A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Descartes, Catharine

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DESCARTES, CATHARINE,

Daughter of a counsellor of the Parliament of Brittany, and niece of the celebrated philosopher of that name, was, from her learning and talents, so worthy of her origin, that it was said, "The mind of the great Descartes had fallen on a distaff." Her most considerable work was an account of the death of her uncle, in prose and verse. She led a very quiet life in Brittany, and died, in 1706, of a disease brought on by hard study. She was born at Rennes, in 1635.