Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/143

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OF CELEBRATED WOMEN.
129
BERTANA, (LUCIA) a Lady of Modena, or, as some say, of Bologna, whose Poems are printed in Rime de cinquante Poetesse, or Poems of 50 Ladies,

Is known by the part she took in a famous literary dispute, occasioned by the censure which a learned, but severe critic, Castelvetro, passed upon an ode of Annibal Caro, which called forth defences from the admirers of the latter, and created much public animosity disgraceful to both parties. Esteeming equally these two great men, Lucia interfered to appease their quarrel, and wrote to the poet to engage him to withdraw some malicious writings of his friends; but he pretended to be too deeply offended to put an end to the dispute; and, collecting them together, printed them again, with the letters of the fair mediator, and his answers.

F. C.



BERTANI, (BARBE) of Reggio, in Lombardy, famous for her Italian Poems; flourished about 1588.



BERTHA, Daughter of Charibert, King of France, and Wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, during the Heptarchy in England,

One of the wisest and most powerful of the Saxon princes, but a pagan. It was expressly stipulated on the marriage, that Bertha, who was a Christian, should profess her own religion unmolested. Listening to the doctrines of her faith, Ethelbert became a convert to it in 597.

BERTHA,