Parlour Games and the Public Life of Women in Renaissance Italy 9781442666122

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Preface
1. The Renaissance Theory of Play
2. The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women (1525–1555)
3. The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (1563–1569)
4. Fortunes, Medals, Emblems: The Public Face of Private Women
5. The Birth of the Assicurate: Italy’s First Female Academy (1654–1704)
6. Girolamo Gigli: The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese Women
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

PARLOUR GAMES AND THE PUBLIC LIFE OF WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE ITALY

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GEORGE McCLURE

Parlour Games and the Public Life of Women in Renaissance Italy

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

© University of Toronto Press 2013 Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com Printed in Canada ISBN 978-1-4426-4659-9

Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetablebased inks.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication McClure, George W., 1951– Parlour games and the public life of women in Renaissance Italy / George McClure. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4426-4659-9 1. Women – Italy – Social life and customs – 16th century. 2. Women – Italy – Intellectual life – 16th century. 3. Women – Italy – History – Renaissance, 1450–1600. 4. Indoor games – Social aspects – Italy – History – 16th century. 5. Renaissance – Italy. 6. Italy – Social life and customs – 16th century. I. Title. hq1149.i8m34 2013  305.4094509'031  c2012-908140-X

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.

Contents

Illustrations vii Preface ix 1 The Renaissance Theory of Play 3 2 The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women (1525–1555) 29 3 The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (1563–1569) 55 4 Fortunes, Medals, Emblems: The Public Face of Private Women 81 5 The Birth of the Assicurate: Italy’s First Female Academy (1654–1704) 119 6 Girolamo Gigli: The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese Women 159 Conclusion 182 Notes 199 Bibliography 287 Index 307

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Illustrations

1.1 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7

5.8 6.1

The Game of Happiness and Goods 16 Fortune for Elena Tolomei 98 Fortune for Livia Marzi 100 Fortune for Sulpitia Pannilini de’ Placidi 102 Fortune for Flavia Bellanti 103 Emblem of an Unnamed “Young Lady” 106 Emblem of Girolama Petrucci 111 Emblem of Fulvia Spannocchi de’ Sergardi 112 Emblem of Leonora Montalvi degli Agostini 114 Emblem for an Unnamed Woman 115 Emblem for an Unnamed Widow 117 Title Page of the Academy Book of the Assicurate 127 Emblem of the Academy of the Assicurate 128 Founding of the Academy of the Assicurate 129 Roster of Members of the Academy of the Assicurate 131 Title Page of “Accounts . . . of Giuochi di Spirito Performed in Siena at Various Times” 134 Party of 1664, from “Accounts . . . of Giuochi di Spirito Performed in Siena at Various Times” 138 Party of October 1664, Lucrezia Santi Bandinelli’s Introduction to Giulia Turamini’s lecture “Concerning the Excellence of Women Over Men” at a Party of June 1691 140 Title Page of Sole Assicurate Publication, Poesie per Musica 155 Roster of Assicurate Members 180

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Preface

Rejoice, Ladies of the Assicurate, that through a pastime you can make war on time, and through play you can acquire immortality. With the spirited fearlessness of your wits this evening you can open up for yourselves a passage to glory. Do not be frightened of the heroic majesty that . . . will give you courage to make public those virtues that until now you have kept hidden under the silence of a rigorous modesty. (BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 58r)

So was recorded the speech of a Sienese woman to her colleagues in the all-female Academy of the Assicurate (the Assured) during a spirited parlour game in 1664. Parlour games involving both men and women emerged as a distinctive institution and literary genre in Italian Renaissance culture. Especially when moving beyond the confines of the court, such revels constituted a new social space. Somewhere between the fully public male contests (e.g., tournaments) and fully private games in women’s quarters, parlour games – occurring in the public room of the private home among mixed company – comprised a playing and viewing public that afforded a novel venue for discourse on a variety of literary, social, and political issues. They also reflected a new cultural zone somewhere between learned and popular culture – whether “lowering” learned thought to a vernacular idiom or “elevating” oral culture (such as proverbs) to the realm of intellectual debate. What do these games tell us about the interactions of men and women? What do the structure and content of the games reveal about the intellectual and cultural life of polite, festive society? How do these games both reflect social realities in some ways and challenge them in others? Operating in a temporary world on the margins of traditional hierarchies, such

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ludic encounters fall into that category Victor Turner defines as the “liminoid,” capable of posing alternative social models. In this sense, parlour games are a window onto a neglected dimension of social experience and experimentation. In particular, my focus will be on patrician women, who were often the overseers of night-time revels and who, for once, were able to engage men competitively on a somewhat equal footing and aspire to open their own “passage to glory.” The purpose of this study is to show that beneath the frivolous exterior of such games – as occasions for idle banter, flirting, and seduction – there often lay a lively contest for power and agency, and the opportunity for conventional women to demonstrate their intellect and talent, to achieve a public identity, to engage the querelle des femmes, and even to model new behaviour and institutions in the non-ludic world. In presenting such an opportunity, the parlour game broadened the social base of women afforded the chance for intellectual engagement and cultural performance. As Frances Yates, Diana Robin, Carolyn Lougee, and Julie Campbell have shown, emerging salons and academies in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, France, and England included some women, but such participants were generally limited to a courtly or noble elite or to the exceptional literary figure. Moreover, because Italian salons at times featured or promoted courtesans such as Tullia d’Aragona or Veronica Franco, female eloquence could, as Margaret Rosenthal has argued, be associated with promiscuity. The parlour game, by contrast, allowed – practically commanded – respectable women to speak up. And it did so in a manner paralleling the rise of female actresses such as Isabella Andreini in the commedia dell’arte companies beginning in mid-sixteenth-century Italy. A Sienese parlour game called the Comedy mirrored the performative structure of such comedies; in fact, the contest or agon that animated parlour games even has some counterpart in the singing contests between these professional actresses, which Anne MacNeil describes. The other opportunity for female performance was to be found in the convents, as Elissa Weaver has shown in her study of convent theatre in Venice and Colleen Reardon in her treatment of convent music in Siena. The women of the Italian giuochi di spirito (witty games), however, were largely a class of participants distinct from these groups. They were not necessarily royalty or nobility, not necessarily courtesans, not professional actresses, not nuns, but simply the wives and daughters of the urban patriciate. In this sense, these festivities offered a voice to the traditional, the unexceptional: to matrons of the home and to daughters coming out into

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society. It is this heretofore silent and invisible group that our study wants to hear and see. The game dynamic was, moreover, one that interested writers in broad, experimental social terms. Whether in treatises on card games, chess, or parlour games, one area of their theoretical concern involved the sexual rules of play. Should men lose to women out of courtesy? Are games simply surrogates for the metaphorical game of courtship? Should women be shy or assertive in game playing? Do women want truly to compete with men? Part of my study will explore this larger discourse on gender politics and consider its relevance to general views of female agency. In two versions of his treatise on games, Torquato Tasso, imprisoned in Ferrara, presented a powerful case for the assertive female player in the card game primiera – and likely did so with an eye towards eliciting female help in the “real” world of his embattled circumstances. A similar plea for authentic competition came in the voice of a female interlocutor in a Mantuan game book written by Ascanio de’ Mori. As in the case of Mori’s treatise, my chief focus will be on descriptive and prescriptive collections of games of wit and intellect, and literary simulations of such games, for these offered the opportunity for women to “far pompa dello spirito” (to make a show of their wit). Such treatises – including those by Innocenzio Ringhieri in Bologna, Girolomo Bargagli in Siena, Bartolomeo Arnigio in Brescia, and Stefano Guazzo in Casale Monferrato – reveal that another prominent debate revolved around larger moral and cultural function of games: are they meant to elevate or to divert? To control or to liberate? Although my study will treat the literature of games emanating from various parts of Italy – including Florence, Rome, Urbino, Bologna, Brescia, Casale Monferrato, Ferrara, Mantua, Venice, and Padua – my principal focus will be on Siena. Here emerged the most vibrant tradition of “giuochi di spirito,” one that eventually became a central theme in Sienese cultural identity and a source of Sienese fame throughout Italy and even abroad. This tradition was spawned by the new academy culture emerging in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The Academy of the Intronati (the Stunned) arose in reaction to the chaos of the Italian Wars as an overtly non-political literary society aimed at cultural restoration and escapist diversion. The entertainment and promotion of women was a pivotal part of the Intronati’s cultural agenda. Not only did the academy collectively pitch its literary and theatrical productions to women, but individual members, such as Alessandro Piccolomini, became spokesmen for female dignity and champions of

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certain local Sienese women. Quite possibly the general turn to women can be seen as part of the Sienese retreat from traditional political concerns – which itself may have been intensified by its increasing domination by Florence, a process capped by the siege and fall of Siena in the mid-1550s. Thus, just as in an earlier time Siena played “Ghibelline” to Florence’s “Guelph,” so in the sixteenth century it once again assumed an almost antithetical identity to its powerful neighbour – this time playing the role of apolitical, ludic, “feminized” state to Florence’s aggressive, powerful, ducal state. Whatever the reason, the Intronati and numerous other academies of the Sienese elite directed their attention to women, and not just in an amatory way. As the principal literary spokesmen of the parlour games of the Intronati, Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli emphasized the importance of women assertively engaging in these games, which offered them an opportunity for public fame denied them in other areas. The Bargagli brothers’ game books present theoretical statements on the purpose and structure of parlour games as well as, in Girolamo’s case, descriptions of games that had been played and, in Scipione’s case, fictive simulations of games as they could have been played. Written in the 1560s, both books came in the aftermath of the fall of Siena; in fact, Scipione’s book is explicitly set during the siege, a crisis that prompted the leadership of three women who, under banners with their individual insignias, led a force of three thousand women to aid in the fortification of the city. This famous incident became the stuff of legend in subsequent centuries, and the early eighteenth-century Intronati writer Girolamo Gigli pressed the case that the military agency of these women was linked to their ludic agency in the parlour games. But the military role of Sienese women is only the most dramatic possible example of the ludic nudge to public agency and visibility, as the games also offered opportunities for women publicly to present poetry, to lecture and debate, and to receive (and sometime devise) public personas through fortunes, emblems, insignias, nicknames, and mottoes. When the Florentine state shut down the Intronati and other Sienese academies in 1568, new groups arose, such as the Ferraiuoli and the Travagliati, which continued the Intronati tradition, making compilations of female medallions and fortunes that were in effect public statements of female identity and potential. This in turn led to the entrée of women into the world of the Renaissance emblem, which could be an important vehicle for women’s public fame and self-expression. By the mid-seventeenth century the Sienese games produced their most

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tangible institutional result, the creation of Italy’s first all-female academy. The Academy of the Assicurate, which flourished from 1654 to 1704, was created out of an Intronati parlour game in which the “rule” of the “Kingdom of Love” was transferred from men to women. Like the male academies, this new female academy inducted individuals who, proving themselves deserving through some demonstration of talent or cleverness, were assigned appropriate nicknames, emblems, and mottoes. Aside from brief records of their events and membership, there is to be found in Siena’s Biblioteca Comunale a compilation containing lengthy accounts of several of the parlour games played by members of the Assicurate and Intronati. Written in various hands, these accounts are an invaluable and rare source preserving oral culture, as they offer us an almost reportorial account of the exchanges between men and women at these games. The swan song of the Assicurate came in a game of 1704, which actually resulted in a brief publication under the name of their academy. In the following years the leading figure of the Intronati, Girolamo Gigli, lamented the decline of the Assicurate and urged its revival, in part for the benefit of his daughter. In various published and unpublished works, Gigli celebrated the history (and mythology) of the Sienese games and women. In 1719 he published a work in which he envisioned a dramatic expansion of the universe of Assicurate to include notable women throughout Italy, whom he immortalized in a catalogue of 219 members identified by flattering nicknames, devices, and mottoes. The legacy of the Assicurate endured somewhat, as at least two of its members would be enrolled in the Roman Academy of the Arcadi, which published their poetry in its multi-volume anthology of 1716–20. This same academy also held Olympic (parlour) Games in Rome, one of whose participants was the improvisational poetess Maria Maddalena Morelli of Pistoia, who became the model for the novel Corinne (1807) by France’s most famous salonnière, Madame de Staël. A few words on method and terminology. While historical in its purpose and focus, this study seeks to join historical and literary analysis in one particular way. In essence, the book will deal with the triangulation of three realms: the actual lives of women in their world; their ludic lives in this liminoid realm of the parlour game; and the writings concerning these games and their female dimension. This last realm – the literary one that connects the “real” world and the game world – sometimes has a function that is not simply descriptive or imaginary but also prescriptive, even at times functioning as a form of rhetorical

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advocacy to embolden both the ludic and real agency of women. These literary accounts thus need to be read not only for the reality they purport to record or the fictional worlds they create but also for their rhetorical subtexts in regard to female autonomy. The interaction between this literary realm and the world of play and reality constitutes what I call a “ludic triangle,” which represents an unexplored model of social change and cultural innovation. As for my use of the term “feminism,” for me as for others writing of this period this is largely by way of default. Certainly, I do not intend by its use to transpose the feminist sensibilities of the modern era back onto the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I use the term as an antonym to “patriarchy” (male control of government, society, and family) to indicate a sentiment favouring greater female voice, equality, and autonomy. As the title of Torquato Tasso’s Discorso delle virtù feminile e donnesca suggests, Renaissance writers themselves struggled to find the proper language to describe the domain of female virtue and character. Nor does my study intend to credit men with too much empathy or women with too much power. To be sure, some men doubtless sang the praises of women for amatory reasons, and some men were condescending in coaching women to be more assertive and cerebral. And yet, some of these same men were also truly invested in facilitating the emergence of women from an exclusively private sphere into the public domain. As we shall see, this is evident not only in the parlour game literature per se, but also in other genres of history, biography, moral philosophy, and funeral orations, in which Sienese men defined and praised female virtue. In this regard, I hope that my study complements the work of Diana Robin, Meredith Ray, and Lynn Lara Westwater on the cooperation of men and women in the publishing of female authors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Finally, why “Renaissance” in the title? I could as well have chosen “early modern,” as the book’s boundaries run from the mid-fourteenth century (Boccaccio) to the early eighteenth. To some, the term “Renaissance” connotes a backward-looking, elite, Latin culture; and “early modern” a forward-looking, more inclusive culture and society. This study in part touches on the transition between these worlds, especially since parlour games at times translated classical culture to a more accessible vernacular plane. But I chose “Renaissance” in part because I want to provide another response to Joan Kelly’s famous question, “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” As Margaret King has shown, various answers to this question have been given in terms of social and

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economic history, spiritual life, and humanist and literary pursuits. In the case of the last area, the series of texts of female writers that she and Albert Rabil have issued over the past twenty years (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe) has certainly affirmed the literary gains made by women in this period – as have the studies of Virginia Cox, Janet Smarr, and Sarah Gwyneth Ross – but the realm of play and oral culture has not been fully explored. What this study will show is that the flowering of games promoted a cultural renewal for a certain class of women in several ways. First, the ludic world offered them opportunities to perform in an intellectual setting in which both classical themes and contemporary popular culture could be debated and contested. Second, it gave them an arena for fame, as originality and cleverness in such settings became a theme of praise. Third, in Siena it led to the institutionalization of cultural activities in the creation of a female academy, which, if not as fully autonomous as the male academies of the period, certainly mirrored their cultural practices. The visibility of this female “Renaissance” is attested to by the sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century histories and biographies that trumpet this fame of Sienese women and their game playing as a signal feature of Sienese glory. Indeed, these games and their legacy represent an underexamined link between the archetypes of the idealized, “beloved” woman of medieval court culture and the actualized, intellectual woman of early modern salon culture. As for technical matters, for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I have converted all dates in Siena from “old style” to “new style,” but for dates in the first half of the eighteenth century (when the conversion is in transition) I will use the customary slash (e.g., “1721/2”) when dates fall between January 1 and March 25. As for the surnames of women, which during the period would often take the feminine form (as in “Laudomia Forteguerra”), I will use the patronymic (“Forteguerri”) except in quotations, as this conforms to modern citation style. Portions of chapter 1 appeared in Renaissance Quarterly 61 (2008) as “Women and the Politics of Play in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Torquato Tasso’s Theory of Games.” Finally, all translations are my own, unless otherwise noted. I am grateful to the staffs of many libraries, most especially Dott. Rosanna De Benedictis and Dott. Pepi Renzo of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati in Siena. I also wish to thank in Siena the Biblioteca of the Università per Stranieri and the Archivio di Stato; in Florence, the Biblioteca Nazionale and the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana; in

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Venice, the Biblioteca del Museo Correr; in the United States, Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, Memorial Library at the University of Wisconsin, the John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections at Boston College (holder of the only copy in the States of Ottonelli’s massive 1646 Pericolosa conversatione con le donne, which they digitized and provided free to me, courtesy of Robert O'Neill), and the Interlibrary Loan staff of Gorgas Library at the University of Alabama. For research support, I am grateful to the Bankhead Fund of the Department of History of the University of Alabama. For thoughtful criticisms and helpful suggestions I am indebted to the anonymous readers for the University of Toronto Press – and I thank others at the press, especially Suzanne Rancourt, who helped bring the book to life, and to Charles Stuart, who rescued the text from many infelicities. My children Rosie and David became adults during the writing of the book. Even after leaving home – yes, they really left – they continued to ask of my “progress” with utmost tact and discretion. My greatest debt is to my wife, Jennifer, who is an astute and tireless (!) critic in matters of both substance and style. Her suggestions have been invaluable. Born a bit earlier, she would no doubt have been the Principessa of the Assicurate. To her I lovingly dedicate this book.

PARLOUR GAMES AND THE PUBLIC LIFE OF WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE ITALY

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1 The Renaissance Theory of Play

Rabelais would lead us to believe that the sixteenth-century appetite for games could match a giant’s boundless capacity for food, as his Gargantua played over two hundred games in one sitting. Certainly, this gargantuan list bespeaks the considerable presence of play in European popular culture in the sixteenth century.1 Cinquecento Italy’s distinction in this realm lay not in its inheritance of such a rich tradition of games, but rather in its pioneering articulation of a cultural theory of games. This century had seen the growth of game culture and game analysis in various settings: from the verse treatment of chess in Girolamo Vida’s Scacchia ludus (1527), to Aretino’s dialogue Le carte parlanti (1543), to Antonio Scaino’s treatise on tennis in his Trattato del giuoco della palla (1555), to the parlour-game books of Innocenzio Ringhieri (1551) and Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (1572, 1587), and finally to a general theory of play in Torquato Tasso’s Gonzaga secondo overo del giuoco (Second Gonzaga or on games) (1582). No longer were comments on games submerged in larger encyclopedic or geographical works, but there arose a discrete literature defending the utility of play and contextualizing its cultural and social meanings.2 This chapter will consider the Renaissance theory of play with a particular eye to issues of gender and the emergence of parlour games. In his popular La Piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo (1585), Tomaso Garzoni included a chapter entitled “Game Players” among his comprehensive catalogue of vocations and avocations. Surveying ancient public games, chess, cards, dice, all manner of contemporary children’s games, tavern games, and the recent appearance of tarot cards and parlour games, he opens his chapter with a definition of

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a game from Tasso’s recent Gonzaga secondo overo del giuoco.3 It is revealing that Garzoni, who often traced out the classical roots in the definition of human pursuits, turns to a contemporary source in this case. For all of its specific traditions and descriptions of games, the GraecoRoman world offered no theoretical treatment of generic play. Renaissance Italy did, and one significant dimension of sixteenth-century game literature was its transformation from a predominantly ironic or burlesque treatment of play to an authentic, serious analysis. Three works dealing with card games illustrate the point. In 1526 Francesco Berni – whose burlesque works included praises of the urinal, eels, and thistles – composed a Capitolo and Commento del gioco della primiera, a poem on the card game primiera and a gloss on the poem in the style a humanist might give to a work of Virgil. He offers detailed etymologies of vernacular proverbs and expressions used in card games, and shows primiera’s capacity to mirror theological and cardinal virtues, to pique all the passions, and to test character.4 Berni's fulsome flattery of cards undoubtedly influenced Aretino’s lengthy dialogue, the Carte parlanti, in which Cards persuade a card maker of the nobility of his vocation. The conversation combines absurd and ironic praises (of the player who is as zealous as a religious hermit) with more serious encomia of the “liberal” player who conforms to the laws of play and shows moderation and “true constancy” in the face of both winning and losing. In naming examples of many impressive card players, such as the dedicatee Ferrante Sanseverino, Aretino moved beyond the exclusively ironic and showed that such a popular pastime could truly be a mirror of character, a test of skill, and an arena for fame. In fact, he contrasts the honesty and clarity of cards – where a seven is a seven and an ace an ace – with the hypocrisy and ruses of the lawyers and doctors and the false flattery meted out by writers.5 Much of what was animating Berni and Aretino was a hostility towards the pretentions of high-humanist learning and establishment culture. Their promotion of game culture was partly a plea for the recognition of a more inclusive and universal realm of popular experience. But by the last quarter of the sixteenth century, the irony has fallen away, and in Tasso’s Gonzaga secondo the analysis of primiera – and all games – is wholly serious, as Tasso attempts to reform the rules of play among the well-born. Tasso’s Theory of Games Tasso’s theory of play, which he develops over the course of two treatises, warrants close attention for several reasons. Not only is it a

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serious (rather than a burlesque) analysis of primiera, but also it represents the most ambitious theoretical attempt in the Cinquecento to develop a theory that embraces all types of games. Most importantly, the story behind Tasso’s writing of his two game books is emblematic of the ties between female play and female agency. Tasso’s first treatment of games appeared in a short treatise entitled Il Romeo overo del giuoco, published in 1581.6 This dialogue is set at the Este court at Ferrara during Carnival of 1579 at the occasion of Alfonso II’s marriage to Margherita Gonzaga. At the festivities, according to the treatise’s framework, the Ferrarese courtier Count Annibale Romei had discussed games before the dignitaries at court, and one auditor, Annibale Pocaterra, later reported the conversation to an unidentified Margherita while she watched her husband play the card game primiera. Their conversation, thus purporting to convey aspects of Romei’s discourse, ranges over many issues such as the types of games (those, like dice, in which luck is dominant, and those, like chess, in which skill prevails); the venues of games (fully public spectacles, fully private games in women’s quarters, and the middle realm of polite play usually occurring in the home and yet sometimes in public);7 the goals of games (victory yielding a reward, an imitation of events in the real world); the role of Fortune in play; and the delight derived from games.8 This broad outline of the theory of play was rather brief, and Tasso soon revisited the topic, greatly expanding the Romeo in the Gonzaga secondo, published the following year in 1582. Though framed in the same context of Romei’s Carnival discussion of games, this version adds a third interlocutor, Giulio Cesare Gonzaga (namesake of the treatise), who joins Pocaterra and Margherita, now fully identified as Margherita Bentivoglio (daughter of Alfonso’s military commander, Cornelio Bentivoglio). This longer dialogue broadens and deepens the earlier treatment in several ways:9 for one, it delves more deeply into the psychology and moral philosophy of play. Explaining that recreation is a necessary relief from the rigours of both the active and the contemplative life, Tasso explains that a trattenimento is literally a diversion that “ci trattiene da l’operazione,” (“draws us away from work”) returning us to our tasks more willingly.10 Moreover, in discussing the archetypes of players, he treats in considerable detail not only the “avaricious player” and the “liberal player” (types adumbrated in the Romeo) but also the typical player (reflective of “the greater part of players”) who, far from the liberal player’s Stoic detachment from the vicissitudes of the game, allows himself be engulfed in the hope and delight of gain and the doubt and fear of loss. This wallowing in the pathoi resulting from the game’s

