The education given to women in the upper classes was essentially the
same as that given to men. The Italian, at the time of the Renaissance,
felt no scruple in putting sons and daughters alike under the same
course of literary and even philological instruction. Indeed, looking
at this ancient culture as the chief treasure of life, he was glad that
his girls should have a share in it. We have seen what perfection was
attained by the daughters of princely houses in writing and speaking
Latin. Many others must at least have been able to read it, in order to
follow the conversation of the day, which turned largely on classical
subjects. An active interest was taken by many in Italian poetry, in
which, whether prepared or improvised, a large number of Italian women,
from the time of the Venetian Cassandra Fedele onwards (about the close
of the fifteenth century), made themselves famous. One, indeed,
Vittoria Colonna, may be called immortal. If any proof were needed of
the assertion made above, it would be found in the manly tone of this
poetry. Even the love-sonnets and religious poems are so precise and
definite in their character, and so far removed from the tender
twilight of sentiment, and from all the dilettantism which we commonly
find in the poetry of women, that we should not hesitate to attribute
them to male authors, if we had not clear external evidence to prove
the contrary.
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