Sunday 17 September 2017

Introducing... Queens Laura, Maria and Elena

Well, over a month has gone by since Harvest, with very little to report as it has rained most weekends and I have therefore not been opening the hives.  I mentioned a couple of posts back that I had finally got round to naming my queens, so here's a little info about each:

The queen of hive #1 is named Laura.  She is named after Laura Bassi, who was the first woman in the world to become a professor in a scientific field.  She lectured in physics, including Newtonian mechanics, and conducted research on electricity.
One of her most important patrons was Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, who encouraged her scientific work.  The Cardinal later became Pope Benedict XIV, and established an elite group of 25 scholars known as the Benedettini - Laura was the only woman appointed to the group.
Laura also earned a PhD – only the second woman to do so – from the University of Bologna.
http://enwp.org/Laura_Bassi

The queen of hive #2 is named Maria.  She is named after Maria Gaetana Agnesi, who was an Italian mathematician and philosopher.  Maria is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus.
When she was nine years old, Maria composed and delivered an hour-long speech (in Latin) to some of the most distinguished intellectuals of the day; the subject was women's right to be educated.
Maria also earned a professorship – only the second woman to do so (after Laura Bassi) – although she never served due to ill health.

And finally, the queen of the nucleus is called Elena.  She is named after Elena Cornaro Piscopia, who was the first woman to receive a PhD (54 years before Laura Bassi).  After graduation, she became a mathematics lecturer at the University of Padua.
Elena was also a keen student of philosophy and theology, and a member of a number of academies.  She was an expert musician, and played the harpsichord, harp and violin, amongst other instruments.

No comments:

Post a Comment