The article is on marquise Marianna Florenzi (1802-1870) and her extraordinary life as a woman of science, translator, and a patron of the arts. Her contribution to the diffusion of German philosophers in Italy and Europe has been marginalized and often overlooked. Passages of her translations are here compared to other translations in parallel texts. The age was rich with stimuli, especially in the debate upon the ‘spirit’ or ‘genius’ of Germanic languages versus Romance languages. The paper considers the Italian context of Risorgimento in Perugia, and her dangerous involvement with exiled patriots, and her cultural and intellectual resistance to censorship.