Writing Beloveds : Humanist Petrarchism and the Politics of Gender

Abstract

It gives me great pleasure to thank and acknowledge all of the people and various communities who have supported me in the writing of this book. First, I must thank those who have supported me from the earliest stages of my career. Daniela Bini first introduced me to Petrarch's poetry as an undergraduate, igniting a passion in me that would forever change the course of my professional career. JoAnn DellaNeva opened my eyes to the richness of the Pléiade poets and to Petrarch's influence beyond the Italian borders. I am indebted to Albert Ascoli, Steven Botterill, Tim Hampton, and Barbara Spackman for their guidance and all manner of advice during my doctoral studies and beyond. Likewise, my fellow Berkeley italianisti were a source of continual intellectual stimulation, while providing much-needed social diversion and support at just the right moments:

Villerías’ Latin Translation of Alessandra Scala’s Greek Epigram to Poliziano and the Translation Wars in Mexico

“…Jardine (1985) analyses in depth the life and work of five distinguished intellectual women of the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century (I. Nogarola, C. Varano, C. Fedele, L. Cereta, and A. Scala) and, in particular, the way in which specialised studies on Italian humanism have indulgently viewed them as a construct, that of the refined and educated woman, always in the shadow of the male, thus degrading their achievements and contributions to culture and humanism as secondary works of learned women admired and praised by the great male humanists. The much more recent study by Feng (2017) approaches Poliziano's epigrams to Scala and her epigram to him from a feminist perspective and as part of the broader context of humanist Petrarchism. Following Jardine, Feng (2017: 95-96) analyses the mechanisms through which Poliziano depersonalises first Fedele and then Scala by turning them into a kind of archetype of feminine worth.…”

L’influenza dell’intellettualità femminile nella stesura de Gli Asolani: Pietro Bembo, Maria Savorgnan e Lucrezia Borgia

“…Anche in questa relazione, come in quella con Maria Savorgnan, la poesia e la scrittura, per le quali Bembo è un punto di riferimento, costituiscono quindi una fonte di intensa attrazione. Di fatto, le lettere a Lucrezia Borgia condividono alcune somiglianze con quelle a Maria Savorgnan, anche se forse per il ruolo pubblico che Bembo ricopriva nella corte estense, il tono dell'umanista è molto più controllato e formale (FENG, 2017).…”