But who can explain the delicious sensations given me by the soft harmony of the angelic music, by which I was charmed from sleep; what an awaking! what ravishment! what ecstasy, when at the same instant I opened my ears and eyes! My first idea was to believe I was in paradise.

The ravishing air, which I still recollect and shall never forget, began with these words: Conservami la bella, Che si m'accende il cor.
I was desirous of having it; I had and kept it for a time; but it was not the same thing upon paper as in my head.

The notes were the same but the thing was different.

This divine composition can never be executed but in my mind, in the same manner as it was the evening on which it woke me from sleep.
A kind of music far superior, in my opinion, to that of operas, and which in all Italy has not its equal, nor perhaps in the whole world, is that of the 'scuole'.

The 'scuole' are houses of charity, established for the education of young girls without fortune, to whom the republic afterwards gives a portion either in marriage or for the cloister.