Page:Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, 1474-1539 volume 1 (1905).djvu/18

xii enjoyment. She advanced in years without ever growing old, and in the last months of her life, one of the foremost scholars of the age. Cardinal Bembo, pronounced her to be the wisest and most fortunate of women. The treasures of art and learning which she had collected were sold by her descendants to foreign princes or destroyed when the Germans sacked Mantua ninety years after her death, and the ruin of her favourite palaces and villas was completed by the French invaders of 1797, who did not even spare the tomb which held her ashes. But Isabella herself will be long remembered as the fairest and most perfect flower of womanhood which blossomed under the sunny skies of Virgil's land, in the immortal days of the Italian Renaissance. JULIA CARTWRIGHT.

I add a list of the chief authorities on the life and times of Isabella d'Este:—

ITALIAN. Notizie di Isabella Esteuse. Carlo d'Arco (Archivio Storico Italiano, Appendice. Tom. ii.). 1845.

Dell' Arte e degli Artefici di Mantova. Carlo d'Arco. 2 tom. 1857.

Discorso intorno le Belle Lettere e le Arte Mantovani. Abate Bettinelli. 1774.

Cronaca di Mantova. A. Sehivenoglia. 1445-1484. Müller. Raccolta. 1857.

Storia di Mantova. Mario Equicola. 16lO.

Storia ecclesiastica di Mantova. Donesmondi. 1613-1616.

Diario Ferrarese. Italicarum Rerum Scriptores. xxiv. L. A. Muratori. 1750.

Storia di Ferrara. A. Frizzi. Tom. iv., v. 1791.

Compendio della Storia di Mantova. Volta. 1807-1838.

Lettere inedite di Artisti cavate dall' Archivio Gonzaga. W. Braghirolli. 1878.