La passione della libertà : la lectio ordinaria di Laura Bassi

Lectio ordinaria prima Traduzione [Testo dell'editore]

The article provides the edition (transcript of the Latin text and Italian translation) of an academic lecture delivered by Laura Bassi (1711 1778), her first lectio ordinaria, from an autograph manuscript. Laura Bassi's correspondence makes it possible to establish that this lecture was read after the praelectio (1732), but still early in her career. By relating the two texts, the author forms a hypothesis about the dating of the lecture. The article then offers a contextualization, based mainly on manuscript sources, focusing on the personal, intellectual and academic tensions in the background of the first lectures Bassi was allowed to deliver. On the basis of a comparison of the contents of this lectio ordinaria with the praelectio, the author finally questions some classical historiographical paradigms concerning Bassi's philosophical profile in 1732, namely her adherence to Newtonianism and her alleged anti Cartesianism. [Publisher's text]