of the academic or scientific communities. While Frize does bring this up intermittedly throughout the book, it would have been beneficial to further explore the role that public lectures, salons, and other such “performances” of knowledge shaped Bassi’s (and other women’s) careers.
While the book is undoubtedly a critical step in placing Bassi and other female scientists and academics securely in the historical canon, the face that the author is not a trained historian sometimes reveals itself throughout the book. Almost half of the chapters are dedicated to summaries of women other than Bassi, which, while certainly important, feels more like a long list of names and achievements than historical analyzation. Although it is helpful to situate Bassi historically and explore her impact after her death, Frize lists so many names that it becomes difficult to keep track. Further, her sources are sometimes shaky, with several citations in each chapter coming from Wikipedia.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first, from chapters one to three, provides a summary of women scientists and feminist theorists before, during, and after Laura Bassi’s lifetime. While this background information is helpful in situating the reader in the academic and political climate in which Bassi found herself, the space might have been better used focusing on Bassi alone, rather than listing a myriad of medieval, early modern, and Enlightenment women. In chapters four through nine Frize embarks on an in-depth exploration of Bassi’s career, her critics and allies, and her role in the shifting landscape of eighteenth-century science. Finally, the final two chapters focus once more on other women, this time starting with Bassi’s contemporaries and ending with nineteenth-century Italian women.
Beyond providing a rare look into the life and career of a female scientist, Frize explores Bassi’s role in the debate between “new” and “old” science, beginning with her rejection of her first tutor’s ideology and scientific approach. While emphasizing Bassi’s agency and authority in her fight to not only earn a degree but secure a teaching position at the university, Frize also adds the many restrictions and obstacles placed in her way. Most interesting, however, was the discussion of performative intellect that women had to engage with in order to become a part of the academic or scientific communities. While Frize does bring this up intermittedly throughout the book, it would have been beneficial to further explore the role that public lectures, salons, and other such “performances” of knowledge shaped Bassi’s (and other women’s) careers.
While the book is undoubtedly a critical step in placing Bassi and other female scientists and academics securely in the historical canon, the face that the author is not a trained historian sometimes reveals itself throughout the book. Almost half of the chapters are dedicated to summaries of women other than Bassi, which, while certainly important, feels more like a long list of names and achievements than historical analyzation. Although it is helpful to situate Bassi historically and explore her impact after her death, Frize lists so many names that it becomes difficult to keep track. Further, her sources are sometimes shaky, with several citations in each chapter coming from Wikipedia.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews