Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 02-03-08
Tullia d'Aragona (c.1510-1556)
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"DO YOU THINK THE DESIRE FOR HONOR WAS NOT ALSO GIVEN TO
ME?
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Tullia d'Aragona was born in Rome and raised there and in
Siena by her mother. Like her mother, she became a courtesan,
and like other courtesans who wished to move in the upper reaches
of society, she was trained in music and literature. When she
was in her 20s, she and her mother began to move from city to
city but always returned to Rome. During the later 1530s they
were in Venice and Ferrara. In both cities Aragona interacted
with the philosophic and literary elite, her home became a salon,
and her writing began to be noticed. It was in Ferrara that Aragona
met Girolamo Muzio, the courtier and poet who would become her
literary editor and promoter.
In the early 1540s Aragona was back in Siena. Fearful of the
Protestant Reformation to the north, Italian cities were becoming
increasingly conservative: the spirit was that which would lead
to the opening of the Council of Trent in 1545. The effect of
this conservatism were felt especially by those on the margins
of society, such as courtesans. Cities passed laws (or enforced
laws earlier ignored) limiting the movements of courtesans and
requiring them to dress in a distinctive way. Aragona was denounced
for violating Siena's sumptuary laws in 1544. She had married
the year before; it isn't clear if this was part of an attempt
to regularize her social position, but nothing further is known
of her husband.
By 1546, Aragona was in Florence, had established herself, and had come under the protection of the literary figure Benedetto Varchi, who had influence with the Duke of Florence, Cosimo de Medici, always a proponent of vernacular literature. When in 1547 Aragona was summoned by the authorities for violation of a newly enacted sumptuary law, she petitioned Cosimo, through his wife, Eleonora di Toledo, for an exemption; his written response to the authorities was "Be merciful to her, as a poet."
As if to justify Cosimo's decision, a collection of poetry by and about Aragona was published by Muzio within a few months, Rime della Signora Tullia d'Aragona; et di diversi a lui, dedicated to Cosimo's wife. In the book are 44 poems by Aragona (some written as early as 1537), along with poems addressed to or written about her by men.
By the end of the same year a prose work, Dialogo della infinita d'amore (Dialogue on the infinity of love), was also published, and dedicated to Cosimo himself. Five years earlier, a writer, Sperone Speroni, whom Aragona had known in Venice, had published a Dialogo d'amore, which had as a character a courtesan, "Tullia," who spoke in praise of passionate love and questioned whether reason and love could coexist. In her own 1547 work, Aragona presented a different view.
1547 was the high point of Aragona's public writing career. In the next year she left Florence for Rome, for reasons unknown to us, where she lived until her death. Four years later her epic in heroic verse, Il meschino altremente detto Il Guerrino (The unfortunate, also called Guerrino), was published in Venice; the work describes the adventures of a young nobleman of the period of Charlemagne who goes in search of his parents, traveling all over the world (and to Purgatory and Hell). Il meschino has not yet been fully translated into English.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Rime della Signora Tullia d'Aragona
Il meschino detto Il Guerrino
Dialogo della infinita d'amore
Information about secondary sources.
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1. In English:
(a) Seven sonnets from Aragona's Rime, given in the original Italian and in Julia L. Hairston's translation.
(b) After excerpts from the introduction to the translation by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry of Dialogo della infinita d'amore, brief passages from the text, on the difficulties of speaking of love, whether God's or man's (for more from Russell and Merry, see below, under "In Print").
2. In Italian:
(a) At this alphabetical list from the University of Chicago's "Italian Women Writers" site, go to Aragona and click on "Texts Available" for links to the originals of three works: (1) an 1891 edition of Rime, which includes poems not in the 1547 original, and which rearranges their order (but which includes the dedication to Eleonora di Toledo and an eclogue by Girolamo Muzio); (2) an 1864 edition of Dialogo della infinita d'amore, including the dedication of the work to Cosimo de Medici; (3) the original 1560 Il meschino detto il Guerrino, including Tullia's opening "A i lettori" (within each canto of the work, clicking on the first "Page Image"will bring you the original woodcut).
