CXXXV. I shall omit mentioning many more learned women, which ennobled
Germany and other countries, to conclude with a recent example from
Asia, as a proof, that female literature is not confined and shut up
within the limits of Europe.
CXXXVI. This shall be the charming, discreet, and generous _Sitti
Maani_, wife of the famous traveller, Pedro de la Valle, a Roman
knight. Maani was born in Mesopotamia, in order that that country,
within whose bounds, some expositors believe the garden of Paradise
was planted, might be the happy spot which had produced two eminent
Rachaels; for it is certain, that Haran, where the beloved wife of
Jacob was born, was a place of Mesopotamia. The fame of the nobleness
of her genius, the vivacity of her understanding, and the beauty of
her person, had been blazoned abroad when she was very young; this
excited the curiosity of Pedro de la Valle, and he was desirous of
seeing a lady, of whom he had heard so many encomiums. His experience,
upon the interview which was permitted him, confirmed the truth of all
he had heard, inflamed in his bosom the passion of love, and caused
him anxiously to solicit obtaining her for a wife, which purpose he
effected; and Maani, after marrying him, not only forsook the Chaldean
rites in which she had been bred up, and turned catholic herself, but
persuaded her parents to do the same. It is almost incredible, what
this amiable Asian acquired in a few years, and indeed the years of
her life were but few; for she not only attained a knowledge of all
the learning, which those countries, still strangers to the sciences,
could afford, but she arrived at understanding twelve different idioms.
But the bulk, as well as perfection, of her moral virtues, exceeded
that of her acquisitions; among which, though not common to her sex,
her courage shone the most brilliant, for she fought armed in three
encounters, and with great bravery, in defence of her husband. This
woman, in many ways extraordinary, eminent for her talents, and famous
for her travels and voyages, in one of them, near Ormuz, became the
victim of a fever, which was truly malignant, having deprived her of
life at the age of twenty-one. Thus died, to the great grief of all
who had known her, this new Rachael, who was so like the antient one,
that it seems, as if Nature and Fortune had studiously formed the
parallel; both natives of Mesopotamia; both beautiful in extreme; both
married to very deserving men, who were strangers to them, and came
from other countries; both alike, with respect to their determination,
of forsaking the rites of their country, and following the religion
of their husbands; both equally conforming, to lead a wandering life,
and follow the steps of their consorts; and, in the end, both dying
in the flower of their age, and on the road. But the behaviour of the
two husbands, at the time of the fatal crisis, seems to have been
very different; Pedro de la Valle at that period, appearing to have
conducted himself with much more delicacy, than the patriarch Jacob.
The last, buried his Rachael on the road, at the place where she died;
though it would have corresponded better with the merit of his wife,
if he had paid the same care and attention, and had taken the same
precaution about her dead carcase, that he did with regard to his own,
when he strictly enjoined his son Joseph, to convey it to the sepulchre
of his ancestors, which was in Hebron. The tender care and regard for
his wife in this last office, which seems to have been little attended
to by that fond patriarch, though we should suppose it happened from
some powerful reason, either mysterious or natural, which he had for
omitting it, shone forth with respect to Pedro de la Valle, in acts of
the most punctual and precise reality; and which, in the most refined
and nice manner, expressed the affection he bore his departed consort:
for after having embalmed the dead body of his adored Maani, he carried
it about with him inclosed in a costly urn, four whole years, all
which time, he continued to travel through, and explore various parts
of Asia; with his eyes ever attentive to her ashes, and his heart and
memory to her virtues: till upon returning to Rome, he deposited the
remains of his beloved object, in the sepulchre of the noble family of
the Valles his ancestors, which they have belonging to them, in the
chapel of St. Paul, appertaining to the church of Santa Maria de _Ara
Cœli_: this was done with such funeral pomp, that a more magnificent
shew of this sort had scarce ever been seen, Pedro de la Valle himself,
pronouncing the funeral oration; in doing which, his eyes expressed
much more than his lips, as in a short time his lips ceased to move,
and left the eyes to speak the rest; for it so happened, that his
throat through excessive grief, was obstructed, and he was near being
choaked; so that he was unavoidably obliged to leave the oration
unfinished; but such of the eloquent clauses as were congealed and
obstructed in the passage, melted down, and flowed in tender tears,
mixed with sighs, the true and proper accents of grief, which were
resounded and echoed back, by a numerous concourse of sympathetic
auditors.
N.B. Sitti is a title of honour among the Persians, and equivalent to
lady with us.