Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/627

Rh and composing correctly. She became learned in Aristotle, under Camillo Corcapani. Anthony Guarini, the mathematician, taught her the doctrine of the sphere. She learned poetry, under Francis Patricius, the famous philosopher; and logic and philosophy, under P. Latoni, who also instructed her thoroughly in the Greek tongue. The principles of the Hebrew language were taught her by Rabbi Abraham; and the politeness of the Tuscan tongue she learned of John Maria Barbier; in which last she not only wrote a great number of easy and elegant verses, but likewise several letters, and other pieces, which are highly esteemed by the learned in Italy. Besides her original works, she has translated several things from Greek and Latin, in a manner which convinces us she understood those languages as well as her own. She afterwards learned music, as a relaxation and diversion from her more serious studies; and in this art attained a surprising degree of perfection; used to play upon the violin, as well as upon the flute, and sing to it at the same time in a manner which marked exquisite taste; she instituted a choir of ladies, and became their president. The eulogium, which Francis Patricius, one of her tutors, has given her, deserves attention; as it is supposed not to exceed the truth, though written in the highest strains of panegyric.

This lady was in high reputation at the court of Alphonsus II. duke of Parma, a prince of great judgment, and a passionate lover of eloquence. But the most authentic testimony and declaration of her high merit and character, was that which she received from the city of Rome; which, by a decree of the senate, in which all her excellencies and Rh