Re: SCIENCE TRIVIA/more

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 10:55 5/10/01 -0400, Tim wrote:
> Is there a good source of science trivia, such as the
> following?
> Thanks Tim O'Donnell
>
> SCIENCE TRIVIA
/snip/

Tim has evidently played to my strength with this question.

For example....

...on the twenty-fifth of June 1678, Elena Cornaro-Piscopia
was brought into the presence of professors of all faculties at
U Padua, gathered in the Cathedral there with students,
many Venetian Senators and guests invited from U Bologna, Ferrara,
Perugia, Roma and Napoli.
 She spoke for an hour in Classical Latin, describing and explaining
difficult passages from Aristotle.
    To applause,  Professor Rinaldi her tutor, finally placed a
laurel wreath on her head, a ring on her finger and upon her shoulders
the ermine mozzetta proper to the award of doctorate in Sciences and Arts.

   When she died a scant six years later in her thirty eighth year,
her casket was carried by four professors to the Basilica and witnessed
 by assembled members of all faculties in academic dress.
On the habit of a Benedictine Oblate, was placed her
mozzetta; and on her head a double garland of lilies and laurels.

The university struck a medal in her honor; its first medal, to the
first woman ever to win the doctorate, after first being denied the
examination in Theology.

Her statue was placed at the foot of the grand stairway at the
university where it is said to be standing today.
 Besides a bust of her at the Church of Saint Anthony, there has been a
depiction of her academic award in a fine stained glass window of the
magnificent gothic library building at Vassar College since 1906.
May her memory last for ever.

Brian


Footnotes: The foregoing was extracted from a publication of
The Church Glass and Decorating Company, New York for a description
revised in 1993 for the college library.

The stained glass window was wrought by the
people who also fabricated the hands and numerals for Big Ben:
John Hardman of Birmingham. It was the gift of a Vassar alumna,
 Mrs Frederick Ferris Thomson.



brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>  Altus OK
                Eureka!