Maria Bellonci

Maria Villavecchia Bellonci (30 November 1902 – 13 May 1986) was an Italian writer, historian and journalist, known especially for her biography of Lucrezia Borgia. She and Guido Alberti set up the Strega Prize in 1947.

Maria Villavecchia was born in Rome on 30 November 1902. Her father, Gerolamo Vittorio Villavecchia, was a professor of chemistry, and came from an aristocratic Piedmontese family, while her mother, Felicita Bellucci, came from Umbria. She had three younger siblings, a brother Leo and a sister, Gianna.

From 1913, she studied at the Liceo Umberto, graduating in 1921. She married the journalist Goffredo Bellonci in 1928.

Following the Second World War, the Belloncis established a salon at their residence, the Amici della domenica (Friends of Sunday) inviting the Italian literati to discuss the promotion of Italian culture.

Bellonci's husband died in August 1964.

Bellonci died on 13 May 1986 in Rome.

Aged 19, Bellonci wrote Clio e le amazzoni, a novel that remained unpublished, but which circulated in Italian literary circles and introduced her to her future husband Goffredo Bellonci.

Bellonci's literary debut was in 1939 with the acclaimed biography of Lucrezia Borgia, published in Italian by Mondadori, and translated into twelve languages. This and her subsequent works on historical subjects, based on rich and detailed research of extant primary documents, were lauded for their vivid reconstructions and psychological motivations of their characters from which the public obtained a credible picture of history stripped of legends and accretions over the centuries. She concentrated on the great Renaissance families: Borgias, Estes, Gonzagas and Sforzas. Especially welcomed was her focus on women in the Renaissance and their interactions with power. Although these works were written in the genre of historical fiction, they were fully documented histories.

By 1972, Bellonci was beginning to experiment with the form. For the first time, in the compendium Tu vipera gentile, she introduced fictional characters in order to propel the historical narrative. Similarly, her final novel Rinascimento Privato (Private Renaissance) which came out in 1985, was written in the first person by the protagonist Isabella d'Este; she added fictional characters to describe historical events, in essence creating a metahistorical novel. Furthermore, contrasting this depiction of Isabella with her previous appearances in Bellonci's works (e.g. in Lucrezia Borgia), Bellonci was able to show how subjective and ideologically malleable historical interpretation may be.

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