SECT. XX.
CXXXV. I shall omit mentioning many more learned women, which ennobled Germany and other countries, to conclude with a recent example from Asia, as a proof, that female literature is not confined and shut up within the limits of Europe.
CXXXVI. This shall be the charming, discreet, and generous Sitti Maani, wife of the famous traveller, Pedro de la Valle, a Roman knight. Maani was born in Mesopotamia, in order that that country, within whose bounds, some expositors believe the garden of Paradise was planted, might be the happy spot which had produced two eminent Rachaels; for it is certain, that Haran, where the beloved wife of Jacob was born, was a place of Mesopotamia. The fame of the nobleness of her genius, the vivacity of her understanding, and the beauty of her person, had been blazoned abroad when she was very young; this excited the curiosity of Pedro de la Valle, and he was desirous of seeing a lady, of whom he had heard so many encomiums. His experience, upon the interview which was permitted him, confirmed the truth of all he had heard, inflamed in his bosom the passion of love, and caused him anxiously to solicit obtaining her for a wife, which purpose he effected; and Maani, after marrying him, not only forsook the Chaldean rites in which she had been bred up, and turned catholic herself, but persuaded her parents to do the same. It is almost incredible, what this amiable Asian acquired in a few years, and indeed the years of her life were but few; for she not only attained a knowledge of all the learning, which those countries, still strangers to the sciences, could afford, but she arrived at understanding twelve different idioms. But the bulk, as well as perfection, of her moral virtues, exceeded that of her acquisitions; among which, though not common to her sex, her courage shone the most brilliant, for she fought armed in three encounters, and with great bravery, in defence of her husband. This woman, in many ways extraordinary, eminent for her talents, and famous for her travels and voyages, in one of them, near Ormuz, became the victim of a fever, which was truly malignant, having deprived her of life at the age of twenty-one. Thus died, to the great grief of all who had known her, this new Rachael, who was so like the antient one, that it seems, as if Nature and Fortune had studiously formed the parallel; both natives of Mesopotamia; both beautiful in extreme; both married to very deserving men, who were strangers to them, and came from other countries; both alike, with respect to their determination, of forsaking the rites of their country, and following the religion of their husbands; both equally conforming, to lead a wandering life, and follow the steps of their consorts; and, in the end, both dying in the flower of their age, and on the road. But the behaviour of the two husbands, at the time of the fatal crisis, seems to have been very different; Pedro de la Valle at that period, appearing to have conducted himself with much more delicacy, than the patriarch Jacob. The last, buried his Rachael on the road, at the place where she died; though it would have corresponded better with the merit of his wife, if he had paid the same care and attention, and had taken the same precaution about her dead carcase, that he did with regard to his own, when he strictly enjoined his son Joseph, to convey it to the sepulchre of his ancestors, which was in Hebron. The tender care and regard for his wife in this last office, which seems to have been little attended to by that fond patriarch, though we should suppose it happened from some powerful reason, either mysterious or natural, which he had for omitting it, shone forth with respect to Pedro de la Valle, in acts of the most punctual and precise reality; and which, in the most refined and nice manner, expressed the affection he bore his departed consort: for after having embalmed the dead body of his adored Maani, he carried it about with him inclosed in a costly urn, four whole years, all which time, he continued to travel through, and explore various parts of Asia; with his eyes ever attentive to her ashes, and his heart and memory to her virtues: till upon returning to Rome, he deposited the remains of his beloved object, in the sepulchre of the noble family of the Valles his ancestors, which they have belonging to them, in the chapel of St. Paul, appertaining to the church of Santa Maria de Ara Cœli: this was done with such funeral pomp, that a more magnificent shew of this sort had scarce ever been seen, Pedro de la Valle himself, pronouncing the funeral oration; in doing which, his eyes expressed much more than his lips, as in a short time his lips ceased to move, and left the eyes to speak the rest; for it so happened, that his throat through excessive grief, was obstructed, and he was near being choaked; so that he was unavoidably obliged to leave the oration unfinished; but such of the eloquent clauses as were congealed and obstructed in the passage, melted down, and flowed in tender tears, mixed with sighs, the true and proper accents of grief, which were resounded and echoed back, by a numerous concourse of sympathetic auditors.
N.B. Sitti is a title of honour among the Persians, and equivalent to lady with us.