Produced by Giovanni Fini, Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) A DECADE OF ITALIAN WOMEN. [Illustration: VITTORIA COLONNA.] _From an Original Painting in the Colonna Gallery at Rome_ A DECADE OF ITALIAN WOMEN. BY T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE, AUTHOR OF "THE GIRLHOOD OF CATHERINE DE' MEDICI." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1859. [_The right of Translation is reserved._] LONDON: RADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. PREFACE. The degree in which any social system has succeeded in ascertaining woman's proper position, and in putting her into it, will be a very accurate test of the progress it has made in civilisation. And the very general and growing conviction, that our own social arrangements, as they exist at present, have not attained any satisfactory measure of success in this respect, would seem, therefore, to indicate, that England in her nineteenth century has not yet reached years of discretion after all. But conscious deficiency is with nations at least, if not always with individuals, the sure precursor of improvement. The path before us towards the ideal in this matter is a very long one; extends, indeed, further than eye can see. What path of progress does not? And our advance upon it will still be a sure concomitant and proof of our advance in all civilisation. But the question of more immediate moment is, admitting that we are moving in this respect, are we moving in the right direction? We have been _moving_ for a long time back. Have we missed the right road? Have we unfortunately retrograded instead of progressing?