"The serenity of our faces and the happiness of our hearts are the greatest testimony to the appearance of majesty. For there you have the most reliable witnesses of our sentiments. For that which is harbored in the heart shines forth as though through a window, and that which you cannot hear because of this speaker’s lack of eloquence can be perceived through comments from the populace and from the eyes of everyone here just as joy is palpable in the looks of those who are rejoicing. Thus it is that, since everyone is over. come with incredible joy, and you with your joyous gaze have brought kudos and felicity, all men think that this illustrious day should not only be marked, as they say with a white stone, but everyone thinks the day should be commemorated each year with solemn honors. For no matter how ignorant one may be by nature, is there anyone who would not embrace the memory of the queen of the Sarmatians? Who would not marvel at the greatness of her august and holy presence? Who would not worship and revere her as though she were a goddess?In order to respond to so many distinguished and renowned women, which I can do, I shall say that the saying "the fickle herd can feed on heavenly air" certainly can never be, since, while the divine beauty of your mind and body has slipped away from my heart and mind, the memory of your name will remain so deeply ingrained in everyone’s mind that no age will ever obliterate it.But to say something myself to celebrate the greatness of your fame, which has traveled to the ends of the earth while I have remained silent, I would gladly spend all the days of my life. Nor is there anything that could please me more or that I could hope for more than that, not because I think your name would be embellished by my work and industry, but so that in glorifying you I might hope that my life too might be consigned to immortality."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"An Oration Addressed to the Venetian Doge Francesco Venier on the Occasion of the Arrival of the Most Serene Queen of Sarmantia" (1556), edited and translated by Diana Robin, Cassandra Fedele: Letters and Orations (University of Chicago Press, 2000), "The Public Lectures", p. 162
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cassandra_Fedele
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Cassandra Fedele
1465 – 1558
Cassandra Fedele (c. 1465 – 1558) was an Italian humanist writer. She has been called the most renowned woman scholar in Italy during the last decades of the Quattrocento.
1 quote on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Cassandra Fedele →
Related Quotes
"If I thought my apprenticeship was over, I would be the first to be done for. It's a stimulus that you need all the t…"
"What pisses me off the most is that it seems like if I wear a miniskirt or a revealing dress – because maybe I like m…"
"You don't need to know if a relationship will work. It needs to start."
"I'm 40, not 20, when your hormones are going crazy, your head is full of dreams, and your future is in your hands. I'…"
"Interviewer: What memories do you have of your time at school as a pupil? Delogu: I felt like I was in a kind of tran…"
"Support for people with dyslexia cannot be left to personal sensitivity and goodwill. What is needed is specific teac…"
"I have no taboos about my body. That's just the way I am. I joke that I dress for your decency, not mine."
"(About Mara Venier) Her way of hosting, of running a salon. You can't learn the kind of chemistry she has. You either…"
"[When asked what a dyslexic person lacks] Automatism. When you learn to drive, you have to think carefully about pull…"
"[...] It seems that only if you become a mother are you a grown-up and have done your duty in the world."