Elena Cornaro Piscopia

Italian scholar

• Born: June 5, 1646
• Birthplace: Venice (now in Italy)
• Died: July 26, 1684
• Place of death: Padua, Republic of Venice (now in Italy)

Piscopia was known throughout Europe first as a child prodigy. Her intellectual achievements were so astounding and wide-ranging that she became the first woman, anywhere in the world, to be granted a doctorate. Piscopia pioneered the way for women’s acceptance into the highest of academic circles.

Early Life

Elena Cornaro Piscopia (EHL-ay-nah cawr-NAHR-oh pihs-COH-pee-ah) was born in the Palazzo Cornaro (now Palazzo Loredano) on the Grand Canal in Venice. She was the third of four surviving children of Giovanni Battista Cornaro, the procurator at St. Mark’s Basilica, and Zanetta Givanna Boni, a commoner.

The Cornaro family was one of the richest and most powerful of Venice, tracing its lineage to the ancient Roman Cornelii Scipiones family, and having produced three popes, nine cardinals, four doges (chief magistrates) of Venice, one queen of Cyprus (Caterina), and several ambassadors and military leaders. The Piscopia name was added in the fourteenth century when Peter Lusignan, the king of Cyprus, deeded a castle and estate by that name (now Episkopi) to the Cornaros. Influential in politics and religion, the Cornaros also commissioned works by the greatest artists, sculptors, and architects of the Renaissance.

In this privileged atmosphere, Piscopia’s intellectual abilities were recognized early on by Monsignor Gianbattista Fabris, an Aristotelian scholar and tutor to her two older brothers. At age seven, she was tutored in classical Latin and Greek, and, through other tutors, she soon became fluent in Hebrew, Aramaic, Spanish, French, Arabic, and English. Her linguistic success was followed by her mastery of rhetoric, logic, mathematics, astronomy, music, philosophy, and theology. Excelling in every area of study, although philosophy and theology were her favorites, she became famous for her prodigious memory and received visitors from throughout Europe.

In addition to her extraordinary scholarship, Piscopia was dedicated to religious life. From an early age she was drawn to prayer, daily mass, and meditation; despite the important marriage proposals she was offered because of her intelligence, beauty, and virtuous character, she did not wish to marry. In 1665, at the age of nineteen, she renewed her vow of chastity, first made when she was eleven, and became a Benedictine oblate of the Third Order—a person who follows the Benedictine discipline while living “in the world”—and took the name “Scholastica.” Committed to living the Benedictine ideal of study and charitable works, she wore her Benedictine habit beneath her lavish gowns throughout her life.

Life’s Work

When Elena Cornaro Piscopia moved to the Palazzo Cornaro (now Palazzo Guistiniana) in Padua in 1672 at the age of twenty-six, she continued her life of scholarship and service to the poor and other marginalized groups. Although she never enrolled formally in classes at the world-renowned University of Padua, she was tutored for six years in the humanities, science, philosophy, and theology by its best professors.

Shunning personal glory, Piscopia did not desire recognition for her accomplishments, but at the insistence of her father an application was made for a doctorate in theology. Gregorio Cardinal Barbarigo, the bishop of Padua and former chancellor of the Theology Faculty, refused the request because that degree led to the priesthood or to teaching theology, both of which were reserved for men. Convinced that his daughter’s extraordinary gifts should be officially recognized, Giovanni Cornaro reached a compromise with the cardinal, who accepted an application for a doctorate in philosophy. Professor Carlo Rinaldini, the chair of philosophy department at the University of Padua, helped prepare her for the defense, the public oral examination required for the doctorate.

Piscopia’s defense, which took place on Saturday, June 25, 1678, was an international affair, drawing Venetian senators, scholars from universities all over continental Europe and England, and other dignitaries and guests. To accommodate the enormous crowd, the defense was moved from the university to Padua’s Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin. As Piscopia spoke in classical Latin for one hour, explaining difficult passages randomly chosen by the examiners from Aristotle’s Physics (on natural science) and The Posterior Analytics (on logic), she was frequently interrupted by spontaneous applause. Her brilliant answers amazed and awed not only the audience but her examiners as well.

