Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/210

186 186 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART and indeed oblivion, as far as the world was con- - — '- — - earned, under her mother's care, at Arevalo. In this modest seclusion, free from the engrossing van- ities and vexations of court life, she had full leisure to indulge the habits of study and reflection, to which her temper naturally disposed her. She was acquainted with several modern languages, and both wrote and discoursed in her own with great precision and elegance. No great expense or soli- citude, however, appears to have been lavished on her education. She was uninstructed in the Latin, which in that day was of greater importance than at present ; since it was not only the common me- dium of communication between learned men, and the language in which the most familiar treatises were often composed, but was frequently used by well-educated foreigners at court, and especially employed in diplomatic intercourse and negotia- tion. ^ Isabella resolved to repair the defects of educa- tion, by devoting herself to the acquisition of the Latin tongue, so soon as the distracting wars with Portugal, which attended her accession, were ter- minated. We have a letter from Pulgar, addressed to the queen soon after that event, in which he in- quires concerning her progress, intimating his sur- prise, that she can find time for study amidst her multitude of engrossing occupations, and expressing his confidence that she will acquire the Latin with the same facility with which she had already mas- 3 L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 154, 182.