Ariosto said of her: “She has more eloquence and breathes more sweetness than all other women, and gives such force to her lofty words that she adorns the heavens in our day with another sun. She has not only made herself immortal by her beautiful poems and style, than which I have heard none better, but she can raise from the tomb those of whom she speaks or writes, and make them live forever.” Michael Angelo, to whom she was a close friend as well as an inspiration, and a polar star, wrote: “By her genius I was raised toward the skies; in her soul my thought was born; without wings, I flew with her wings.” Such exceptional women made their courts and drawing rooms the gathering places of the most refined and beautiful ladies of the time, of great artists like Raphael Sanzio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Titian, Corregio and Bellini, of famous authors, poets and philosophers like Tasso, Ariosto, Bembo, and of distinguished statesmen, dignitaries and men of the world. They met here to listen to interesting debates about Humanism, the new doctrine, that man must endeavor to reconstitute himself as a free being, and throw off the shackles, that held him the thrall of theological despotism. They also read the classic philosophers, enjoyed the inspiring works of composers, or harkened to the wonderful accounts of daring discoverers, just returned from adventurous expeditions to India and the New World. Most attractive affairs were the festivals of the Roses, held in spring. Then poets and poetesses contested with their latest songs, rondos and sonnets, to be awarded laurel-wreaths or roses of gold and silver. It was at such gatherings that intimate friends united sweet discourses and platonic adoration, as shown in the following charming poem, written in those idyllic times: “Donne e donzelle e giovanette accorte rallegrando si vanno a le gran feste d’amor si punte e deste che par ciascuna che d’amar appaghi e l’altre a punto in gonnellette corte ginocano a l’ombra delle gran foreste, tanto leggiadre e preste, quai solean ninfe stare appresso i laghi e in giovanetti vaghi veggio seguire e donnear costoro e talora danzare a mano a mano.” Translated these rhymes mean: “I behold lovely women and maidens as they joyfully hurry to the great feast. Struck and awakened by love they flourish with sweet desire. I see them at play in the shadows of the forest, and running with flowing garments, agile and graceful like nymphs at the border of the lakes. Bright young men follow these sweet women to amorous play. Here and there some of these happy couples disappear, wandering hand in hand.”