Rina Monti

Cesarina Monti, better known as Rina Monti and, sometimes, as Rina Monti Stella (Arcisate, 16 August 1871 – Pavia, 25 January 1937), was an Italian scientist. A biologist, physiologist, limnologist and zoologist, in 1907 she became the first woman to obtain a university chair in the Kingdom of Italy.

Biography Monti was born 16 August 1871 in Arcisate, Italy to Francesco Monti, a magistrate, and Luigia Mapelli. After moving to Monza, she graduated from the Alessandro Manzoni high school in 1887. By doing so, she renounced the high school teaching posts typically accepted by educated women of her time, choosing instead to continue her research at the university level.

In 1905 she taught zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Siena on a temporary assignment and, during this time, she repeatedly competed to be named to a university professorship but was denied several times. These events led Monti, in 1906, to write,I have little hope to receive a professorship. In general, the Italian authorities are not very inclined to consider the scientific performances of women of equal value to those of men.

Scientific activity In Pavia, at the beginning of her career, Monti made a name for herself in the zoo-neuro-histological field, with new research on the nervous system of insects. Subsequently she turned to hydrobiology, which at the time was neither very popular nor understood in Italy. In particular, she used a comparative perspective (incorporating mineralogy, zoology, anatomy and microbiology) to study the life of inland lakes (limnology).

To study the varieties of life found in alpine lakes, as well as in insubric lakes, she combined field research and complex laboratory analyses, paying particular attention to the lakes in the Italian mountains of Val d'Aosta and Val d'Ossola first, then of Trentino. To explore the mountain waterways, Monti took on demanding mountaineering excursions: camping on the shores of the lakes, traveling the waters with a special boat, the Pavesia, that was designed and built for her, and using nets of her own invention to collect specimens.

Journals

Microscopic research on the nervous system of insects. Preliminary note in "Royal Lombard Institute of Sciences and Letters. Reports." Series 2, Volume 25, Fascicolo 7, 1892, pp. 533–540. Contribution to the knowledge of the nerves of the digestive tract of fish, Bernardoni, Milan 1895. On the nervous system of freshwater dendroceles. Note I, Bizzoni, Pavia 1896. On the comparative morphology of the excretory ducts of the gastric glands in vertebrates, Bizzoni, Pavia 1898. The salivary glands of terrestrial gastropods in the different functional periods, Hoepli, Milan 1899. The regeneration of marine planaria, Hoepli, Milan 1900. The physical-biological conditions of the Ossola and Valle d'Aosta lakes in relation to psychulture, Tip. Cooperative, Pavia 1903. Thalassographic explorations along the coasts of northern Sardinia, Fusi, Pavia 1910. Contribution to the biology of alpine hydrachnids in relation to the environment, Fusi, Pavia 1910. The internal reticular apparatus of golgi in the nerve cells of crustaceans, Accademia dei Lincei, Rome 1914. Chondriosomes and Golgi systems in nerve cells. Comparative research, Niccolai, Florence 1915. The biological physiognomy of Sardinia and the new ideas about the origins and the geographical destruction of the species, Fusi, Pavia 1915. The comparative limnology of insubric lakes, L'universale, Rome 1929. The battle against the beetles, in "New annals of agriculture." IX (1929), pp. 509–529. The gradual extinction of life in Lake Orta, Hoepli, Milan 1930 The genetics of Italian whitefish and their variability in relation to the environment, Jovene, Naples 1933. Contribution to the hydrobiology of the Albanian Alps. Floridia Allegri Mission, Fusi, Pavia 1934. Molveno lake. Life in a zootrophic lake, (written with E. Stella), Scotoni, Trento 1934. The Daphnia cucullata GO Sars in Tridentine lakes, (with P. Perotti Razzini), Scotoni, Trento 1935. Numbers, sizes and volumes of pelagic organisms living in Italian waters, in relation to the lake economy, Hoepli, Milan 1936.

Texts

Petrographic studies on some rocks of the Canonica valley, Fusi, Pavia 1894. Microscopic research on the nervous system of insects, Bizzoni, Pavia 1894. Anatomo-comparative research on the minute innervation of the trophic organs in the lower craniotes, Rosenberg and Sellier, Turin 1898 The limnology of the Lario in relation to the repopulation of waters and fishing, Luzzatti, Rome 1924. The flowering of the waters on the Lario, se, Milan 1925. Lessons in comparative anatomy, Mariani, Milan 1927. Biology of whitefish in Italian lakes, Istituto Editoriale Scientifico, Milan 1930. Zoology and comparative anatomy, 2 vols., Bruni-Martelli, Pavia 1931-1935