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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES, 379
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Women Of The House Of Montefeltro.
only share of the booty a magnificent _Hebrew Bible , with , which he enriched his library . In this unionso remarkably congenial for the
, period in which she lived , Battista remained but a few years . She died in 1472 at the early age of twenty-seven . As Duchess of
, _Urbino , no less than as a woman of letters , she received a magnificent funeral , and an oration was delivered in honor of her by Bishop
Campano . From this almost all that is now known of her must be _g-leaned . In it he speaks of her great-grandmother , Battista
Montefeltro , as the most celebrated woman of her time , whose learning and eloquence challenged the admiration of the most
renowned persons . He adds , and it says more for the original power of the woman than volumes of eulogy , that the questions started by
her keen insight were still vehemently debated . On his pages blooms the three-leaved lily of the house of Montefeltro , and the
successive generations are shown worthy of the parent stock . With Battista , Duchess of Urbino , our sketch should properly close . It
was of her that Tasso wrote : — _¦? st L Par a prima eh . ' abbia che avan Demos ti , thene e legga e P anche _latone Plotino , , al
B D ' eloquenz potia star a e , savere con 1 ' Orator paragone d'Arp , , F Mog edri lie go fra dtica d' un dell invi 7 antica tto al Urbino to camp . " ione —Chap , xliv , st . 57 .
No literary remains attest to the student of history the broad renown of the second Battistabut the sacred fire of her genius left
, its traces on many a ducal house , and to the watchful eye it gleams from many a later coronet . She appears to have left several
children , a daughter who carried into the house of La Hovere the duchy of Urbino , and a son , Guido Ubaldo , the last Duke of
Urbino of the house of Montefeltro . He held a brilliant and polished court , and , preserving the literary tastes of both his
parents , was at once so gentle and so munificent , that he became the most tenderly cherished of Italian sovereigns . He was endowed
with wonderful eloquence , spoke Latin like Ms mother tongue , and Greek as well as either . His memory was remarkableand he was
, well acquainted with the geography of every country and the history of every people . He had been too intimately associated with
learned women not to feel their full value and to be free from the mean jealousy which a smaller soul might have felt . His wife was
worthy of him . Isabella Gonzaga had the finest mental gifts , and through their joint influence the court of Urbino became the
favorite seat of elegant literature . The poets , savants , philosophers , and artists of an age that produced many great men , lived
in the most intimate relations with the duke and duchess . Nor did the literary woman disappoint the husband's hopes . When a
cruel disease deprived the duke of the use of his limbs for fifteen years , the faithfulgentle musebecame the brilliant centre of the courtly
, , circle ; and childless as she remained , and -in an age when fidelity
_voii . in . 2 e 2
Biographical Notices, 379
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES , 379
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1859, page 379, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081859/page/19/
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