Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/353

 household virtues for themes of story and song. Her pictures of southern life are vivid and racy; she excels in these home-sketches, and her moral lessons evince the true nobility of her soul.

GINASSI, CATERINA, born of a noble 'family at Rome, in 1590. She was the niece of Cardinal Domenico Ginassi. She studied painting under Giovanni Lanfranco, from whose designs she executed several pictures in the convent of St. Lucia. She died in 1660.

GIRARDIN, DELPHINE DE, of the Celebrated Sophie Gay, and the wife of the poet Girardin, was born in Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1808. She has gained a high reputation among French poets. In 1820, she obtained the prize of the Academic Française; her theme was "An Eulogy on the Sacrifice and Devotion of the French Physicians and Kuns during the prevalence of the Cholera." In 1827, she was chosen a member of the Tiber Academy, at Rome, an honour never before conferred on a woman. Her larger poems are "Le Retour," and "Napoline." A collection of her smaller poems has been published under the title of "Essais Poetiques." But her prose works, written chiefly since her marriage, are now more popular than her poems. Perhaps she has gained, not only in intellectual culture, but in the art of using her resources to the best advantage, by her union with a man of such acknowledged talents as M. Emile de Girardin, who has shewn the real nobleness of genius—that which does not fear a rival in his wife. Certain it is, that her fictitious narratives evince intellectual powers of the highest order. She has a very striking originality of thought, while her skill in the development of characters, her penetration into motives, and her power of unravelling the twisted threads that impel human inconsistency, are really wonderful. "Le Marquise de Pontignac," "La Canne de M. de Balzac," "Contes d'une vielle Fille," and "L'Ecole des Jouraalistes," are among the best of her works.

GISELLE, of Charlemagne, Emperor of France, sympathized with that great monarch and his eldest daughter, Rotrude, in the protection and encouragement they afforded to learned and scientific men. She induced the celebrated Alcuin to compose several works; Alcuin dedicated to Giselle and Rotrude his Commentary on St. John. Giselle died about the year 810. She was abbess of Chelles at her death.

GLAUBER, DIANA, sister of John and Gottleib Glauber, and was born at Utrecht, in 1650. John Glauber instructed his sister in the principles and practice of his art; and she devoted herself chiefly to painting portraits. Her style became quite distinguished; and she also designed historical subjects, until she was accidentally deprived of her sight. She died at Hamburg about 1720.

GLEIM, BETTY, as a writer on German literature and female education.