Lucrezia Marinella

Lucrezia Marinella
Born	Lucrezia Marinelli 1571 Venice, Italy
Died	1653
Occupation	Writer, poet
Known for	Amore innamorato, et impazzato

Lucrezia Marinella (1571-1653) was an Italian poet, author, and an advocate of women's rights. She is best known for her writing The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men.

Lucrezia Marinella was the daughter of a celebrated Physician and natural philosopher, Giovanni Marinelli and next to nothing is known of her mother. He wrote novels, some of which were on women’s well-being, hygiene and beauty. Although her father was not from Venice, Lucrezia and her family were "cittadinaza". Her brother Curzo Marinella was also a physician and she married a physician Girolamo Vacca. None of her children seem to have been born in Venice. Her father might have been the vital link between her private studies and the writing and the wider world of Venetian literary circles. Many women back in those days usually entered into convents or became courtesans like the famous Veronica Franco. Entering a convent meant that a woman did have to be married off and was able to pursue education, freedom from marriage, and family life, and they could strive for holiness and sainthood. But, at the same time the Roman Catholic Church maintained rigid theories of gender and expectations of women’s place and nature. Also, being a courtesan would have meant that she could pursue knowledge and not be restricted to living the traditional life of a woman in Italian late Middle Ages but, at a very great price. 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. Marinella had a lot of support, which was not the norm, and many of women’s family members were greatly involved in their lives, pressuring them to do what their relatives felt would be best for the family. Although Lucrezia’s writing brought her fame, she lived her life in seclusion. It is believed that her 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 Lucrezia’s writings. In the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance era in Italy, women were largely just home makers. Many women who wanted to pursue knowledge either had to be of elite standing, enter convents, or become courtesans. Those were essentially the smart way women used to avoid the familial life. Women were normally not a part of political conversations and had to be extraordinary to be fully recognized in literature. Although Lucrezia was one of the best recognized female writers of the time, some of her near-contemporaries included Christine de Pizan, Moderata Fonte, Arcangela Tarabotti and Veronica Franco. Lucrezia 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. Lucrezia 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.

...
Wikipedia