Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	letter_n	read_v	write_v	2,467	5	5.6368	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42646	Elogium heroinum, or, The praise of worthy women written by C.G., Gent.	C. G. (Charles Gerbier)	1651 (1651)	Wing G583; ESTC R7654	34,740	214

humbly crave from this most worthy Sex one onely boon That it may not be offended at this my young Eagles flight towards such a source of perfect Rayes during the tenderness of my wings which affords me that pen whereby I endeavour to trace the description of their most perfect lineaments and dimensions Of the Wisdome and Learning of some Women WIsdome is the guide of all other vertues it gives goodnesse to good people pard'neth the wicked makes the poor rich and the rich honorable it 's that wherin our soveraign good and the end of our life consisteth Learning is the knowledge and understanding of Arts and Sciences without it Nature is blind Wisdome and Learning have made these following women famous to all posterity Nicaula Queen of Saba did expose her self to a long and tedious journey from the farthest part of Ethiopia unto Hierusalem there to dispute with Solomon the wisest of all men as it appeares by the Scriptures which therefore give her an immortal praise Mirrhe Queen of the Lydians was so little of body as that she seemed to be a Dwarf but so far excelling in wisdome as that she was called a Gyant she was a wise and prudent woman when she was married and honest being a widow Pythagoras the light of his time and the first that was called a Philosopher was a Scholar unto his own Sister Themistoclea and he learn'd his Philosophy from her the greatnesse of her wisdome appears by a Letter which he sent unto her from Rhodes where he publikely read Philosophy she being then in Samothracia The said Letter translated out of Greek was as followeth Pythagoras your Brother and Disciple to you Themistoclea my dear Sister wisheth health and increase of wisdome I have read from the beginning to the very end the Book which you have sent unto me of Fortune and Misfortune By it I do really see that you are not lesse grave in writing then gracious in teaching the which doth not often befall us who are Men for the Philosopher Aristippus was harsh in speaking and profound in writing Amenides was succinct in writing and eloquent in speaking But you my deare sister have so much applied your self to study to write as that in Sentences you seem to have read all the Philosophers and by the antiquities which you expresse it seems that you have seen all the time past by which you doe make it appear that being a woman you are more then a woman because the nature of women is only to employ themselves to the present and to forget that which is past I have been told that you do imploy your self in writing the wars of our Country I do earnestly pray you and by the immortal gods do conjure you to flatter no body For as you cannot deny dear Sister but that I am the eldest of your three Brothers so I cannot disavow that among all your Disciples I am the least And as being your Disciple I ought to obey you so likewise being your eldest Brother you ought to believe me Therefore I do advise you deare Sister to continue to do your utmost as you have hither to done to be understood and wise in your words discreet and grave in your life and honest in your person and above all true in that which you write For if the body of man be worth little without the soule the mouth without truth is worth much lesse And this was the Letter which Pythagoras sent to his sister Themistoclea by which his profound humility and her great eloquence appeares Policrata daughter to the said Philosopher Pythagoras was not only wise fair and rich but esteemed and honoured for the integrity of her life and more admired for her Eloquence then Pythagoras himself Diotima did so excell in wisdome that Socrates who of all men was called the wise the just the Prince of Philosophers and the Father of Philosophie blushed not to imitate and call her his Tutresse and Instructresse Arreta had attained to that perfection of knowledge in the Greek and Latine tongues as that the common report was that the soul of Socrates was infused into her and when she was heard to speak it seemed that she had writ the doctrine of Socrates rather then learned it she her self instructed her sonne in all the Liberal Arts by whose industry he became a famous Professor he was called Aristippus she also taught and instructed many and wrote several Volumes some whereof were these following The Praises of Socrates The manner how to educate Children The Battails of Athens The unhappines