(b) The 1891 edition of Rime again but here in a hypertext version; at each poem you may link to all uses of words and phrases.
3. Essays:
(a) A biography of Aragona by Hairston, followed by a 2005 bibliography of secondary sources. You can also link to a list of editions of Aragona's work and to a c.1537 painting by Moretto da Brescia believed to be a portrait of Tullia posed as Salome.
(b) Aragona is one of the poets treated by Veena Carlson in "Imitatio and the Woman Poet: Renaissance Re-writings of Ovid" (1998); Carlson discusses the sonnet on the mythical Philomela and gives the original of the poem's octet (for the whole poem in English, see under "In print.")
(c) "Mythological, Representations of the Renaissance Cortegiana" (1989), by Fiora A. Bassanese, discusses, at separate points in the essay, Aragona's treatment by male poets and her own Dialogo della infinita d'amore and Rime.
4. Reviews (for excerpts from the translation, see under "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Tullia, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Use your browser's search function to go "Tullia" for Paola Malpezzi Price on the 1997 Russell and Merry translation, Dialogue on the Infinity of Love.
(b) Anne A. Hill on Diana Maury Robin's 2007 study, Publishing Women: Salons, the Presses, and the Counter-Reformation in Sixteenth-century Italy.
(c) Patricia Phillippy on the 2005 essay collection, Strong Voices, Weak History: Early Women Writers and Canons in England, France, & Italy.
(d) Phillippy on Janet Levarie Smarr's 2005 study, Joining the Conversation: Dialogues by Renaissance Women.
(e) Maria Galli Stampino on Irma B. Jaffe's 2002 study, Shining Eyes, Cruel Fortune: The Lives and Loves of Italian Renaissance Women Poets.
(f) Fiora A. Bassanese on the 2000 essay collection, A History of Women's Writing in Italy
5. The publisher's description of Elizabeth A. Pallitto's 2006 edition /translation, Sweet Fire: Tullia D'Aragona's Poetry of Dialogue and Selected Prose (for excerpts, see under "In print").
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Rime della Signora Tullia d'Aragona; Il meschino detto Il Guerrino
Rime
[Elizabeth A. Pallitto's translation includes all of Tullia's poems found in the 1547 edition of Rime and the six poems by others to which she responded, as well as the preface, "To the reader," from Il meschino. For the poems, the Italian is given on the facing pages. Also included are three writings by Girolamo Muzio: the dedication to his eclogue in Rime, his preface to Dialogo, and a private letter about Tullia. Pallitto's introduction focuses on what is known of Tullia's life. The detailed notes are useful, as is the bibliography. Unfortunately, there is no index. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Sweet fire: Tullia D'Aragona's poetry of dialogue and selected
prose / translated and edited by Elizabeth A. Pallitto. New York:
Braziller, 2006. (128 p.)
LC#: PQ4562.A9 A2 2006 ; ISBN: 0807615625, 0807615560
Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-128)
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"It is not holiness, but arrogance."
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[A sonnet addressed to Bernardo Ochino, a popular Franciscan reformer who preached in Ferrara in 1537 against the secular celebrations of Carnival, preceding the Lenten preparation for Easter. The "king of rivers" is the Po River. For the original, see #35 online:]
Bernardo, it should have been enough for you---
with your sweet speech, by nature infused,
here by the famous waters of the king of rivers---
to set hearts aflame to deeds holy and true.
And yet, if your desires are pure within
if your inner life matches your outer robes,
you are not a man of worldly flesh and bone
but from the highest ranks of seraphim.
Costumes, masquerades, and music sweetly played,
sanctioned by use and by custom honored still---
why do you prohibit these ancient pastimes?
It is not holiness, but arrogance displayed
to take away the greatest gift---free will---
bestowed by God from the beginning of time. [p.59]
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"Thus declared Tullia on the Arno's banks."