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fortune is in fact what allows the time of ozio magically to pass.11 This embrace of psychological chaos shows how far distant the escapism of Cinquecento game culture was from the moralism of, for instance, Petrarch, who envisioned a Stoic sage rising above both kinds of fortune and who was generally sceptical of play.12 In both treatises, Tasso discusses the proper goals of men when playing with women.13 Of particular interest are the changes between the first and second treatises in regard to this question of the gender politics of play. In the Romeo, when Pocaterra suggests that one should not play for monetary gain but for the honour of winning, Margherita counters that if it is not honourable to take money from friends, it likewise would not be honourable to feel superior to them. To this Pocaterra answers that the honour of victory is indeed appropriate when men are playing with men, but might be ill-advised or disadvantageous when playing with women: “He with whom you might play, gracious Lady, would be able rightfully to place the victory in losing and artfully allowing [you] to win, as do some courteous men, who playing with women allow [them] to win on purpose … But as it is politeness and courtesy to allow women to win, so it would be foolish for him to willingly allow men to win, because everyone ought to strive to be superior to others in things honest and praiseworthy, but victory is the most honest and most praiseworthy.”14 Margherita objects that such behaviour, which “by you is called politeness and courtesy, by me is considered deceit and artifice, because as you said a little before, they do not allow [women] to win except in order to win” (i.e., in some other amatory way).15 Pocaterra acknowledges that some might do this “out of love or some other motive, but many do it simply for politeness.”16 Margherita then bores in and explicitly confronts this social nicety, arguing that it is considered good manners to lose to women because true victory comes only in a true contest, and women cannot compete with men in fortune or skill. Pocaterra denies that a woman such as Margherita cannot compete in skill, but does acknowledge that she cannot compete in Fortune with men (presumably meaning, in the circumstances of life). Margherita asks why Fortuna, though female and a goddess, does not favour women over men, and then offers the remarkably blunt statement that such fortune is a fiction: “But perhaps this name Fortune is a vain one, to which nothing corresponds; whence, if we [women] cede to Fortune, this happens because we cede by force, although we are equal in ability; and the violence of men is the maker of this Fortune, which, even if it is anything (which I doubt), is nothing other

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than the result of their tyranny.”17 Female subordination is not simply fortuitous or circumstantial; it is premeditated and imposed by men. But if women lose in the fortunes of life, they do, Pocaterra affirms, seem to win in the fortunes of love. That is, to Margherita’s assertion that “the violence of men is the maker of [female] fortune,” he counters that “the beauty of women would be the maker of the fortune of men, because if fortune has force in anything, it has it in the game and in love.”18 In explaining women’s advantage in the fortunes of love, Pocaterra argues that, as men rule in the marital world, women rule in the amatory realm: “In the Kingdom of Love, female fortune rules, because the woman, to the degree she is loved, is always superior to the lover, although to the degree she is wife, she is inferior to the husband.”19 When Margherita asks him to reconcile the contradiction between his contentions that women are inferior in fortune but superior in the fortune of love, Pocaterra flatly states his position: “In all the other offices of life they [women] are born inferior to men; only love is perhaps that which, equalizing their inequality, renders women equal to men.”20 In Margherita’s resentment and in Pocaterra’s condescension, these two interlocutors speak harsh truths about female subordination in the real world and women’s temporary and contrived superiority in the artificial world of love and polite play. Moreover, the Romeo, by largely linking game culture with amatory culture, depicts the game as just a component of the duplicitous ritual of male seduction and conquest.21 By the time Tasso wrote the Gonzaga secondo (prior to Margherita Bentivoglio’s death in September of 1581),22 the tone had changed significantly. At first glance, the prominence of women seems diminished, as Margherita, one of two interlocutors in the Romeo, is now merely one of three, her role eclipsed by the conversation between Pocaterra and Gonzaga. But there are other notable differences. The revised treatise excises some of the Romeo’s harsh and belaboured comments on the sexist conventions of society. Margherita’s complaint that men intentionally lose to women remains, but her remark on men’s violent mistreatment of women is gone, as is Pocaterra’s “consolation” that women do rule in the realm of love and his assertions of female inequality in the larger scheme of life. Softening the indictment of “male tyranny” found in the Romeo, this version recasts the discussion of how women fare in the realms of fortuna and ingegno. Gonzaga here says to Margherita, “it seems to me that more readily you [women] ought to cede to men in fortune than in intelligence, since by the former there is not granted to you many opportunities to demonstrate the latter.”23 Perhaps games

8 Parlour Games

represent a promising arena for women to test their intellectual mettle. Tasso never explicitly states this argument, but it might underlie the other major – and most important – change in the Gonzaga secondo, which concerns Margherita’s particular interests in the discussion of play. At the start of the dialogue, when Gonzaga lays out various abstract questions on the nature and history of games, Margherita says that she had envisioned these same topics, but that he has left out one area that she also wants treated: namely, “how one who wants to win ought to play.”24 And, appropriately, Margherita now comes to be seen by her male interlocutors as a player in pursuit of true victory, as Gonzaga comments, “I would well wish, if in any mode it would be possible, that we teach Lady Margherita to win, as she desires.”25 In fact, the last portion of the treatise is cast as a discussion of how – in the face of the uncertainties of Fortune in a game such as primiera – Margherita can be taught to achieve true victory by making strategic (and even “insidious”) pacts (accordi) and agreeing to proper divisions of the stakes.26 The implication of this becomes clear towards the end of the dialogue, where Pocaterra (so condescending towards women in the Romeo) now advises that, when splitting the pot towards the end of a game, the same divisions (true “arithmetic” ones, not “geometric” ones) should be used when playing with a woman as when playing with a merchant – without respect to the “quality of persons.” 27This prompts Gonzaga’s objection that “then your player, Signor Annibale, would be little courteous, and little worthy of playing with genteel women.”28 Nonetheless, the dialogue ends with Margherita’s inviting Pocaterra to further explain his theory about mathematical odds. Not only is Margherita now more equal Giocatrice than unequal Amata, but she is generally depicted as wilier, more determined, and more forceful in the treatise. At the start of the dialogue, Tasso inserts an exchange in which Pocaterra praises Margherita in such a way that implies that she is as adept in the art of the game as Hannibal was in the art of war.29 Most significantly, in the discussion concerning women’s capacity to contend with men in skill or Fortune, Margherita deflects a compliment about her own qualities and cites several outstanding women of the day – Claudia Rangone, Barbara Sanseverino, Fulvia da Correggio, Felice della Rovere, and the Duchess of Ferrara herself (Margherita Gonzaga) – who have proven their capacity for ingegno.30 In the Romeo, the first four of these women are not named, and instead Pocaterra (and not Margherita) simply refers generically to the women at the Este court, who had been routinely named and praised at the start

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of the treatise; thus the insertion of these particular women (named by Margherita) in the later version is significant. And even though Tasso took out the harsh complaint from the Romeo that female fortune is really just violence done to women by men, Margherita’s reference to these women provides a meaningful subtext concerning women who did forcefully challenge “male tyranny.” It is surely no coincidence that some of these women had lived lives of unusual independence and even defiance in the face of male control. Claudia Rangone, long unhappy in her marriage to Giberto da Correggio (who castigated her as a woman of “indomitable mind” (cervello indomito), in 1567 secured from the pope an annulment, and three years later she sued her ex-husband (unsuccessfully) to nullify their daughter’s claustration.31 Fulvia da Correggio, widowed in her mid-twenties upon the death of her husband Lodovico II Pico della Mirandola in 1568, engaged in a power struggle with one of her brothers-in-law to win full control of Mirandola, staving off other opposition by executing one would-be assassin.32 Barbara Sanseverino, the charismatic Countess of Sala who attracted the attentions of princes and poets (including Tasso), clearly rebelled in her marriage to a man thirty-five years her elder.33 In 1577, given leave to come to Ferrara for four days to help her stepdaughter in childbirth, this “intrepida” woman stayed on for two months and proved to be the chief reveller at Carnival.34 Another measure of Barbara’s personality would emerge long after Tasso’s death, when in 1611 she became the ringleader of a conspiracy of nobles against Ranuccio I Farnese, the Duke of Parma, leading to her execution the following year in Parma’s public square.35 Clearly, by adding this list of assertive women Tasso has recast his female interlocutor Margherita, like his argument in general, in more affirmative feminist terms.36 And in doing so he degenders game culture by moving it from an exclusively amatory and courtly realm to a more authentically competitive realm. What was the larger context for Tasso’s depiction of women’s role in the realm of play? Certainly, the dynamics of game playing in this period were strongly shaped by the patterns of social hierarchy. Among the well born it could simply mirror and mimic social formalities of deference and ceremony. That is, a game such as chess or cards might serve as an opportunity for overly defined, and overly refined, forms of social intercourse between unequal men or between men and (unequal) women. Or a game could act as leverage in courtship ritual. The prominent Paduan literary figure Sperone Speroni (1500–88), one of Tasso’s

10 Parlour Games

advisors for the revision of his Jerusalem Delivered,37 wrote a Dialogo di Panico, e Bichi, in which Jeronimo Panico and Annibale Bichi discuss Panico’s playing dice with a woman he favours in the context of courtship ritual. Bichi suggests that Panico’s beloved cleverly lost on purpose as a female ruse; and likewise he counsels Panico to make his “winnings” a gift to her to obligate her to him.38 A woman’s intentionally losing and a male’s forfeiting winnings are thus cast as a strategem of the social game of courting rather than the true playing of a game.39 Doubts concerning the intrusion of such artificiality in the game realm can be found, prior to Tasso’s treatises, in a parlour-game book by the Mantuan Ascanio de’ Mori.40 In his Giuoco piacevole, written in 1575, Mori depicts a party of women and men engaged in a challenging game of extemporaneous storytelling, in which players must fashion tales about a city, inn, innkeeper, garden, tree, and animal (with a motto), all beginning with an assigned letter of the alphabet. This game, in contrast to Castiglione’s parlour game of defining an ideal courtier, was designed not by a male participant but by a female player, Beatrice Gambara, who, against the protestations of an initially weaker foil Isabella, insists that women are capable of greater “prowess” than they think. And in the course of the game, even Isabella reflects increasingly feminist attitudes. When she has to give up various tokens because of slips she makes, an admiring male player gallantly provides one for her. Her reaction is a swift rebuke, as she chides him that any (amatory) gain he thus hoped to make with her he has in fact lost “with this courtesy of excessive generosity.”41 And when others argue that she earlier escaped another penalty for a slip, she appealed this judgment, proving that she had not erred and rejected any condescending relaxation of the rules of the game, saying, “I do not wish to triumph without victory.”42 Mori’s character Isabella thus prefigures Tasso’s character Margherita, who similarly resents women being deprived of true victory out of condescension or courtesy.43 The two versions of Tasso’s game book address this issue of the sexist rules of play: the Romeo states the problem but largely leaves it unresolved, whereas the Gonzaga secondo makes an effort to transform Margherita from embittered victim to assertive player. Why did he make this change? The excision of the especially harsh comments on men’s mistreatment of women might have been necessitated by his now clearly identifying the interlocutor as Margherita Bentivoglio.44 But what about the changed assumptions of Pocaterra and the more generalized attempt to address Margherita’s desire to be a true

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player? Speculations on Tasso’s thinking and his motives in the early 1580s necessarily must be somewhat tentative, as he was incarcerated (or hospitalized) in Sant’Anna during these years for instability and bouts with madness.45 It is possible that, in introducing Giulio Cesare Gonzaga and renaming the treatise for him, Tasso may have been attempting to further strengthen ties to members of the Gonzaga family as possible intercessors who might aid in winning his release from Sant’Anna.46 In the same year that Tasso published the Gonzaga secondo, he also published a Discorso della virtù feminile e donnesca (Discourse on feminine and womanly virtue), dedicated to the Duchess of Mantua, Leonora of Austria (1534–94), wife of Guglielmo Gonzaga and mother of Margherita Gonzaga.47 This work lays out the debate as to whether women have a different – more private, less “heroic” – virtue than men, citing the position of Thucydides (following Aristotle) that they do, and the opposing stance of Plutarch (following Plato) that they do not.48 As for his own position in the treatise, Tasso is able to have his cake and eat it too, by arguing that ordinary women might hew to the retiring, private type of “feminine virtue,” but that regal, courtly, and heroic women (such as his dedicatee Leonora) can display a “womanly virtue,” in which there is not found “any distinction of works and offices between them and heroic men.”49 This last passage recalls and rebuts Pocaterra’s comment in the Romeo that, aside from their upper hand in the realm of love, “in all the other offices of life [women] are born inferior to men.”50 And, indeed, the Discorso argues for the agency of women in the public sphere – and might even be intended to plant the idea of such women interceding on behalf of an imprisoned poet. In any case, in 1582 Tasso published both of these works that emphasize female agency – in the Gonzaga secondo naming notable women, some of whom (other than Margherita Bentivoglio herself and the duchess and ladies of the Este court) he might have hoped to plead his case.51 It was perhaps no coincidence that it was the young prince Vincenzo Gonzaga of the Mantuan court who ultimately secured Tasso’s freedom in July of 1586. Tasso had earlier dedicated his Discourse on female virtue and power to Vincenzo’s mother, Leonora, the Duchess of Mantua, and had expressed his hope in a letter of January 1585 that “by her and through her [his freedom] might be pled to all those by whom it can be conceded.”52 How much of a role did Vincenzo’s mother Leonora play in Tasso’s rescue? Had Tasso’s feminist arguments in the Discorso and his overtures to Leonora in some measure hit their mark?

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Tasso’s personal situation may have linked the potential for female agency in the ludic realm with the potential for female agency in the public, political realm. Just as a more assertive Margherita Bentivoglio could truly win at primiera, an assertive female mediator could (and possibly did) win his release from house arrest.53 In any case, between the Romeo and the Gonzaga secondo, Tasso goes far in resolving a problem that existed in both the ludic and the real world. By questioning and correcting the sexist conventions of play, his two treatises suggest that game culture might have provided a fertile ground for challenging the sexist conventions of society in the early modern era. As Tasso’s Discorso della virtù feminile e donnesca suggests, this debate within game culture should be seen in the larger context of the late medieval and early modern “querelle des femmes,” in which both men and women writers contested the capacities of women for virtue, learning, and autonomy.54 What is interesting here, however, is that Tasso’s solution in the Gonzaga secondo located the debate not in the realm of intellectual or political elites (such as learned female humanists or queens) but among a somewhat lower and wider range of women. Even his Discourse on female virtue remained moored to a traditional view that “ordinary” women are suited only for a private, domestic, “feminine” virtue and that only regal and well-placed women are capable of a heroic “womanly” virtue equal to that of men. The exemplars he names in that work include such highly placed and well-known figures as the dedicatee, Duchess Leonora of Mantua, Queen Elizabeth, Catherine de’ Medici, Renata of Ferrara, Isabella d’Este, Lucrezia Borgia, and Vittoria Colonna.55 Similarly, in his Jerusalem Delivered, Tasso’s prominent women all fit into some archetypal category of the females who frequent the epic tradition: Sofronia the Christian martyr, Clorinda the Amazon warrior maiden, Armida the underworld seductress, Erminia the smitten lover.56 By contrast, the women of ingegno that Margherita Bentivoglio names in the Gonzaga secondo belong fully to none of these categories. Claudia Rangone, Barbara Sanseverino, and Fulvia da Correggio were neither epic heroines nor highest royalty (although certainly aristocratic), but women who had undoubtedly shown their capacity for autonomy and even defiance in a male world.57 More forbidding than an “armed knight,” these women were identified by Tasso as individuals who could contend and compete.58 So, too, Tasso apparently decided, was Margherita Bentivoglio, who should be taught how truly to win at primiera. Was the Margherita of the Romeo anonymous because of this unwomanly challenge to tradition? Certainly, by the point at which he

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wrote the Gonzaga secondo Tasso had decided that it was time to identify women as true players – players whose agency might even rescue him. The Parlour Game Tasso’s two treatises reveal how sixteenth-century game theory wrestled with the gender politics of play. But what theories did the century advance concerning the purpose and structure of the the parlour game per se? And what specific role for women was envisioned in these encounters? Parlour-game collections and ideals roughly fall into two general categories: one school saw the game more in terms of edification and social control; another, more in terms of entertainment and social licence. In both models women often played an important part – in contrast to the classical convivial setting in which women’s presence was very limited and only indirect (as in Socrates’s accounts of a dialogue with Diotima in Symposium 201d–212b and an oration by Aspasia in Menexenus) or limited to courtesans (as in the depiction of prostititues in Athenaeus’s Deipnosophists Bk. 13).59 The emergence of women in literary gatherings was in evidence in the courtly love tradition in Provence starting in the twelfth century, and this tradition of course informed the poetic sensibilities of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.60 Moreover, an identification of women as principal overseers of the ludic and festive realm was already apparent in the Decameron. Boccaccio’s Pampinea was the prime mover and first queen in the circle of seven men and three women who retreated from Florence to tell their hundred tales.61 And in Bk. 4 of his Filocolo, Fiammetta is named queen for a festive gathering in which she orchestrates (and dominates) a set of “questions of love.”62 In the early sixteenth century Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (1513–14) was framed as a dialogue enacting a parlour game at the court of Urbino. At that gathering the Duchess Elisabetta Gonzaga and Emilia Pia were identified as the directors of the ludic festivities – though in the dialogue they call for games to be proposed only by men, and when the game of defining the ideal courtier is suggested, they generally yield the floor to males who control the conversation.63 Later in the century a more active role for women in parlour games emerged in Innocenzio Ringhieri’s Cento giuochi liberali, et d’ingegno (Hundred games of learning and wit) of 1551, the ur-text of the edification model of games. Ringhieri, a Bolognese poet, dedicated his game book to Catherine de’ Medici for use in her court in France.64 Distinguishing his games

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from other types of play – for example, ancient gladiatorial and funeral games, modern jousts, soccer, masquerades, and board games – he lays claim to originality in his project by suggesting that he has no real model for creating such “liberal” games, “worthy of whatever rare and elevated intellect.”65 The games consist of players reciting some lore – for example, the animal and instrument associated with a certain classical god – or keeping track of a fluctuating order of terms in rounds. Failure to do so, or failure to refrain from laughing, results in the payment of a forfeit (pegno), which players can redeem by declaiming on questions (dubbi), which he appends to the end of each game. The collection of one hundred games constitutes a virtual encyclopedia of polite culture with games on nature (Seas, Mountains, Islands), the arts (Poets, Painting, Comedy), the moral realm (Happiness, Misery, Envy), the intellectual tradition (Philosophy, the Liberal Arts), the social world (Husbands and Wives, Breeding), mythology (Council of the Gods, Centaurs, Proteus), professions (the Merchant, the Physician, the Gardener), and the wider semiotic and cultural world (Maxims and Signs, Time). Many of the games overtly deal with the amatory realm (Love, the Lover and the Beloved), or are framed as metaphors for love. Others are introduced so as to dignify – or be dignified by – some aspect of the female world.66 That this work was largely addressed to a young female audience in an amatory framework is evident from what is not present in the games. There are no games on children, parenthood, or widowhood. The complete absence of children suggests a sharp divide between women as lovers and women as mothers in such literature – this despite the fact that the dedicatee Catherine de’ Medici had given birth to five children in the six years preceding Ringhieri’s publication of his work.67 In a word, Ringhieri wanted to give structure to the “ozio” of young women of marriageable age – and even included a Game of Leisure, listing love and games as the first two “goods” of leisure (and indolence and lust as the first two “evils”).68 While Ringhieri’s work thus certainly has a footing in the literary tradition of courtly love – and in fact he ends each of his ten books of games with a poem – its many intellectual themes suggest a serious didactic purpose.69 For instance, the Game of Happiness and Goods is basically an adaptation of Aristotle’s treatment of the three categories of the goods of body, mind, and fortune (Nicomachean Ethics 1.8). Three sets of eight goods of each category are sounded by players either alone or in combination according to several possible definitions of happiness. Thus, happiness as “good fortune with virtue” would entail

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players representing both the “goods of fortune” and the “goods of virtue” to sound off. Happiness as “in itself sufficient for life” would entail only the eight “goods of the soul” to sound off (Figure 1.1). Clearly, Ringhieri hoped to make the inaccessible accessible. No wonder that one of the debate topics he poses at the end of one game asks “whether high matters are lowered and rendered easy when reduced into sweetness and games.”70 Ringhieri, moreover, is sensitive to the possibly wide intellectual variations in the mixed company present at games. In his opening Game of the Knight he explains that a judicious meting of penalty questions should take this into account. He proposes four gradations of questions scaled to the abilities of players who are classified across both genders according to intellect or learning: the scholarly male; the unlearned male; the clever woman (donna d’ingegno); and the “pedestrian woman of little intellect” (donna positiva, & di picciolo intelletto). Thus, the scholarly male might be asked “whether it is better to love a person of letters or arms, with his reasons,” while, at the other end of the scale, a woman of little intellect could be asked “how many lances would be needed (for breaking) in a joust?”71 Allowing for a diverse assemblage, the parlour game must operate at several intellectual levels at once. Though acknowledging male participants, the chief audience for Ringhieri’s game book is women, whom he wants both (intellectually) to elevate and (socially) to control. In his dedication he says that he hopes his book will “return honest women, unworthily afflicted by savage stings, to their original reputation.”72 In several cases, his comments indicate that he aims to defend women against their intellectual or moral detractors and rescue them from their circumstances. As far as the intellectual challenges posed in his book, Ringhieri explicitly addresses this in several of his game prefaces, beginning with the first game, in which players must be able to pose and explicate the symbolism of a knight’s emblem, motto, and colours. He insists that women are good for this challenge, because they are “modern women, almost all very shrewd both by nature and by having read much, not a little wise, and perhaps not too inferior to those famous ancient women praised by writers.”73 In his Game of Celestial Figures, he includes several questions – for example, on the nature of fate – that are rather philosophical, and he addresses potential criticism that such topics are too lofty for women. Such critics “do a great injustice to the female sex, if they do not believe that among them can be found some who are very ingenious, expert, and suited to clarify … difficult matters.”74 Ringhieri

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Figure 1.1. The Game of Happiness and Goods. From Innocenzio Ringhieri, Cento giuochi liberali, et d’ingegno (Venice, 1553), fol. 139v. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca del Museo Correr, Venice.)

