Mathematicians Of The Day

17th April



On this day in 1732, Prospero Lambertini (then Archbishop of Bologna, who later became Pope Benedict XIV) set up a debate between his 20 year-old protegée Laura Bassi and four professors from Bologna. The debate was held in the grand Palazzo Pubblico in Bologna and Bassi defended forty-nine philosophical theses. She was later appointed to a professorship at Bologna: the first female professor at a European University.

On this day in 2021 Google released a Laura Bassi doodle.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Benjamin Franklin
Man is a tool-making animal
quoted in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson