Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/16

2 of the shepherd Faustulus, was deified by the Romans, who instituted a yearly sacrifice to her honour.

wife of a gentleman of Florence, who was no less celebrated for her attachment to polite literature, to which she devoted great part of her time, than for her virtue, exquisite beauty, and the fine taste which was conspicuous in her poetical works. Two volumes in quarto were published at Florence in 1590, principally consisting, according to the custom of the age, particularly in France and Italy, of poems in praise of the grand duke and duchess. She left an unfinished epic poem, entitled David persecuted.

Author of two books of great repute, one on Purgatory, and the other, A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body, is said to have treated, in a very judicious manner, difficult theological subjects, though not learned. She was of a good family, and the wife of a Genoese nobleman, whose strange temper she suffered many years with great patience. She was a religious enthusiast; and used to have fits, or ecstacies, in which she usually spoke in verse, though she never composed in it at other times: but, a taste for poetry, which made her frequently get passages by heart, uncertain health, and a too lively imagination, may easily account for what then appeared miraculous. 1em

ADRICHOMIA,