A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Comnena, (Anna)
COMNENA, (ANNA) Daughter of the Emperor Alexis Comnenus,
From her early youth, gave herself up to the study of letters, and employed her learning for the glory of her father and family. She wrote the history of his reign, from 1069 to 1118. This work is called The Alexiad. She has been accounted a partial writer; but, as Vossius has observed, the matter maybe well enough compromised by supposing, that the Latin historians have spoken of a Greek emperor less favourably than they ought, and that Anna Comnena has been more indulgent to the character of her father than the strict laws of history would admit. The authors, of the Journal des Scavans, for 1675, have spoken of this learned and accomplished lady in the following manner: "The elegance," say they, "with which Anna Comnena has described, in fifteen books, the life and actions of her father, and the strong and eloquent manner in which she has set them off, are so much above the ordinary understanding of women, that one is almost ready to doubt, whether indeed she was the author of these books. It is certain one cannot read the description she has given of countries, rivers, mountains, towns, sieges, battles, the reflection she makes upon particular events, the judgment she passes upon human actions, and the digressions she makes on many occasions, without perceiving that she must have been very well skilled in grammar, rhetorick, philosophy, mathematics; nay, that she must have had some knowledge of law, physic, and divinity; all which is very rare and uncommon in any of that sex."