Elena Cornaro Piscopia

Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, also called Elena Lucrezia Corner and known in English as Helen Cornaro, was an Italian philosopher of noble descent in the Republic of Venice, born in the Palazzo Loredan on 5 June 1646. A prodigy who mastered Latin, Greek, French and Spanish as a child, she also became an accomplished musician and took an interest in physics, astronomy and linguistics, studying under Carlo Rinaldini, who dedicated a book on geometry to her. In 1670 she became president of the Venetian Accademia dei Pacifici. On 25 June 1678 the University of Padua conferred on her the laurea in philosophy, making her one of the first women to receive an academic degree from a university and the first to be named a Doctor of Philosophy. She died of tuberculosis in Padua on 26 July 1684 and was buried in the church of Santa Giustina.