Lucia - Andrea Di Robilant [91]
The news of the scandal surrounding Alvisetto had reached Vienna well before Lucia arrived there with her son. She had no intention of living in seclusion, and was not afraid to “show her face,” as Flore de Ligne had written; but she felt a lower profile was in order for the time being. Sadly, the one person whose company she would have treasured, Baron Vespa, had died while she was in Italy. Lucia had so much wanted her old friend to see her boy that she had pictured their encounter many times during the idle hours in the carriage on the journey up to Vienna. It occurred to her that at least poor Vespa was not going to have to fret over the latest imperial pregnancy—for the empress was expecting another child!
Lucia was determined to spend most of her time with Alvisetto, and to devote herself seriously to his education. He was three months shy of his fifth birthday, an age at which a boy of his social class had usually begun to read and write simple sentences and do basic arithmetic. But his education had been very rudimentary—a fact Lucia had become keenly aware of when Paolina’s well-trained children had visited them at Alvisopoli. “I know he lags behind his cousins,” she remarked defensively. “But it’s really not his fault, poor thing, if he can’t yet write.”8 While they were still in Italy, Lucia had arranged for him to take lessons to get him in the habit of studying. Now that he was finally settled in Vienna, however, a more structured education was called for. Alvise had already mentioned the possibility of sending Alvisetto to boarding school the following year, when he would be six—a prospect Lucia considered so awful she did not want to think about it. Until then, she was going to take matters in her own hands.
Lucia looked for guidance in the work of her beloved Madame de Genlis, whose two-volume Leçons d’une gouvernante à ses élèves, published thirteen years earlier, had become a classic textbook for home-schooling in all of Europe. It was based on her teaching experience in Paris and London and was really more useful to the tutor than to the student. A more accessible book for children was Arnaud Berquin’s L’Ami des enfants, a collection of short stories, each one with a specific pedagogical message about friendship, goodness, honesty, generosity—it was said his stories were written for children but should be read by adults. Berquin’s book was translated into many languages. The Italian translation was by Elisabetta Caminer, a Venetian journalist who had been a good friend of Lucia’s father. Lucia had a fond memory of Caminer, and since she was frustrated in her search for Italian educational books, she had Paolina send her the Italian version rather than ordering the original one in French. L’Ami des enfants was actually intended for children a little older than Alvisetto, who was still struggling with his As and Bs and could not be expected to appreciate Berquin’s moral teachings. On the other hand, he was certainly ready for Le Magasin des enfants, the pioneering collection of fables by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, which included the popular “Beauty and the Beast.” Leprince de Beaumont, who had tutored upper-class girls in London in her youth, used classical sources to write fables in a language that was accessible to children, and had none of the irony or cleverness associated with the genre. The book had wonderful illustrations, which no doubt helped.
Lucia worked out a routine for Alvisetto. Early