[52] L'École de Salerne, p. 18, par C. Meaux, Paris, 1880. Among the most noted of these women was Trotula, who, about the middle of the eleventh century, wrote on the diseases of women as well as on other medical subjects. Compare the attitude of the school of Salerno towards women with that of the University of London, eight hundred years later. When, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, women applied to this university for degrees in medicine, they were informed, as H. Rashdall writes in The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Vol. II, Part II, p. 712, Oxford, 1895, that "the University of London, although it had been empowered by Royal Charter to do all things that could be done by any University, was legally advised that it could not grant degrees to women without a fresh Charter, because no University had ever granted such degrees." Cf. also Hæser's Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin, Band I, p. 645, et seq., Jena, 1875. Verily, the so-called dark ages have risen up to condemn our vaunted age of enlightenment!
[53] Die Entstehung der Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400, Band I, p. 233, Berlin, 1885, von P. Heinrick Denifle, assistant archivist of the Vatican Library, and Histoire Litéraire de la France, Commencé par des Religieux Bénédictins de S. Maur et Continué par des Membres de l'Institut, Tom. IX, 281, Paris, 1733-1906.
[54] "Une de ces nuits lumineuses ou les dernières clartés du soir se prolongent jusqu'aux premières blancheurs du matin." Documents Inédits, p. 78, Paris, 1850.
[55] The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Vol. I, p. 31, Oxford, 1895.
[56] A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy, p. 277, London, 1893.
[57] Cecelia Gonzaga, a pupil of the celebrated humanist, Vittorino da Feltre, read the Gospels in Greek when she was only seven years old. Isotta and Ginevra Nogorola, pupils of the humanist, Guarino Verronese, likewise distinguished themselves at an early age by their rare knowledge of Latin and Greek. In later years all three enjoyed great celebrity for their learning, and were, like Battista di Montefeltro, women of genuine humanist sympathies. Cecelia Gonzaga's scholarship was in no wise inferior to that of her learned brothers, who were among the most noted students of the famous Casa Zoyosa in Mantua, where Vittorino da Feltre achieved such distinction as an educator in the early part of the Italian Renaissance. The learned Italian writer, Sabbadini, beautifully expressed the relation of women to Humanism, when he declares, in his Vida di Guarino, "L'Humanismo si sposa alla gentilezza feminile,"—humanism weds feminine gentility.
[58] Among them are the pictures of Caterina Vigri, which are preserved in the Pinacoteca of Bologna and in the Academia of Venice.
[59] No less an authority than the illustrious sculptor, Canova, declared that her early death was one of the greatest losses ever suffered by Italian art.
[60] It was also said of the Venetian artist, Irene di Spilimbergo, that her pictures were of such excellence that they were frequently mistaken for those of her illustrious master, Titian.
[61] Among these works may be mentioned Il Merito delle Donne, by Modesta Pozzo di Zorgi, Venice, 1600; La Nobilità e l'Excellenza delle Donne, by Lucrezia Marinelli, Venice, 1601; De Ingenii Muliebris ad Doctrinam et Meliores Litteras Aptitudine, by Anna van Schurman, Leyden, 1641; Les Dames Illustres, by Jaquette Guillame, Paris, 1665, and L'Egalité des Hommes et des Femmes, by Marie le Jars de Gournay, Paris, 1622. The last named work was by the celebrated fille d'alliance—adopted daughter—of Montaigne. It is to her that we owe the textus receptus of the Essais of the illustrious litterateur.