rs had brought about an era of peace and quiet which
was much needed, as Spain had been rent by so much warfare and domestic
strife, and for so many years, that the more solid attainments in
literature had been much neglected, and the Spanish nobles were covered
with but a polite veneer of worldly information and knowledge which too
often cracked and showed the rough beneath. Isabella endeavored to
change this state of affairs, and by her own studies, and by her
manifest interest in the work of the schools, she soon succeeded in
placing learning in a position of high esteem, even among the nobles,
who did not need it for their advancement in the world. Paul Jove wrote:
"No Spaniard was accounted noble who was indifferent to learning;" and
so great was the queen's influence, that more than one scion of a noble
house was glad to enter upon a scholarly career and hold a university
appointment. It may well be imagined that in all this new intellectual
movement which was stimulated by Isabella, it was the sober side of
literature and of scholarship which was encouraged, as a light and vain
thing such as lyric poetry would have been as much out of place in the
court of the firm defender of the Catholic faith as the traditional bull
in the traditional china shop. Isabella, under priestly influences,
favored and furthered the revival of interest in the study of Greek and
Latin, and it is in this realm of classical study that the scholars of
the time were celebrated.

The power of example is a wonderful thing always, and in the present
instance the direct results of Isabella's interest in education may be
seen in the fact that many of the women of her day began to show an
unusual interest in schools and books. The opportunities for an
education were not limited to the members of the sterner sex, and it
appears that both men and women were eager to take advantage of the many
new opportunities which were afforded them at this epoch. A certain Dona
Beatriz de Galindo was considered the greatest Latin scholar among the
women of her time, and for several years her praises were sounded in all
the universities. Finally, Dona Beatriz was appointed special teacher
in the Latin language to the queen herself; and so great was her success
with this royal pupil, that she was rewarded with the title _la Latina_,
by which she was commonly known ever after. According to a Spanish
proverb, "the best counsel is that of a woman," and surely Isabell