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thus sees his “liberal” games, and especially his debate topics, as opportunities for women to challenge and activate their ingegno and their learning. Not surprisingly, the Game of the Liberal and Noble Arts itself confronts this issue of whether such a “difficult” game is appropriate for “simple and modest women, shut inside the small circuit of their rooms, encumbered by the management of domestic matters, or restricted by their elders.”75 He insists that such a topic should indeed be extended to them, that any limitations are owing not to their innate ability but to an upbringing that subjects them to lowly pursuits “against their desire and intent.”76 As proof that it is only social circumstance, rather than nature, that determines women’s potential, he cites examples of learned and literary women in the ancient world (e.g., Aspasia, Diotima, and the poets Sappho and Corinna) and in the present day (i.e., Vittoria Colonna and Veronica Gambera).77 A Game of Poets, furthermore, asserts that in fact many modern women have already triumphed, outshining the talent of Sappho and Corinna and earning the envy of many contemporary writers. This game is structured around lists of poets that juxtapose the likes of Homer, Virgil, and Dante, with about thirty contemporary male poets and eighteen female poets and scholars (including Colonna, Gambera, Laura Terracina, and Cassandra Fedele), all identified as “donne famose.”78 For all of his intellectual elevation and flattering of women – which he frames as a socially revisionist position – Ringhieri, however, does strive to reinforce the traditional male ideals of female behaviour. Thus, in introducing his Game of Chastity he tells his female audience that this game is “truly and particularly yours,” since chastity is the source of their greatest virtue, and its violation the cause of their greatest misery.79 The game turns on the cases of “venerable matrons” of antiquity (e.g., Lucretia, Penelope, Judith) who persevered in the the face of threats – and other games reinforce the “triumph” of chastity and the ideals of purity and fidelity in marriage.80 And even when Ringhieri flirts with the risqué, as in the Game of the Bawd, he does so in a way to warn women of these “wicked women, destroyers of your honour, corrupters of chaste minds, and often speedy procurers of your infamy, ruin, and death.”81 In the preface to this game, Ringhieri expressly refutes Boccaccio’s misogynist view (presumably that found in the Corbaccio) that the only chaste woman is one who has not been entreated or who has been rebuffed.82 The game, one of the longest in the collection, matches twelve male suitors with twelve young women through

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the mediation of a bawd, who conveys a love letter (and gifts) from the men. The women reply with a “Response to a Lover, in Conserving Matrimonial Faith.” The men then respond to this letter, and the women most deft at improvising in turn respond to them.83 The game is largely a lesson in knowing and deflecting the snares of procurers and suitors and sublimates such temptations in a vicarious, safe, and playful way.84 Both in crediting women with greater intelligence than tradition allowed and reinforcing conventional sexual values, Ringhieri’s game book largely aims to be a work of edification and elevation. The intellectual dimension is particularly evident in the list of debate topics (usually ten, but occasionally more) appended to the end of each of the hundred games. Through these, he argues in his dedication, “rare wits will be able to ascend in a thousand fine ways and by thus disputing acquire immortality.”85 These debate topics range from lofty topics such as “why the philosopher need not fear death, but rather desire it” to the interpretation of popular proverbs.86 We cannot know whether or how Ringhieri’s games may have actually been played, but these debate topics certainly suggest the possibility for a new type of discourse on a variety of social, cultural, and political issues.87 Indeed, the game world’s provision for such discussions limns the contours of the emerging bourgeois “public” culture Jürgen Habermas charts in the early modern era. But whatever its actual practice, the theory of Ringhieri’s games certainly reflected a high degree of intellectualism that others perceived as rather too cerebral. In the seventeenth century when the French writer Charles Sorel compiled his Maison des jeux he complained that many of “the games of Ringhieri … are meant only for individuals who are somewhat learned, instead of the games ordinarily played among young people (whether in the court or in the city), who in short are people of the world and of unrefined conversation and without great exposure to learning” – a problem worsened by the fact that parlour games included “women, the majority of whom, not having undertaken extensive reading, are unaware of many of things one is not able to know without benefit of higher education.”88 Ringhieri was not the only sixteenth-century writer who saw the potentially didactic function of games. Early in the century the English humanist Thomas More prescribed the playing of a lofty game depicting the battle between Virtues and Vices as an ideal after-dinner game of moral improvement in his all-too-sober Utopia.89 In fact, the proper game could be seen as a rein on unbridled urges of the appetite. In the

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fourth book of his popular Civile conversatione (1574), Stefano Guazzo depicts a banquet and accompanying parlour games in Casale Monferrato, saying that he wants to present a model of behaviour to correct the “disorders of common banquets,” such as gluttony, drunkenness, “contentious, inconsiderate, mordant, shameless, and insolent words,” and “indolent, lascivious, impious, inhumane, and bestial thoughts.”90 Proper games and conversation are thus an agent of civilization to temper the carnality of the banquet – a bridle of “culture” to counter the force of “nature,” as Michel Jeanneret would argue.91 Two years after Guazzo’s work, the Brescian writer Bartolomeo Arnigio published his massive Le diece veglie, which exemplifies the acme of the parlour game as a conservative, civilizing force.92 Framed as after-dinner conversations among ten men, these veglie consisted of serious conversations on professional, moral, religious, and cultural issues. The topics include the errors of every office and social type, true and false glory, Christian piety, nobility, and so on. Arnigio’s idea of the soirée resembles that of Castiglione, whose festive gathering at Urbino explored the issue of the ideal courtier. In general, Arnigio seemed to be somewhat suspicious of games. Tellingly, he offers a history and definition of play in a section (in Bk. 6) dealing with the education of young people and their insulation from the dangers of idleness, drunkenness, prostitution, and games.93 Casting a moral eye on the culture of play, he condemns dice as the invention of the devil and is critical of many of the Carnival games, which he sees as “shameless,” “uncivil,” and irreligious.94 Play should always “retain a certain measure” and “temperate movement” and must never descend into “malice, buffoonery, and lewdness.”95 He approves of chess, children’s games, ancient spectacles, and parlour games in which “humour, quickness, knowledge, and memory are exercised,” citing the collections of Girolamo Bargagli and Ringhieri. Given his own views, his admiration for the “learned volume” of Ringhieri, “a man of the highest learning,” is not surprising, although his approval of the games of the Intronati is a bit unexpected, given their carnivalesque setting and tenor.96 That Arnigio perhaps especially esteems the potential link between games and the intellect is evident in his observation that the academic endeavours of the contemporary academies could be identified as games: because “the school of young people was called a ‘ludo’ by the Romans and ‘giuoco’ by us, thus one could call ‘games’ the honest and virtuous pastimes that are carried out in academies by sublime and refined talents” in their pursuits of music, history, philosophy, poetry, comic verse, etc.97

20 Parlour Games

Furthermore, it is probably no coincidence that Arnigio’s extended discussion of the polite parlour game itself comes in a book that also offers a treatment of virtue.98 He envisioned such conversations and/ or games as part of the “active and civil life” and clearly saw them as reinforcements of social and professional roles.99 In his depiction of the proper trattenimento, topics should be pitched towards one’s company: he believes that players will be entertained only by topics that have a direct bearing on their professional, everyday life. With lawyers, one should discuss the law; with humanists and philosophers, literary and moral matters; and so on, with military figures, political leaders, physicians, merchants, farmers. With women one should have a knowledge of things that would entertain them such as “fables, stories, jokes, witty sayings, devices, customs, and moral, scientific, and amorous questions.”100 With an illustrious older woman, talk of her “greatness of mind and nobility of customs.” With a young one, speak of matters of love (but not in a licentious or lascivious way). With a woman of little intellect, speak of domestic and family matters.101 Thus, if leisurely conversations and games should offer pleasant distraction, they should not be too much a departure from the real world and should never be a seduction into the intemperate, inappropriate, or bawdy. Given his concern to reinforce the status quo, it is not surprising that Arnigio’s views of women are quite conservative and his depiction of females in the dialogue minimal. The book devoted to domestic life (Bk. 5) offers a thoroughly patriarchal speech on women, which argues that they are intellectually unfit for public and religious office; that the Fall occasioned their subordination to men; that they should be “friends of silence and spend more time at home than away”; that husbands, acting as “teachers and fathers” to their wives, should educate them so that, in part, they not be embarrassed by them at social events; that husbands should monitor their wives’ social engagements, always knowing “where and with whom they are disporting” and should see to it that women “not host entertainments or liaisons in their homes involving dissolute young men, nor use obscene or lewd language … but strive to be exemplary ladies, entertaining themselves according to their station and never abandoning themselves.”102 The group of women who have been invited to this one of the ten soirées in the book, remain wholly passive, enduring this occasionally insulting speech with blushes and silence. Their somewhat tepid defence in this rehearsal of the querelle des femmes is undertaken by another male speaker in the following book.103

The Renaissance Theory of Play 21

Perhaps because of his low-born background and/or because of his forced departure from the medical profession (because his patients insisted on dying), Arnigio seemed to strain for propriety.104 His view of veglie or trattenimenti is one that reaffirms traditional social expectations and educational levels. His parties would reinforce professional, class, and sexual divisions. Any relaxation of his highly stylized rules for social intercourse, any violation of decorum would be to descend to the level of those games and decadent behaviour that divert young people from virtue. Women are just another static social group whose standing needs to be preserved. They may be asked pleasant questions on love, they may be regaled with their virtue, but in the seven hundred pages of his ten dialogues (which truly are all themselves versions of Arnigio’s ideal of edifying entertainment) women do not once speak. They appear merely once to be lectured on their inferiority and domestic duty. Arnigio’s conservative social views and his cautious ideal of leisure are (wittingly or unwittingly) revealed by the organization of his book. His rather extreme speech on female subjugation comes in a book on family life. The rather limp defence of women comes in a subsequent book devoted largely to children. Games in general are discussed in the context of vices that derail youth. The ideal of the polite trattenimento is paired with a discussion on virtue. Finally, the same speaker (“Perseo”) who delivers the patriarchal speech on women in Bk. 5 presents the theory of the proper entertainment in Bk. 10 and is therefore likely the voice of Arnigio himself. Both his view of women in family and society and his ideal of the parlour game reveal an assumption that play is an extension of the real world, not an alternative to it. If Ringhieri, Guazzo, and Arnigio hewed to the more intellectual, “controlled,” and socially conservative ideal of parlour games, Girolamo Bargagli and the Intronati envisioned a more fun-loving, liminoid model.105 In fact, at one point in his Dialogo de’ giuochi che nelle vegghie sanesi si usano di fare (Dialogue on the games that are customarily played at Sienese parties), he likely has in mind Ringhieri when he criticizes those who propose “certain games so lofty and that presuppose so much knowledge as perhaps would not be contained in the library of Ptolemy, without realizing that speculations ought to remain in the schools and academies, and that at parties games are undertaken for delight and recreation.”106 As shown above in his Game of Celestial Figures, even Ringhieri himself saw a need to defend himself from the charge that some of his more philosophical game questions (dubbi)

22 Parlour Games

overshot the reach of his female audience.107 Indeed, Bargagli warns against any type of pedantry, castigating one player who at a Carnival party introduced a Game of the Animals – in which men were to name the animal their assigned woman had been in a previous life or will be in a future one – with a pretentious lecture on the history of philosophy and the Pythagorean theory of souls.108 Unlike Ringhieri and Arnigio, Bargagli has no interest in the didactic, or in simply rehearsing the learning of the university world. Instead, Bargagli’s game theory calls for the creation of an alternate realm that can exist on the margins of the real world – whether in the organization of the ongoing academy or in the more confined time of the parlour game. In terms of the latter, his model is largely Carnival, which is not surprising given that the Sienese games in his Dialogo are generally set at Carnival-evening parties. But rather than emulate the practices of literal masking and dramatic social inversion, Bargagli’s games present a more “civilized,” refined version. The lewd potential of such masking had been recently catalogued in Antonfrancesco Grazzini’s publication of Florentine Carnival songs (1559), which are filled with sexual entreaties couched in metaphors of myriad professional masks.109 And in fact one example of these Carnival songs, that of chimneysweeps propositioning women, apparently had some life in Siena, as Bargagli condemns female players who prescribe as a penance that players march through room crying “O, spazza camino!”110 Although the Intronati’s games would often be played during the evenings of Carnival, Bargagli suggests that the practice of wearing masks has generally subsided, and what he prefers is not so much the creation of an inverted world but simply an alternate one.111 That is, one should not wear everyday clothes but rather dress in richer and gayer form (though in a manner generally suited to one’s profession and status). More importantly – and here Bargagli dramatically differs from Arnigio – one should not discuss one’s professional or customary concerns. Men should not discuss war, their studies, or business; women should avoid talking of their maids, linen, children, or husbands.112 Where Arnigio’s veglie reinforce professional pursuits, Bargagli’s prescribe a respite from them. (The topic instead should be the exaltation of women.) And when there are present individuals of unusual distinction (princes or princesses, great lords or ladies), the game suspends status/power disparities. Such individuals should act and be treated as “ordinary people” as they assume an alternate identity “as if covered by the mask of the game.”113

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This alternate sphere, moreover, should free people from some of the conventional expectations and constraints, and this seems to be particularly true for women. Bargagli dwells at length on women who shy away from participation in parlour games because of some misguided notion that their honour demands it. In fact, women who refuse to play “offend those who do and indict themselves of unsociability and prudery itself.” Rather than affirming their onestà, he argues, they look as if they are hiding their lack of character under a figleaf of shyness. He rebuts the “opinion of Pericles [recorded in Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War 2.45], who said that the highest praise of a woman was that no word or fame of her valour or virtue should ever reach the ears of men.” In short, Bargagli strives to convince reluctant, retiring “overly severe” women that game playing is the new social norm for being reputed well bred (ben creata).114 The old canons of aloofness, detachment, and invisibility are outdated. So also is women’s silence. He condemns those who stand mute “like a marble statue,” relying on their beauty alone, “without knowing that the ancients always placed Mercury next to Venus, wishing to signify that beauty ought not to be mute, but joined with shrewd and gracious speech; and thinking that purity of mind proceeds from not knowing how to speak among men, attributing to ineptitude the name of onestà, almost no woman is found proper unless she speaks only with the maid and the baker.”115 His directive is clear. Women, like men, should exhibit in these games a “certain boldness of mind (baldanza d’animo).”116 (Such “baldanza,” it is worth noting, was one of seventeen “enemies” of proper female behaviour listed in Francesco da Barberino’s early fourteenth-century conduct book for women, the Reggimento e costumi di donna.)117 He even observes that this alternate social world could be particularly liberating to some women. Bargagli’s figure “Sodo” (Marcantonio Piccolomini) reports that he has more than once seen a woman in a household setting “take a particular joy in some game because it offers her a taste of the ‘free’ and the ‘out-of-the-ordinary.’”118 Thus, while Bargagli tames the extremes of Carnival, this festive time likely inspired his interest in creating a discrete time and space conducive to “other” pursuits and different behaviour. The role of women in his games is partly linked to his history of such games in the ancient world. He traces his games back to the Saturnalia celebrations in late December in the time of Augustus and the Carnival celebrations extending from the early Christian era to his own day.119 Until interrupted by recent warfare, in Siena these Carnival-night celebrations

24 Parlour Games

were characterized by women standing in courtyards with torches and men striking their hand with a bat (mestola). He cites the similar (fertility) rite in the Lupercalia, in which men struck women with strips of goat skin. By conflating the Saturnalia festival with the Lupercalia (which, on February 14, fell near the time of Carnival), Bargagli would seem to recognize the fertility dimension of this tradition – which gives context to the ludic centrality of women and adds further meaning to the passing of the mestola as the chief ritual act of the game.120 He was not alone in recognizing such pre-Christian roots; upon witnessing a Carnival in Siena in 1509, Erasmus condemned the rite for both its licentiousness and its “vestiges of ancient paganism.”121 In any case, the exaltation (and mocking) of women that is at the heart of Bargagli’s games not only may be owing to Spanish influence as he suggests, but it also may be a by-product of this fertility legacy as well as the literary legacy of Provençal gatherings and love poetry.122 Perhaps, then, because of the Carnival setting Bargagli’s games have a more distinct festive frame than those of Ringhieri and Arnigio and with that a livelier and potentially more subversive version of play. Exactly what definition and structure did he give to his games? He makes it clear that his festivities are not to be classed with ancient centennial (secolari) games, athletic contests, board games, cards, chess, jokes, or simple storytelling. Rather, occurring in a group where the presence of women is crucial, his game is a “festive action of a happy and amatory group, where, at the pleasant or clever proposal made by one person as the author and guide of the action, all the others do or say something different from each other – this to the end of delight and entertainment.”123 Within this general category, moreover, he identifies two subdivisions: “some may be games of intellect and wit (di spirito e d’ingegno), others of jest and pleasantness (di scherzo e di piacevolezza).”124 But even with this division, he argues that a game of intellect must have delight to be worthy, and a game of jest some skill. The important point here is that these games were not simply rounds or memory games (as Ringhieri’s were for the most part) or sedate seminar discussions (as Arnigio’s portended), but games in which quickness, creativity, and comical cleverness were especially prized. Rather than rehearsing a received wisdom or ruminating on individuals’ own professional lives, they force players to realms of the original, the individual, and the creative. Throughout the collection, entertainment – even where it entails skill or cleverness – clearly trumps edification. Early modern editions of the Dialogo contain a table that breaks the 130 games into the two

The Renaissance Theory of Play 25

categories of “gravi” and “piacevoli,” the “gravi” games including such light-hearted topics as the Animals (cited above), the Amorous Inferno, the Temple of Venus, and the Amorous Senate. Such “weighty” games obviously are so identified not because they are academic or sober but rather because they challenge players’ imaginations.125 In general, originality and the “new” were hallmarks of the Sienese games and “invention” the most prized faculty. When asked to propose a game, one should have ready a new game – Bargagli suggests that four such games should suffice for one Carnival season.126 The purely impromptu, likewise, is valued over the premeditated. He cites the case of a game in which a player had mentioned that his amatory misfortunes have brought him near to the point of death, and the “penance” (the game judge’s assignment for his penalty) was that, appropriately, he should present a last will and testament – which he did, richly mocking his rivals in the process. Both the judge and the player here showed their capacity for improvised wit.127 There is also a premium on original interpretation. Bargagli suggests that if one is assigned as penance to answer a question drawn from a literary source (such as one drawn recently from the questions of love in Boccaccio’s Filocolo), the skilful player should not openly acknowledge the author and work and should deliberately chose another solution than that taken by the author, “in order not to appear to follow in the steps of others and to show always, as much as possible, novelty and inventiveness (novità e invenzione).”128 The preoccupation with the new is emphasized as well in the second preamble of Scipione Bargagli’s game book, the Trattenimenti. Here Scipione argues that, like laboratories for assaying and refining precious metals, parlour games are true proving grounds for experimenting with “wit,” “wisdom,” and “skill,” and for generating and inspiring new concepts, “as [attendees] always hear new things and as, through these things newly brought by others, new spirits and new concepts are awakened in the mind of anyone who attentively sees and hears.”129 One game in Girolamo’s book even plays upon the idea of judging and preserving what new creations might be deemed worthy in such games. In the Game of the Archive each man and woman offers up a poem or other composition and each person in the party renders a judgment as to whether to archive the work. The President of the Archive must decide and give out punishments and rewards: “And this game when it is played a little thoughtfully offers a good opportunity to air beautiful poetry and witty inventions.”130 These gatherings constituted a new arena – outside the university, the court, the press –

26 Parlour Games

for the composition and validation of creative work. This emphasis on the new, moreover, perhaps illustrates how Cinquecento vernacular culture may have been rebelling against the humanist devotion to the “old” that had dominated Latin culture. From the new to the subversive is not a great leap, and the Intronati’s games certainly offered challenges to tradition. Bargagli discusses several games that he places on his own “index of forbidden games,” a motif no doubt inspired by the recent launching of the Papal Index of Forbidden Books in 1559.131 These games include some that are obscene, that mock someone, or that ridicule religion or the clergy.132 Bargagli’s self-censorship of the Intronati games here is somewhat disingenuous, and he was likely trying to appease Counter-Reformation critics: why else would he catalogue, describe, and number these games – games he at times discusses elsewhere in the work in an uncritical way – if he truly wanted to suppress them?133 He even flirts with controversial soteriological sentiments in one of his forbidden religious games, the Amorous Inferno, where he gives an example of a young man who said that “he was assigned to the punitive fire for having the opinion that he was able to acquire the beatitude of love with works, without faith, and that with service, without the loyalty of love, one is able to merit a divine grace.”134 Bargagli obviously wants to have it both ways, nominally appeasing censors but also describing and publicizing such fordidden games. Other games, moreover, show how parlour games could take aim at social customs. A Game of Ceremonies mocks the practice of excessive courtesy that ruled the day.135 The Game of the Amorous Senate and the Game of Errors offer the opportunity for players to propose reforms in the realm of courtship practices. Finally, moving out of the narrow world of courtesy and love, Bargagli also reports a Game of Customs, in which “proposing to members of the group that they had the power to reform the world, each had to say what good custom they would introduce and what bad one they would eliminate.”136 Bargagli suggests that this game was a transmutation of the reform-minded Game of the Amorous Senate, revealing how parlour games could spawn a discourse of social criticism and reflection that moved beyond the Kingdom of Love to society at large. The two poles of Italian Renaissance parlour games – the intellectual/ sedate and the flirtatious/bawdy – represent two different assumptions about the function of the game world. For Ringhieri, games offer an educational opportunity for repackaging lofty matters in a more palatable

The Renaissance Theory of Play 27

manner; his penalty questions, a forum to debate sometimes serious topics and interpret popular proverbs. Similarly, Arnigio’s rather highminded ideal of play sounds at times more like a seminar than a party and aims to reinforce professional and gender stereotypes. With their Carnival frame, Bargagli’s games, by contrast, countenance the loosening of social restriction, the escape from intellectualism, the privileging of the new. The Carnival overtones of seduction are also evident, as the assumptions about and demands for female purity found in Ringhieri and Arnigio have been considerably relaxed. Not only does he at times quote a lewd female statement made at a game (though he discreetly withholds names), but he also argues that when comments “a little scandalous” are made, one should not be so prudish as to leave, but simply blush or pretend not to hear.137 Though not embracing the extreme vulgarity of the Florentine Carnival songs, Bargagli thus allows for some degree of bawdiness, and this is not surprising from one who traces his games to the fertility rites of the Lupercalia. As this last point hints, Bargagli’s games to a considerable degree represent an affirmation of “naturalism” against the artificiality and constraints of social convention. When one speaker in his Dialogo chastises a woman who was too open about her love, another defended her candour, saying “that it is not inappropriate for a woman to reveal her love when, as that one did, she accompanies it with such great zeal of chastity.”138 This defence of emotional authenticity is important in a culture of such guarded emotions, brokered marriages, and confined women. Time and again, Bargagli’s Dialogo speaks of the importance of being oneself at parlour games, of conforming to one’s natural inclinations. As we shall see in the next chapter, this was, in Bargagli’s mind, a hallmark of the Academy of the Intronati itself, in that it allowed young men the chance to pursue, at least temporarily, their true interests. So also was the parlour game such a space in which one could and should be oneself, a feat that requires some self-knowledge, “although it would be difficult, because it requires us to be judges of ourselves and to recognize to what nature inclines us, and to maintain ourselves in that attitude and natural inclination … even if another manner of proceeding would be more prized.”139 This last clause is especially telling: being oneself trumps being most esteemed. Like an actor in a play, Bargagli argues, one should not seek out the best part but rather the one most appropriate to one’s nature – and likewise the smart game player will not try to imitate the style of someone else, but rather will take “another street more suited to his nature.”140 It is an irony that the “other,”

28 Parlour Games

liminoid world is where one can and must be oneself, a welcome and long-overdue injunction in a well-born world of stifling social expectations for women and ordained professional ones for men.141 The games themselves, moreover, often promoted the recognition and publicizing of individual character. Games, for instance, that call for choosing an emblem for oneself or others, or for identifying what animal a woman has been or will become in other incarnations, entail a grappling with personal identity. Likewise, the recognition of individual talents is also central to the assignment of proper penitenze to players by judges in the games. Almost as an inversion of the priest’s assignment of appropriate penances based on sin in the confessional, the game judge should assign fitting penances based on the talents of the player. Thus, one known to be a good dancer should be summoned to dance – a practice that will guarantee that the game will bring “delight.”142 What Bargagli does not say, but is also relevant, is that this practice recognized and celebrated individual abilities in a public setting. The one exception to Bargagli’s insistence on following one’s natural inclinations involves the case of those women who might not be naturally inclined to play parlour games (or think them less praisworthy than the traditional pursuits of singing and dancing). Here Bargagli resorts to an opposite tack, arguing that such women need to yield to the new canons of behaviour and breeding that include parlour games. The “natural inclination” towards shyness, of course, one might argue is itself largely the result of social conditioning. In any case, Bargagli urges that women force or feign an interest in games to be fashionable, lest they be seen as “frivolous, vain, and without taste.”143 It is revealing that he makes this argument – part of the rhetorical persuasion that the Intronati have long advanced to move women from the private sphere to the public one – on the heels of his rejection of the Periclean locus that women should completely lack public reputation. This campaign on the part of the Intronati to draw women out is the story of the next two chapters. The game books of Ringhieri and Girolamo Bargagli reveal the interest in involving women in more challenging and public forms of play other than the standbys of chess or cards.144 Ascanio de’ Mori’s Giuoco piacevole and Tasso’s Gonzaga secondo reveal that by the 1570s and 1580s male writers were sounding a theme of the female desire to truly compete with men. Turning from the world of game theory and literary depictions of play, we now need to go back to the 1530s in Siena to reconstruct the historical circumstances in which Sienese women began to win a reputation as players – and as public figures.

