Lucrezia Marinella

Lucrezia Marinella was the daughter of a celebrated physician and natural philosopher, Giovanni Marinelli who wrote novels, some of which were on women’s well-being, hygiene and beauty.[1] Although her father was not from Venice, Lucrezia and her family were "cittadinaza."[2] Her brother, Curzo Marinella, was also a physician and Lucrezia married the physician Girolamo Vacca. None of her children seem to have been born in Venice.[3] Her father might have been the vital link between her private studies and the writing and the wider world of Venetian literary circles, including the Accademia de’ Desiosi.[4][5]

In this era, many women entered convents or became courtesans (like the famous Veronica Franco). Entering a convent meant that a woman was not obligated to be married and could pursue education and spiritual development. But, at the same time the Roman Catholic Church maintained rigid theories of gender and expectations of women’s place and nature. However, Lucrezia Marinella did not enter the convent and wasn't pressured into marriage. She came from a professional family that very much encouraged her studies, and her father was extremely supportive.[6]

Although Lucrezia’s writing brought her fame, she lived her life in seclusion. It is believed that Lucrezia's solitary life is what allowed her to write so much so soon. But a life of seclusion was typical for women of her social rank in sixteenth-century Italy. She did not travel, except to local shrines, there is no evidence she gathered with other authors for discussions, and there is no record of her even attending meetings held in academies outside.

Women’s rights and the equality of women were a major focus of Marinella's writings. In the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance era in Italy, women were largely wives and mothers. Many women who wanted to pursue knowledge either had to be of elite standing, enter convents, or become courtesans. Women were normally not a part of political conversations and had to be extraordinary to be fully recognized in literature.

Although Marinella was one of the best recognized female writers of the time, which included Moderata Fonte, Arcangela Tarabotti and Veronica Franco. Marinella’s works mostly dealt with women’s rights and she even asserted that women were superior to men, which was a popular argument in that time for polemical and philosophical works.[7] Marinella also wrote in the style of pastoral romance, as in Arcadia Felice. This genre was traditionally limited to male authors and featured male characters; however Arcadia Felice explores love and eroticism as a plot complication instead of a resolution.[8]

The title page of a 1601 edition of Marinella's La nobilita, et l’eccellenza delle donne.

Marinella was a polished writer in many genres. Her work ranged from philosophical commentaries on poetry to religious works, and drew heavily on a wide variety of sources including scientific and mythological works. In her lifetime, Marinella published 10 books; there were sometimes as much as 10 years of silence between her works, notably after her marriage to Girolamo Vacca between 1606-1617.[9] Her first poem saw light in 1600, and was composed quickly in response to Giuseppe Passi’s diatribe about women’s defects, “Dei donneschi difetti.”

Marinella took the first part of her own title from the Italian translation of a supposedly anonymous French tract, "Della nobilita et eccellenza delle donne,"[10] printed in Venice in 1549.[11] The book was largely a long polemic of attacks against women and their defense. It also mounted an attack on men for exactly the same vices Passi had accused women of.[12] Marinella was the first woman in Italy to argue with a man in print, and it was the only time she wrote explicitly about the misogyny of Passi.[13]

In her work Enrico, Marinella selected a topic that was both religious and political, and that also built on her previous works. She highlighted the fact that women were excluded from the political discussion in this time. In the work, she expresses a patriotic pride in Venice and singles out a Venetian version of the events of the Fourth Crusade, about which no contemporary Venetian documents evidently existed. This point in the history of Venice reminds the reader of Venice’s destiny and import.[14] In Enrico, Marinella chose to write in one of the highest literary genres of her time, that was for cultural reasons out of favor in Venice. Marinella’s warrior women in Enrico wear masculine armor with grace and dignity; they were written as respectable in deed and thought, and as chaste virgins (Querelle des femmes).[15] 'Arcadia Felice also echoes the idea that love is restricting to women and detrimental to their liberty and creativity.[16]

In another one of Lucrezia's notable works Amoro Innamorato et Impazzato: "In Exhortations", however, Marinella seems to recant completely, praising the complete domestication of women and suggesting in the strongest of terms that they avoid scholarly pursuits. According to her arguments, women ought to remain firmly in what I will anachronistically call the private sphere, leaving the world of politics and philosophy for men. Like many of her contemporaries, she uses the ideas of classic authors to make her arguments...She argues in favor of sequestration for women, places the greatest value on the skills women use while managing a home and raising children, and locates all female virtue in the domestic arts."[17] ' She also lamented the state of women in literature and urged women to avoid a literary career in her final work, Essortationi alle donne.[18] On seclusion, Lucrezia wrote: "I also stated this in my book entitled The Nobility and Excellence of Women, but now considering the issue in a more mature fashion, I am of the view that it is not the result of conscious manipulation nor the action of an angry soul, but the will and providence of nature and God."[19]

Francesco Agostino della Chiesa described her as " a woman of wondrous eloquence and learning" and asserted "it would be impossible to surpass her."[21] Cristofero Bronzino, pronounced her exceptional in writing prose and poetry, most accomplished in sacred compositions, and a supreme expert in moral and natural philosophy." Arcangela Tarabotti was also said to be one of her biggest admirers, but towards the end of her life Lucrezia was said to have "attacked"[22] her. Marinella dedicated The Nobility and Excellence of Women to another doctor and friend of her father Lucio Scarano who took a particular interest in her literary formation. At one point, he called her "The adornment of our century" and compared her to Greek poet Corinna.[23] Marinella dedicated her poem Amoro Innamorato et Impazzato to a female reader: the dutchess of Mantua, Catherine de' Medici, Governor of Siena.[24]

Marinella died of quartan fever, a form of malaria, in the Campiello dei Squillini in Venice on 9 October 1653. She was buried in the nearby parish church of S. Pantaleone.[25]

• Luca Piantoni, Mirabile cristiano ed eloquenza sacra in Lucrezia Marinelli, in Poesia e retorica del Sacro tra Cinque e Seicento, a cura di Elisabetta Selmi, Erminia Ardissino, Alessandria, Edizioni Dell'Orso, 2009, pp. 435–445.

• http://gynocentrism.com/2013/09/12/lucrezia-marinella-gynocentrism-in-the-16th-century/
• http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lucrezia-marinelli_(Dizionario-Biografico)/
• http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12525
• (Images) http://www.projectcontinua.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Lucrezia-Marinelli-183x300.jpg
• Querelle | Lucrezia Marinella Querelle.ca is a website devoted to the works of authors contributing to the pro-woman side of the querelle des femmes.