Talk:Laura Bassi

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Everett78258.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:58, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): ALeigh602.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 02:17, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Number of Children

I just wanted to comment that each wikipedia seems to list her having a different number of children. The french wikipedia says that she had 6 children, the german that she had 12, the italian that she had 8, the english that she had 8, and the Galego which says that she had 12. As you can see there seems to be some dispute. Just thought I'd comment. Chooserr 21:31, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 09:58, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Partial rollback of article

I've performed a partial rollback of this article to the version from May 2, 2015 due to some observed inaccuracies that I noticed and suspect of being vandalism. I did retain a version of the infobox that appears to be correct. Inaccuracies that I noticed and remedied include the listing of Galileo Galilei among Bassi's correspondents (Galileo having died nearly 70 years before Bassi's birth) and the infobox indicating that she had influenced Elena Cornaro Piscopia, who had died more than a quarter century before Bassi's birth. If any editors feel that I've clobbered meaningful edits by performing a rollback, please feel free to restore the valid edits as you see fit. — Myasuda (talk) 02:07, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Evaluating Articles and Sources - WikiProject

I am here to critique, evaluate, and leave suggestions for improvement on this article for a WikiProject course I am in.

I see that this article is marked as a "start" class article and could use further work. However, the information present is thorough and neutral with good, unbiased citations. I think that there are a few underrepresented viewpoints on Laura Bassi's career and work as a scientist that could be detailed more. I looked through some sources and citations and they seem great! I had to read Paula Findlen's article for my class and it is extremely interesting and should provide a lot of information on Laura Bassi's career for this aritcle. Pham8713 (talk) 21:33, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

See Also

Is there a particular reason these individuals are listed? I am having a hard time seeing the connection of these people to Laura Bassi. Perhaps we could link other individuals? ALeigh602 (talk) 03:44, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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Laura Bassi was not the first female professor in Europe

Laura, who taught at bologna University in the 18th century, was not the first woman to become a professor in Europe. It has been proven that Luisa de Medrano was in fact the first female professor in Europe at Salamanca University in the early 16th century. Laura's Wikipedia page should reflect this truth, as Laura would actually be considered the second in line, with Medrano being first, respectively. The Royal Herald (talk) 12:57, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Bettisia Gozzadini has them both beat, her article also says she is thought to be the first woman to have taught at a university, and she lived from 1209 - 1261. ~2025-40560-38 (talk) 15:39, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

Novella d'Andrea and Bettina d'Andrea are other women who taught in a university in the 14th century. ~2025-40560-38 (talk) 15:43, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

As demonstrated by Paula Findlen (Stanford University) and other historians of early modern universities, figures such as Bettisia Gozzadini and Novella d'Andrea belong largely to a tradition of commemoration and institutional memory at the University of Bologna, rather than to securely documented professorial appointments. Their reputations were assembled over centuries through literary transmission, artistic iconography, commemorative university culture, and later historiography, often in the absence of contemporaneous university records confirming formal chairs, degrees, or salaried teaching posts. Findlen has shown that, particularly from the seventeenth century onward, this tradition was actively reinforced through retrospective invention and outright forgery, including fabricated medieval precedents produced to defend women's access to legal degrees.

By contrast, Luisa de Medrano y Bravo de Lagunas is archivally documented teaching publicly at the University of Salamanca in the early sixteenth century within a fully institutionalized system of chairs and statutes. Modern scholarship therefore distinguishes between commemorative or legendary traditions of women associated with teaching and the first verifiable female professor in a European university, which remains Luisa de Medrano. Claims that Gozzadini or d'Andrea were the first female professors rely primarily on narrative tradition rather than surviving institutional documentation. The Royal Herald (talk) 16:28, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

Lightning rod?

The German version of this article has

She conducted experiments on the Boyle-Mariotte Act and its limits, on gas bubbles in liquids and on the then sensational electricity, through which she experimented a lot with her husband, Giovanni Giuseppe Veratti, which had his eye on applications in medicine. However, the first lightning rod of Italy, installed at the initiative of her husband in 1752, fell victim to superstition and had to be removed from the roof of the Bolognese Academy because of protests by the inhabitants.

However, I couldn't find many sources about the supposed lightning rod. The source used there (I'm not suggesting it to be used here) claims it was the first installed lightning rod of the world.

Here there only is for example, tests on atmospheric electricity conducted in their country house, since these had been banned in Bologna after terrified public reactions to lightning-rod experiments carried out there in 1752 and 1753. and here However, the lightning rod had to be taken down again after only a short time as the population were afraid that it would attract lightning.

There is a whole German-language documentary episode about her extensively about the lightning rod installation (link).

First I was surprised there was no info about the lightning rod in this article. Now I wonder why there is no reliable sources clarifying all of this. Did she get the lightning rod installed and which kind of First was it? Some sources say first in Europe and Václav Prokop Diviš reportedly invented the first lightning rod in Europe in 1754.

Maybe somebody here knows more or can find out more. Prototyperspective (talk) 00:02, 9 February 2026 (UTC)