doing it in time to come: I say, when all this is considered, it should have great weight in determining the question in Homer’s favour. Anna le Fevre, I think, has been dead but a few years. SECT. XVIII. CXXV. Italy is little inferior to France, in numbers of learned women; but, for the same reason for which we curtailed the recital of the French ladies, we shall do so by the Italian ones. CXXVI. _Dorothea Bucca_, a native of Bologna, having from her infancy been destined to the study of letters, advanced in the profession with such giant strides, that the famous university of that city, made in her favour, the singular, and till then unheard-of precedent, of conferring on her the degree of a doctor; and she continued in the university as a professor of divinity, for a long time. She flourished in the fifteenth century. CXXVII. _Isota Nogarola_, born at Verona, was the oracle of her age; for, over and above being very learned in philosophy, and theology, she added to it, the accomplishment of understanding various languages, and being deeply read in the Fathers; and in point of eloquence, it is asserted, that she was not inferior to the greatest orators of that age. The proofs of her ability in this science, are not vulgar, for she spoke many times before the popes Nicholas V. and Pius II. in the council of Mantua, which was convened, for the purpose of uniting the Christian princes against the Turk. That illustrious protector of letters, cardinal Bessarion, having seen some of the works of Isota, was so charmed with the spirit of them, that he took a journey from Rome to Verona on purpose to see her. This lady, died at the age of thirty-eight, in the year 1466. CXXVIII. _Laura Ceretti_, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, at the age of eighteen, taught philosophy publickly, with great applause. CXXIX. _Cassandra Fidele_, a Venetian lady, was so celebrated for her knowledge of the Greek language, and likewise for understanding philosophy, theology, and being deeply read in history, that there was scarce an illustrious prince of that time, who did not give her testimonies of his esteem; and they reckon among the admirers of Cassandra, the popes Julian II., Leo X., Louis XI., king of France, and our Catholic king Ferdinand, and his queen Isabel. She wrote several works, and died at the age of a hundred and two, in the year 1567. CXX. _Cathalina de Cibo_, dutchess of Camerine, in the March of Ancona, understood Latin, Greek, Hebrew, philosophy, and theology. Her virtue gave splendor to her learning; she built the first convent the Capuchins possessed, and died in the year 1557.