Laura Bassi

Early career

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.^[12] The defence formed part of her petition for a university teaching position. Her theses covered chemistry, physics, hydraulics, mathematics, mechanics and technical subjects.^[13]

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.^[13]

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.^[9]

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.^[1]

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.^[11]

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.^[1]

In 1749, aged 37, Bassi established a private school of experimental physics in her home with the assistance of her husband, physician and university lecturer Giuseppe Veratti. Her courses included Newtonian physics and Franklinian theories of electricity.^[1] Bassi taught for eight months each year, giving daily lessons accompanied by experiments. By 1755, she reported that her classes were attracting educated adults, including visitors from outside Italy, rather than primarily younger students.^[9] Bassi also developed a laboratory for teaching and research, acquiring scientific instruments at her own expense. In a letter to Flaminio Scarselli, Bologna's representative at the papal court, on 14 June 1755, she described the continuing expense of equipping her courses.^[9]

Bassi's home laboratory became a meeting place for students, researchers and visiting scholars from Italy and elsewhere in Europe. She conducted experimental research there, including work on electricity, and other scientists also used the laboratory for experiments.^[14][15] In 1766, aged 54, Bassi received another formal appointment to teach experimental physics at the Collegio Montalto, a residential college in Bologna.^[15]

Bassi also collaborated with other scientists on experimental research. In 1769, her former student Lazzaro Spallanzani asked her to repeat experiments investigating whether decapitated snails and leeches could regenerate their heads. He sent Bassi a special microscope for the work, which formed part of his research into regeneration in animals.^[16]

In 1772, Paolo Balbi, professor of experimental physics at the Institute of Sciences, died, leaving his chair vacant. Bassi sought the position repeatedly during the following years while the institute debated how to reorganize its experimental physics course.^[14] In 1776, aged 65, she was appointed professor of experimental physics at the Institute of Sciences. Veratti, who had previously served as Balbi's assistant, became Bassi's assistant.^[14][15] She held the chair until her death two years later, in 1778.^[15]

Benedettini

In 1745, Pope Benedict XIV established a new class of 24 scholars within the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, known as the Benedettini after the pope. Intended to increase the academy's scientific activity, membership carried an annual pension of 100 Bolognese lire and an obligation to present at least one original dissertation each year.^[17]

Bassi was not among the 24 scholars initially selected. After learning of her exclusion, she wrote to Flaminio Scarselli, Bologna's representative at the papal court, asking him to approach Benedict XIV on her behalf. Rather than displace one of the existing members, Bassi proposed that she be admitted as an additional member. Despite opposition from some members of the academy, Benedict XIV created a twenty-fifth position for her, making Bassi the only woman among the Benedettini.^[14]

Her status as an additional member soon produced another dispute. At a meeting in November 1745, several members argued that Bassi should not be allowed to vote. Bassi, who had not attended the meeting, again appealed through Scarselli, pointing out that she already held voting rights within the Academy of Sciences and in university doctoral proceedings. Benedict XIV ruled in her favour, and two weeks later Bassi thanked Scarselli for resolving the dispute.^[14]

From 1746 to 1777, Bassi presented a dissertation annually as part of her responsibilities as a member of the Benedettini.^[14] Her research during this period included subjects such as fluid dynamics, electricity and the properties of gases. A nineteenth-century catalogue compiled from the academy's records lists 32 titles of works presented by Bassi during these years. Texts or accounts of only four appear in the academy's published Commentarii.^[18]

Academic honours

Bassi was elected to learned societies across the Italian peninsula throughout her career:^[19]

• Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna: first woman member, in 1732.^[5]
• Accademia dei Dissonanti in Modena and Università degli Apatisti in Florence, in 1732.^[19]
• Accademia degli Arcadi in Rome, in 1737.^[19]
• Accademia dei Fluttuanti in Finale Emilia, in 1745.^[19]
• Accademia Benedettina: an additional 25th position created for Bassi by Pope Benedict XIV, alongside its 24 regular members, in 1745.^[20]
• Accademia degli Ipocondriaci in Reggio Emilia, Accademia degli Ardenti in Bologna, Accademia degli Agiati in Rovereto, Accademia dell'Emonia in Busseto, Accademia degli Erranti in Fermo, Accademia degli Amanti della Botanica in Cortona, Accademia Fulginia in Foligno, and Accademia dei Teopneusti in Correggio, between 1750 and 1763.^[19]
• Accademia dei Placidi in Recanati, in 1774.^[19]

Memorials

• A bronze medal engraved by Antonio Lazzari showed a portrait of Bassi on the obverse and an inscription referring to Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, on the reverse, in 1732.^[21]
• A marble statue of Bassi was made after her death and placed above the entrance to the Nautical Room of the Institute of Sciences in Bologna.^[22]

Places, institutions and objects bearing her name

• Bassi is a 31 km (19 mi) impact crater on Venus. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1991.^[23]
• Via Laura Bassi Veratti is a street in Bologna.^[24]
• Liceo Laura Bassi is a secondary school in Bologna.^[25]
• The Laura Bassi Scholarship provides editorial assistance to postgraduate students and early-career academics researching subjects that have received relatively little attention in their disciplines. It was established in 2018.^[26]
• The University of Bologna awards a Laura Bassi Medal as one of its Alumni Awards.^[27]
• Laura Bassi is an Italian icebreaking research vessel used for scientific and logistical work in Antarctica by the Italian National Antarctic Research Program since 2019. It is the only Italian research vessel certified to operate in polar waters.^[28]

Other commemorations

• Google marked the anniversary of Bassi's public defence of 49 theses with a Google Doodle, on 17 April 2021.^[29]
• American poet Jessy Randall included a poem about Bassi in her collection Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science, published in 2022.^[30]