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| Picture of Elena Lucrezia Peshkopia (arvchive) |
The first woman in the world to receive a doctorate in Philosophy was the famous Albanian Elena Lucrezia Peshkopia.
Elena was born in Venice in 1646 into a wealthy family of Albanian immigrants with the surname Peshkopia. She was the fifth among seven children. No one could have known that she would become the first woman to receive such an achievement.
Although Italians claim she is Italian, as they do for all naturalized Albanians, Elena was indeed Albanian.
She excelled at the schools of Santa Maria and San Gallo degli Albanesi. Elena began her path of knowledge in a school established by Albanian nobles in 1440. The school was designed by the renowned Albanian architect and painter Viktor Karpaci, whose paintings can be found in the Louvre and other major museums around the world.
Elena Peshkopia is honored with a dignified statue by the University of Padua, the oldest university in Italy.
Her portrait can also be seen in a 7-meter-high stained glass window at the Thomson Frederic Library in New York, where Elena defended her PhD thesis on Aristotle.
In addition to her studies in philosophy, Elena also pursued music and astronomy. She became the first female lecturer at the University of Padua. Unfortunately, she passed away at the young age of 38 due to tuberculosis. Her body rests in the Church of Saint Luke in Padua, Italy.