2 The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women (1525–1555)

The history of parlour games in Siena is inseparably linked to the history of newly emerging academies in the sixteenth century. According to Girolamo Bargagli, the faint origins of such games can be traced to the Academy of the Grande early in the century and to such figures as ClaudioTolomei.1 But their true flowering came with the rise of the Intronati. Why was this so? What was the larger social and cultural function of this and other academies in Siena? As shown in chapter 1, the realm of play – especially at Carnival – offered both men and women an opportunity temporarily to escape to an alternative world. As we shall see, this yearning for escape was even more generally served by the rise of literary academies. In seeking such a new arena of cultural experience for themselves, Sienese men simultaneously created a new avenue of cultural visibility for women as well. This chapter will chart the social terrain that gave rise to academies in Cinquecento Siena, focusing in particular on the intellectual relationship the Intronati formed with prominent women in the city. It will also explore how the Intronati’s promotion of women, both within the ludic world and without, may have had a bearing on the dramatic role Sienese women played in the defence of the city in the siege of the 1550s. The “Green Years” The origin of the Academy of the Intronati is variously dated to 1525 or 1527.2 The undated but presumably earliest statutes suggest the latter date, in the aftermath of the Sack of Rome.3 Because of the preoccupation with warfare, the “exercise of letters” had vanished and the

30 Parlour Games

“Intronati” – the “stunned,” who strove to be oblivious to the cares of the world4 – formed to revive the liberal disciplines and to encourage cultural innovation. And although they listed their interests to include traditional pursuits such as philosophy, poetry, and law in the vernacular as well as in Greek and Latin, their principal cultural agenda – like that of the Crusca Academy of Florence in its famous Vocabolario – would be the rehabilitation of the volgare after a century or more of humanist Latin dominance.5 In this vein their statutes also call for more original, non-traditional contributions, “giving freedom to anyone in the said congregation to be able, through the exercise especially of wit, to propose conclusions, mottoes, jargon, devices (imprese), new idioms, and whatever other type of inventions relating to literary studies.”6 This provision for somewhat eccentric non-scholarly invention speaks to the ludic dimension that would come to characterize many of the activities of the Intronati. The escapist and festive tenor of the academy, moreover, is adumbrated by two of the six precepts: “De mundo non curare” and “Gaudere.”7 The minimal age requirement was twenty, and prospective initiates would be assigned a nickname by the Archintronato (academy president) and, according to a later set of statutes, would have to present a composition to prove their merit.8 The other notable feature of the original set of statutes concerned the prohibition against any type of political discussion – an ingredient of their commitment to eschew the “cares of the world.”9 The academy’s interests instead would centre on purely cultural activities – whether lectures, compositions, or, eventually, comedies – with all public productions vetted and corrected by censors for quality control. The statutes of a much later constitution (probably from the early eighteenth century) reflect the Intronati’s major involvement in theatre in Siena, as three chapters deal with the stage and comedies.10 The statutes tell only part of the story of the Intronati. For one, they make no mention of the academy’s involvement with women. To appreciate the psychological appeal and social character of the academy we need to turn to Girolamo Bargagli’s Dialogo de’ giuochi (c. 1563–4) and his letter collection (1561–2). At the start of the second book of his Dialogo, Bargagli responds to criticism that academies like the Intronati, which foster dialogue with women, divert the well born from serious study and proper professional pursuits: “And all this, our severe censors argue, has been confirmed in the experience of our Academy of the Intronati, which was established by many fine and elevated intellects with the greatest promise in law and philosophy, who – allured by

The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women 31

this siren and almost enchanted by the song of poetry and amorous diversions – change their studies and leave their intended professions.”11 The result, the critics argue, has been a loss of learning to society, a loss of status and wealth to individuals, and a wasting of the “verdi anni” of young adults. The allusion to the “green years,” a trope found elsewhere in the literature of the Intronati,12 suggests that the academy served a particular function for unmarried young adults embarking on their preordained careers. Bargagli argues that blaming academies for individuals’ embrace of literature is most unfair – as neither Boccaccio nor Ariosto changed course owing to an academy. And, in fact, the real problem lies with fathers who choose a path for their sons that is “contrary to their natural instincts.”13 Indeed, society has truly profited from those who, following their “vocazione” and “proprie inclinazione,” have become illustrious, whereas had such individuals continued in pursuits that were “repugnant to their genius” they would have lived lives of mediocrity. And as for society’s benefits, he cites the incalculable contribution to the Italian language made by Petrarch, who abandoned his initial studies in law for letters.14 But if the academy did not necessarily subvert conventional goals and professions, it clearly was a place for young people to experiment with alternative lives – or delay commitment to an appointed career. In a letter book preserved from the years 1561–2, when Bargagli was himself in his mid-twenties, he reveals his rather grudging study of the law: “My studies are and have been this summer the law, because having seen how much my family values it and how much any other pursuit would displease them, I have resolved to place their happiness before my pleasure and genius.”15 He wrote this in a letter of November 1561 to Fausto Sozzini (recently driven out of Siena because of his Protestant sympathies),16 in which he discusses his reign as Archintronato, including his effort to mobilize other members to complete revisions of their joint comedy, the Ortensio. The competing claims of his literary life in the academy and his legal career are evident also in a letter to his law professor Giovanni Biringucci (also an Intronati member), to whom he sends the prologue of the Ortensio. Here he observes that the law has been rightly called a “perpetual turning of pages” and notes that he pursued this course of study “for the satisfaction of my family.”17 Arguing that usually little profit comes from what Horace called “Invita Minerva” (unwilling study), he nonetheless confesses that he is starting to warm a bit to the law.18 Still, it is revealing that he feels that this path was a family choice, not a personal one, and that his own talent and

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happiness had been subordinated. The comments in the Dialogo de’ giuochi concerning fathers’ suppression of the natural inclination of their children certainly applied to him. In the end, however, the outcome of this struggle was not the abandonment of the law but rather, within a few years, a lifelong embrace of it. Thus, in his own case, Bargagli was right in arguing that academies did not necessarily derail young professionals from their path. In fact, we might argue that they offered a necessary way station – perhaps a moratorium, as Erik Erikson would have characterized it, or an alternative, liminoid existence, as Victor Turner would define it.19 The institutional structure of the Intronati certainly suggests a wholly alternative existence apart from the conventional lay world. In his description of the academy’s practices at the start of Bk. 2 of his Dialogo de’ giuochi, Bargagli depicts a community closely resembling a secular version of a monastery. Though members sought a “tranquil life and … sincerity of customs so much admired by the ancient philosophers,” the institution had certain features that defined it as something more than an informal classical sodality. Its institutional structure could be characterized as falling somewhere between a lay confraternity (but with a fully secular and intellectual focus) and a monastic order: The Intronati, removed from ambitions, ceremonies, and vanities, lived under the authority of their Archintronato, as do loving and sweet brothers under the will of a benign father. And what seems more surprising the clothes, books, houses, villas, and other things were so common among them that one freely used that which belonged to another without seeking permission or otherwise without a word. And what seems more remarkable, they were so little avid for individual glory that they delighted in issuing personal efforts under the universal name of the academy.20

Although this portrait of community property is doubtless overblown, the separatist, ascetic themes certainly suggest a discrete, “other” community. And the publication of treatises or comedies under the name of the academy or under one’s academy nickname suggest an interest in alternate identity or anonymity. Thus Bargagli published his Dialogo under his nickname, Materiale, and the Intronati comedies often appeared as products of the academy in general. One potential benefit of these alternate identities was a cultural Nicodemism, as one could publish sometimes dubious or scandalous works under pseudonyms. But the appeal of an alternate identity should not

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be underestimated as being merely a defensive cover. Just as medieval monastic initiates took a new name to mark the drama of assuming a new religious identity, the members of the Intronati – including, surprisingly, even current or aspiring clerics – assumed a different persona from that prescribed by parents, class, or church. Especially for those in their twenties, this new identity could serve as an opportunity for self-fashioning, experimentation, and even outrageous behaviour. Clearly, Bargagli struggled against his prescribed profession and saw the academy as a haven for following his “true genius” and “vocazione.” So too, as we shall see below, did the destined cleric Alessandro Piccolomini in his younger years. The academy, then, could be a safety valve for the young, just as the adoption of new names and crafting of emblems in the group’s parlour games could serve as vehicles for self-definition or public redefinition. The anthropologist Arnold van Gennep has discussed the meaning of “naming” ceremonies in rituals of incorporation, not only for monks but also for knights, who would henceforth be identified with the emblem of the coat of arms.21 The new sixteenth-century academies replicated these rituals of incorporation, as new identities were proposed by or for entrants and approved by the academy members. The appeal of taking such names and the sixteenth-century fashion of non-aristocrats proposing personal emblems might indicate that the academies were in part serving as a venue for “coming-of-age” rituals. Despite their largely high-minded precepts, the Intronati and other academies also had a sexual dimension, which further reinforced their role in the rites of passage from puberty to adulthood. The device of the Intronati was a pumpkin (containing salt), crowned by two pestles, with the motto “Meliora latent” (The Better Things Are Hidden). This motto could indicate the sentiment that the true character of an individual lies beneath the exterior, or collectively within the academy, where the salt (often preserved in pumpkins) or seasoning is protected from the chaos of the world and the conventions of society. Of course, this motto could have sexual connotations as well, with the pestles as phallic symbols and the pumpkin gourd a scrotum.22 The potentially sexual character of the academy was dramatically illustrated by the highly pornographic work written by Antonio Vignali, one of the founders of the Intronati. His La cazzaria (The Book of the Prick) (c. 1525–7) was a dialogue on sexual anatomy and behaviour written in the basest vein.23 If the academy could be seen partly as a rite of passage into adulthood, it might be said to parallel the youth Abbeys of Misrule of rural communities, which

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also reflected fertility themes in, for instance, their ceremonies mocking inappropriate marriages.24 In his study of rites of incorporation, van Gennep found that sexual licence was sometimes a feature of the initiation.25 Thus, the underpinning of fertility – which Bargagli seemed to appreciate in his discussion of “striking” during the Lupercalia and Carnival – could partly explain the social function of the sixteenthcentury urban academy.26 But this rather timeless anthropological factor joins with the more timely historical norms of delayed marriages and wasted “green years” forced upon well-born youth of the day. In fact, these twenty-somethings were perhaps an age group in need of greater social coherence. Richard Trexler has shown that in Florence, these giovani were in a state of limbo between adolescence and full adulthood, especially beginning in the mid-fifteenth century when they were both excluded from the youth confraternities and ineligible for high public office.27 And, in fact, he notes that when such young men were forced out of the youth confraternities, this passage was marked by a change in clothing from the white of adolescence to the green of young adulthood – thus, the green years in this sense had something of a ritual tangibility.28 In admitting members from age twenty, then, the Intronati may have been offering an institutional umbrella for a neglected and unsettled age group. And while its membership did include more mature individuals, the vocational and sexual testimonies of young Intronati members in their twenties suggest that the academy did provide some psychological or social coherence to the troubled green years. Arguably the collective goal of the Intronati to address and appeal to women during these green years spoke to this sexual dimension. The academy’s first recorded production, the Comedia del Sacrificio de gli Intronati di Siena (The comedy of the Sacrifice of the Intronati of Siena)] was a comedy “celebrated in the games of Carnival in Siena, 1531 [new style, 1532],” in which a priest officiates at the altar of love. Thirty Intronati, who “have lost the flower of their green years / serving Love with all their heart / and these cruel, ungrateful women,” discard tokens of their beloved – a ring, a lock of hair – on the altar.29 Two of the men, whom we shall discuss further below, were Marcantonio Piccolomini (b. 1505), one of the founders of the academy and an interlocutor in Vignali’s La cazzaria and Bargagli’s Dialogo, and Alessandro Piccolomini (b. 1508), future Archbishop of Patrasso.30 Both of these men were in their midtwenties at the time, as was Girolamo Bargagli when he wrote his Dialogo. Even for these two men who eventually entered clerical life – a

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career for which Alessandro was groomed from an early age and to which Marcantonio turned in his later years – the academy served as a venue for a real or vicarious amatory life. Bargagli was at least partly correct in refuting the charge that the academy derailed individuals from their destined serious pursuits. Whether offering an opportunity to weigh the choice of profession or freely to beseech women before or outside of marriage, the academy clearly served as a transitional stage for young men. Yet, if this academy did not necessarily alter an individual’s life choice, it did perhaps offer an opportunity to alter society. Victor Turner has argued that the world of ritual play resides on the margin (limen) of society. Thus, this world, which at Carnival might invert the hierarchies of society, could either reinforce the normal order by its temporary suspension or offer models of change. He suggests that the liminal often characterizes tribal society and is more universal in nature (compelling everyone’s participation), more cyclical (occurring around seasonal moments), and generally reinforces the status quo.31 He proposes another category of the “liminoid” zone, more marginal but also more permanent in nature, more freely chosen, and more prone to offering critiques of the status quo.32 The sixteenth-century Italian academies perfectly fit this category, as their activities allowed a counter-cultural persona for individuals (even into old age), and their parlour games offered challenges to social convention. Their Carnival parlour games in fact signalled the transition from the traditionally ritualized inverted masked events to a subtler ludic realm with more promise of permanence throughout the calendar and throughout society. And by bringing women into their games, they altered one of the most rigid social segregations of Western society and offered women as well as men the opportunity for social experimentation. Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini and the Promotion of Women: Laudomia Forteguerri, Aurelia Petrucci, and Frasia Marzi Was the Intronati’s interest in women merely amatory? Or merely a bourgeois version of the courtly? Or was it something more? The answer is that it is variously all three – even in some cases within one and the same individual. Two figures, Alessandro Piccolomini and his cousin Marcantonio, are emblematic of the complicated and changing attitudes towards women on the part of the Sienese male elite. Both figures, as we saw above, had a role in the Intronati’s first comedy in 1532,

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depicting the sacrifices of discouraged Intronati on the altar of love – and in this both figures would seem to reflect traditional courtly gestures of entreaty to women. But both figures would also develop more serious appraisals of female virtue.33 In the case especially of Alessandro these amatory and admiring postures would seem at times overtly contradictory. Receiving his first benefices in 1517 at the age of nine (and further ones in 1523–4), Alessandro was destined for ecclesiastical life – no surprise, given the family name he shared with Pope Pius II and Pius III. He was ordained in 1555, and the culmination of his clerical life came in 1574 when he was named coadjutor of the Archbishop of Siena and himself Archbishop of Patrasso.34 He is most prominently known, however, as one of the first great popularizers of the Cinquecento press, as he published various scientific and philosophical works in Italian and translated several classical texts into the vernacular.35 Two of these scientific works, the La sfera del mondo and the De le stelle fisse (jointly published in 1540), he dedicated to Laudomia Forteguerri, a married woman with whom he clearly was infatuated.36 His ambivalence towards her – and perhaps women in general – was particularly encapsulated by two works he wrote for her. One was a scandalous dialogue published in 1539 under Piccolomini’s academy name, Stordito (Bewildered). This work, the Dialogo della bella creanza delle donne (or, the Raffaella), depicts an aging woman counseling a married woman to sow some wild oats while she is still young.37 She should avail herself of whatever opportunity exists – at parties, banquets, etc. – to find an appropriate lover between twentyfive and thirty years of age (and ideally twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old). Is it not sinful to betray one’s husband? – the young woman asks. No, Raffaella assures her, because “husbands and wives are chosen blindly without ever being seen, and a great fortune it would be if they would love each other in their hearts and not through ceremony, through obligation, or, shall we say, through force.”38 In a world of coerced matches, the realm of parties and games offers the opportunity to find a true love, freely chosen. Raffaella (or rather, Piccolomini) also attacks the double standard that deems that any suspicion of such behaviour brings irreparable disrepute upon women but is a matter of some honour among men. In fact, Raffaella’s aim is to give advice as to how a woman can accomplish this adultery with cleverness and prudence so as to preserve secrecy.39 Offering her counsel as an act of neighbourly charity, saying the Lord has sent her to instruct young Margarita not

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to squander her youth, Raffaella assumes a religious air. Piccolomini even has her discourse on the casuistry of sin: as we are all innately sinners, better to sin in youth than to commit more serious sin in later years (and regret one’s spent youth).40 In all of this, the figure of Raffaella virtually becomes the anti-model of a confessor. This treatise allows Piccolomini, the intended priest, to assume a ludic academy identity as Stordito and depict a Raffaella who counsels a libertine lifestyle obviously at odds with the values of priestly vocation. For Piccolomini, as for Antonio Vignali, the mask of the academy allows for a licentious literary pursuit. And for Piccolomini, as for Girolamo Bargagli, the academy allows a chance to depart from his prescribed professional course. For the young “Margarita” of the dialogue, moreover, the ludic world of the party, sinful as it is, allows the young Everywife the chance for an alternate life of self-realization. Scandalous though it may have been, the Raffaella was not merely the rebellious piece of libertinism that Vignagli’s pornographic treatise was. True, Piccolomini’s fellow Intronati members and early biographers tended to submerge this work – and Piccolomini himself later renounced it.41 For the same reason, scholars tend to see it as the outlier in relation to his more upstanding and moral writings on women, such as the De la institutione di tutta la vita de l’huomo nato nobile e in città libera (1542) and the Orazione in lode delle donne (1545).42 And yet beneath the apparent discrepancies in these works there lie crucial points of overlap in Piccolomini’s view of the circumstances and promise of contemporary women. The Raffaella, while encouraging immorality, is not necessarily contemptuous of women. In fact, in his preface “to women who will read” his dialogue, he claims that men are wrong to hold the view that women are incapable of anything but “frivolous and enfeebled discourses,” and he argues that “women are able to discuss, judge, counsel, and see to any matter of importance as well as men; and if there is an advantage, it is in their favour.”43 As we have seen, this work not only condemns men for their double standard of sexual behaviour, but also, in objecting to loveless arranged marriage, countenances a necessary outlet. Laudomia herself was married by the age of twenty, and the arguments of the dialogue were perhaps as much for her liberation as they were owing to Piccolomini’s (likely) own desire for her.44 This was the historical reality underlying the serious-minded point of the Raffaella: social norms “tyrannically”45 discriminated against women, arranged marriages trapped them, and festive social gatherings were their only hope for escape from domestic oppression. Thus, as the ludic

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academy and pseudonym allowed the future priest Piccolomini to be temporarily “free,” the ludic setting and the advice of the Raffaella prescribed “freedom” for Margarita and Laudomia. In this sense, the ludic genre proposed a measure of social reform, albeit one whose adulterous solutions could never be taken seriously. With the writing of the Institutione, however, the satirical reforms of the Raffaella are mainstreamed in more traditional and constructive terms. This massive manual on the happy and proper life was written at the occasion of the birth of Laudomia’s son Alessandro in 1539 (her third child within four years). Piccolomini, the child’s godfather, composed the work as a gift, traditional upon such occasions. He intended it to be a primer for the boy’s education, directed to the mother in the first books dealing with the early years and then to the youth himself in later ones. Despite the fact that the treatise, concerned with the shaping of a young man, necessarily reflects traditional patriarchal values, some surprisingly feminist tones also pervade the work. At the most fundamental level, Piccolomini credits his inspiration to an exposition he had heard Laudomia give on Dante’s Paradiso 31, concerning happiness. “Channelling” her insights, he draws upon material from Aristotle’s Ethics, the Ps.-Aristotelian (i.e., Xenophon’s) Economics, and Plato’s Republic. The circular flow is telling: Laudomia’s insights on Dante supposedly lead Piccolomini to summarize pertinent classical learning that he in turn repackages and gives back to her in the vernacular. He has likely embellished Laudomia’s role as catalyst,46 but this account of the genesis of his treatise does reflect the intersection of three forces in the first half of the sixteenth century: the popularization of classical thought, the vernacular press, and women as new audience and participants in moral discourse. Laudomia, moreover, is mentioned throughout the work: as an accomplished poet, as an exemplar of “urbanity,” as a model of heroic virtue. As for the first of these talents, he mentions a commentary he made on one of her poems, presumably the lecture he presented to the Paduan Academy of the Infiammati in 1541.47 He praises her social gifts in a chapter entitled “On Urbanity and Its Extremes,” in which he discusses the needed “recreation of the mind” that can be found “in some honest games, witticisms, and jokes.”48 Here he warns between the extremes of offensive buffoonery and excessive reserve, noting that the sophisticated individual will tread the middle way and be attentive to time, place, and company. He tells Alessandro that this virtue is exhibited by his mother “from whose splendid wit and invincible propriety

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I have heard born the subtlest and most ingenious witticisms and sayings, full of such great delight … a true sign of the great judgment and propriety that are joined in her.”49 This ludic social presence suggests that Laudomia was no wallflower. And, in fact, in the following chapter on modesty (verecundia), which Piccolomini praises as a particular virtue of women, it is revealing that he does not cite Laudomia.50 Instead, in the chapter “On Heroic Virtue and Its Extremes” he praises her as trumping “in this heroic virtue not only any great woman found in our time but any from antiquity” and making “our city happy, famous, and divine.”51 Piccolomini’s comments on women in this work, however, transcend the particular case of Laudomia. For one, the social circumstances that drive young women to adultery in the Raffaella are constructively addressed to some degree in the Institutione, and the festive gatherings that are opportunities for sin in the earlier dialogue now become legitimate outlets for women. In the chapter “On Conversation and Entertainment With Noble Women,” Piccolomini alludes to women’s forbearance under male authority: “through the force and dominion that men have exercised over them, compelled and constrained they suffer many difficulties and yet nonetheless most prudently and patiently they endure with cheerful face and happy heart.”52 This being so, Piccolomini urges Laudomia’s son, it is all the more important that in social settings men “honour, appreciate, and exalt women,” especially those “rare women who come along sometimes who are so excellent, magnanimous, ingenious, and virtuous that they astonish men who are not stupid.”53 The festive occasion thus is praised as a welcome relief to the confinement imposed on women by men, and rather than a venue for adultery (as in the Raffaella) it is potentially a public setting for male elevation of women and appreciation of female personality. Likewise, Piccolomini implicitly recommends reforms in marital customs. In a chapter entitled “Whether True Love Is Through Choice or Through Destiny” he emphasizes the importance of choice, warning of the dangers of those who “through force and violence are induced to love and not through free election, through which merits and demerits and praise and blame are weighed and measured.”54 This emphasis on free choice recalls the comments in the Raffaella of women who, coerced into marriage blindly, have the chance to choose their lovers in adulterous affairs. Thus, in this regard, Piccolomini – although assuming in the Institutione the inevitability that spouses will stray emotionally – hints at a reform that might lessen the desire for adultery.55 Similarly, in the

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realm of marital relations, he urges that husbands should allow wives a proper sphere of autonomy and a measure of freedom: that is, they should cede to them authority and governance over the household and should permit them latitude to visit and socialize at various events.56 The Institutione partly resolves problems satirically depicted and cynically resolved in the Raffaella. Rather than offering irreconcilable visions of immorality vs. morality (and misogyny vs. feminism), both of these works wrestle with issues of female freedom and autonomy. And in fact the ludic identity and licence of Stordito may have helped to articulate and dramatize problems later resolved by the moral philosopher Piccolomini. The arc of Piccolomini’s development as a social reformer, moreover, would peak with a revised edition of the Institutione, published in 1560. Conor Fahy observes that this second version, retitled Institutione morale, includes a new chapter on love that argues for the complete union of “amor umano” (delightful Platonic love) with “amor coniugale” (marital, familial affection) – thereby moving beyond the disjuncture between these two found in the first version of the treatise.57 In other genres as well, Piccolomini, writing under his own name, praises women in serious terms. In 1542 he composed an Orazione fatta in morte di Aurelia Petrucci, which reveals that his admiration for women extended beyond Laudomia. This funeral oration for Aurelia ran to thirty-eight pages in its eighteenth-century edition. His praise of her does contain some typically patriarchal, left-handed compliments of women: for instance, he asserts “that if there is any part of women that is not good, it was not found in her; and all those important qualities that befit men were to be found in her so completely that, lacking any of the imperfections of women and abounding in the perfection of men, a most singular figure, as we saw her, she bore to the world.”58 But more important was his praise of her for qualities not usually associated with women. Her face was beautiful in its being “not soft and frail, but rather of a certain masculine mien” (aer virile).59 He also emphasizes Aurelia’s eloquence, a quality that in the previous century the humanist Leonardo Bruni, for one, considered irrelevant to the education of women: “Aurelia Petrucci was naturally most eloquent, as everyone knew, it being evident that she was accustomed to speak with vehemence, sweetness, expression, and disposition of her words that to hear her was a great marvel.”60 And like a good rhetorician she knew how to trim her words to the audience, whether “familiarly in domestic matters, sweetly and cleverly in respectable pleasures and recreations of the mind, gravely on important occasions, and in sum always spoke