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[In one of the early poems of Rime, a sonnet addressed to Cosimo de Medici of Florence; Aragona describes herself speaking to the Muses. (Helicon was the home of the Muses, who here leave it to come to Florence). See #8 online:]
"Goddesses, who from the lovely mount of Helicon
deign to descend in frequent sojourn
along the Arno's banks, which resound
with the great Tuscan name's proud sound:
"Of ageless flowers weave for him a crown,
the one whose virtues the world adorns;
born under fortunate Capricorn,
through him ancient vice is disallowed.
"And through me praise, through me give thanks
to him, O Muses, that as my mortal tongue labors
toward immortal virtue, it may not toil in vain.
"This is my theme, that such valor,
not shared among the others, is yours alone."
Thus declared Tullia on the Arno's banks. [p.39]
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"...and to leave my name renowned on Earth."
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[To Piero Manelli, a young Florentine nobleman and poet. See #38 online:]
Since, like you, by Nature I was wrought---
or by the great Creator--- in Form and Matter,
Manelli, dear, do you think the desire for honor
was not also given to me--- and capacity for lofty thought?
Do you think me so spiritually poor
that I dare not show forth, singing,
what in me would extinguish all proud longing
though my style is not on a par with yours?
No, I do not think you can conceive, Piero,
that I too, labor--- aspire to reach the firmament,
and to leave my name renowned on Earth.
If evil fate does not triumph over high desire,
then perhaps before my soul is rent
from its corporeal veil, I will satisfy this thirst. [p.61]
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"When to me Love said...."
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[By being changed into a nightingale, the mythical Philomel had escaped from a prison where she had been confined after being raped and having her tongue cut out. (The Cyprian is the goddess Venus.) See #40 online:]
Like flitting Philomel, who goes so proudly free,
having escaped the prison of her hated cage,
who flies above the wooded grove and stone cottage,
returning to her former happy life in liberty---
so had I escaped from love's handcuffs,
scorning all suffering and the bitter pain,
the sorrow beyond belief reserved for one
who has lost her soul through excess, loving love.
As the Cyprian knows well (oh, merciless star!)
I had gathered up my spoils from her temple
and for their price I had gone proud and far
when to me Love said: "I will alter"
(to renew my pangs) "your perverse will,"
and made me your virtue's prisoner. [p.63]
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"Joining souls, my life changes with yours."
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[After 38 poems by Tullia, Rime gives a series of "exchange sonnets," in which a poem by a male poet is given and then responded to. Here, a sonnet to Girolamo Muzio, in answer to one in which the poet had praised Aragona, but had also warned her against "unworthy desire" and "the poison of jealousy". See #34 online:]
Noble soul for whom my spirit longs,
the object of my innermost desires,
of beauty so rare and true: my mind aspires
to be the theme of your sweetest songs.
If, wrought in me, is the same effect,
then I can render your praises with my pen,
though my cursed fate prevents
our longed-for honor and respect.
I only ask that your soul, following her star
with steadfast faith, that your soul leave you
and come into my soul as if it were hers.
And mine, now united with yours,
holds fast the bright faith my soul gives ours:
joining souls, my life changes with yours. [p.79]
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"For I need little,..."
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[The last of Tullia's poems in Rime is a response to a sonnet by Ugolino Martelli, who claimed that it would be impossible to praise her sufficiently, even if Martelli could write as well as Homer or Virgil. Tullia demurs. See #24 online:]
It is well and true, every virtue is aflame
in my spirits with desire, and high intent;
but the power to work is so cold and spent
that I see myself with hours spent in vain.
Not true praises, our poems offend me:
so please, no more: try Ugolino,
your high style, among the many: praise our hero,
his thousand labors and his deeds so worthy.
We know a well-feigned lie can hide the truth
at any time or place, but in the battle
truth will win and remain in the saddle.
Therefore to be brief and to tell the truth,
Ugo, turn to others your excessive art
for I need little, though others need a lot. [p.87]
Il meschino detto Il Guerrino
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"It is much more useful and necessary to women."
