A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Monti, Perticari Costanza
MONTI, PERTICARI COSTANZA,
Of Ferrara, is daughter of the great Vincenzo Monti; she has an hereditary claim to genius. The sons of great men are proverbially deficient, whether from the impartiality of nature, who will not confine her gifts to one family, or because the great man is too much occupied with the cares of greatness to fulfil the important though minute offices of a parent. Whatever may be the case in general, Monti devoted himself to the education of this his only and beloved child, and he was fully rewarded by the result. Costanza diligently pursued the studies he directed; she became an excellent Greek and Latin scholar, as well as mistress of the modern tongues of Europe. Perfectly versed in general literature, she added skill in music and painting to her accomplishments. It was her fortune to become the wife of that illustrious man whose death Italy still deplores. Her marriage did not abate her ardour for intellectual pursuits; she persevered in her course of study, and wrote poems that met with unanimous applause. She returned in her widowhood to her father's house, where, entirely devoted to study, she lives in seclusion. So much solid information joined to the graces of a poetical imagination, render the name of Constanza Monti worthy to accompany that of her immortal father in the annals of literature.