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appropriately according to the subject.”61 This quality, which enabled her to speak with visiting dignitaries and to protect the interests of her family “with such acuteness of wit” that she “always knew the mind of people she spoke with before they themselves did.”62 Eloquence obviously is not only a social skill but potentially a political one as well. And Piccolomini soon revealed his polemical purpose in this paean to her eloquence and judgment: “considering the discourse and prudence of this woman, I do not know if that tradition that women not involve themselves in public affairs was, with Aurelia living, a cause of greater good or harm to your city – it being that because of that law this Republic was deprived of guidance that more fully would have availed of the goodness and judgment of such a great woman.”63 In fact, during her life Aurelia did find one political outlet available to women: poetry. When Lodovico Domenichi published the first-ever collection of all-female poetry (in Lucca in 1559), the first piece in the anthology was a poem by Aurelia on the political discord of her city. Granddaughter of the famous Pandolfo Petrucci, virtual ruler of Siena from 1497 until his death in 1512, Aurelia was a member of Siena’s controversial first family. Even after the expulsion of the Petrucci family in 1524, infighting between the Noveschi party and the new Libertini party provoked the intervention of first the pope and then the emperor, who installed Spanish troops in the city beginning in 1530 to control the situation. Aurelia’s poem is not dated but likely alludes to this legacy of chaos that provoked Alessandro Piccolomini himself to write a piece on civic unity. In any case, Aurelia’s poem opened with the lines “Where does your valour stand, my dear Country / Since miserable you forget the servile yoke / And only nurture in yourself discordant thoughts / Prodigal of your harm, stingy of good?”64 In some fashion, then, it appears that Aurelia’s political eloquence was able to enter the political arena of her troubled Siena.65 Piccolomini’s interest in proclaiming a public voice for women was also apparent in an oration that praised women in generic terms. This brief Orazione in lode delle donne, published in 1545, appeared the year after the Italian translation of Agrippa von Nettesheim’s influential De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus – and, in fact, appeared in print jointly with that work. Perhaps influenced by Florindo Cerreta’s unpersuasive dating, several scholars ascribe the treatise to around 1538, just before Piccolomini left Siena for his studies in Padua and Bologna, but I think it much more likely he wrote it after his return to city in 1543.66 The Orazione, “presented in Siena to the Intronati,” praises women’s

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prudence and capacity for political authority with a simple syllogism. A survey of households governed by women and those that are not reveals women to be effective administrators; men who govern their households poorly govern a state poorly; therefore, women who govern a household well will govern a state well.67 He also offers views about female sexual behaviour, countering the male canard that “were it not for the fear of shame or the fear of husbands and others, there would not be found a chaste women.”68 First, he says that fear of shame (though not, hypocritically on their part, shame over sexual misbehaviour) also motivates males but that this is seen as a mark of honour for them. But more important is his advice that men loosen the reins in their control over women: “And when they [male critics], these perfidious tongues, would say that women restrain from sin through fear, I would say this is most false, because we see that the more a woman is conceded freedom by her husband to do what she wants, the more she is known to be wise, chaste, and perfect.”69 As in the Institutione, then, once again Piccolomini urges reforms in marital relations that would give women greater latitude in their social life. Finally, in the Orazione he argues that men’s disparagement of women is owing to their own disappointments over unrequited love.70 This is thought to have been the animus behind Boccaccio’s misogyny in his Corbaccio, and indeed it may have coloured Piccolomini’s own depiction of women in the Raffaella, in that the newly married Laudomia would likely never be his. Despite Piccolomini’s serious publications under his own name in the early 1540s, the ludic persona continued to exist. In 1544, not long after his return to Siena from Padua and Bologna, he wrote his comedy L’Alessandro.71 A bawd’s flattering reference in the play to “Monna Raffaella” proves that the renunciation of the scandalous play applied only to Piccolomini the moral philosopher, not to Stordito the comic writer.72 But once again the two personae of Piccolomini have more overlap than is at first obvious. Piccolomini uses the play to deal with social issues not so much in the scandalous extreme of the Raffaella, but in the softer, satiric “middle.” In his preface, he says that he is writing the play to renew the literary interests of the Sienese women, who have recently descended into more vulgar pastimes.73 He promises that there is much that is didactic for all in the play, defends comedy against priggish detractors, and suggests that it might be more useful for the Intronati to spend their funds on staging a play than supporting “some big fat friar.”74 He was true to his promise that the play had redeeming social value. The story involves two young lovers separated as youths and

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forced by circumstances and by relatives to live disguised as members of the opposite sex. A second plot involves a young law student’s love for a girl already promised by her father to someone else. Both couples eventually unite and prove the durability of true love to triumph over the (metaphorical) disguises and tangible constraints imposed by society. The theme of sexual disguise or inversion was a common one in the Intronati’s plays, and it perhaps spoke to the function of the ludic world of (the) play to empower women in a man’s world. The second joint production of the Intronati in 1532, in which Piccolomini had a hand, was the Ingannati (The deceived), produced a few days after their comedy, the Sacrificio, discussed earlier. The Ingannati purportedly grew out of the Intronati’s attempt to appease women offended by the Sacrificio, which in turn seems to have grown out of the parlour game of Befana, or “fortunes” (venture), which occurred at Twelfth Night. (The legacy of the game continued to be strong later in the sixteenth century, and the Ingannati itself is thought to have indirectly influenced Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.)75 In this work, a young woman, disguised as a boy, foils her father’s attempt to force her into a loveless “May-December” match. Thus, in this play as well the practice of arranged marriage is thwarted.76 As for Piccolomini’s Alessandro of 1544, as a piece of social commentary it splits the difference between the libertine Raffaella and the moralizing Institutione. Taken together, the three works form a continuum of social commentary dramatizing the constrictions on the freedom of women and proposing solutions at various levels of fantasy and reality. This continuum reveals how the ludic and real worlds were constantly interpenetrating – and not only was this true in the realm of literature but also, as we shall see, it was true in the world of play itself. *** The potential interchange between the ludic realm – and specifically that of the parlour game – and more serious issues can also be seen in the case of Alessandro’s cousin, Marcantonio Piccolomini. One of the founders of the Intronati, Marcantonio was an interlocutor in Vignali’s pornographic treatise of the 1520s and a major speaker in Girolamo Bargagli’s Dialogo de’ giuochi of the 1560s. In 1538 he composed a Ragionamento involving Laudomia Forteguerri, Girolama Carli de’ Piccolomini, and (in a cameo role) the dedicatee Frasia Marzi. In his dedication of the treatise Marcantonio suggests that he was inspired to write the work after hearing reports of a recent discussion by the two

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principal speakers concerning the philosophical and theological question of whether a perfect woman is formed by chance or by design of nature (or God). He wants to present a dialogue that refutes the misconceptions of those who “think women are not capable of conversing profoundly or speaking or understanding something other than the most commonplace things and who, drawing on their false opinion, have many times reproved those who in their books have interposed women speaking of philosophy or some other science.”77 In this work the women cite the likes of Plato and allude to the contemporary theologians Aonio Paleario and Agostino Museo.78 Several times they refer to writings or disputations of various Intronati members touching on these subjects.79 Although the philosophical sophistication of the female interlocutors is an embellishment – and Piccolomini takes pains to have the women allude to the Intronati influences – the work clearly aims to convey a sense of the ideal and, likely, the partial reality of intellectual exchange between Intronati men and Sienese women. Girolama alludes once to the many times she has heard Laudomia “dispute Platonically,” and later Laudomia marvels at Girolama’s erudition, saying she wishes that she could be heard by those detractors of women “who dare to say that it is difficult to believe that women can speak of philosophy.”80 Girolama names several other Sienese women capable of such reflections – Frasia Venturi, Camilla Saracini, Isifile Toscana, Atalanta Donati, and Contessa Margherita de’ Salvi d’Elci – and Laudomia alludes to a recent disquisition “in favour of women” presented by an Intronato at a party the previous year (i.e., 1537).81 At a gathering at the home of Atalanta Donati this Intronato reportedly proffered a praise of women to disabuse Contessa d’Elci of her gloom that Nature was born female; this academy member was also identified as one always ready to speak “to the benefit of women.”82 As Rita Belladonna suggests, this Intronato was undoubtedly Alessandro Piccolomini, whose promotion of women thus seems to have had currency and impact as early as 1537.83 Aside from its flattering portrait of the female mind, Marcantonio’s Ragionamento is also revealing in that it links female intellectualism to the emerging parlour games. At the start of the dialogue a reference is made to a recent discussion of the question of whether misfortune weighs more heavily on a woman of noble spirit or on one who is rough and lowly. This topic arose “in a certain game in which the rendering of forfeits [or tokens] fell to Signor Marchese del Vasto, who having returned a necklace to Lady Frasia [Venturi], asked, as a reward (as you know is the custom), that she please clarify this question.”84 She gave

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her response, the Marchese responded, and the two then tilted for more than an hour. This incident tells us three things. First, it suggests that these parlour games could lead to or inspire relatively cerebral discussions. Second, described as occurring “a few years before in the home of Lady Camilla Saracina,” it expressly locates the setting of such games in the home of the woman, rather than her husband.85 Third, it reveals how these Intronati games involved women who actively participated, rather than merely watched the men offer up “sacrifices” to them or perform Carnival plays.86 Finally, Marcantonio does not shrink from depicting women in his dialogue in an intellectually combative and even controversial light. When the terms of their debate begin to emerge, Girolama urges Laudomia to “arm yourself well,” because she is ready to engage the issue “with sword drawn.” Laudomia replies that “such has been the phrase advanced by men in battle rather than women,” but allows that she does not see “that there are arms capable of defending the contrary of my view and for this reason I believe the fight will be short.”87 This martial language is complemented later in the dialogue by theological content that flirts with the heretical. When the discussion turns to the seeming contradiction between unalterable divine predestination and an allowance of some role for human free will, Laudomia poses the crucial question: “Oh, do you think that, without the grace that He [God] concedes in our acts, they can be good and accepted?” Girolama presents the orthodox line in her reply: “Certain preachers of the day would say no, although they are few and opposed by all and reasonably so in my view.”88 Rita Belladonna argues that Girolama is suggesting that Laudomia has been influenced here by the predestinarian positions of Agostino Museo, who had preached in Siena in 1537. It is revealing that, as Diana Robin observes, Laudomia is assigned a Protestant position, given the similarly defiant role she will later assume in the siege of Siena.89 Frasia Marzi, to whom Marcantonio dedicated his treatise, is the subject of the treatise’s principal debate on the formation of the perfect woman. She enters the dialogue at the end and affirms that the perfect woman is produced not by chance but by the design of nature aided by “God, first mover.”90 Only afterwards is she told that she herself was the perfect woman in question – Piccolomini thus succeeds in simultaneously flattering women with an all-female discussion of lofty philosophical matters while flattering this particular woman in the process. His admiration for Marzi is also evident in his subsequent biography

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of her, a lengthy tribute running to twenty-five folios. The title of the undated manuscript, La vita de la nobilissima Madonna Arithea de’ Marzi, reflects Piccolomini’s etymological ploy in the treatise to create a new first name for Frasia by combining the Greek words “Aris” for Mars (obviously playing on “Marzi”) and “thea” (goddess).91 The biography merits attention both for its topos of women’s disenfranchisement from political life and the inversely linked theme of Marzi’s fame in the social realm. Piccolomini’s extended biography is something of a departure from the normal praise of women (other than that devoted to saints or royalty) in that it is not in verse, the usual format for the flattery and/or amatory praise of a contemporary female equal. Recognizing that “I well know how little the base style of prose can praise the high virtue of others” and that “verse avails so much more than prose in praising others,” he nonetheless attempts to describe her virtue.92 After tracing the ancient lineage of the Marzi name, Piccolomini recounts her early life. When her mother died young, her father placed her in an order of nuns (which included her aunt), where she received a proper education. Addressing his comments to Marzi herself, Piccolomini continues the story: when you came of age, you married “in order to please your father,”93 and though still a girl (fanciulla) when your husband died, your father “remarried you again and you most obediently pleased him.”94 Twice then Piccolomini’s account reveals his own awareness that the young Marzi – like so many – dutifully entered marriage under parental pressure. Aside from the family, the state also limited female freedom. When discussing Marzi’s forceful personal and intellectual presence, Piccolomini hails her “mature discourse, solid judgment, wise counsel, exquisite reasoning, sage words that are always frolicking in a thousand charms, or the fine and learned matters illustrated by the lit torches of your words.”95 He then makes a pointed distinction concerning what he will not address: I will indicate only part of the courteous and shrewd manners that you exhibit in living. I will not speak of the dangerous wars, victorious deeds of armies, cities, and provinces, and the justice and foresight in ruling subjects and keeping citizens at peace as pertains to emperors. Not that you as a woman would not know how to govern and rule whatever empire; indeed in Macedonia, Egypt, Sparta, Syria, and Scythia many women were found to hold greater authority than the kings themselves and many also

The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women 47 there were who carried such great weight on their feminine shoulders and so bravely that they greatly surpassed men in virtue and valour.96

For exemplars Piccolomini cites the case of Semiramis, legendary queen of the Assyrians who ruled after the death of her husband and invaded India, and Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae who conquered the mighty King Cyrus of Persia to avenge her son’s death.97 He then hails Marzi herself as an equestrian Mars: “Do you not seem to be not merely a descendant of Mars but Mars himself, given that you take a spirited steed for a thousand rides as a valiant knight?”98 He concludes in this section that it is the “iniquity of the times – following the opinion of Thucydides [Pelop. War 2. 45] who did not want even the name of women to leave the room – and not lack of valour that makes you unable to show how high your virtue would be able to fly.”99 In invoking the “iniquity of the times,” Marcantonio – like Alessandro Piccolomini in his funeral oration for Aurelia Petrucci, but in more detail – siezes the opportunity to critique the suppression of women and implicitly urge reform. If, however, the political and military realms were closed to Frasia Marzi’s intellect and talent, another public world apparently was not. Piccolomini discusses in some detail her capacity for debate, arguing that the “sweetness of her words” is often overheard by “those unworthy of them.” Unlike Scipio Africanus, whose “continuous conversation” with the populace won him great respect, Marzi, who “always in debate overcom[es] everyone else,” does not enjoy such universal acclaim, since many are incapable of fully appreciating her reasoning.100 In comparing Frasia to Scipio, Piccolomini paints a portrait of a woman with a particular verbal public persona. Moreover, he goes on to detail her discourse as endowed with exceptional wit, quickness, and subtlety: “You also embellish … your fine and learned arguments with such charm of graceful witticisms that it seems a miracle to people who hear them, [and] with this you bedazzle them such that they marvel less at that which before astonished them. And you are not less quick in rebutting blows that may come your way than prompt in attacking and with such charm and remarkable skill that you do not make any offence.”101 He further contends that as much as some may try to learn such skill, “I make the argument that mother nature cannot be imitated by art in all cases, and I agree with those who contend that quickness of wit is a true gift of nature, that whoever lacks a liberal nature vainly labours

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with art to acquire it, and that witty charm does not come from anything other than quickness of wit (prontezza dell’ ingegno).”102 Piccolomini here lays out a particular type of natural talent – namely, quickness of wit – that can be demonstrated in the social realm and cannot necessarily be learned or acquired. To women lacking political opportunity and university education, this exercize of wit is a promising arena for fame. And in fact – and this is his most intriguing comment in this section – he says he would like one day to write a history of Marzi’s witticisms: “I have a great desire to embellish this history of your fine sayings and charming witticisms, both in responding and in speaking, but I am disposed to leave it for now.”103 This notion of a history of a woman’s witticisms certainly solidifies the idea of cleverness as an avenue for female fame and signals the Intronati’s ever greater interests in promoting a ludic persona for women.104 Taken together, what do these works of the 1530s and 1540s from Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini tell us about the relationship between Intronati men and Sienese women? Certainly, both of these men recognize and promote the festive, ludic realm as a possible venue for female escape, freedom, and renown. And both do so against a backdrop of social and political constraints on women. In genres of moral philosophy, eulogy, and biography they offer praise of women collectively and individually while often critiquing social custom and recommending social reform. As two of the most influential Intronati of the first generation, they illustrate that the academy’s overtures to women could have motives and ramifications beyond idle flirtation or studied seduction. The Women at the Walls The siege of Siena in the 1550s offered an opportunity for women to come centre stage in the defence of the city. Two incidents in particular became lore in the history of the siege and in the mythology of Sienese women. From the time of the second generation of Intronati (in the 1560s and 1570s) until the era of Girolamo Gigli (in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries), these siege episodes would be interwoven with the history and historiography of Sienese parlour games. As we shall see, moreover, Laudomia Forteguerri figures prominently in linking the first generation of the Intronati’s promotion of women to this later involvement and depiction of women in the public life of the city.

The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women 49

First, a few words on Sienese political (mis)fortunes in the first half of the sixteenth century. After the exile in 1524 of the Petrucci family, ending that house’s unrivalled domination of the city since the rise of Pandolfo Petrucci in the 1480s, the political infighting continued. The old Noveschi (the Nine) party, hoping to take up the legacy of the Petrucci, were toppled by the Libertini. Because the pope favoured the Noveschi, he intervened in the politics of the city in the late 1520s, provoking the concerns of the emperor, who countered by installing imperial troops in the city beginning in 1530. Charles V’s Spanish troops became an increasingly oppressive force, and they were expelled in 1552. Imperial forces soon returned, however, to besiege the city with the help of Florence, and this alliance provoked the entry of the French, who aided the Sienese in their cause. In 1555 the city fell; two years later Philip II ceded Siena to the Medici Duke, and the city thus came fully under the control of Florence.105 Accounts of the siege of Siena are especially noteworthy for an event occurring in December and January 1552–3, in which a large portion of citizenry both male and female gathered to build a fortification outside of the Porta Camollia. A well-known account of this episode – and one that circulated Sienese fame to French and English readers – came in the Commentaires of Blaise de Monluc, who had been dispatched by the French king Henry II to be governor of the city. Unfortunately, Monluc was not an eyewitness to the event, as he arrived in the city in July 1554, and wrote of events that were reported to him by Marshal Paul de Thermes.106 Nonetheless, Monluc’s paean to the Sienese women who played a leading role in the event and his tribute to them would be cited by later writers. Indeed, Monluc expressly hoped his commemoration would be long-lived, as he opened his account by saying, “may it never be, Sienese ladies, that I not immortalize your name as long as the book of Monluc will live; for, in truth, you are worthy of immortal praise if ever women were.”107 He then describes how three thousand of the women of Siena mustered in three groups, each led by a woman wearing her colours and bearing an insignia – Lady Forteguerri, Lady Piccolomini, and Lady Livia Fausta – and all of these women, “ladies or bourgeoisie, were armed with picks, shovels, hods, and faggots. And with this equipment … they proceeded to begin the fortification, singing a song in honour of France possibly composed by the Sienese poet Laura Civoli.”108 When Ugurgieri Azzolini compiled his biographies of notable Sienese women – probably the first prosopograhy of such women – in his Pompe sanesi of 1649, he included chapters on these three

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women leading the squadrons. He praised their “masculine vivacity of spirit,” quoted in full an Italian translation of Monluc’s account of the event, and cited the subsequent comment in the Commentaries that, when the Duke of Alva was assaulting Rome, Monluc praised the bravery of the Sienese in general and opined that “I dare say that I would always be more assured to defend Siena with only Sienese women to help me than to defend Rome with the Romans there present.”109 A far more detailed account of the women at the walls can be found in Ascanio Centorio’s La seconda parte de’ commentarii delle guerre, and de’ successi più notabile, avvenuti così in Europa come in tutte le parti del mondo dall’anno MDLIII fino à tutto il MDLX. This account, drawing on the earliest record of the event by Marco Guazzo, includes some details that are revealing of the semiotics of this female martial event and the larger social dynamics of the occasion: And the women – not to remain idle nor be outdone in virtue by the men – on the day of St Anthony [Jan. 17] 1553 congregated to make their appearance, led by three women each with an insignia in hand and with drummers, and these women were Lady Tarsia Forteguerra dressed in violet with an insignia of the same colour hoisted in round shape, with ankle boots of violet velvet … with a motto that read Pur che sia vero. The second, Lady Fausta Piccolomini, dressed all in red in that same fashion with an insignia all of red, with a white cross and a motto that read Pur che non la butto. And the last woman, Lady Livia Fausta, dressed all in white in the same way as the other two, with a white insignia that had in the middle an olive branch with a motto that read Pur ch’io l’habbia. And all three in this guise went throughout the city gathering all the other ladies and artisan women to number more than three thousand, a sight indeed as beautiful as ever seen and of not little marvel to the Cardinal of Ferrara and Monsignor de Thermes, with each one seeing to what degree the women, for love of liberty, did not refuse death, travail, nor any labour. And thus in formation they went all around crying “France, France,” and each one of them carried a faggot to the fort of Porta Camollia, which at that hour was built.”110

There is some discrepancy as to the identity of Forteguerri here, identified only as “Signora Forteguerra” by Monluc and as “Tarsia Forteguerra” by Centorio. Ugurgieri Azzolini seems to have been uncertain about her identity, perhaps chiefly because of his reliance on Centorio’s account, which he cites. In his chapter he identifies the

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other two women’s first names, but leaves Forteguerri’s blank, and he includes a separate biography of Laudomia Forteguerri that makes no mention of the incident: clearly, he is baffled by the “Tarsia” identification.111 I have found no other traces of a Tarsia Forteguerri, and I agree with those scholars who identify her as Laudomia.112 Diana Robin presents the most persuasive evidence for Laudomia’s candidacy by citing a contemporary praise of her found in Giuseppe Betussi’s 1556 Imagini del tempio della Signora donna Giovanna Aragona. At one point in this work, Betussi discusses the “hard and obstinate siege” of Siena, praises the city’s “rare women,”113 and enshrines Laudomia with an image in the temple (as Fame) by saying that there is no enemy so fierce as not to be intimidated by Laudomia’s “protection” of the city.114 This homage, so close upon the events of the siege, would certainly square with Laudomia’s having had a prominent role in the defence of the city. Moreover, her assuming a military role as captain was even more plausible, given her half-brother’s political and military roles in the city. In addition to his stints as an ambassador for the state, Nicomedo Forteguerri was appointed captain of one of the companies defending the city during the siege.115 As for the other two women heading the female brigade, Livia Fausti and Fausta Piccolomini, I have found no other details. Centorio’s account is particularly important for providing the mottoes of the three women.116 Vague as they are, these mottoes are significant for several reasons beyond their equivalency to male military standards. As we saw in the previous chapter, one of the most popular parlour games discussed by Girolamo Bargagli was the Game of Imprese, which allowed women to construct their own devices and mottoes. Furthermore, as we shall see in the following chapter, Scipione Bargagli, who sets his game book in the circumstance of the siege, presents a Game of Insignias and Banners. Did Sienese parlour games promote this specific martial display and, more importantly, did they in any way inspire this moment of female involvement in the defence of the city? A century and a half later, the Intronato Girolamo Gigli will make the explicit connection. In a letter he wrote to a fellow Intronato, the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi, “Dell’ origine, e processo dell’Antica Sanese Academia,” he discusses the long-distant siege of Siena and praises the three women, “our Amazons,” who raising “each her own conceived device, explicated in the amorous parties, served armed and ready as far as these more manly devices go.”117 Perhaps drawing on oral tradition or perhaps conflating history with