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[Pallitto also translates "A i Lettori," Tullia's introduction to her epic poem Il meschino (you can see the original online). The opening:]
Of all the honorable and delightful pastimes available to human beings, nothing is so useful and so dear as having something uplifting and pleasant to read.... With reading.... we can manage it ourselves, according to our own will; we can do so whether alone or accompanied by others; a lot or a little; without expense, without peril, without harmful consequences, without anxiety, but rather with an end result of great contentment and satisfaction. And if this singularly perfect solace, this great elevation of the spirit is universally accessible, shared by every man and every woman not completely base and vile in spirit, then it is much more useful and necessary to women --- as Giovanni Boccaccio knew very well, declaring as much in the preface to his Decameron. [pp.99-100]
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"Having had... more knowledge of the world than I would
wish to have had...."
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[But, for Tullia, Boccaccio erred in writing prose when verse "leaves its form upon our memories with such pleasure" and especially in the bawdiness of his tales. What was worse was that Tullia's own contemporaries, like Pietro Aretino and others, were doing the same. (Nanna and Pippa were characters in one of Aretino's stories):]
Therefore it is no wonder if, ambitious to attain the same kind of glory, others have undertaken the task of creating Nannas and Pippas and Errant Prostitutes.... Therefore, having had from my earliest years more knowledge of the world than I would wish to have had, and now having acquired more wisdom than before, I have seen in myself as well as in many others how much harm there is is in the discussion and in the reading of ugly and lascivious things. [p.101]
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"...that a woman by necessity... should happen to fall into
corporeal error."
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[So Tullia did her research into "almost all the books of history and poetry that our language has to offer":]
Yet I found that epics such as Morgante,... Orlando Innamorato,... and finally those of Ariosto himself do not lack the great vice of containing such lascivious, shameful, and unworthy things, not only unsuitable for nuns, young women, widows, or married women --- but even for public women, if they should happen to see them by chance (for, after all, it is not a new thing that a woman by necessity or through some other malevolent fortune that might befall her, should happen to fall into corporeal error and appear to be unfitting, shameful, and indecorous in her speech and in other things, although perhaps appearing more so to others than to herself). Therefore, I say, it was my constant and most fervent desire to find some delightful and pleasant book to read in which shameful and ugly things are not to be found. [pp. 101-102]
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"I set about to do something useful and gracious in the
world."
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[Tullia finally found the right story, a prose narrative, originally written in Spanish but translated into Italian in the late 1300s:]
...[F]rom beginning to end, it is obvious that the author of this book had thought to draw out the souls of women (as well as honest, just, and holy men) with elegance, with sweetness, and with the greatest delight. But this book was missing the most important prerequisite for literary perfection,... the pleasing elegance of verse.... And seeing that, I set about to do something useful and gracious in the world, if possible, and render it into verse myself.... [p.102]
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Dialogo della infinita d'amore
[Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry have translated Dialogo della infinita d'amore; the introduction and detailed notes by Russell are helpful in explaining the work's philosophical background. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Dialogue on the infinity of love / by Tullia d'Aragona ; edited
and translated by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry; introduction
and notes by Rinaldina Russell (The other voice in early modern
Europe). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. (114 p.)
LC#: BD436 .D3713 1997; ISBN: 0226136388, 0226136396
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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"...questions which were no less attractive... than they
were difficult to solve."
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[From the dedication, to Cosimo de Medici:]
I have for a long while been undecided, most gracious and noble Lord, as to whether I should dedicate to your esteemed Highness a certain discussion, which took place in my home some months ago, on the infinity of love and on some other related questions which were no less attractive, if my judgment is not faulty, than they were difficult to solve....
I was comforted and even encouraged in my enterprise by the
certainty that Your Highness takes deep joy in all literary compositions,
especially those which are written in the vernacular tongue so
favorably viewed and promoted by Your Illustrious Self, and which
deal with subjects either useful or entertaining. I was also
driven by a keen desire of my own to show a small token of the
affection and devotion I have always felt for your illustrious
and blessed house and to give you special thanks for the favors
I have received. [p.54]
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"Is it possible to love within limits?"
