Thank you for your reply. Yes, I think too that she probably did not have any classical languages, as mastery of Greek was rarer than we think even for men (no matter how much they boosted to know it...) and Latin, from what I can see from my research was for most of them between basic/intermediate level. The kind of course work required in different institutions for classical languages seemed have a similar differentiation to the Italian traditional educative system. After all, the 18th century saw the acme of bilingual editions of classical texts. Unfortunately it seems that there is not a copy of the book you quoted available to me in the UK, but I will try to get a copy from amazon, as it looks really interesting. I do have a hard copy of Manon's writings, I am now searching for a digital one, so I can bring it with me in London :). At the moment I compiled a scene where Éléonore indirectly quotes from Rollin's Histoire Romaine, I think this can be likely.
Concerning Élisabeth's memoir, I think scholarship is generally quite negative on her, but the arguments are ex silentio (she does not talk too much about politics, so she is not political), which is of course dangerous. She might have emphasized her private life because this what she felt like put in writing or she find more important for herself, but it does not mean she did not have any other interest (the same is even more valid for the rest of the family). I can't agree with most of Yalom's analysis of her memoir at all. Moreover there is a issue of trustworthiness (unfortunately Luzzatto in Il terrore ricordato does not analyze it in details).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-01-03 08:42 am (UTC)Yes, I think too that she probably did not have any classical languages, as mastery of Greek was rarer than we think even for men (no matter how much they boosted to know it...) and Latin, from what I can see from my research was for most of them between basic/intermediate level. The kind of course work required in different institutions for classical languages seemed have a similar differentiation to the Italian traditional educative system. After all, the 18th century saw the acme of bilingual editions of classical texts.
Unfortunately it seems that there is not a copy of the book you quoted available to me in the UK, but I will try to get a copy from amazon, as it looks really interesting.
I do have a hard copy of Manon's writings, I am now searching for a digital one, so I can bring it with me in London :).
At the moment I compiled a scene where Éléonore indirectly quotes from Rollin's Histoire Romaine, I think this can be likely.
Concerning Élisabeth's memoir, I think scholarship is generally quite negative on her, but the arguments are ex silentio (she does not talk too much about politics, so she is not political), which is of course dangerous. She might have emphasized her private life because this what she felt like put in writing or she find more important for herself, but it does not mean she did not have any other interest (the same is even more valid for the rest of the family). I can't agree with most of Yalom's analysis of her memoir at all. Moreover there is a issue of trustworthiness (unfortunately Luzzatto in Il terrore ricordato does not analyze it in details).