Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/51

Rh made such great progress, that, when any thing happened to prevent his giving a lesson to his pupils, he sent her to supply his place. As he feared that her youth and beauty might distract the attention of her auditors, she was concealed from them by a curtain. To do honour to the name of his daughter and her mother, Andre published, under the title of Novella, his commentary upon the decretals of Gregory IX. She was given by him in marriage to John Calderini, a learned professor of the canon law. lady was the wife of Francis Andreini, an Italian comedian and poet, though not so celebrated in either character as his wife, towards whom nature appears to have been unusually prodigal of charms and excellencies. The exquisite beauty of her face and person, the melody of her voice in speech and singing, and the taste and feeling she possessed, rendered her inimitable upon the stage. Under her picture, this inscription was put in Latin, "If you admire, reader, this glory of the theatre, when you only see her, what would you do if you heard her?"

The eulogiums of all the learned men of the age, but more particularly the works she left behind her, establish her claim to poetical excellence. She played admirably well on several instruments, understood the French and Spanish languages, and was not unacquainted with philosophy.

Cardinal Cinthio Aldobrandini had a great esteem for her, as appears by many of her poems, and the epistle dedicatory