Like most of the distinguished scientific discoverers of the last two centuries, Alessandro Volta was born in very humble circumstances. His father was a member of the Italian nobility, but had wasted his patrimony so completely that the family was in extreme poverty when the distinguished son was born, on the eighteenth of February, 1745. This poverty was so complete that Volta said of it, later in life: "My father owned nothing except a small dwelling worth about fourteen thousand lire; and as he left behind him seventeen thousand lire of debt, I was actually poorer than poor." A good idea of the circumstances in which Volta's childhood was passed may be gathered from the fact that he could not even secure copy-books for his first school exercises except through the kindness of friends. Volta had shown signs of genius from early boyhood, and yet had been discouragingly slow in his intellectual development as a child. In fact, it was feared that he was congenitally lacking in intelligence to a great degree. It is said that he was more than four years old before he ever uttered a word. This does not mean before he learned to talk connectedly, but before he could utter even such familiar expressions as "father," "mother," and the like. He was considered to be dumb; and, as is not infrequently the mistaken notion with regard to children dumb for any reason, he was thought to be almost an idiot. The first word he ever uttered is said to have been a vigorous "No!" which was heard when one of his relatives insisted on his doing something that he did not wish to do. At the age of seven, however, he had so far overcome all difficulties of speech as to be looked upon as a very bright child. Owing to this late, unexpected development, his parents seem to have regarded him as a sort of living miracle, and felt certain that he was destined to accomplish great things. His father said of him later, "We had a jewel in the house and did not know it." Fortunately for Volta, one of his uncles was archdeacon of the Cathedral, and another was one of the canons. These relatives helped him to obtain an education, the way being made especially easy by the fact that at this time all the Jesuit Colleges subsisted on foundations and collected no fees from any of their students; so that all that was necessary for his uncles to do for him was to contribute to his expenses outside of college. According to tradition, the Jesuits not only helped Volta in his education, but assisted him in obtaining his books and even in his living expenses while at their college. At the age of about sixteen, his education was complete, even including a year of philosophy. This is probably an indication of his talent as a student; though it was not an unusual thing in the southern countries for students to graduate at sixteen, or even younger, after a course equivalent to that now required for the bachelor's degree in arts.