Printing and the book trade were in their infancy.

The theater likewise was in its childhood, and, as a rule, dramatic performances were given only once a year, during the carnival, and then only on private stages.

What we now call universal literature or culture consisted at that time in the passionate study of the classics.

Latin and Greek held the place then which the study of foreign languages now occupies in the education of women.

The Italians of the Renaissance did not think that an acquaintance with the classics, that scientific knowledge destroyed the charm of womanliness, nor that the education of women should be less advanced than that of men.