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mythology, Gigli (as we shall see in chapter 6) would link the martial and ludic traditions of the female devices. Returning to Centorio’s account we find, furthermore, that he argues that the women’s boldness inspired (or shamed) other segments of the population to come forth. Owing to the women’s example “all the gentlemen started to do a similar thing and every day there came forth some leading figure with his insignia to the fort in imitation of those valiant women, and in such a manner that the priests and monks pressured the Archbishop that they should all go there, carrying each of them something to complete the fortifications.”118 Finally, when the archbishop came upon the scene and encountered maidens and matrons singing praises of the Virgin Mary, a religious procession ensued.119 In all, then, this narrative suggests that the women provoked a total mobilization of the population, male and female, lay and clerical. It is also worth noting how the agency of these women in the crisis in the 1550s compared to events surrounding an earlier siege in the 1520s, when the city was beset by the forces of the Florentines and the papacy. In a battle outside of the Porta Camollia in July of 1526, Sienese forces displayed the banner (gonfaloniere) of the Virgin, owing to a commitment to establish a cult of the Immaculate Conception in the event of victory: a decision made in response to a prophecy of a Margherita Bichi, a Franciscan tertiary.120 The events of 1553 signalled a dramatic change: from the banner and divine support of the Virgin, to the emblems and material aid of the Sienese women. The fame of Sienese women during the siege also arose from one other specific episode that dates from Monluc’s Commentaires – and this incident he did eyewitness. He recounts that during his command of the city in the siege he issued an order than no one was to neglect to perform his guard duty under threat of punishment. When one young man could not take his assigned shift, his sister “took his helmet, which she placed on her head, took his pants and a buffalo-hair shirt, and, with his halberd on her shoulder, she went to the muster in that equipage, passing as her brother when the roll was called and standing guard in her turn without being discovered until daybreak. She was returned home with honour” and later brought before Monluc.121 Though Monluc did not name the woman, a poem of the time did. The story of Caterina Fontebrandese was dramatized in verse, earning it an epic status, and the poem fills in a few more details.122 Fontebrandese’s ailing brother, fearing punishment and accusations of cowardice, was

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determined to serve his turn guarding the Porta Ovile, but Caterina convinced him otherwise: “To bed you! To me the sword and armour.” “Come now, what are you saying? You are mad.” “Don’t you see? I resemble you in height.” “Oh God! If you are discovered what will they do to you?” “Why worry? This is not a bad deed.” “No, look at the courage of Fontebrandese.”123

When she returns and reports that she was discovered, the brother asks if she was punished and she says: “They welcomed me and said many things. And most of all the captain of France [Monluc]. He spoke and had tears in his eyes. He opened a book and noted my name Then he muttered something of memorie …”124

This last reference presumably refers to Monluc’s noting the event in his Commentaires, and it was his account that was taken up by Ugurgieri Azzolini in a chapter on “an unnamed young Sienese woman” in his collection of biographies of Sienese women in his 1649 Pompe sanesi. And, as we shall see in chapter 5 below, Ugurgieri Azzolini’s account in turn resurfaced in a parlour game of the early eighteenth century.125 Thus, the literary history of this incident of a sister dressed in her brother’s uniform moved from a first-hand French military account, to a chapter in a biographical collection, to the “recording” of the proceedings of a parlour game during an evening of play. As for this latter party, held during Carnival, it is worth noting that it also included a game of female Amazons and male knights errant, suggesting once again that the historical intersection of ludic women warriors and real ones might be more than casual or coincidental – especially in such a case as Caterina’s, in which cross-dressing was not simply carnivalesque or burlesque, but rather practical and heroic.126 The liminoid world of the Academy of the Intronati certainly allowed young men the licence and venue to challenge the social and professional expectations of their class – whether it be clergy-bound Alessandro Piccolomini vicariously (or actually) courting Laudomia

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Forteguerri, or Girolamo Bargagli indulging his literary “genius” as he avoids his law books. But as they drew women into their revels, did the Intronati help to create a subversive liminoid setting for young women also in the time and space of the evening parlour game? And as their celebration of women transformed from seductive flattery to serious praise (in biography, in eulogy, in moral philosophy, in theoretical briefs on the querelle des femmes), did they nudge their female colleagues to a more public, literary, and even military life? Of course, Laudomia Forteguerri may have manned the walls without the feminist incitements of Alessandro Piccolomini in the Raffaella, in the Institutione, and even in the funeral oration for Aurelia Petrucci. But given that she came to him for help in publishing her sonnets for Margaret of Austria, as Diana Robin has shown, clearly she saw some link between this Intronato and her public persona.127 Furthermore, in their serious writings in praise of Aurelia Petrucci and Frasia Marzi, both Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini broached the theme of women’s unjust exclusion from political and military involvement. Given the games devoted to female devices and banners, it would seem reasonable to speculate that the ludic world of the Intronati may also have promoted a greater female activism in its own indirect way. Indeed, the encounters between women and Intronati men in the 1530s and 1540s may have partly inspired the women at the walls in the 1550s. Certainly, the theme of the behaviour of Sienese women during the siege will simmer in the game book of Scipione Bargagli in the 1560s and far beyond.

3 The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (1563–1569)

The efforts of Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini to promote women were continued in the second generation of Intronati by the Bargagli brothers, Girolamo and Scipione. To the variety of genres the Piccolominis employed in the 1530s and ’40s – comedies, moral dialogues, orations, biographies, eulogies – the Bargaglis added game books in the 1560s, signalling the prominence of parlour games as a cardinal feature in Sienese festive life.1 Girolamo’s Dialogo offers a theory of play interlaced with brief descriptions of 130 games that supposedly had been played at one time or another in the Sienese soirées. Scipione’s Trattenimenti presents a full literary simulation of how a few games might be played. Although written in the 1560s, both works are set in the previous decade in the course or aftermath of the siege and fall of Siena: the Dialogo around 1557–8, upon the reopening of the academy after the turbulence of that era; the Trattenimenti in 1555, back during the siege itself.2 Given Florence’s official control of the city, any Sienese commentary on the recent war had to be carefully parsed, completely avoided, or cleverly disguised by a ludic fig leaf. Both texts must be read with this recent history in mind, and both must be viewed in part as works of rhetorical advocacy for the glory of Sienese games and Sienese women. To a large degree, these two subtexts – the martial/political and the cultural/social – intersect, as the Bargagli brothers assign particular importance to Siena’s ludic identity in an era of political weakness. From Private Play to Public Performance As we saw in chapter 1, in the treatment of the theory of play Girolamo’s Dialogo clearly emphasized the activist role of women, who should

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not demur from participation for reasons of modesty but rather show the same “boldness of mind” as men. But what of the actual playing of games in Bargagli’s book? What can we unearth from it about the logistics of these events and the social history of these games? Girolamo’s dialogue is retrospective, because its central agenda is to record the glory days of Sienese festive life before the recent hiatus occasioned by the war. He wants to compile these games as a manual for use in the future. His chief interlocutor, “Sodo” (the academy name of Marcantonio Piccolomini), is particularly useful in this regard as a figure bridging the first and second generations. A founder of the academy in the 1520s, Piccolomini, now in the service of a high-ranking ecclesiastical figure in Rome, has stopped off in the city en route to Venice, and he engages his younger colleagues on the history of the Sienese games, which, as shown in chapter 2, were under way by the 1530s. In presenting his history of games, now as a speaker in Bargagli’s Dialogo, Sodo suggests that the ur-game, Cicirlanda – a corruption from “ghirlanda” (garland) – has classical roots in the King of the Banquet.3 And when another speaker corrects him by saying that the modern Sienese innovation was to have the King served by two women advisors, the elder Sodo acknowledges this as “your modern invention” not current in his day and admits that “the games and entertainments of women are among those things that the young understand better than the old.”4 Bargagli thus depicts the ludic innovations involving women as evolving over the lifetime of Marcantonio Piccolomini and, for this reason, credits the Sienese with the true (re)discovery of this tradition. Thus Sodo can claim Sienese originality against the arguments of the sceptic of the group, Fausto Sozzini, who asserts that the tradition can be found earlier in high culture (for instance, Castiglione’s Courtier), in low culture (the revels of peasant rural culture), or even in the earlier academy of the Grande.5 Sodo deflects all of this to argue that, just as Columbus and the Portuguese deserve credit for “discovering” territories known before, the Sienese of the Intronati era truly reinvented the parlour game, as a revival of lapsed vernacular culture and an innovative incorporation of women into festive life. Moreover, Bargagli’s history of the Sienese games tells us something about the particular social dynamics of these revels. When describing the early association of the Intronati with the Sienese “women of high intellect, who delighted in virtuous entertainments,” he does so in such a way as to desexualize the context. That is, Sodo argues that owing to the propriety of those times there was an unusual climate of social

The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli 57

freedom in which the men “continually and at any time were accustomed to visit one or the other of those women, with that liberty that one feels today in visiting a sister.”6 This image of “brotherly” visits casts male-female relations in something other than the expectably seductive terms that Carnival parties would normally suggest. Indeed, Bargagli’s account reveals the settings of games to be not only the homes of men but also those of women.7 And if, as the Courtier typified, women were the overseers of ludic activity in courtly, ducal settings, in Siena this female role extended down to a wider population of urban women. This population, furthermore, seemed to have had a taste for a more challenging form of entertainment than the traditional pursuits of dancing or cards. Here again, in describing their fill of dancing Sodo depicts the women’s interests as more cerebral and less physical, claiming that they desire displays more of “cleverness of wit, than comeliness of person.” It was this challenge that the Intronati met through the “multitude and perfection of many games that today are found among us.”8 The setting for such games was in one sense private, but in another not. While taking place in private homes, this socializing became somewhat more fluid, more public when men were free to drop by in a “brotherly” way. At times these encounters became even more overtly public, when staged as performances for viewing. These public settings were seen by the Intronati as more challenging for women. As a result Bargagli’s book suggests that the nature of the occasion and the participants should be taken into account. At the grander settings of huge banquets or weddings requiring more elevated themes, or at gatherings including foreign visitors, Bargagli recommends that men take on the primary burden of speaking. In such large and public settings women, even if “expert and wise,” might be reluctant to speak, especially in the matters of love that the games often address.9 On two such occasions – one when many women were gathered for a joust that had occurred earlier the day, another when some visiting dignitaries were present – the Dialogo records games in which the men conferred upon the women attributes worthy of fame or a crown.10 In such cases, “all the industry was on the part of the men, and upon the women was incumbent nothing but to be praised and exalted.”11 These depictions of women’s conventional shyness and reserve reflect the norms of female attitudes towards public display and throw into greater relief the efforts on the part of the Intronati at other times to prompt women to undertake a more assertive role.

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According to Bargagli’s treatise, there was in fact a pivotal moment when the Intronati orchestrated a public performance by the Sienese women. The occasion was the appearance in Siena of Alfonso d’Avalos (1502–46), the Marchese del Vasto, and Ferrante Sanseverino (1507–68), prince of Salerno.12 Sodo reports that the Intronati caucused the day before to select the “games that we planned to make in their presence. I do not mean that we composed exactly what everyone was to say, but rather that there were proposed and chosen two or three games designated to be played, so that each of us could contemplate some nice conceit.”13 These games, then, would be partly planned performances. The account of this event comes in a section of the treatise discussing circumstances when, “because of the presence of a foreign person or for any other reason the game needs to succeed well,” it must be assured that the most clever individuals are chosen to play. After musing on their own planned “capricci”(whimsies), the men then visited some of the women who would be involved, and “we discussed with them some fine things that could be said by them.”14 The crucial statement follows, as Sodo claims that this prompting of women led to an impressive performance, which thereafter spawned a tradition of truly improvisational wit that won certain women public fame: “Whence it occurred that there was heard that evening fine concepts and spirited vivacity, and the women with a little bit of help said marvellous things. And from this initial assistance they began to make a habit of it, so that extemporaneously and on every occasion wonderful discourses, sayings, and arguments were heard to come from them, whence Ladies Aurelia and Giulia Petrucci, Lady Frasia Venturi, the Saracina, the Forteguerra, the Toscana and some others acquired eternal fame.”15 Bargagli thus argued that a particular occasion transformed the parlour game into a public spectacle in which the reputation of the city and of certain individuals would be enhanced. It was this setting, he contended, that also occasioned the public emergence of women, who, needing the help of men at first, apparently became stellar improvisational wits in their own right. Among these women are two prominently praised by Alessandro Piccolomini – Aurelia Petrucci and Laudomia Forteguerri – but also several mentioned in Sodo’s own Ragionamento: Frasia Venturi, Camilla Saracini, and Isifile Toscana.16 When did this pivotal party occur? In his Ragionamento of 1538, Marcantonio Piccolomini refers to a parlour game “a few years” earlier in the home of Camilla Saracini in which the same Alfonso was present as a participant and assigned Frasia Venturi the penalty of discoursing on the effects of

The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli 59

misfortune on a woman.17 This may well have been the occasion Piccolomini (as Sodo) now refers to in Bargagli’s Dialogo.18 As Bargagli’s account of this incident makes clear, the Intronati certainly conveyed a rather patronizing attitude towards women, who had to be set up with clever lines beforehand. Sometimes male assistance came during the game. Men would stand near a woman and whisper suggestions; an astute Rector of the game, spotting reticent women, might subtly provide them (quasi somministrarle) with material; men should be at the ready to embellish or improve upon any “obscure or confused statements” the women might make.19 As condescending as this sounds – or as self-serving as it might be on the part of Bargagli as a male author – Sodo’s account does convey the social reality of men’s necessary role in drawing out women who are socially conditioned to be silent and who are untrained in public speaking. After all, Bargagli’s book emphatically rejects the convention that women stand mute, act aloof, and rely on their beauty. If the retreat into false modesty was the prevailing norm for women, men would need to coax them out. In this way, the Intronati “mentored” the shy. Indeed, part of the task of the male players was to recognize the disposition of female participants and act accordingly. When discussing the role of the Judge in a game, Sodo argues that “when he [a male Judge] will have a woman as a companion he will at once shrewdly evaluate whether she is suited or disposed to speak.” If so, he will allow her to comment, reinforce her judgment, and supplement if it needs buttressing. If she “does not know how to argue or does not wish to” he will make a show of conferring with her and present “her” decree.20 The Intronati rules of the game considerately allow for various levels of assertiveness or eloquence among women, assuring that games remain always recreational, not coercive. But if the shy will be accommodated, so also will the bold. In a section on the proper demeanour of the Judge of a game, when Sodo fails to explicitly address how women might perform this role, another interlocutor, Lelio Maretti, challenges him on his silence. Sodo remarks that Maretti would seem to be a “solicitous attorney” on behalf of women,21 and replies that for the most part everything he (Sodo) prescribes in the discussion applies equally to men and women. He does, however, qualify his comment, noting that, in the role of Judge, women should generally speak less than men and more cryptically, avoiding an overt “desire to speak or presumption to know.”22 Thus, Sodo defaults to a conventional view that women should be more restrained and laconic, but then he offers an exception for older, more established

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women: “when there might be a well-spoken woman of some age who has acquired some authority, in that case it would be permitted that she reason at length, contradict, and be paradoxical in the same manner we have said in regard to men.”23 Bargagli’s rules thus simultaneously protect the reticent and empower the confident. In this way he gives a nod to traditional gender norms but also provides a blueprint for transcending them. What do the specific games themselves tell us about the dynamics between women and men? Here, Bargagli’s treatise offers evidence in terms both of the themes of these games and anecdotes of verbal sparring during their playing. As mentioned in chapter 1, the Intronati games certainly fell into the category more of flirtatious, subversive play than of the generally high-minded, didactic entertainment of Ringhieri’s and Arnigio’s sort. Yet, even though all of the games were to have a touch of the festive, Bargagli divided his games into the “gravi” and the “piacevole.” The latter could be quite obscene, such as the Bird Pecking at the Fig, which Bargagli included among his “index of forbidden games.”24 As for the “gravi” games, these were not so much serious or sombre as they were more taxing of players’ creativity or literary knowledge. And it was in these “weighty” games that women, as well as men, had most occasion to demonstrate their wit and vernacular learning. But whether “amusing” or “weighty” these games generally constituted occasions for flirtation and even lewd seduction, befitting the Carnival setting in which the revels often occurred.25 Because of this amatory context – and because of the suspension of normal hierarchies during the ludic setting – women often had the upper hand. Thus, in the Game of the Ship, each woman selects her two favourite men at the party and chooses which one she will throw overboard during a storm at sea and which one she will keep – and she must give her reasons for both decisions.26 Or, to take another example, in the Game of the Enchantress a woman turns two men into animals, who then indicate how this Circe mistreats them in their states as particular beasts. The best pleader is rewarded by being returned to his original state. Sodo recounts one enactment of this game in which a man, turned into a fish, suggests that, like a fish, he is always silent in this lady’s presence and that his particular grief is that, just as a fish can thrive only in water, he subsists in a fire (of desire) in which she perpetually holds him.27 Such a game comically enacts the transformative sway women have over their admirers, illustrating the point that Tasso’s figure Annibale Pocaterra would later make in the Romeo that women are the dominant force in

The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli 61

the realms of love and the game. This power inversion could even extend to the academic world, as in the game in which women, acting as a board of university examiners, judge how well an aspiring young man declaims on assigned verses from Dante and Petrarch. After the women discuss his interpretations, they award him the dignity of the “dottore amoroso,” at which point he delivers an oration on love and receives his diploma.28 The dynamics of power, however, are not always so one-sided. The Game of the Amazons depicts a more evenly matched battle of the sexes, when a band of women warriors combats a group of young men. Couple by couple, the men and women step forward: the man declares what weapon he will use to conquer the woman; the woman describes her defence. This game, one of the “weighty,” requires a capacity for clever metaphor. In one enactment, when a man declares he will conquer his lady with the sword of fidelity (fideltà), his opponent answers that she will protect herself with the shield of “little belief” (poco credulità).29 The lord of the battlefield then decides which of the two is best armed and awards the victory. While this game is frivolous, it does nonetheless transpose the traditionally male realm of martial warfare to a male-female battle of wits. As we shall see in chapter 5, this game would be re-enacted over a century later at a party involving sixteen Intronati (as knights errant) and sixteen members of the new all-female academy of the Assicurate (as Amazons). The possibility for true intellectual competition between men and women could be found in other games as well, and this represents one of the most important legacies of the Intronati’s games. Many games actively engaged vernacular literature, calling upon participants to spar with lines of famous verse (especially from Petrarch), to mine love poetry for images of beauty or the qualities of Cupid, or to examine situations from epic romances.30 This amatory realm was obviously the most relevant for encounters meant to flatter or seduce women, but it was also the realm most available to women as readers. Thus, Sodo argues that women should always be very familiar with Dante, Petrarch, and Ariosto and even have “many verses memorized.”31 In fact, because their intellectual world is more circumscribed than that of universityeducated men, they need to prove their mettle by mastering the literature available to them. Sodo urges that “it would be profitable to have fresh familiarity with books that contain such [amatory] concepts, and for women especially, who being able to read less than men, induce more marvel.”32 Bargagli is calling for women to develop their own

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type of literary specialization, which they can then use for public display, becoming expert in memorizing, mining, and juxtaposing material from the vernacular realm. The Game of Questions provided a forum in which women could especially shine. The tradition of such “questions of love” originated in the Provençal “courts of love” and was developed by Boccaccio in his Filocolo.33 In Bargagli’s record of the game two men are assigned a question to discuss – for instance, whether one loves through choice or destiny, whether separation increases or diminishes love – and a woman is chosen to determine the victor.34 Sodo remarks that this, one of the “weighty” games, is often a source of “great courtesy and invention,” especially if the questions “have been drawn from well-known sources that are familiar to the women present.”35 Thus, this game requires and fosters a literary and intellectual world that is shared by men and women. Here, in some way the academic model is exported to polite society, for just as a common body of Latin texts in the university underlies academic disputations, so does a common corpus of volgare texts enable parlour games to become true contests. In describing one party at the home of Contessa Agnolina d’Elci, Bargagli suggests that there was gathered a “restricted group of ladies … who delighted in reading, aside from the [Orlando] Furioso, the books of Amadigi of Gaul and of Greece and those of Palmerini [de Oliva] and Don Floriselli.”36 Sharing as they did a common reading list, this group was a perfect audience before whom a visiting Intronato posed questions of love drawn from this body of works – questions and resolutions that one of Bargagli’s interlocutors then recounts. Some of the Intronati men at times proved to be deficient in this realm of romantic literature. When Sodo alludes to a story about two princesses from the novels of Don Floriselli, one of his colleagues in the dialogue admits that his familiarity with it is faint and suggests that because others in the discussion might not know it, Sodo would do well to recount it, which he does in considerable detail. Sodo admits that, while these romantic epics are too long and contain only a few nuggets for their size, these gems must be mined, because if the Intronati want to ingratiate themselves to women they must take up their interests – just as they must with princes. While this comment betrays some disdain for this literature, it does reveal a recognition that men should relate to women in the arena of their literary interests.37 To drive the point home, Sodo tells a story of one particular figure who confessed to being embarrassed at not being privy to this literature. When

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Jacopo Griffoli returned to Siena after an absence and went to visit Porzia Pecci, he found her in conversation with several Intronati over some questions (drawn from the Amadís novels) that she had meted out as game penances. Griffoli stood mute during this occasion, since he had not read the books in question. Greatly distressed, he sought out Sodo soon afterwards, saying, “Sodo, please loan me a few of these Spanish books, which I want to bolt down, so that I never experience again what happened to me today at Lady Porzia’s, where I appeared to be a complete ignoramus (grande ignorante), not having had anything at all to say.”38 This account suggests that the body of romance literature crucial to the Sienese games could not be wholly dismissed as an object of scorn, but had become something of a requirement for cultural literacy in polite society. And when this corpus became a common ground for discussion it levelled the playing field and became an arena for intellectual display. Indeed, in this section Sodo praises an unnamed woman whose mastery of this literature has caused him to marvel at “the grace she had in reading [such books], the judgment in enjoying them, and the memory in referring to them.”39 If women were generally excluded from the university and their reading tastes confined, they nonetheless could exercise memory and intellect by problematizing issues of love and courtesy drawn from the vernacular. And as the volgare was being elevated by the Cinquecento academies and increasingly integrated into the philosophical and scientific realms, the issues debated in the Intronati’s games could be a springboard for disciplined debate between men and women. Marcantonio Piccolomini’s Ragionamento of 1538 revealed this in describing an encounter between Frasia Venturi and Alfonso d’Avalos. Now, in Bargagli’s Dialogo this same Marcantonio (as Sodo) recounts the incident of an ill-read man unable to keep up with discussion at the home of Porzia Pecci. The Intronati’s games activated the vernacular literature tradition in other ways as well. Storytelling clearly played a large part in the games, and at the end of his second book Bargagli gives extensive advice on the art of narration or extemporaneous composition. Stories might serve as the basis for extracting questions of love, or players might be assigned the task of simulating a “parlamento” or scene, writing a love letter, or telling a tale. Not surprisingly, Bargagli turns to the Decameron more than forty times to construct a template for choosing and telling a story that has verisimilitude, that gives proper consideration of audience and purpose, that focuses on one action, and so on.40 While

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Bargagli recommends that a “novella” should ideally present something “nuovo” to hold the attention of listeners, stories long obscured or little known can be recycled as new – as some players have done to great acclaim replicating some of the Decameron tales with almost the exact phrasing.41 Whether retelling Boccaccio’s tales or emulating their style, Bargagli’s storytellers actively engage this tradition, and the Sienese games thereby enable any player to become his or her own novelist/performer. The revival of Trecento culture thus comes full circle, only now rather than Boccaccio fictively depicting everyday men and women telling stories, the games offer a venue for men and women actually to tell stories from or in the style of the Decameron. Moreover, the chance to perform extends to women as well as men. When discussing incidents of women who have been called upon to act out small scenes (such as responding to the entreaties of an admirer), Bargagli encourages theatricality: I wish that women would do this same thing [fully play the part] not only in these smaller scenes but also if they have occasion to perform in an improvised comedy, as is accustomed to happen sometimes, not having any disdain for playing the part of maid, a nurse, a baker’s wife, or similar lowly types, but rather donning the proper aspect and dress they ought to study to represent their part appropriately, as I have seen done remarkably on some occasions. Because four words that women might say, accompanied with certain acts and mannerisms well imitated by which [women] transform themselves, seem wondrous. Whence in such improvisational comedy it is always the women who receive the glory.42

