Maria Petraccini

Maria Magdalena Petraccini (or Pettracini, or Petrocini) Ferretti was an Italian anatomist, physician, professor of anatomy. She was born in Florence, Tuscany, 1759 and died in Bagnacavallo, Ravenna, 1791.

Biography and personal life Pettracini was born in a merchant family in Tuscany. She married Italian physician and anatomy professor Francesco Ferretti. She became interested in surgery thanks to him, who was the chief at the Bagnacavallo hospital. Subsequently, Petraccini was tutored in surgery by her spouse, who taught her by operating on corpses. Her technique became so precise that she was envied even by those above her. She was so good that in September of 1788, the Florence Medical Board deemed her worthy of their university, at a time when the medical profession wasn't left up to women.

On 13 September 1788 she became a medical student at the University of Florence. Here she followed the lessons of professors Lorenzo and Angelo Nannoni, who also taught her obstetrics.

Petraccini and her husband then moved to Ferrara, where she continued her training at the 'Arcispedale Sant'Anna di Ferrara', where "in the presence of the Professors of Humanity she gave public essays of deep anatomical knowledge operating on corpses ".

She graduated at the University of Ferrara, and became a member of the university's board. She also gave a demonstration and lecture of anatomy before the board of medical professors.

Career in medicine Maria Petraccini was active as a teacher in anatomy at the University of Ferrara. Her daughter, Zaffira Ferretti, was also active as a teacher at the university in the same subject. The universities of Salerno and Bologna were centers of medical education in Italy and known as the locations where most female anatomists and physicians were active. The careers of Pettracini and her daughter indicate that Ferrara also encouraged women as students and teachers.

Maria's daughter, Zaffira Ferretti, seems to have inherited her mother's talents, for she studied Surgery at the University of Bologna, and there she also received a medical degree in May 1800. She obtained an appointment under the Italian government, and for some time lived in Ancona acting as director-general of the midwives in all parts of the country.

Major works and philosophy After the birth of her daughter in 1789, Pettracini published books about the care of infants and women in childbirth (1789). Her most famous being 'Memoire on the physical education of children' ("Memoria per servire alla fisica educazione dei bambini"). This was a century characterized by cultural revolutions, in which new scientific and pedagogical conceptions made their way, which Ferretti tried to spread in order to give new dignity to childhood: "I abandon the ghost of prejudice and, despising vulgar sentiment, I arm myself in favor of innocent humanity ". Yet she was aware of the difficulties caused by her being a woman because, as she bitterly wrote in the preface to the work: "I, however, do not cease to be a woman, and therefore an object, which may deserve little consideration from others".