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[At Tullia's home a group of men are discussing philosophical questions with Tullia. Benedetto Varchi, a leading Florentine philosopher, arrives and Tullia invites him to give his views on one of them:]
Tullia: The question proposed for discussion is as
follows: "Is it possible to love within limits?" Can
you give an answer to this?
Varchi: I wish I hadn't promised in the first place.
Tullia: Why so?
Varchi: I don't understand the terms of the proposition,
so how can I possibly solve the question?
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"Logicians fog up the other person's mind."
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[Varchi begins by questioning the distinction between the
terms "limit" and "end." Tullia, in mock
irritation at Varchi's logical nit-picking:]
There's one thing I can't get over, and that's the way these logicians fog up the other person's mind at the first opportunity. They start pronouncing affirmatives and negatives, they want you to say "yes" and "no" at their prompting; they hardly lay off until their side of the argument gets the upper hand, whether rightly or wrongly. [p.59]
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"If Madonna Laura had gotten around to writing as much about
Petrarch...."
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[Despite her comment, Tullia enters fully into a discussion of logic and proper terminology; then Varchi poses a question to her:]
Varchi: ...So now, pray, what do you think "love" is?
Tullia: Do you think you can fire off a question like that and so suddenly to a woman, especially to a woman such as myself?
Varchi: You are trying to get me to say that many women are of greater worth than a host of men. Perhaps you want me to to touch on your own great merits, for you have always put more emphasis on decking out the soul with exceptional virtues that on embellishing the body with pretty or majestic ornaments. Yours is an attitude rare indeed at all times and worthy of the greatest acclaim. Actually, I didn't ask you what was love, but what you thought love was. For I am well aware that normally women's aptitude for love is feeble.
Tullia: You're wrong there. Perhaps you are judging women's love from your own.
Varchi: Imagine what you would have said if I had added (as I was on the point of doing) that women also love rarely and had added some lines from Petrarch:
"Whence I know full well
that the state of love
Lasts but a short time
in a woman's heart."
Tullia: O what a trickster you are! Do you think I can't see what you are up to? Just think what would have happened if Madonna Laura had gotten around to writing as much about Petrarch as he wrote about her: you'd have seen things turn out quite differently then!....
Varchi: ...You haven't yet told me what you think "love" is.
Tullia: "Love," according to what I have frequently heard from other authorities, as well as by my own understanding of it, is nothing other than a desire to enjoy with union what is truly beautiful or seems beautiful to a lover. [pp.68-69]
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"I want you to bow to experience."
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[Throughout the discussion, Tullia's role is to represent "common sense," forcing Varchi to explain himself more clearly:]
Varchi: ...Anyway, what reasons can you adduce to prove that love has an end?
Tullia: No particular reason, but it is as I say.
Varchi: So you want me to bow to authority?
Tullia: No, Sir, I want you to bow to experience, which I trust by itself far more than all the reasons produced by the whole class of philosophers. [p.71]
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"I don't know if it is female or male."
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[Varchi seeks a rhetorical advantage, but is denied it:]
Tullia: ...[Y]ou'll be a mighty hero if you can prove to my satisfaction that love is without end.
Varchi: Is it then such a heroic contest to defeat a woman?
Tullia: You're not in a contest with a woman. You're fighting against reason.
Varchi: And isn't reason female?
Tullia: I don't know if it is female or male. [p.75]
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"Honest love... is characteristic of noble people, whether
they be rich or poor."
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[At the climax of the dialogue, Varchi and Tullia come to the question of whether love is finite or infinite. Tullia's view is interesting not only for the role of reason in "honest" love, but also for the equality of the lover and the beloved:]
Leaving all possible sub-divisions aside, let me say that love is of two types. We shall call the first "vulgar" or "dishonest" love, the other "honest," that is to say, virtuous.
Dishonest love --- which is found only in vulgar and low-minded individuals, that is, in those whose souls are low and vile, who lack virtue or refinement, whether they come from noble or insignificant stock --- is generated by a desire to enjoy the object that is loved, and its goal is none other than that of common animals. They simply want to obtain pleasure and to procreate something that resembles themselves, without any further thought or concern. Those who are moved by this desire and who love in this guise, as soon as they have reached their goal and have satisfied their longing, will desist from their motion and will no longer love....
