Elena Cornaro

Elena Cornaro (born June 5, 1646, Venice [Italy]—died July 26, 1684, Padua) was an Italian savant who was the first woman to receive a degree from a university. Cornaro’s father, Giovanni Battista Cornaro Piscopia, was a nobleman. Her mother, Zanetta Boni, was a peasant and was not married to Giovanni (by whom she had four other children) at the time of Elena’s birth. When Elena was seven, a friend of her family, the priest Giovanni...