A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Scala, (Alessandria)
SCALA (ALESSANDRIA), a Florentine Lady.
Among the circumstances favourable to the promotion of letters in the fifteenth century, was the partiality shewn to these studies, and the proficiency made in them, by women, illustrious by their birth, or eminent for their personal accomplishments. Among these, Alessandria, the daughter of Bartolomeo Scala, was peculiarly distinguished. The extraordinary beauty of her person was surpassed by the endowments of her mind. At an early age she was a proficient, not only in the Latin, but in the Greek tongue, which she had studied under Joannes Lasca and Demetrius Chalcondyles. Such an union of excellence attracted the attention, and is supposed to have engaged the affections of Politian, who wrote her many complimentary verses, which she answered; but gave her hand to the Greek Marullus, who enjoyed at Florence the favour of Lorenzo de Medici, and in the elegance of his Latin compositions emulated the Italians themselves. Hence probably arose the dissentions between Marullus and Politian, the monuments of which yet remain in their writings. She was happy in her marriage, and died 1506.