A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bandettini, Theresa
BANDETTINI, THERESA.
An improvisatrice, was born at Lucca, about 1756; she was carefully educated, but was obliged, from loss of property, to go on the stage. She made her first appearance in Florence, and was unsuccessful. Some time after this, while listening to an improvisatore of Verona, she broke forth into a splendid poetical panegyric on the poet. Encouraged by him, she devoted herself entirely to this art. Her originality, fervid imagination, and the truth and harmony of her expressions, soon gained for her great celebrity. In 1789, she married Pietro Landucci, by whose persuasion she abandoned the stage, travelled through Italy, and was chosen a member of several academies. One of her most celebrated poems was an impromptu, delivered in 1794, before prince Lambertini, at Bologna, on the death of Marie Antoinette of France. In 1813, she returned to Lucca, where she lived retired on her small property. She published Ode tre, or Three Odes; of which the first celebrates Nelson's victory at Aboukir, the second, Suwarroff's victories in Italy, and the third, the victories of the arch-duke Charles in Germany. She also published, under the name of Cimarilli Etrusca, Saggio di Versi Estemporanci, among which the poem on Petrarch's interview with Laura, in the church, is especially celebrated. She also wrote a tragedy called "Polidoro," which obtained great success at Milan; and an epic poem, "La Deseide." She was an excellent classic scholar, and made many translations from the Latin and Greek. Nor were the qualities of her heart surpassed by these mental advantages. She was beloved by all around her for her amiable, benevolent character, and a piety sincere and cheerful, while it regulated her in the most brilliant part of her career—brought comfort, resignation, and tranquillity to her death-bed. She expired in 1837,