Keywords

• Caterina Franceschi Ferrucci was a pedagogist and a literate (Giacomo Leopardi considered only her among well read women): born in 1803 and dead in 1887
• she was the witness of the most important political and cultural events of the 19th Century. The dichotomy between her thought and her life is the most fascinating aspect in Caterina Franceschi Ferrucci.
• On one hand
• she worked as a modern writer: she published many essays and books on pedagogism
• she was the principle of a female college and she was one of the few women belonging to the most important literature academies of this period. Although she was a wife and a mother (she married the classical scholar Ferrucci and adopted his name)
• she succeeded in dedicating herself to studies. On the other hand
• her works reflected a conservative view of female education
• according to which a girl should be educated especially to be a good mother