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Written in the shadow of the devastating Sack of Rome (1527), Paolo Giovio's dialogue on the Notable Men and Women of our Time seeks to measure whether Italy's military valour, literary prowess, and female excellence have declined over the course of the Italian Wars. In this relatively unexamined work composed at the behest of his patron and protector, Vittoria Colonna, Giovio broadly surveys his male and female contemporaries in order to assess whether his age suffers from an isolated moment of catastrophe or has instead begun to grow martially, culturally, and socially barren. This article examines Giovio's evaluation of Italy's literary landscape and contradictory responses to contemporary debates over the questione della lingua, Ciceronian‐Eclectic imitation, and female authorship and readership. It demonstrates that the dialogue articulates a pro‐Latin position that reframes the polemics over imitation in terms of vernacular's perceived problematic relationship to exemplars and undiscerning, primarily female, audiences while at the same time heralding a new age of women's cultural involvement. It argues that Giovio attempts to resolve this knot by endowing Colonna herself with the positive qualities he associates with strong Latin writing, her own vernacular activity notwithstanding.
Equestrian ballet was a spectacular genre of musical theater popular in the Baroque court. A phenomenon with military roots, the ballet communicated both the might and grace of its organizers, who often played starring roles. This essay explores the ballet’s centrality by tracing the itinerant opera singer and writer Margherita Costa’s use of the genre as a means of securing elite patronage: from an elegant manuscript libretto presented to Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici and later revised in print for Cardinal Jules Mazarin in Paris, to occasional poetry written for the Barberini in Rome, and even burlesque caricatures.
La prima commedia pubblicata in Italia da una donna fu Li buffoni di Margherita Costa (1641). Commedia ridicolosa, l’opera è una parodia della corte Medicea ambientata in nord Africa. Il presente studio considera la protagonista Marmotta, principessa di Fessa e moglie del principe di Marocco, come una rivisitazione innovativa del topos della malmaritata. Essa non è la moglie annoiata e adultera o la giovinetta desiderosa di evitare un’unione sgradita, ma una sposa i cui appetiti amorosi rimangono insoddisfatti perché il marito preferisce la compagnia di nani, gobbi, matti e altri ‘scherz[i] di natura’ del principato. Il saggio legge Li buffoni come una sfida fatta da una scrittrice ai luoghi comuni del mondo teatrale sul desiderio femminile.
Keywords: Margherita Costa, «malmaritata», gender, burlesco, commedia
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