of natural philosophy (modern equivalent of honorary position) in December. She became the first salaried woman lecturer in the world, thus beginning her academic career. The first lecture she gave was titled "De aqua corpore naturali elemento aliorum corporum parte universi", which can roughly be translated from Latin as, "Water as a natural element of all other bodies". The University, however, still held that women were to lead private lives, so she was more restricted than male teachers from delivering public lectures. She then fought for teaching rights equal to those of men, but to no avail. From 1746 to 1777 she gave only one formal dissertation per year ranging in topic from the problem of gravity to electricity. It is reported that she gave at least thirty-one dissertations to the university. In 1739 her plea for normal teaching duty was supported by Lambertini and Flamino Scarselli, the secretary to the Bolognese ambassador at the papal court. She was again denied, but she was allowed to start private lessons and granted funds for experiments at her home in 1759. This allowed her to avoid the constraints of the university and to explore new ideas. The Senate expected Bassi to attend various events because she was a symbol and political figure. The Carnival Anatomy, a public dissection with tickets open to anyone, was an event she was expected to attend because it was a central feature of public life at the university which attracted the attention of many foreigners and important community members. She began attending this event annually in 1734. In 1772 Paolo Balbi, professor of experimental physics, died suddenly. Although Bassi's husband Verratti was Balbi's longtime assistant, Bassi believed she could fill the vacancy, and in 1776, at the age of 65, she was appointed to the Chair of Experimental Physics by the Bologna Institute of Sciences, with her husband as a teaching assistant. Two years later she died, having made science into a lifelong career and advanced the status of women in academic circles. Experimental work After her marriage to Giuseppe Veratti, she was able to lecture from home on a regular basis. During the 1760s, Bassi and her husband worked together on experimental research in electricity. This attracted the talent of Abbé Nollet and others to Bologna to study electricity. She was mainly interested in Newtonian physics and taught courses on the subject for 28 years. She