76 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



WOMAN AND EDUCATION BETWEEN THE RENAISSANCE AND THE 

 TWENTIETH CENTURY 



The period following the Renaissance was not a brilliant 

 one for woman, especially outside of Italy. For in this fa- 

 vored land, even after the decadence in literature that fol- 

 lowed the glorious cinquecento, intellectual life opposed so 

 effective a barrier to the forces of extinction which were at 

 work in other parts of Europe, notably Germany and Eng- 

 land, that there were still in every part of the peninsula 

 from the fertile plains of Lombardy to the sunny Ionian 

 sea, learned and cultured women who were eager to emu- 

 late the achievements of their illustrious sisters of Italy's 

 golden age of art, and letters. We do not, it is true, find 

 among them a Properzia de Rossi, a Veronica Gambara, or 

 a Vittoria Colonna ; but we find many earnest and enthusi- 

 astic students in every department of knowledge. 



That which most impresses the student of education dur- 

 ing this period of Italian history is not the splendor of art 

 and letters in court and castle, which so dazzled Europe 

 during the time of Renee of Ferrara and Elizabetta Gon- 

 zaga of Urbino. We find, it is true, a goodly number of 

 women who won distinction as poets and artists; but it is 

 rather those who were devoted to more serious studies that 

 arrest our attention women who attained eminence in 

 physical and natural science, in mathematics, in the class- 

 ical and oriental languages, in philosophy, law and theol- 

 ogy. Space precludes the mention of more than a few of 

 these, but these few may be accepted as typical of many 

 others almost equally distinguished. 



Chief among those of whom their countrymen are special- 

 ly proud are Rosanna Somaglia Landi, of Milan, linguist 

 and translator of Anacreon; Maria Selvaggia Borghini, of 

 Pisa, translator of the works of Tertullian ; Eleonora Bar- 

 bapiccola, of Salerno, who translated into Italian the Prin- 

 cipa Philosophic^ of Descartes; Maria Angela Arginghelli, 