Honest love, which is characteristic of noble people, whether they be rich or poor, is not generated by desire, like the other, but by reason. It has as its main goal the transformation of oneself into the object of one's love, with a desire that the loved one be converted into oneself, so that the two may become one or four....
And as this transformation can only take place on a spiritual plane, so in this kind of love, the principal part is played by the "spiritual" senses, those of sight and hearing and, above all, because it is closest to the spiritual, the imagination. But, in truth, as it is the lover's wish to achieve a corporeal union besides the spiritual one, in order to effect a total identification with the beloved, and since this corporeal unity can never be attained, because it is not possible for human bodies to be physically merged into one another, the lover can never achieve this longing of his, and so will never satisfy his desire. [pp.89-90]
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"Many a plant may go from wild to domestic...."
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[Varchi has several objections to Tullia's description of "vulgar love," one of which is her implication that it can never rise above itself. Tullia clarifies:]
I'm not going to deny that this type of love may include a wide variety of possibilities: it may indeed allow for several different levels, according to the character and makeup both of the people in love and of those who are loved. For you may find that not only is one person more amorous than the other, but that some are more prudent or of a more amiable disposition than others; so that this vulgar and lascivious strain of love can, at times and in some individuals, give rise to a chaste and virtuous love, just as a moral and virtuous love, because of some fault in either the lover or the beloved, may turn into one of the vulgar and lascivious variety.
In the same way, many a plant may go from wild to domestic, or from domestic to wild, following its own pattern of growth and the nature of the terrain where it is found or transplanted. [pp.103-104]
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Secondary sources
[One chapter of Diana Robin's study of women's writing
in mid-1500s Italy is "Florence: Intimate Dialogues and
the End of the Reform Movement," which includes a discussion
( pp.169-84) of Aragona and her Dialogo della infinita d'amore
and a comparison of that work to contemporary dialogues. Quoted
passages from Diologo are given in the translation of
Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry and in the original (but Robin
provides her own version of Aragona's sonnet to Bernardo Ochino).
(See
the book's table of contents online.)]
Robin, Diana Maury. Publishing women: salons, the presses,
and the Counter-Reformation in sixteenth-century Italy (Women
in culture and society) . Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2007. (xxvi, 365 p.: ill.)
LC#: Z340 .R628 2007; ISBN: 9780226721569
Includes bibliographical references (p. [331]-344) and index
----------------------
[One chapter, "Dialogue & Social Conversation," of Janet Levarie Smarr's study of Italian and French writers between 1450 and 1600 includes a discussion of Aragona's Dialogo, comparing it to Sperone Speroni's 1542 Dialogo d'amore and illustrating the many differences between the ways that the character "Tullia" is represented in each work. Smarr sees in the two works "a dialogue of dialogues." The book's first chapter explains Smarr's conception of "dialogue," and the last looks at the relationship among the writers discussed. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Smarr, Janet Levarie. Joining the conversation: dialogues
by Renaissance women. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
c2005. (312 p.)
LC#: PN1551 .S55 2005; ISBN: 0472114352
Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-303) and index
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[Lisa Curtis-Wendlandt's article provides a close reading of Diologo, arguing that the work is not merely a statement of a neo-Platonic view of love, but rather an argument that physical love is an essential part of "virtuous love." Curtis-Wendlandt also sees Aragona using the dialogue form to question the conventional Aristotelian rules of discourse. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Curtis-Wendlandt, Lisa. Conversing on Love: Text and Subtext
in Tullia d'Aragona's Dialogo della Infinita d'Amore. Hypatia,
19: 4 (2004), 75-96.
LC#: HQ1101 .H89; ISSN: 0887-5480
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[In Domenico Zanre's study of four writers in the Florence of the mid-1500s, one chapter, "Courtesans and the Academicians," deals with Aragona's salon as a counterpart to Florence's male-only Accademia Fiorentina. Zanre discusses the poems of Rime, both those written by Aragona and those addressed to her, as illustrating her relation to Cosimo's court and to the city's literary figures. An appendix gives the original Italian of Aragona's letters to Varchi and to Cosimo's duchess about her request to be exempt from the sumptuary law against prostitutes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Zanre, Domenico. Cultural non-conformity in early modern Florence.