of Women The Husbandry of the Ancients The Wonders of Mount Olympia The Vanities of Youth and the Calamities of Age. She read publikely the Natural Moral Philosophie in the Academies Schools of Athens five and twenty years she composed forty Books she had an hundred and ten Philosophers who were her disciples She died being seventy seven years old and the Athenians for an immortal praise to all posterity caused these following words to be engraven on her sepulchre Here lies Arreta the famous Grecian who was the light of all Greece She had Helen's Beauty Thirma's Honesty Aristippus Pen Socrates Soule and Homer's Tongue Leontium a Grecian Damosel did so excell in wisdome and in Philosophical contemplations as that Cicero relates in his book De natura Deorum that she durst write a worthy Book against that famous Philosopher Theophrastus Alexander the Great refused the beautiful Daughter of Darius with Kingdomes and infinite Treasures to boot and made choice of Barsina only for her great wisdom although she was poor and had no possessions Dominica the wife of the Emperor Valenticus whenas the Goths had threatned the utter subversion of Constantinople she by her wisdome and discretion so mediated with the Enemy as that she procured the safety both of the People and City Athenias the Daughter of a mean man was for her wisdom learning thought worthy by a Christian Emperor to be his wife Priscilla instructed Apollo himselfe that eloquent man Nicostrata wife to King Evander was so learned that the Grecians reported that if her Writings of the Trojan wars had not by envy been flung into the fire the name of Homer the Prince of Poets would have been unknown This famous Woman is by some called Carmentis because of the eloquence which was found in her Verses she helpd to make up the number of the Greek Alphabet and added to the Roman Letters her Prophesies were preserved by the Romans at the end of the Capitol with as much respect and care as they do the Sacrament Hermodica wife to Midas King of Pbrygia was not only celebrated for her rare features and beauty but for her great wisdome The Divine Plato had amongst his Disciples these two famous women to wit Laschenea and Axiothia the one had so profound a Memory and the other so extraordinary an Understanding as that Plato being in his Chaire he often did say when either of these two

chanced to be absent that he would not begin to read and being by the Philosophers his disciples desired thereunto he answered I will not read because Laschenea the Understanding which ought to hear me is not here and for the absence of Axiothia he said that the Memory which ought to preserve him was not yet come The wisdome of these two women is the more to be admired since Plato would not read but in their presence for he did esteem the memory of these two Women alone more then the Philosophie of all the Philosophers besides Cornelia wife unto Scipio Africanus and mother to the Noble family of the Graechi was so excellent in knowledge that she was more famous and honored by the Sciences which she publikely read in Rome then by the conquests which her Children made in Africk She was generally praised by the most learned men for her honesty wisdome and for her reading Philosophie publikely in Rome From her as from a fountain the eloquence of her children flowed Therefore Quintilius thus saith of her We are much bound to the mother Cornelia for the eloquence of the Gracchi whose unparallel'd Learning in her exquisite Epistles she hath bequeathed to posterity Cicero the Father of Latine eloquence whose skill in joining Philosophie with the Art of Rhetorick was excellent doth more highly exalt this famous Cornelia whenas he saith in his Rhetorick That if the name of a Woman had not diminished Cornelia she did deserve to be the chiefest of all the Philosophers because hee never saw such grave Sentences proceed from any mortal creature as were contained in her writings A Statue was erected on her sepulcher on which these words were engraven Here lyeth the most learned Cornelia mother of the G●acchi she was both happy and fortunate in her Disciples whom she instructed though unhappy in her Children Aspasia a Miletian Damsel excelled in all Philosophical contemplations and so fluent a Rhetorician as that Socrates himselfe imitated her in his Facultas Politica Amalasuntha Queen of the Ostrogothes the daughter of Theodoricus King of those Ostrogothes in Italy was not only learned in the Greek and Latine tongues but spake all the barbarous languages that were used in the Eastern Empires exceeding well Eustochium a Romane Matron was excellently practised in the Greek and