The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1879-12-27
Lady Professors of Long Ago.

Lady Professors of Long Ago.
THE Queen.l
Girls are becoming learned; colleges for
them are beginning to rise within a stones
throw of the venerable institutions erected
centuries ago for their male relations alone.
The time will come when maidens will clamor
for the letters of degree to be tagged to
their names, and when
Academic silks in hue
The lilac, with a slken hood to each, ~
And Zohed with gold,
will no longer be the pretty conceit of poet,
but the actual vesturyof girl graduates. We
are tempted to ask those who speak feelingly
of the past and apprehensively of the future,
if they know that in days very remote from
those they look back upon with such affec-
tionate regret, there was university, the
most famous of those of the middle-ages that
treated women as it treated men-gave to
them the same privileges of training,
tagged the degree of doctor to the names of
the deserving, and not only invested those
who had it with the cap and gown that were
its badge, but thus arrayed. allowed ladies to
ascend the professors rostrum and lecture to
students
1t is of the University of Bologna that we
speak. The date of its foundation is uncer-
tain. Existing documents seem to fix it
toward the middle of the fifth century 1t
was not. however, till the twelfth that it
burst into sudden fame. for then Irnerius lee
tured in it on Roman law, and by the splen-
dor of his lore and eloquence drew the gaze
of all learned Europe upon it. Crowds of
students and scholars fiocked to hear and
learn from the jursconsult, who was at once
the real founder of the University of Bologna
and the reformer of the whole law code of
Europe. Irnerius, besides lecturing and
writing, worked with might and main
to form and establish a law-school
that would carry on his work after his
death. He traced the course of work to be
followed by his disciples and descendants, in
vented, the degree of bachelor and doctor,
and designed the cap and gown that are
were insignia. Irnerlus made no distinction
of sexes in his scheme. If women had the
pluck, the power of work in them, and the
desire to become jurisconsults, the great law
reformer saw no reason that they should not
They must go through the same training
as the men-six years for canon law, eight
for civil law; they must submit to the two
necessary tests, the private and the public
examinations. The latter took place in the
cathedral, before the dignitaries, the College
of Doctors, the students, the ecclesiastics, and
the principal inhabitants of Bologna The
aspirant for the degree before this notable
assembly was called upon to read thesis,
expound some knotty law point, and main-
tain and defend his or her explanation of it,
against all disputants. If victorious in the
contest, the degree of doctor, with the cup
and gown. were won and duly awarded The
names of several ladies-wise Portals well
a arp Q6 in 10 ihaJ -, h. Il.
of the university as having been invested
with the title and the badge. Space will not
allow US to enter into details about them fur
Their than to notice The piquant account of the
air Novella daughter of Giovanni d Andrea,
the most famous jurisconsult of the fourteenth
century, given by Christine de Pisan in LA
Cite des Danes" The quaint old manuscript
does not record whether Novella stood the
public examination or was received "A doctor;
but it tells how she excelled in legal lore, so
that when the wise Giovanni could not at
tend to his students he sent his daughter to
take his place at the university "And 20
fair was she, it goes on to relate ''that little
curtain had to be drawn in front of her, lest
her beauty should cause the thoughts of her
listeners to wander, and her instructions be of
no avail to them"
The fame of the legal schools of Bologna
threw into the shade those of the other
branches of learning pursued in the
university; but they, too, had their
share of celebrity. In medicine the |
ladies won full degrees; some were professors
of anatomy. There is portrait by Giorgione |
Of one of these in the fifteenth century. The |
slight figure stands upright, clad in doctor's |
gown, skull in hand, as it must have stood
many times before the assembled students.
ha fttl hat,
.enance rises pale above the dark and flowing
lraperes of the professional robe Later in
he eighteenth century, the wax casts, model
ed by another lady professor of anatomy 10
Illustrate her lectures, are still among the or
laments of the museum mt Bologna. Ia
S06 Napoleon |. founded the chair of ob,te-
RIGS for Maria dale Dome, whose medical
md surgical knowledge ranked her high
mong the physicians Of her.day. In art,
here was Simberin, the assistant Of Raph-
ell. If Properzia Rossi was not an art pro-
essor In the university, her narpev must not
ct be omitted. Her fame as a sculptures
cached far beyond Italy, and vasari record
d 1t in his lives Of the eminent artists of the
teenth and sixteenth centuries.
In more modern times Laura Bass was pro- |
'ssor ofphilosopby in 1888. This ladys learn {
~ won for her on the day of her pubiicexami-
alton, that took place with all the pageantry {
the middle ages. not only her doctors de- !
rec, but the unanimous vote Of the Senate {
, crowL her with u wreath of silver .leaves. q
laria G@tana Agnese succeeded her father s
the chair of mathmetics in 1860 She d
as the Mrs. Somersvile of Italy. Her a
orks were translated into. French and En- v
ish, and, after her death, her eulogy was o
'onounced in the French Academy. In I,
"a the beautiful Clotilde Tambroni was r.
ofessor of Greek. The warmth of her Low. d
g heart and the noble use she made of her Il
tellectual gifts have been recorded by Mr..
ngustus Hare, in the Memories of a Quiet
fe"
This is necessarily but very meagre ac-
unit OF the learned ladies of Bologna. 1t st
however, our gracious task to conclude it nj
noticing the fact that the chroniclers of (,
cir learning are also those of their domes- 70
virtues, their unsullied modesty. their %
nile and social graces. all