The “Index Expurgatorius” that he gives is interesting to the bibliographer:
The laws ought to take heed of such ungratious books, such as be in my countrey of Spain, “Amadis,” “Florisande,” “Tirante,” “Tristram and Celestina,” “Le Prison d’Amour.” In France “Lancelot du Lac,” “Paris and Vienna,” “Pontus and Sidonia,” “Pierre de Provence,” and “Melusyne.” In Flanders “Flory and White Flower,” “Leonella and Canamour,” “Curias and Floreta,” “Pyramus and Thisbe.” In England “Parthenope,” “Genarides,” “Hippomadon,” Wylliam and Meliour, Livius, Arthur, Guye, Bevis and many other, and many translated out of Latin; the “Facetiæ Poggii,” “Euryalus and Lucretia,” and the “Hundred Tales of Boccaccio,” in Italy:
Of maids some be but little mete for lernyng lykewise as some men be unapte, agayne, some be even borne unto it, or at least not unfit for it. Therefore they that be dulle are not to be discouraged, and those that be apt should be harted and encouraged. She that hath learned in books hath furnished and fenced her mind with holy counsels.
He gives among examples of women good and learned: Portia, the wife of Brutus; Cleobula, daughter of Cleobulas; and the daughter of Pythagoras, who, after his death, became the ruler of his school.
Ludovico Vives was invited in 1523 to come to lecture at Oxford and to superintend the education of Princess Mary. This he did.
She went to live at Oxford to be near him, and therefore was the first woman student in that university town. His lessons to the Princess were so interesting that the King and Queen often came to Oxford to listen.
He says a girl ought to be taught to pronounce clearly, and every day commit something to memory and read over before retiring to rest. He allows the use of a Latin dictionary, recommends translation from English into Latin, and conversations in Latin with her preceptor. He advises the learning by heart of the “Distiches” of Cato, the “Sentences” of Publius Syrus, and the “Seven Sages of Greece,” lately collected and published by Erasmus. The course of reading drawn up included Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch; some dialogues of Plato, particularly those of a political turn; Jerome’s “Epistle”; part of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine; the “Enchiridion,” “Institutio Principis”; the “Paraphrases” of Erasmus; and the “Utopia” of Sir Thomas More; a portion of the New Testament to be read morning and evening, and of the Christian poets, Prudentius Sydonius, Paulinus, Arator, Prosper, and Juvencus, as well as Lucan, Seneca, and a part of Horace. Before selections such as these even a modern candidate for classical honours might feel nervous.
Poor little Princess! With these grave studies and serious maxims were her natural high spirits toned down to meet her melancholy fate. She proved an “apt” student and prospered in her work, being encouraged and guided by her loving mother, who delighted in revising her Latin exercises and criticizing her style. Many learned men watched her progress with interest. Lord Morley, one of the literary nobles of the day, dedicated a book to her at the time of her fallen fortunes, when men were little likely to overestimate her powers, in which he says:
I do well remember that skant ye were come to twelve yeres of age, but that ye were so rype in the Latin tonge, that rathe dothe happen to the women-sex, that your grace not only coulde perfectly rede, wright, and constrewe Laten, but farthermore translate eny harde thinge of the Latin into ower Englyshe tonge.
And he refers with praise to one of her works she had given him.