situation. The greater part of the courtiers said, a more able sorcerer should be sought, to counteract the charms of the first; but, whether the good sense of the duchess led her to disbelieve the efficacy of this expedient, or her piety revolted from using unlawful means, for the attainment of any purpose, however desirable, she refused to comply.
The duke expired in her arms, in October, 1457, after having reigned seven years. Arthur, his successor, wanted to deprive her of her dowry, and caused her many unpleasant embarrassments. To ensure her a protector, her father was anxious to engage her in a second marriage, with the prince of Savoy; and the king, (Louis XI.) and queen of France, took the most lively interest in the affair: but, neither their solicitations, nor those of her father, could overcome the resolution she had formed, of living in perpetual widowhood; and, at length, to put an end not only to their entreaties, but to their well-meant, though ineffectual constraint, she retired into a convent, near Vannes, and took the habit of a Carmelite.
AMMANATI, (LAURA BATTIFERRI,) an Italian Poetess. Born at Urbino, 1513, died at Florence, November, 1589, aged 76.
Daughter of John Anthony Battiferri, and wife of Bartholomew Ammanati, a celebrated sculptor and architect, of Florence. She applied herself all her life to the study of philosophy and polite literature; and cultivated Italian poetry with so much success, that she is esteemed one of the best poets of the sixteenth century. Her translations of the Penitential Psalms, in odes; the Prayer of Jeremiah, in blank verse; and a hymn on the
