Luisa de Medrano: Google Doodle celebrates Spain’s first female professor’s 538th birthday

Google Doodle celebrates the 538th birthday of Luisa de Medrano, a poet, and philosopher who is considered Spain’s first female professor, on August 9, 2022.

Who was Luisa de Medrano?

She was born on August 9, 1484 in Atienza (Guadalajara), a Soria town until the provincial division made in 1833 to Diego López de Medrano and Magdalena Bravo de Lagunas.

Luisa de Medrano Bravo de Lagunas Cienfuegos, sometimes mistakenly called Lucía de Medrano was a Spanish poet, thinker, and professor at the University of Salamanca, who was able to develop a cultural activity from which women were rejected in those times in Europe since it was safeguarded by Queen Isabella I of Castile. Her work and all mention of her existence seem to have been ordered taken out by King Charles I, and just three have survived primary sources that mention it.

Luisa de Medrano taught Latin at the University of Salamanca and supplanted Antonio de Nebrija. She poems and philosophy, however, her work has been lost.

Luisa de Medrano’s father belonged to the “Twelve Lineages of Soria” military order and died in fighting during the Conquest of Granada, a mission that would bring together Spain under Catholic rule.

The Catholic Monarchs honored the family’s sacrifice and took in Luisa and her siblings to be brought up as honorable children. Under the guidance of Queen Isabella I, de Medrano learned history, culture, and humanist philosophy close from the children of the royal family.

In the mid-sixteenth century, when most women couldn’t access education, Luisa de Medrano kicked off something new by becoming the first female professor at the University of Salamanca where she was believed to educate Latin.

In 2015, the Castilla-La Mancha International Prize for Gender Equality “Luisa de Medrano” was made, awarded to Soledad Cazorla, Marcela Lagarde, Miguel Lorente, Amelia Valcárcel and Bernaldo de Quirós and, in 2020, to Carlota Bustelo García del Royal.

To honor her legacy, the Spanish organization Instituto de la Mujer, Castilla-La Mancha awards The Luisa de Medrano International Prize to people who advance gender equality. A secondary school in Salamanca, IES Lucia de Medrano, is likewise named in her memory.

On August 9, 2022, Google featured a Doodle on its homepage for celebrating Luisa de Medrano’s 538th birthday.