310 JVOMAN IN SCIENCE 



to become incorporated in contemporary art and thereby 

 to gain fresh life." 1 



These treasures of antiquity, statues, bas-reliefs, mosaics, 

 coins, medals, busts, sarcophagi, and productions of ceramic 

 art, although at first used almost exclusively for decorating 

 palaces and villas and enriching museums, were eventually 

 to become of inestimable value in the study of the history 

 of art and the civilization of Greece and Rome, as well as 

 of the various nations of antiquity with which they had 

 come into contact. Besides this, they supplied the neces- 

 sary raw material not only for classical archaeology, but 

 also for that more comprehensive science of archaeology 

 which deals with the art, the architecture, the language, 

 the literature, the inscriptions, the manners, customs and 

 development of our race from prehistoric times until the 

 present day. 



Among the women who took a prominent part in col- 

 lecting material toward the advancement of archaeologic 

 science were those illustrious ladies as celebrated for their 

 knowledge and culture as for their noble lineage and their 

 patronage of men of letters who presided over the bril- 

 liant courts of Urbino, Mantua, Milan and Ferrara. 



Preeminent among these were Elizabetta Gonzaga, 

 Duchess of Urbino, and Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of 

 Mantua. The palace of the former "that peerless lady 

 who excelled all others in excellence" was famous for its 

 precious antiques in bronze and marble, but above all for 

 its superb collection of rare old books and manuscripts in 

 Greek, Latin and Hebrew. 



Isabella d'Este, who was through life the most intimate 

 friend of Elizabetta Gonzaga, was acclaimed by her con- 

 temporaries as "the first lady in the world." She was a 

 true daughter of the Renaissance, in the heart of which 

 she was brought up; and "the small, passing incidents of 



i A. Michselis, A Century of Archaeological Discoveries, p. 6, New 

 York, 1908. 