Having demonstrated knowledge that far surpassed the requirement for the doctorate, Piscopia, at the age of thirty-two, became the first woman to receive a doctorate in any field. She was granted the degree by unanimous acclamation of all sixty-four examiners, receiving the title Magistra et Doctrix Philosophiae (Master and Doctor of Philosophy). Rinaldini conferred the doctoral insignia on her: the gold doctor’s ring, the mozzetta (an ermine cape), and the laurel crown.

Following her unique triumph, she was invited to become a member of many academies in Italy, France, and Germany, which met to debate political, theological, and scientific issues and which were reserved for men. She continued to receive visitors from all over Europe and attracted the attention of such dignitaries as Pope Innocent XI , King John III Sobieski of Poland, and King Louis XIV of France.

In 1684, Piscopia died from multiple system failure at the age of thirty-eight, having suffered over the years from infections, anemia, and kidney and pulmonary problems. Her years of fasting and being exposed to the diseases of the people she served had taken their toll. Her funeral was attended by hundreds of people from all over Europe. People in the streets cried out, “The saint is dead!” Businesses were closed for the day in Venice and Padua, and memorial services were held at universities throughout Europe. Her unusual request to be buried among the Benedictine monks in Padua’s Monastery of St. Justina was approved by Cardinal Barbarigo, who had become one of her admirers, and she was buried in St. Luke’s Chapel (restored and renamed Cornaro Chapel in 1978).

Significance

Piscopia continued to receive unique honors posthumously. Shortly after her death, the faculty of the Sacred College of Philosophers and Physicians at the University of Padua had a medal coined in her honor, a prestigious distinction no woman had ever received. Her life-size marble statue, since its donation in 1772, stands at the bottom of the staircase in the Great Hall of the University of Padua. A 22-foot-high stained-glass window, installed in 1906 at the Thompson Memorial Library at Vassar College in New York State, depicts her receiving the doctorate and its insignia. A mural of her surrounded by instruments of learning, painted in 1947 by Giovanni Romagnoli, decorates the Italian Room at the University of Pittsburgh. Perhaps the most famous female intellectual in the world and awarded several honors never given to any woman before, Piscopia left a unique mark on her century and beyond.

Her life and work caused a paradigm shift in higher education. In the seventeenth century, Europe had almost 150 institutions of higher learning, but they had been established exclusively for men. Although it took more than fifty years before the doctorate was conferred upon another woman, Piscopia had pioneered the way for women to be accepted in the highest academic circles.

Her accomplishments outweighed the barriers that accompanied her gender, making her a role model for women everywhere in the pursuit of academic excellence. In 1978, the tercentenary anniversary of her doctorate, an international celebration of her life and achievements, held in 135 locations, brought her prominence once more. Several scholarships and awards in her name have since been established by groups such as the New York Order of the Sons of Italy, the Kappa Gamma Pi Society, and the University of South Africa.

In addition to producing scholarship at its highest level, Piscopia also exemplified the Benedictine lifestyle by her lifelong learning, devotion to spiritual reading and prayer, and ministry to the needy. She remains a unique example of a woman who combined intensive scholarship with a life of compassionate service, and she excelled in both.

Bibliography

Barcham, William L. Grand in Design: The Life and Career of Federico Cornaro, Prince of the Church, Patriarch of Venice, and Patron of the Arts. Padua, Italy: La Garangola, 2001. Lengthy biography of the cardinal, Elena’s uncle, describing the Cornaro family’s influence in politics, religion, and the arts, and supplying a context for the milieu in which she was raised. Includes illustrations and an index.

Fusco, Nicola. Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia. Pittsburgh, Pa.: U.S. Committee for the Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia Tercentenary, 1975. A very brief biography with illustrations. Provides an extensive, multilingual bibliography of primary and secondary sources from 1688 to 1975 and a glossary with translations of inscriptions on portraits, statues, and graduation documents.

Guernsey, Jane H. The Lady Cornaro: Pride and Progeny of Venice. Clinton Corners, N.Y.: College Avenue Press, 1999. A full-length biography with illustrations, a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and an index.

Kessler, Ann. “Oblate and Heroine: Elena Lucrezia Scholastica Cornaro Piscopia.” In Benedict in the World: Portraits of Monastic Oblates, edited by Linda Kulzer and Roberta Bondi. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002. A succinct biography with attention to Piscopia’s participation in Benedictine spirituality and ministry.

Wills, Gary. Venice: Lion City. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Focuses on Renaissance life and art in Venice, including the story of the Cornaro family. Contains more than 130 illustrations, extensive notes, and an index.