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FirstThe first woman to earn an academic degree
Just learned about this badass.
Elena Cornaro Piscopia was the first known woman to earn an academic degree (1678; she later went on to become the first to earn a doctorate).
Looks like she was probably a genius: she spoke 7 languages, mastered 4 musical instruments, and was proficient in philosophy and a bunch of sciences.
Her father tried to arrange marriages for her but she rejected all of her suitors, and when she was 19 started to dress like a nun without actually becoming one. Good for her!
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Cornaro_Piscopia
Additional links in case the woke brigade makes a mess of her entry at wikipedia:
https://library.vassar.edu/libraries-collections/main-library/cornaro-window Vassar Libraries: The Cornaro Window
http://www.projectcontinua.org/elena-lucrezia-cornaro/ Project Continua: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro
(Project Continua is quite wonderful so far, they seem to be resistant to gender ideology overall. They also are having some difficulties with their wordpress instance, which refuses to update their home page properly. The rest of the site is fine!)
Wow! Oraculum Septilingue ("Seven-language Oracle")!
Disappeared by male posterity, as usual. And in fact the University of Padua, which awarded her the Doctor of Philosophy degree, changed its rules a few years later specifically to exclude Gabrielle-Charlotte [Carla Gabriella] Patin.