Latine Dialect as also in the Hebrew character she was in her time called the New prodigie of the world she with Reason overcame St. Hiero me and made him confesse he was overcome by her for that he could not answer the questions which she had propounded Amesia a modest Roman Lady being falsly accused of a great crime and ready to incurre the Pretorial sentence she with a manly yet modest courage stept up amongst the People and with a loud voice and a becoming gesture and facundious suavity she pleaded her own cause so eloquently so effectually and so strongly as that by the publique suffrage she was freed and acquited from all aspersions whatsoever and he who had accused her was himselfe most justly punished Hypparchia the sister of Magocles and wife to Crates Cynicus with one Sophisme did put Theodorus to silence Hortensia the daughter of Quintus Hortensius pleaded her selfe before the Triumvirate when a grievous Fine was imposed on the Romans and when none of the Orators or Lawyers durst so boldly and eloquently that she prevailed so far as that the greatest part of the Fine which was imposed on them was instantly remitted Sosipatra was a woman versed in many kindes of Disciplines and so excelent in all her studies that she was said to have been educated by the Gods themselves Corinna Thebana had such an excellent knowledge in Poesie that in several Contentions she bore away the garland from Pindarus the Prince of the Lyrick poets Sapho's Verses excelled Anacreon's though he was one of the most famous Poets in the world Telesilla was not onely wise chaste fair and couragious but she had attained to that perfection in poetry that she amongst all other women was held in admiration Cornificia sister to the great Poet Cornificius was very learned in the Greek and Latine tongues and so expert in making of Verses that she ex tempore did excel those which her Brother made at leasure though he was the greatest Poet of his time in Rome Phanarite Mother of Athenian Socrates was the first that disputed of Morality and who taught the mystical phylosophie of the Stars and Planets and how it may be made familiar and have correspondence with our humane and terrestrial actions Hyppatia a Woman of Alexandria did so excell in Learning as that she was frequented by many worthy Scholars whil'st she kept a publike School she wrote several Volumes she calculated her self an Ephemerides for many years she also writ a large volume of Astronomy L'Amia Aglius were not inferior in Musick to Arion or Orpheus Timarete the Daughter of Micaon Irene Anistarite Lala Cizizena Martia and many more have attained to as high a perfection in Painting as Apelles Zeucis and Apollidorus themselves ever did What men were ever known to surpass the Muses or the Sybils in Learning The IX Muses were these following Clio Vterpe Thalia Melpomene Terpsichore Erato Polyhimnia Vrania Calliope The XII Sybils were these Sybilla Persica called Samberta Sybilla Lybica Sybilla Delphica Sybilla Cumaea borne at Cimeria at Campania in Italy Sybilla Samia Sybilla Erithraea borne at Babylon Sybilla Cumana she wrote Nine books for three of which Tarquinius superbus gave 300 pieces of gold and caused them to be religiously kept in the Capitol at Rome Sybilla Hellespontiaca borne at Marmisea in the Territory of Troy Sybilla Albunea sirnamed Tiburtina because she was borne at Tiber 15 miles from Rome Sybilla Phrygia Sybilla Epyrotiea Sybilla Coliphonia Lampusia she came out of Greece from Coliphonia a City of Ionia The Books which these Sybils wrote contained manifest Prophesies of the Kingdome of CHRIST his Name his Birth and Death The changes of Kingdomes Foretold Inundations Earthquakes and Warres They also manifested that the whole World would be burnt and wished men to adore that God while they lived here who would punish them so severely hereafter for their contempt These Books were by the Arch-Traytor Silico burnt yet nevertheless some of their Prophesies are yet extant having been extracted out of other writings But as both the Ecclesiasticall and Secular Ancient and Modern Histories abound in examples of divers excellent and famous Ladies So likewise these latter times have not been barren in Learned women who were not a jot inferior to those of former Ages Constantia wife of Alexander Sforza was so laborious in the best Disciples that on the suddain and without any premeditation shee was able to discourse upon any argument either Theological or Philosophical and for her temporal vain in verse shee was much admired in which shee was so elegantly ingenious that shee attracted the ears of many judicious Schollers to bee her daily Auditors