Laura Cereta
| Laura Cereta | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Humanist and Feminist Writers in 1488 - 1492 | |
| Born | September 1469 |
| Died | 1499 (aged 30) |
| Burial | Brescia, Italy |
| Spouse | Pietra serena |
| House | Brescia, Italy |
| Father | Silvestro Cereto |
| Mother | Veronica di Leno |
Laura Cereta (September 1469 – 1499), was one of the great female humanist and feminist writers of fifteenth-century Italy. Cereta was the first to put women’s issues and her friendships with women front and center in her work. Cereta was one of the best scholars in Brescia, Verona, and Venice in 1488-92, known for her writing in the form of letters to other intellectuals. Her letters contained her personal matters and childhood memories, and discussed themes such as women’s education, war, and marriage. Like the first great humanist Petrarch, Cereta claimed to seek fame and immortality through her writing. It appeared that her letters were intended for a general audience.
Cereta was born in September 1469 in Brescia to a high-class family. She was a sickly child who suffered from sleeplessness. She was the first-born of six children. She had three brothers, Ippolito, Daniel and Basilio and two sisters, Deodata, and Diana. Her family was very popular in Italy due to her father's status. Silvestro Cereto was an attorney and a king's magistrate and her mother, Veronica di Leno, a famous businessperson. Since, her father and Cereta believed in education, at age of seven her father sent her to the convent. There she devoted her life to intellectual pursuits and began her academics; she learned religious principles, reading, writing, and Latin with the prioress. The prioress had a big influence in Cereta's life as her teacher, and mentor. The prioress taught Cereta to use late night to predawn hours while everyone else slept to embroider, write, and study. At the age of seven, her teacher guided her courses in Latin grammar. She also taught her how to draw pictures utilizing a needle, which she practiced herself day and night. After two years at the convent, her father requested that Cereta come home to take care her siblings at the age of nine. After a few months at home, she went back to the convent for more schooling. At the age of twelve, her father summoned her again to come home to take on various household responsibilities. Among them, supervising her brothers’ education and serving as her father’s secretary. It is likely that her father guided her post-elementary studies. At this time, Cereta showed great interest in mathematics, astrology, agriculture, and her favorite subject, moral philosophy.
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