The Lady Cornaro: Pride and Prodigy of Venice

Rating:
Summary: Review from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Review: "This well-researched biography of the first woman to earn a university degree...conveys the majesty of the Italian baroque period and [the Lady Cornaro's] astonishing scholarship." (Donald Miller, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Senior Editor)

Rating:
Summary: Review from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Review: Although it is unlikely to happen, Elena Cornaro really should be nominated one of the hundred most important people of the last thousand years. In this carefully researched and highly readable book, Jane Howard Guernsey has successfully reconstructed the story of the Lady Cornaro's astonishing achievements and raised the questions they invite. The author has added to the recoverable information about the life of "The Cornaro," as she was affectionately known to her fellow Venetians, valuable contextual details about the life and milieu of Venice and Padua and about her tutors and contemporaries. These details elucidate both the uniqueness of the opportunities granted her and the enormous stress under which she lived as she labored to do the will of her earthly and her heavenly fathers. (Professor Rizzo's more extensive review of "The Lady Cornaro: Pride and Prodigy of Venice" may be found in "Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature," Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 2000.)

Rating:
Summary: One of the 100 most important people of the last 1000 years.
Review: Although it is unlikely to happen, Elena Cornaro really should be nominated one of the hundred most important people of the last thousand years. In this carefully researched and highly readable book, Jane Howard Guernsey has successfully reconstructed the story of the Lady Cornaro's astonishing achievements and raised the questions they invite. The author has added to the recoverable information about the life of "The Cornaro," as she was affectionately known to her fellow Venetians, valuable contextual details about the life and milieu of Venice and Padua and about her tutors and contemporaries. These details elucidate both the uniqueness of the opportunities granted her and the enormous stress under which she lived as she labored to do the will of her earthly and her heavenly fathers. (Professor Rizzo's more extensive review of "The Lady Cornaro: Pride and Prodigy of Venice" may be found in "Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature," Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 2000.)

Rating:
Summary: LADY CORNARO: Chosen as "Book Lover's Calendar" Feature
Review: I recently noticed that the popular "Book Lover's Page-a-Day Calendar" chose to include THE LADY CORNARO as its featured "star" for December 11, 2002.

"You've probably never heard of Elena Cornaro," observes the calendar entry, "yet she holds a unique place in history. In 1678, she became the first woman in Europe to receive a Ph.D. Jane Howard Guernsey's book is the first full-length biography of this remarkably accomplished woman . . . an inspiring story."

I believe that it is highly appropriate for THE LADY CORNARO to be included in a book lover's daily calendar described as "365 days of good authors, good books and good reading . . . the calendar of passionate recommendations." Truly, THE LADY CORNARO is an outstanding book, worthy of a passionate recommendation!