A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Tambroni, Clotilde
TAMBRONI, CLOTILDE,
Was born at Bologna, in 1758. Her childhood offered indications of superior intelligence, which were observed by every one who knew her; but disregarding these, her mother, far from attempting to cultivate her mind, required her to devote herself to household duties, and to useful needle-work, and the various humble labours demanded of girls in their modest station in society. The distinguished Hellenist, Emanuele Aponte, lodged with the Tambroni family; and while Clotilde sat apparently busied with her work, she was attentively listening to the Greek lessons given by that professor to various classes. One day, as he was examining an ill-prepared scholar, to his great surprise, the little girl prompted the blunderer, giving him exactly the right sentence in excellent Greek. Delighted and astonished, Aponte persuaded the mother to allow him to cultivate this decided inclination for study. Her facility of acquirement was wonderful; to a general acquaintance with elegant literature, she added a knowledge of mathematics, and of the Latin tongue; but her most remarkable accomplishment was her very uncommon learning in Greek. At the recommendation of Aponte, she was, while yet a girl, appointed to the Greek chair in the University of Bologna. Political circumstances caused her family to leave Italy at one time, and she remained for a short period in Spain; but subsequently returning home, she was received by her countrymen with the highest honours, and was appointed by the government of Milan, professor of Greek in the University of Bologna—a situation which she held with credit to herself, and advantage to the college. She lived in a lettered seclusion, dividing her leisure between study and the society of a few congenial and erudite persons. She died, at the age of fifty, in the year 1817. She has left several translations from the Greek, and some Greek poems; besides an oration, which she delivered in Latin, on the inauguration of the doctor Maria Dalle-Donne into the college honours.