A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Fonte, Moderata
FONTE, MODERATA,
The assumed name of a celebrated Venetian lady, whose real name was Modesta Pazzo. She was born at Venice, in 1555, and became an orphan in her infancy. While young, she was placed in the convent of the nuns of Martha of Venice; bat afterwards left it, and was married. She lived twenty years very happily with her husband, and died in 1592. She learned poetry and Latin with the greatest ease; and is said to have had so prodigious a memory, that, after hearing a sermon only once, she could repeat it word for word. She wrote a poem, entitled "II Floridoro," and another on the "Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ." Besides these and other poems, she wrote a book in prose, which was not published till after her death, called "Dei Meriti delle Donne," in which she maintains that women are not inferior in understanding or merit to men. None of her works are now extant.