The classic dialogue was revived, with only the difference that cultivated women also took part in it.

As samples of the refined social intercourse of that age, we have Castiglione's _Cortegiano_ and Bembo's _Asolani_, which was dedicated to Lucretia Borgia.
[Illustration: VITTORIA COLONNA.
From an engraving by P.Caronni.] Alexander's daughter did not occupy a preeminent place among the Italian women renowned for classical attainments, her own acquirements not being such as to distinguish her from the majority; but, considering the times, her education was thorough.

She had received instruction in the languages, in music, and in drawing, and later the people of Ferrara were amazed at the skill and taste which she displayed in embroidering in silk and gold.

"She spoke Spanish, Greek, Italian, and French, and a little Latin, very correctly, and she wrote and composed poems in all these tongues," said the biographer Bayard in 1512.

Lucretia must have perfected her education later, during the quiet years of her life, under the influence of Bembo and Strozzi, although she doubtless had laid its foundation in Rome.