Aldershot; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, c2004. (xiii, 190 p.: ill.)
LC#:PQ4080 .Z36 2004; ISBN:0754630072
Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-185) and index
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[This collection contains Robin's essay, "Courtesans, Celebrity, and Print Culture in Renaissance Venice: Tullia d'Aragona, Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Franco," which discusses the writers' works in the light of the salons in which they participated and of the growing Venetian publishing industry. The notes are especially valuable in reviewing earlier critical studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Italian women and the city: essays / edited by Janet Levarie
Smarr and Daria Valentini. Madison [N.J.]: Fairleigh Dickinson
University Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University
Presses, c2003. (244 p.)
LC#: PQ4055.W6 I85 2003; ISBN: 0838639658
Includes bibliographical references and index
-----------------------
[Deana Basile's essay in this collection, "'Fasseli
gratia per poetessa': Duke Cosimo I de' Medici's Role in the
Florentine Literary Circle of Tullia d'Aragona," also looks
at the relation of Aragona to Cosimo I, to Florence's literary
leaders, and to the city's academies. The first words of the
essay's title are Cosimo's direction to the authorities to whom
Aragona had been reported for not following the city's sumptuary
laws, "Be merciful to her, as a poet." (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
The cultural politics of Duke Cosimo I de'Medici / edited by
Konrad Eisenbichler. Aldershot, [England]; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate,
c2001. (xxi, 262 p.: ill.)
LC#: DG738.17 .C85 2001; ISBN: 0754602672, 0754602672
Includes bibliographical references and index
----------------------
[Irma B. Jaffe's collection of biographies includes one on Aragona, which gives both the Italian and translations by Jaffe and Gernando Colombardo of 13 sonnets. Jaffe also describes Il Meschino. With the book is a CD that includes readings in Italian of two of her poems. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Jaffe, Irma B. Shining eyes, cruel fortune: the lives and
loves of Italian Renaissance women poets / Irma B. Jaffe with
Gernando Colombardo. New York: Fordham University Press, 2002.
(xxx, 429 p., 8 p. of plates: ill. (some col.), maps; 26 cm.
+ 1 CD (4 3/4 in.)
LC#: PQ4063 .J34 2002; ISBN: 0823221806, 0823221814
Accompanying CD contains poems in Italian. Includes bibliographical
references (p. [411]-415) and indexes
------------------------
[Two essays in this history deal with Aragona's writing: Letitia Panizza's on Il Meschino, and Giovanna Rabitti on Rime. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
A history of women's writing in Italy
/ edited by Letizia Panizza and Sharon Wood. Cambridge [England];
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. (xvi, 361 p.)
LC#: PQ4055.W6 H57 2000; ISBN: 0521570883, 0521578132
Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-350) and index
----------------------
[Ann Rosalind Jones' study includes a substantial section on Aragona's sonnets, in which Jones translates six poems and parts of others, and gives the original Italian of each. Jones' book also has a useful bibliography of editions and criticism of her subjects:]
Jones, Ann Rosalind. The currency of Eros: women's love lyric
in Europe, 1540-1620 (Women of letters). Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, c1990. (xi, 242 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN1181 .J66 1990; ISBN: 0253331498
----------------------
[In a later essay, "Bad Press: Modern Editors versus Early Modern Women Poets (Tullia d'Aragona, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco)," Jones describes the various editions of the works of the three poets, showing how editors' textual revisions have changed the effects of the works from those intended by the authors. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Strong voices, weak history: early women writers & canons
in England, France, & Italy / Pamela Joseph Benson &
Victoria Kirkham, editors. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, c2005. (viii, 380 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN715 .S76 2005; ISBN: 0472098810, 0472068814
Results of a conference held at the University of Pennsylvania
in March 2000. Includes bibliographical references and index
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Updated 02-03-08