In contrast to the largely silent, passive women in Castiglione’s Courtier, Bargagli’s ludic women may and should perform with brio in these polite games, just as they are beginning to appear in the commedia dell’arte.43 In fact, in the Dialogo Sodo recounts that it was these professional comedy troupes that led him to create a Game of Comedy, in which he meted out roles to all the women and men of the group, who then auditioned to determine whose role would be the starring one.44 Whether in the framework of storytelling or street comedy, women were recruited as performers, not just spectators. Aside from leavening the intellectual, literary, and performing life of women, the Intronati’s games enabled women to define and publicize their personalities. This was especially the case with the Game of Devices (Imprese), which, along with the Game of Proverbs, was one

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of the more popular games played.45 The culture of devices – and the related forms of emblems, reverses of medals, and insignias – proliferated in Cinquecento Italy, as the Italians took up the tradition from the French and Spanish troops that had begun to stream into the country with the start of the Italian Wars in 1494.46 In appropriating this tradition, however, the Italians broadened the scope of these designs, which became vehicles for self-fashioning that extended to nonmilitary and non-noble individuals and even to collective groups such as academies. Designing such cryptic epigraphs for oneself or for others required creativity and cleverness. In describing his Game of Devices, in which players must create a design they would use in a joust or tournament, Bargagli specifies that the device must not be so obvious as to be immediately understood by “any roughneck or ignoramus,” that it not contain human figures, and that it not be evident by the figure alone or by the motto alone, but only by the conjunction of the two.47 This last criterion obviously makes this game one of considerable subtlety. Just how subtle is well illustrated by an example of such a device designed by Curzio Vignali for a lady of the Santi family. The image was of an abacus reading “66” (sessantasei) and in the inscription was “Perché mi uccidi?” Bargagli’s interlocutor explains the pun: “Wishing to signify, ‘Se santi sei, perché me uccidi’ [If you are holy, then why do you kill me?].48 In the next century, in his prosopography of famous Sienese women, Isodoro Ugurgieri Azzolini cited this device in his biography of Iuditta Santi, the woman in question, and also recorded her clever device in response – so much had the ludic tradition become the stuff of Sienese cultural history.49 Even more revealing than devices composed for women were those they composed for themselves. The parlour-game device lent itself to highly personalized, even idiosyncratic use for a couple of reasons. One feature, Bargagli argues, that separates devices from emblems is their function to express “particular thoughts” relevant to the individual, rather than didactic, universal principles.50 And unlike those devices designed for public or permanent display that must have images generally decipherable by all, those conceived at games can be highly cryptic, because the player is there “to make clear the figure and its property alike.”51 Bargagli includes two examples of devices that were indeed very coded and yet powerful statements of female sentiment. The first is a somewhat poignant testament to the burden of domestic life. Sodo reports the example offered one evening of the “device of a woman that ordinarily would have been obscure, because wishing to show that

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being married, having a family, and having endured many adversities had subdued the loftiness of her thoughts, she proposed a bull with a wreath of wild fig around its neck with the motto ‘Mutatus ab Illo’ [Changed by That]. But because she explained the nature of the wild fig, which, placed at the neck of the wildest bull, humbles and makes it immobile, it seemed that [the device] was very pleasing.”52 Aside from underscoring the creativity possible in such a game (obviously one of the “weighty” games), this passage illustrates the potential for the personal emblem to be a public statement – in this case a testament of personal frustration and psychological defeat. His second example of female self-fashioning, by contrast, reveals a confident, optimistic tone. In this case a woman “proposed for her device [an image of] Indian linen, which, placed in fire, neither burns nor is consumed (whence the ancients were accustomed to place dead bodies to burn inside a sheet of Indian linen, because there the ashes would be conserved). And the motto was ‘Inaccendibile’ (Unburnable).”53 In one instance a dispirited woman laments being brought to heel; in the other, a defiant one declares her indestructability. Both devices reflect the opportunity for women to define their character and express their outlook. And for those women not of the exceptionally high literary talent or ambition of a Vittoria Colonna, such a game must have been a welcome form of self-expression.54 The related Game of Reverses [of Medals] provided an opportunity for men to publicly characterize and praise women in specifically personal terms. Sodo explains that unlike emblems – which reflect universal themes, point to the future, and issue warnings – the “reverses” treat the individual, look to the past, and confer praise. In Bargagli’s game men are to compose reverses for medals of silver and gold to be produced for the women of “great merit” present at the gathering.55 A few years later (in 1569) Girolamo’s brother Scipione recorded the results of such a game in a discrete collection of Reverses of Medals composed for women at a Befana celebration in a conscious effort to move the field of glory from the male to the neglected female realm. *** The opportunities and even obligations of women to participate in Sienese parlour games are abundantly clear in Bargagli’s Dialogo. The social default to modest retreat was condemned, as a “baldanza d’animo” was required of women as well as men. It is not surprising

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that men initially mentored and sometimes protected women in this more public role. In such a strongly patriarchal society, male licence for new forms of female “licence” would be expected. And that is what the liminoid world of play facilitated. Just as it allowed young men the chance to be other than dutiful profession-bound archetypes, it also allowed women the leeway of departing from invisible home-bound archetypes. In exploiting this new shared public space for heterosocial contact, the games cultivated a common cultural corpus in the vernacular, whether interpreting proverbs, sparring with lines from Petrarchan love poetry, or analysing situations from the latest romantic epics and novels.56 Certainly, the shared interest was grounded largely in the conventions of flirtation and seduction (real or faux), especially fitting during the games of Carnival evenings. But the exchanges could nonetheless lead to more cerebral “weighty” contests requiring literary lore and creative cleverness. And the players’ efforts in this realm could be a spur to creativity and source of fame for all involved: whether composing a poem to be ruled worthy of inclusion in the Game of the Archive, creating an emblem for oneself or another, or offering a riposte clever enough to be recorded in the Dialogo.57 The promise of immortality for women in this ludic setting was expressly articulated by Bargagli in his praise of the Petrucci sisters, Frasia Venturi, “the Forteguerra,” “the Saracina,” and “the Toscana.” As the writings of Ugurgieri Azzolini and Girolamo Gigli reveal, the legacy of fame for both particular women and the “everywoman” of the Intronati’s games would endure into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Games and the Siege of Siena When Girolamo Bargagli composed his Dialogo in the mid-1560s, the siege of Siena was not so distant. Yet, despite the fact that he delved far back before this disaster to the origins of the academy and set the dialogue in the period shortly after it, he makes virtually no mention of this event itself – rather, he alludes only to recent wars and the “civil discord and turbulence of the times.”58 This was likely a political decision, as he takes pains in the dialogue to stress the importance of having the “protection of princes,” which at the time of his writing would have alluded to the Medici Dukes, to whom the emperor had ceded the city.59 And given that he dedicated the treatise to Duke Cosimo I’s daughter Isabella, calling attention to Florence’s recent siege of the city would not serve any useful end and only recall a bitter time. Why then

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does his brother Scipione, writing his Trattenimenti in the aftermath of Girolamo’s Dialogo (probably 1564–9), make the siege the focal point of his work? The answer to this question takes us to the core of the relationship between the Sienese games and the larger political and social “reality.” In his lengthy Oratione in lode dell’accademia degl’Intronati dello Schietto Intronato (Oration in praise of the Academy of the Intronati), written on the occasion of the reopening of the academy in 1603, Scipione discusses the Intronati’s tradition of games and cites the treatises of his brother and himself as complementary treatments of this legacy. Girolamo’s book deals with the theory of the games, and his own with the “practice and actual operation of them.”60 That is, whereas Girolamo only briefly sketched the themes of his 130 games, Scipione simulated the full playing out of a select few. This simulation permitted him to offer his literary vision of the ideal parlour game (and, ironically, in this sense, Scipione’s treatise is arguably the more theoretical compared to Girolamo’s, which recounted many incidents occurring at actual games). As a more purely literary work with fictional characters, Scipione’s Trattenimenti resembles Boccaccio’s Decameron, although, as we shall see, it reshapes it in some bold ways. And it is this fictional frame perhaps that allows Scipione to address the siege fully, without fear of compromising himself or others vis-à-vis their Florentine overseers – though it is also possible that a lingering unease kept him from publishing the work until two decades later in 1587. Finally, this treatise’s literary frame also allowed Scipione to advocate how games should be played. Even more than his brother, Scipione was certainly a champion for greater opportunities for women. In the preamble to the second part of his treatise, Scipione praises festive gatherings as settings for the “demonstration of clever spirit and elevated intellect,” even “schools” that speak as much to the intellect and the senses.61 More importantly, he explains that such gatherings are particularly important for women, “because – I do not know why – women are completely forbidden or at least greatly impeded from embarking on the many and diverse honoured paths through which, in the manner that men do, they could rapidly demonstrate the acuity of their wit and the valour and frankness of the soul that resides within their breasts.”62 He then expounds upon the opportunities for men to shine in letters or in arms, avenues all but closed to women to “advance themselves in esteem and to elevate themselves in clear fame among mortals.”63

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Furthermore, the male pastimes of hunting, fishing, and jousting are similarly closed to them. Owing “either to reasons of their sex, or rather perhaps to the harsh control (duro possesso) gravely exercised over them by relatives or husbands,” their recreational life is largely confined to watching others have fun.64 For these reasons festive gatherings are the one opportunity for women to escape the tedium of their captive lives. Scipione’s preamble here resembles that of the Decameron, where Boccaccio dedicates his tales as a consolation for melancholic, lovesick women who lack the outlets available to men. But there are some notable differences. For Boccaccio, the larger cultural framework is the amatory one of pining women who need a remedy. Bargagli greatly expands the plight of women from the amatory to the general social realm. Women are deprived of the professional and literary arenas in which to demonstrate their wit and talent. The game setting becomes their potential arena for fame. Boccaccio’s tales are to be passively read by the afflicted; Bargagli’s games are to be actively played in agonistic contests allowing women, yes, relief from melancholy, but also a venue to achieve a new public presence and acclaim. The influence of the Decameron on the Trattenimenti is evident in another prominent way. Like Boccaccio, Scipione sets his work in the context of tragic circumstances. The disasters of the Black Death and the siege of Siena obviously were equivalent in neither degree nor kind. As a cataclysmic natural disaster the plague of 1348 offered a plausible reason for Boccaccio’s characters to seek idyllic refuge in the countryside. The siege of Siena, by contrast, would seem to be an inappropriate setting for confined citizens to celebrate Carnival with parlour games – and indeed Scipione was criticized for this.65 But this anomalous setting in fact may have been intended to make a particular political and social point. Scipione as author and his female characters in the treatise pointedly speak out on the siege that his brother Girolamo so carefully avoided. Why? One obvious reason is that Scipione had more political leeway: whereas Girolamo had dedicated his Dialogo to the daughter of the Florentine Duke, Scipione dedicated his treatise to the prominent Sienese woman Fulvia Spannocchi. But there was more. His account of the origins of the games was made all the more pointed by the graphic horrors of the siege, which he relates in gruesome detail – much in the vein of Boccaccio’s picture of the medical and social catastrophe Florence faced during the plague. Scipione’s grim account details the blockade of the city; food shortages; the expulsion of the poor “bocche disutile” and the weak; the pillaging and rape of those left in

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the city; the slow starvation that led to the killing of babies, the eating of domestic animals, and the hoarding of grain.66 Yet, even in the midst of these travails, Scipione reveals, foreign allies of the Sienese, especially Monluc, praised the united efforts of the citizenry. And here he alludes to the signal efforts of the women at the walls: “the work of the women – among whom sometimes appeared with their husbands some noble and charming ones – proved no less helpful than that of the men in defending the walls, trenches, and towers, and venturing outside to confront the armed enemy with arms and to provision within the city the fortifications.”67 The horrors of the siege and the determination of the citizenry made all the more defiant the decision by four women to orchestrate three days of parlour games. These characters appear to have been at least partly inspired by a dress match of soccer/rugby (calcio) that Bargagli reports was staged by young men on Fat Thursday.68 The context in which he mentions this match is telling. Bargagli writes that the besiegers were impressed that the Sienese “always showed themselves to be fierce and obstinate in every occasion presented to them. But much more, I warrant, they perhaps would have been stupefied if with their own eyes they had seen … the most joyful ball game that on the day of Fat Thursday in the piazza of Santo Agostino was played by the flower of the noble Sienese youth bedecked in rich and ornate livery in the presence of the finest young women.”69 That the playing of this game had symbolic significance is suggested by Bargagli’s ensuing comment that it revealed a confidence that the city would soon achieve “a secure and happy victory, such as their fathers had achieved not many years before” – alluding to the Sienese success in 1526 in routing besieging forces of the Florentines and the League of Cognac.70 It is unclear whether this particular game actually took place, though he does reaffirm it in a document defending his treatise.71 (And there is testimony that a similar game had occurred the previous month in the Piazza del Campo to the wonderment of the French allies.) Further, when the Florentines themselves were besieged by imperial troops in 1530 they too staged such a game, and Laura Riccò perceptively suggests that Bargagli’s mention of this game might be meant to recall that one.72 In a word, such a game in wartime had implications in terms of both the Sienese and Florentine past: as a sign of spirited defiance, maybe even a thumb in the eye of the enemy. Certainly, the playing of such a game indicates that spirits of the besieged are not broken, nor their traditions halted. This latter point is

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explicitly articulated by the leader of Bargagli’s group of four ladies, Clizia, who laments the absence of all customary festivities on this, the Sunday of Carnival. Thus, whereas Boccaccio’s Pampinea defiantly suggested that she and her colleagues abandon their customary role of female mourning and flee Florence, Clizia defiantly suggests that she and her colleagues maintain their traditional revelries of Carnival – even in the face of war: “Today, dear young ladies, I would like us to put to the test whether those cruel public enemies of ours have the power to deprive us still of the pleasures and solace that, following our fine old custom, we should be able to pursue in order that we might somewhat take respite from the many troubles and grave issues that on their [the enemy’s] account still pierce our hearts.”73 Neither Bargagli nor his character Clizia overtly states it, but the implication is clear: the staging of the parlour games will be the young women’s equivalent of the young men’s athletic match, with all the attendant tone of defiance vis-à-vis the siege. This stance reinforced that dimension of the ludic realm that can be subversive to the status quo, which in this case was one of crisis and imminent defeat.74 The emulation or refiguring of the ball game as parlour game resonates strongly in the themes of the games themselves, several of which deal with “male” pursuits of warfare, hunting, and gardening. In fact, three of the nine games are martial in tone and obviously reflected the circumstances of the siege: the opening Game of Insignias and Banners, the Game of the Siege, and the Game of Challenges and Reconciliations. These games in particular warrant close scrutiny to understand how Scipione attempted to weave together play and reality in suggestive, yet careful, ways. In framing the Game of Insignias a male character concedes that such a martial game might seem improper for women, but he argues that it fulfils a need in the proper acknowledgment of “their sublime merit and valour (valore).”75 This character, named Fulvio (perhaps not coincidentally, the male version of the name of the dedicatee Fulvia Spannocchi), says he has been searching for a proper medium to commemorate women. He rejects temples or altars, statues or paintings, or floral crowns for something befitting “our current situation.”76 He says that for many months they have seen and talked of nothing but the “squadrons of people armed not more with weapons than with valour,” before whom are paraded “those banners and those standards whence the captains and honoured leaders make a special show of the worthy qualities of their spirit and under which their valiant soldiers and companies are

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willingly moved to follow and imitate them.”77 The game he proposes will be for the men to formulate appropriate colours and mottoes for the women in the group. This game takes on a particular meaning when compared to the earlier parlour-game tradition and contextualized within the actual events of the siege of Siena. As for the precedents of such a game, the first of Ringhieri’s Cento giuochi liberali, et d’ingegno was that of the Knight, in which women formulated for men an appropriate device and motto for use in a joust.78 In his Dialogo, Girolamo Bargagli’s game of formulating devices (for both men and women) also was directed towards display in a joust or tournament.79 In Scipione’s version of the game, two factors have been changed. The insignia are to be designed only for women, and the framework is not a tournament or spectacle, but the circumstance of the siege. He has simultaneously further martialized the motif (from joust to war) and feminized it. He knows that the latter point will strike some as inappropriate, that it might seem “strange and disproportionate, attributing to women such insignias that seem appropriate for men – and of men only who are dedicated to warfare and disposed with mind and body to crude and bloody battles – even though it is known by us and the whole world that women know how to fight, wound, kill, and achieve their famous victories over their adversaries, and how under the insignia of their beauty and virtue they go everywhere with infinite bands of men fighting in their service.”80 In the course of this passage Scipione turns the metaphor of warfare back to the amatory realm, which is, of course, the proper realm of parlour games. The game then proceeds with men devising standards for the women with terse mottoes, which they explicate in detail. All of the mottoes in one way or another suggest that the four women have transcendent powers beyond the realm of the worldly or the corporeal: one, “Ognun Pareggia” (She Makes All Equal), invokes the “state image” of the sun to show how the honoured lady radiates the “light of her intellect” equally to all, as the sun does to all the entities of the Zodiac; another indicates how she transcends the worldly, in which, although immersed, she nevertheless emerges “Nè Pur Bagnata” (Not Even Wet); another, “Immobile Muove” (Immobile She Moves), explains how she attracts all people and remains steadfast, as a magnet attracts other objects; another, “Di Maggior Luce Vaga” (She Yearns for the Greater Light), how she aspires to more than beauty, lineage, and wealth, as the moon seeks of the sun.81 Despite their amatory contexts, in dealing with

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the “most lucent virtue,”82 nobility of mind, and firmness of character, all of the mottoes do suggest a subtext of heroic character. Scipione’s agenda in this game is carefully ambiguous. His players devise a motif to praise women in the terms of the current warfare; he apologizes that military insignias might seem a strange and inappropriate medium in which to praise women; he then retreats to the safer theme of women’s triumph in the amatory realm; but even in this last their victories and mottoes are as moral and heroic (even at times male) as they are amatory and sexual. What is most odd is what is not said in the game. Despite the fact that in his preamble to part 1, Scipione expressly cites the heroic efforts of women during the siege in engaging the enemy and fortifying the city, in his account he does not mention the three women “captains” hailed in other accounts. Nor in his Game of Insignias – which one must guess was inspired by this event – do his interlocutors mention the three women and their own terse mottoes. Why did Scipione not overtly make the connection? Possibly because he wanted to maintain the fictional cover of his treatise, which avoids using any real names of individuals, and/or because he wanted to protect any specific individuals from Florentine overlords who might read his book. There may have been as well some issues of male pride at stake, as the city not only fell to the enemy, but the men even needed the efforts of the women. In any event, he managed to have it both ways, as he used the ludic fig leaf to refigure the historical event, creating heroic banners for fictive women in the parlour games these women defiantly staged. Two other games further develop the martial theme. In the Game of the Siege, a male character frames the game and explicitly ties it to the circumstances of the siege, but then converts it all to a war between the sexes. In laying out the game he charges the “rare womanly (donneschi) spirits” there present to explain how the heart of a woman, as a “high and noble fortress,” can withstand the “long and hard sieges of love.” For their part, the men will show “what work, what counsel, or what argument” will prevail in conquering.83 The game then enacts a debating contest on various issues: are looks enough to break through? Are words? Immediately following this game is one on Challenges and Reconciliations. Both the evolution and symbolism of this game have meaning for the male-female contest and for the Florentine-Sienese war. The framer of the game, a character named Lepido, addresses the group by expressing his desire that he will succeed in formulating a successful amusement, hoping “that by joining deeds by us, which, as

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is said, are masculine, with words, which are feminine, you find that a composition (componimento) will be born one day and thus in fact my work will succeed.”84 The sexual framing of his game with this proverb – “Fatti maschi, parole femme” (Deeds are male, words female) – has various possible meanings.85 Laura Riccò sees this as an erotic allusion to coupling that will issue in a child.86 While this sexual allusion is plausible, a more literal meaning may have been intended as well. That is, the “male” world of deeds – his act of proposing a game – will unite with the “female” words that characterize such a game in a delightful end. The “composition” here could refer to Scipione’s literary work preserving their revels – just as, in the preamble to part 3 of his treatise, Scipione defends at length his “componimenti” on parlour games, hoping that they will help convey “pleasure and comfort to the spirits of tired people.”87 Moreover, the parlour games themselves, involving both action (via selection and even acting) and words, ideally join the male and female worlds. And, further, given its simulation of the siege, the Trattenimenti combine the traditionally male world of warfare with the female world of verbal games refiguring it. The meaning of the putative polarity between male deeds and female words becomes more pronounced when Lepido tries to launch his game. He asks the ladies what they would like to play, and runs through a list: card games, then dice, then several parlour games. But the women remain unmoved, unresponsive, and silent – so silent, in fact, that he asks whether they want to play a mute game. They stonewall him, and he clearly is stymied and powerless. This stalemate suggests a reversal of the proverb: now the male, whose province is deeds, is powerless to act; the women, whose province is words, are silent and yet hold the power. In a sense, the women act as if they are the impenetrable fortress of the Game of the Siege. And, indeed, Lepido then returns to the Game of the Siege, which he says the women enjoyed but which achieved no true end. Thus, he proposes the Game of Challenges and Reconciliations, which would in a sense complete it. In the game, each of the players, both male and female, utters a charge – “O proud,” or “O false,” or “O cruel” – and each player responds with words invoking peace.88 In these three games of the Insignias, the Siege, and Reconciliations, Bargagli restages the siege that is the very setting for the games. Certainly, on one level, the Reconciliations could signify the consummation of Carnival sexuality,89 but this game also re-enacts the end of the war. By juxtaposing the sexual and the martial, the Trattenimenti imposes Carnival sexual conquest onto the historical reality of the conflict, the

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siege, and resolution of the war.90 And because Siena was “violated” by the Medici and the empire, the treatise seems to sublimate or displace the tragedy by gaily sexualizing it as a festive event in polite society. In such a reading, the military conquest of Siena is equated with the sexual conquest of women – not a very appealing Carnival trope. Instead, Scipione may have intended these games in part to pay tribute to the women at the walls. Thus, in one game they receive military standards; in another they are the fortress of determined Siena; in the third, they force Lepido back to a game again echoing the struggle and bringing closure in a “true, full, and tranquil peace.”91 The three actual women at the walls – Laudomia Forteguerri, Fausta Piccolomini, and Livia Fausti – proved that actions indeed were not always male. The four fictive women of Scipione’s Trattenimenti recast this agency in the war games played at the revelry. The decision to hold the games is portrayed as an act of defiance against an enemy that will not be allowed to destroy their festive traditions. The games themselves prove to be a meeting ground of the male and the female, deeds and words, giving the lie to a proverb that deprived women of agency. And by conflating the deeds of warfare with the words of an agonistic parlour game, Scipione bridges the conventional divide between the male and female worlds. An emphasis on female agency can also be found in certain other of Scipione’s games that, as in the martial games, impose the female onto the male realm. The result would be a new vision of the roles women could play in these games. In his preamble to part 2, Scipione names hunting as one of the pastimes available to men but not to women.92 In his Game of the Hunt, an endeavour that he identifies as “a species of war and combat,”93 he opens up the ranks to men and women alike. In speaking of all the animals prowling in the fields of Love, he says that “of such ferocious animals there are as many female and perhaps even more than male”;94 each man assigns the name of an animal to a woman, and each woman to a man. There is complete reciprocity in the game between the women and the man, the hunters and the hunted. When a hunter calls out the name of the hunted animal, he or she runs around the circle with palm outstretched and the hunter pursues, hitting his or her hand with the mestola. The hunted will then cry that the most dangerous beast is really someone else (a woman will identify a man, and vice versa), and the hunt goes on. Scipione’s equalizing of the roles here is notable. In contrast to the Florentine Carnival songs, in which the hunters are male, here they are identified as “cacciatori

