Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia was born at Ca' Loredan in Venice.
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia was born on June 5, 1646, in Venice, a city renowned for its artistic and intellectual life during the Renaissance. As the daughter of a Venetian nobleman, Elena was afforded the opportunity to receive an exceptional education rarely available to women at the time. This background enabled her to pursue a path of scholarship that would eventually lead to her historic achievement as the first woman to receive a university doctorate.