68 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



sance "Without women nothing is possible, either in 

 military courage, or art, or poetry, or music, or philosophy, 

 or even religion. God is truly seen only through them. ' ' 



Only a few words are necessary to tell of the learned 

 women of the Renaissance outside of Italy. On account of 

 its intimate connection with the Italian peninsula, Spain 

 was the second country in Europe to experience the effects 

 of the new intellectual movement. Among the educated 

 Italians whom Isabella, the Catholic, had attracted to her 

 court were the brothers Geraldini, whom she appointed as 

 teachers of her children. Of her daughter, Juana, Juan 

 Vives, the eminent Spanish scholar, says she was able to 

 make impromptu speeches in Latin, while Catherine, who 

 became the wife of Henry VIII, excited the admiration of 

 Erasmus by the extent and accuracy of her knowledge. It 

 was from Salamanca that Isabella summoned her own 

 teacher of Latin, the learned Beatrix Galindo, 1 who was a 

 professor of rhetoric in the university long before Eliza- 

 beth of England had studied the language of Virgil under 

 Ascham. 



Then there was Francisca de Lebrixa who often filled 

 the chair of her father, who was professor of history and 

 rhetoric in the University of Alcala, and Isabella Losa, of 

 Cordova, who, among her other acquirements, counted a 

 knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. To his learned daugh- 

 ters, Gregoria and Luisa, Antonio Perez, minister of Philip 

 II, wrote saying : "Do not imagine, when you are writing 

 to me, that you are addressing Cicero or some Greek au- 

 thor; lower your style to my level." There were also Isa- 

 bella de Joya, who commented on Scotus Erigena; Cath- 

 erine Bibera, the bard of love and faith; Dona Maria 

 Pacheco de Mendoza; Bernarda Ferreyra, to whom, on 

 account of her rare scholarship, Lopez de Vega dedicated 

 his beautiful elegy Phillis; Juana Morella, who, besides 



Called La Latina, because of her thorough knowledge of the 

 Latin language. 