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e cacciatrici.”95 In Girolamo Bargagli’s Game of the Hunt, where Love itself is being hunted, the action is initiated by the male hunters with their dogs.96 In Scipione’s game men and women hunt and, even more importantly, the hands of both men and women are struck by the bat. As we saw in chapter 1, when tracing the origins of games Girolamo Bargagli remarked that up until the onset of the Italian Wars, Carnival evenings in Siena saw men striking the hands of women with the bat – likely, a vestige of the fertility ceremonies of the Roman Lupercalia.97 Now, setting his games during the siege, Scipione has not only men striking the hands of women but also women striking the hands of men in his hunting game. In degendering this act, his game moves the practice from a fertility ritual, in which dominant men strike women, to one in which men and women are equal players in the travails of love and the contest of the hunt, which, in turn, he calls a type of war and battlefield. Thus, if hunting was closed off to women in real life, he fully opens it up to them in his ludic world. Similarly, in his Game of the Gardeners, Scipione takes a sexual motif that is traditionally framed as a male gardener working female fields, and recasts it as a game in which women as well as men plant seeds in a garden.98 The traditionally phallocentric use of the theme articulated by one of the male players – who speaks of planting his hard carrot seed in soft fields of the woman – only makes more unusual the women’s planting of their “seeds” (semi). In fact, the opening vignette has a female character bringing her seed to the garden of “our new [male] lord or steward.”99 This depiction of female insemination in the sexual framework of the work dramatically brings women into the male preserve. This same character, not incidentally, stubbornly fails to follow the rules of the game in repeating the names of all the seeds formerly planted by the men and women. She only repeats those planted by the women, and for this rather feminist stance, she is whacked on the palm by the bat.100 In short, whether it be in the planting of seeds, in hunting, or fighting, Scipione makes equivalent in the games the roles of males and females – or, to use Clizia’s insignia, “Ognun Pareggia.” *** Reconstructing a social or even a cultural history from the genres of the dialogue or polite literature is naturally a tricky proposition. On the one hand, the goal of verisimilitude in a dialogue obviously does not equate to historical reality. But, on the other, the licence of fiction

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in a purely literary work is not necessarily divorced from the goal of simulating actual customs and historical players. Fortunately, both of the Bargagli brothers give historians some solid clues as to what they at least perceived to be certain realities of the last forty years of the history of the Sienese elite: Girolamo largely through the voice of the oldtimer Sodo, Scipione through his own voice in his preambles. And even if one argues that their perspectives reflected certain agendas or biases, these biases themselves reveal a certain reality. One prominent reality both writers convey is a sense that the sixteenth century saw an ascendant public presence for women that was tied to the culture of play. In the quasi-historical venue of his Dialogo, Girolamo Bargagli traced how women were encouraged and prompted by the Intronati to become energetic – and eventually famous – game players. In this new arena they tested their intellects via vernacular literature, bested their male colleagues who were behind on their reading, expressed their identities and sentiments in self-fashioned devices, and formulated clever ripostes that lived on in the literary record. Scipione’s book, paradoxically both more fictive (in some ways) and more historical (in others) than Girolamo’s, was even more pronounced in its championing of female agency. Decrying the professional and recreational restraints on women, he creates a utopia of female agency. Women characters defiantly challenge the besiegers with games: games in which female players poach on the traditional male provinces of warfare, hunting, and planting; games in which male deeds and female words merge. Why did he set the games in the seemingly inappropriate context of the catastrophic siege and fall of the city? He received some criticism for this: Alessandro Tessauro charged that it violated propriety in that it dredged up a bitter memory and that it violated verisimilitude in that such frivolous amusements would not have taken place in such a tragic time.101 Scipione would invoke Boccaccio in his defence, and indeed part of his impulse here was to imitate the Decameron, mutatis mutandis. But, of course, the devil is in the mutatis mutandis here. A humiliating defeat at the hand of the Florentines is quite different from a natural catastrophe afflicting all. Girolamo Bargagli knew to skirt the events of 1553–5, so why did Scipione dwell on them? He must have known there would be some risk of reopening such a fresh wound, even if done in the service of imitating the great prose work of the Trecento. In defending his setting, Scipione argued that festive habits die hard, and he cited the case of the Carnival ball game played by the boys, which he had characterized as a hopeful, confident, and defiant

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gesture. This example makes all the more pointed his fashioning of the women’s games as an implicit analogue to this game. Scipione’s Trattenimenti reflects the tenacity of the Sienese festive spirit, but also the activism of women during the siege and within the ludic tradition. In many ways, Scipione created in his ludic world an outlet that further extended the prominence of women in the world of play, matching the agency they displayed in the real world of the war – an agency, however, that had to be more implied than stated in the still recent world of Florentine control. Certainly, it is very likely that the banners of the women at the walls inspired Scipione’s Game of Insignias. In his preamble to part 1 he refers to the fact that the French captains remarked on the bravery of the Sienese effort, revealing his knowledge of Monluc’s remarks (and/or possibly the Italian and French versions of his account), which noted that these women displayed insignias.102 Furthermore, it is telling that he entitled his game “Dell’insegne o bandiere” – explicitly military displays – and not “Dell’imprese,” as found in his brother’s book (and as would probably have been the more common name for such a game). A tempting question, however, is whether such a Game of Devices from the pre-war era and even from the period of the siege itself inspired the women at the walls to devise and show their colours. As we shall see in chapter 5, Girolamo Gigli certainly thought so. In any case, the movement from Girolamo’s much broader retrospective account to Scipione’s focused siege account and its attendant games suggests a considerable increase in a sense of female equality. In general, did the fall of the city generate a cultural and social turn in Siena towards an even greater political pacifism coupled with a heightened female ascendancy, driven by the emasculation of males who lost the city and virile behaviour of females who tried to save it? Certainly the intricate relations between the Sienese siege, parlour games, and the game books of the Bargagli brothers bespeak the multi-directional workings of the ludic triangle. Emblem parlour games may have inspired the female captains of the women at the walls; these female captains in turn may have inspired the literary embellishment of new insignia games; the literary embellishment of the Trattenimenti in turn voiced more urgent complaints about the limitations on women in the real world of public action and achievement and an even more assertive role in the very playing of games. Scipione’s literary text thus absorbs a historical reality of female agency and repackages it in a form to define and promote an even more radical feminism for both the real and the ludic world.

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Indeed, the game world – whether real or imagined – promoted the ideal of women’s autonomy. And this ideal was articulated as well in the related realms of stories and plays. Scipione’s Trattenimenti includes several novellas, one of which illustrates this theme. The story relates the actions taken by a sixteen-year-old girl to break out of her domestic claustration, seek out her lover, and preserve her honour. The girl, of “daring and lively spirit,” often stood at the window onto the main street looking out without being seen, which was “the custom, and indeed had become the strictest law among us here, as you know – though I do not know how much it should be commended – that girls of marriageable age should not in any way ever be seen except by their closest relatives until they are married.”103 Spying a young man with whom she becomes smitten, she dons a mask one Carnival evening, orchestrates a meeting with him, and goes to his home where she removes her mask on condition that he douse the candles so that she can remain anonymous. Promising to reveal her identity at an upcoming party, she instead slips away, thus preserving the reputation of herself and her family. In Carnival, masked men were the customary pursuers and seducers. Now, it is a masked woman, who used the cover of disguise and then of darkness to come out of her retreat. As a story of an assertive woman using the festive moment to realize her desires even within the confines of society, this tale is emblematic of the parlour games themselves. The layers of ludic meaning multiply, as this tale of a Carnival escapade featuring a bold woman is told as part of Carnival games that, in turn, were organized by women. Stories of restive women also appeared in the Intronati’s plays, theatrical pieces also emanating from the setting of Carnival. As we saw in chapter 1, the academy’s first play, the Ingannati (1532), featured a daughter’s escaping an arranged marriage by disguising herself as a boy. Sometime in the second half of the 1560s – probably upon his return to Siena from Florence for the 1567–8 academic year – Girolamo Bargagli wrote a play, La Pellegrina (The female pilgrim).104 This story featured a woman seeking her lost love under the cover of a religious pilgrim. Another woman in the play, whose father had arranged an unwanted marriage, was feigning madness to escape this fate. In the end, both women succeed in avoiding arranged matches and uniting with their true loves. That they do so by way of disguise and simulation is again notable as a Carnival theme, where disguise was the festive template. But there is a second layer of meaning in this, for the ludic setting was generally a staging ground for non-conventional behaviour.

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For women as well as for men, then, the liminoid world of the game and play(s) was an opportunity to pursue one’s “natural inclinations,” which, Girolamo Bargagli argued in his Dialogo, was the proper behaviour in the ideal parlour game. In a world of stifling professional conventionality (for men) and severe social constriction (for women), the masked ludic identity ironically became the vehicle for true identity. In games, stories, and plays women gained greater and greater agency in the period from the early days of the Intronati to the 1550s and 1560s. Some women – those three famous women at the walls – even achieved notable military personas, replete with their own insignias. As we shall see in the following chapter, this realm of public identity and the commemoration of women expanded even in the aftermath of the Intronati’s closing.

4 Fortunes, Medals, Emblems: The Public Face of Private Women

The Florentine Dukes apparently closed the Sienese academies in 1568. Documentary evidence for the closing is elusive: no record of an actual decree can be found in Cantini’s compendium of grand-ducal legislation, and the precise motives of the Medici overlords can only be guessed at.1 Minutes of the artisan academy, the Rozzi, indicate that “in 1568 there reigned in our city of Siena many academies and societies … which … were all made to close down in deference to our masters [and] now with the good graces of these same [masters] the society of the Rozzi was reconstituted and they began to gather the day of 31 August 1603.”2 In a letter of 1696 Girolamo Gigli echoed this concession to Florentine domination, when he suggested that following the fall of Siena to the Florentines, the Intronati (and certain other groups) ceased gathering in order not “to make jealous with particular gatherings the watchful eyes of the new regime.”3 Most scholars follow Curzio Mazzi’s conclusion that the shutdown was owing to the “suspicion and distrust of Cosimo de’ Medici,” who acted as co-regent even after turning over daily affairs of the state to his son Francesco in 1564.4 But what exactly did the Florentine regime fear: political unrest, heresy, or both? And what impact would this crackdown have on the festive life of the city? Certainly, academic and festive life could be viewed as potentially disruptive. Earlier in the century local authorities had twice sought to rein in revelry and private gatherings. In 1535, apparently targeting in particular a popular political group called the Bardotti, the Sienese Balìa issued proscriptions against academies and “private congregations,” and in 1542 they banned masquerades and evening parties during Carnival.5 In the latter case, when a comedy was performed in the home of Buoncompagno di Marcantonio della Gazzaia

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the evening after a February 8 ban on parties, both the participants and the spectators were punished.6 Given that the comedies in Siena were known to target their foes (the Florentines, the pope, and, after the Spanish occupation in 1530, the Spaniards), it is no wonder that festive life would be seen as a threat to the Florentine overlords.7 In Florence itself, in the early 1540s Duke Cosimo had dealt with the rise of the burlesque Academy of the Umidi by co-opting it to state ends and transforming it into the Florentine Academy.8 As Domenico Zanrè has shown, in the next decade another group, the Accademia del Piano, staged a mock funeral ceremony following the death of the Medici protégé, Onofrio Bartolini, Archbishop of Pisa. This irreverent roast so alarmed Cosimo’s ducal secretary, Lorenzo Pagni, that in 1556 he recommended to Cosimo that he reinvoke a law of 1549 against unauthorized assemblies, reminding him of the assassination of his predecessor, Alessandro de’ Medici, in 1537. Cosimo demurred, saying that he preferred to let the ever-restive Florentines be diverted with such revels rather than brood. Pagni’s suspicions, however, may have had some merit, as a thwarted conspiracy mounted three years later included members of this academy.9 As for the Medici policies towards the academies in Siena, the picture is complex. On the positive side, in 1557 the roster of the Intronati included the young prince Francesco de’ Medici himself, and one of the Intronati’s plays was performed for one of Cosimo’s two entries in the city (in late 1560 and early 1561) and another was staged to celebrate Ferdinando de’ Medici’s wedding in Florence in 1589.10 On the negative side, however, there is evidence that both Cosimo and Francesco promoted an increasingly oppressive regime in the city that targeted the activities and members of the academies. Suspicions concerning the orthodoxy of certain of the Intronati prompted the entry of the Inquisition into the city in 1559, and by September of 1560 Intronati member Fausto Sozzini had fled the city.11 In a letter to him the next year Girolamo Bargagli complains that the “monks, know-it-alls, and theologians are angry” if academies even broach the area of theology (via lectures on Dante’s Comedy) and that the archbishop has forbidden such discussions in the city.12 By 1562, Bargagli warns a friend not to come to the city in hopes of improving his spirits, because, in the current climate, “here, anyone who talks of the Yule log, of parties, or symbols is accused of heresy; anyone who designs pleasant entertainments for Carnival is accused of plotting against the state.”13

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As it turned out, Duke Cosimo had his own political reasons for taking an increasingly harsh stance on religious dissent. In 1559, with the ascension of Gian Angelo de’ Medici (from a Milanese branch of the family) as Pius IV, the ties between Florence and the Papacy gained renewed strength, as first one and then another of Cosimo’s sons in succession were named cardinal. As for Cosimo’s pursuit of heresy in Siena, in a letter of 1560 to the Inquisition he proclaimed himself “the fiercest persecutor of heretics.”14 In 1566 Cardinal Michele Ghislieri, who in 1559 had headed up the Inquisition’s investigations of Sienese heretics, became Pius V, and the Tridentine persecution of Sienese figures became ever more intense. Intronati members Marcantonio Cinuzzi and Mino Celsi were caught up in the purge, as was Achille Benvoglienti, to whom some Intronati members had ties.15 Cosimo’s complicity in stepping up persecutions was no doubt tied to his desire to be elevated to the position of Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title in the gift of the pope and conferred upon Cosimo in August 1569.16 Cosimo’s son and co-regent Francesco followed suit in suppressing heretical currents. In March 1567 he informed his governor of the city, Federigo Barbolani da Montauto, of his concerns that German (i.e., Lutheran) students at the university were contaminating the city with “their false opinions.”17 By May and June of following year Federigo reported that he had ordered officials at the customs gates and elsewhere to be on guard for those bringing in “damned books,” and in December of 1569 a bonfire of banned books took place in the piazza of San Francesco, seat of the inquisitors.18 It appears, then, that the joined forces of Counter-Reformation energies and Cosimo’s ambition to become a Tuscan Grand Duke led to a serious crackdown on the intellectual and cultural life of Siena. And this explains the reported shutdown of the academies and other gatherings in 1568. If, however, Cosimo wanted unauthorized groups to be less visible in the city, he certainly wanted an authorized group to be very visible. Surely, it is no coincidence that in the same period (specifically, June 1568) he established a new order of knights, drawn from the nobility, to police Florence and Siena and to be the standard-bearers of ducal power.19 As Habermas might frame it, the unlicensed “public culture” of the academies’ comedies and assemblies was countered by a traditional courtly culture – and in 1591 Scipione Bargagli himself published a set of emblems that he and other Sienese literati had composed in honour of this band. Indeed, this Rolo, overo cento imprese de

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gl’illustri signori huomini de’arme sanesi, militanti sotto’l reale, e felicissimo stendardo del serenissimo Ferdinando de’ Medici, Gran Duca III di Toscana is a perfect example of the Medicean co-opting of the emblem culture popularized in Siena by the Intronati.20 If it would seem that Scipione aided and abetted the enemy in this, he may also have helped to rescue the Intronati from their oblivion. Writing in 1696, the Intronati historian Girolamo Gigli argued that the Intronati’s supplying Latin mottoes for this band of knights convinced then Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici that the long-neglected “laurels of Minerva” needed a “distinctive and particular culture” as much as those of “Mars,” and thus he took the lead in reviving the Intronati in 1603.21 As for 1568, however, the Medici overlords likely viewed the academies as devotees less of the goddess of wisdom than of the god of wine (and the heretic Luther). It would seem that the suppression of the academies was part of the larger effort to tamp down heresy, embargo and burn forbidden books, and lock down the city against foreign infiltration. We have seen that as early as 1562 Girolamo Bargagli had complained that festive culture – which was to a large degree the preserve of the academies – had become suspect as potentially heretical and seditious, so the 1568 shuttering had perhaps been brewing for some time. What would this mean for the Sienese women, who were at the heart of this festive life? Ironically, it may have strengthened their public presence. The Court of the Ferraiuoli This elevation of women soon became evident with the formation of a group expressly identified as a “court” (innocently serving women) rather than an academy (potentially mobilizing men).22 Fortunio Martini left an account of the Relatione dell’origine della Corte de’ Ferraiuoli e spettacol rappresentato l’anno 1568 [1569, new style] nel Palazzo Cerretani in Siena.23 According to his account, at the end of a party at the Cerretani Palace in January of 1569 Urania Cerretani de’ Piccolomini arose to leave (at dawn) accompanied by a group of men dressed in ferraiuoli (heavy cloaks) owing to the cold weather. This group soon grew from ten to twenty-three men, and they would invite women to meet with them at the home of Pietro and Gironimo Cerretani. This decision was all the more noteworthy, given the contemporary political climate in the city, which “impeded others from leaving their own homes and did not even permit people to be found together.”24 Following this allusion to the lockdown of the city, Martini then hails Pietro Cerretani’s wife,

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Flavia Tolomei Cerretani, as an instrumental figure who inspired courage in others, as it was she who would orchestrate this gathering. Aside from her well-earned reputation for conventional virtues as a lovely and chaste women, her labours in this venture would win her “no little fame in our city as an efficient (essecutiva) and brave woman.”25 Indeed, he claims, when the members of the Ferraiuoli court saw with what “fervour she embraced this undertaking” and with what “virility of spirit” (virilità del cuore) she faced any hardship, everyone “took courage in view of the wicked times and any other troubling mishap, and she and they [the court] made known openly to the world that there was not any difficulty that would not be overcome with a noble heart.”26 Martini’s account thus assigns to Flavia a crucial role in realizing the plan of the court in such circumstances, emboldening the men with her own rather male qualities of courage, agency, and virility of spirit. Although Martini depicts the institutionalizing of this group in somewhat defiant terms, Curzio Mazzi implies that the creation of such a “court” interested only in entertaining women would not have aroused suspicion of violating the ban on academies.27 If circumventing the political crackdown was indeed part of the motive for forming the court of the Ferraiuoli – which placed women even more prominently at the centre of festive life than the Intronati had done – we could conclude that the political prohibition of male groups had the unintended consequence of elevating women. In any case, Martini’s account, with its emphasis on Flavia Tolomei Cerretani’s agency, certainly attributes to her a vital role in orchestrating the first meeting, and thus the actual institutionalizing, of this new social group. By the time of its first anniversary the court was focusing on the public recognition and praise of women in equal or even greater proportions relative to men. First it did so through the elaboration of Befana fortunes. In his description of a Game of Fortune in his Dialogo, Girolamo Bargagli indicated that both men and women would individually come before a blindfolded individual, who, acting as Befana, would utter a fortune; another person would then be drawn by lot to interpret its particular meaning for that individual.28 In the Court of the Ferraiuoli these fortunes would be elaborated into devices and reverses of medals – public recognitions that would be especially notable in their application to women. In a lengthy account of Befana tributes made by the Ferraiuoli on Epiphany of 1570 (1569, old style), Scipione Bargagli recorded reverses of medals made for ninety-four individuals,

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to which he prefaced two discourses in Riverci di medaglie della Ventura Befana de’ Cortigiani Ferraiuoli. Con due ragionamenti: l’uno intorno alla materia delle Sorti, o Venture Befane, et l’altro intorno a’ riverci di medaglie, et spetialmente a’ proprii delle persone private; con brevissime dichiarationi nella fine sopra ciascheduno particolar rivercio (Reverses of medals of the Befana fortunes of the Ferraiuoli courtiers. With two discussions: one regarding the matter of fates, or Befana fortunes, and the other regarding reverses of medals and especially those of private persons, with very brief statements at the end on each particular reverse).29 Prior to the listing of the ninety-four fortunes/reverses, Scipione includes a prefatory discussion of the history of prophecy, and prior to the explanations of them a discourse on medals. In the former he argues that the fortunes often speak to issues of character and can alert people of flaws (to be corrected) and virtues (to be continued in the future).30 Although the ninety-four fortunes alternate between men and women, the selfconsciously noteworthy feature of the enterprise concerns the celebration of women. And, in fact, the very parity of women and men in this ceremony of public fame is significant, given the traditional assumptions of the necessarily private life of proper women (who, according to Pericles’s dictum current in Renaissance culture, should ideally have no public reputation whatsoever). In Girolamo’s earlier account of the game, the fortunes are randomly drawn, and the art of personalizing them comes when players interpret their meaning for the individuals for whom they are drawn.31 Scipione’s description discusses the varying formats of drawing fortunes for both men and women from vases (either from one vase with all the fortunes, or from two separated by gender). He invokes practices in the classical tradition to justify the drawing of fortunes by lot, but, as he presents the ninety-four fortunes for these individuals, it becomes clear that the process is rigged so that the fortunes are not fortuitous, but rather are expressly written for particular individuals. Thus, the medal reverse for Urania Piccolomini, whose early morning journey home in 1569 occasioned the spontaneous creation of the group, included as her motto “Di Rara Corte Illustre et Bel Principio,” (Illustrious and Fine Beginning of the Rare Court) and the explanation of it recounted her role in the founding.32 Thus, the concept of random fortunes transmutes into statements of personal identity. This process of rigging the fortune makes sense of Scipione’s comment that the fortunes may sometimes indicate an aspect of the past life of the individual, reflecting the “fantasies, thoughts, and, so to speak, the other humours of something you

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judge to be in them most fixed in their mind.”33 This, in turn, facilitates the didactic function of these “futures” that can warn of failings and identify strengths, so that the recipients of such prophecies may be inspired “to refrain from one course or spur on to another that which is already found to have stirred the thoughts of their mind.”34 This rather innovative type of identity formation, then, is grounded in an individual’s observed nature, but it is further shaped by didactic praise and blame. Such prophecies tend to make private personality a public matter, and thereby encourage the full realization of individual character. Moreover, the character traits obviously gain heightened social presence and “value” when they are publicly identified and reified in the medal reverses. Although both men and women are accorded these fortunes, Scipione’s preface certainly places emphasis on the latter, as evident when he discusses the decision of Fate to prod women to realize their potential for fame. Fate recognizes that Sienese women have no “less brilliant virtue enclosed within their minds” than beauty without, and realizes “how much to every other lofty honour and true and rare glory they always aspire with their heart.”35 As a result, he empowers Befana as one of his minions to convey to these women the “image of those things whereby each of them is able and would be able … to reveal clearly her singular valour and become worthy that her noble and outstanding transactions (operationi) be sculpted in marble, bronze, and gold.”36 And not only does this image embolden the individual to action, but also it publicizes her character and potential to all. The two sides of the medal thus depict the two sides (inner and outer) of the individual; the crystallizing of character on the reverse of medals enables others to see that, accompanying the physical beauty depicted on the front of the medal, there is to be found also “the beauty of the intellect equally bestowed on them.”37 When before have private women received such medals or their reverses? And does this conform to tradition? Scipione addresses these questions in a second discourse preceding the explanations of the medal reverses.38 In tracing medals back to the ancients, he says that they were traditionally given to the likes of military generals, consuls, emperors, and empresses, and would include a physical likeness in addition to some representation of a great deed or character trait. The example of Marc Antony, whose medal included an image of Orpheus among the animals – signifying his powerful eloquence – illustrates that ancient reverses might represent not a deed, but rather “solamente

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la virtù dell’animo.”39 The possibility for praising a quality of mind is especially relevant in the application of this tradition to modern-day Sienese women, for whom the opportunity for “high and serious endeavours” was severely limited. For this reason, the Ferraiuoli sought “to devise reverses of medals for the honour and praise of private persons, of whom rarely and indeed with difficulty are there lofty and excellent accomplishments … recorded in the writing of famous historians … and especially the actions of private women, however noble and genteel, since to them – I do not know why – it seems almost prohibited to be able to show their true valour in high and serious endeavours, as is conceded fully to men.”40 This passage closely recalls one found in the second preamble of Scipione’s Trattenimenti, in which he lamented the social restrictions on female achievement and hailed parlour games as a liminal zone for glory. Now, in this instance, the festive occasion represents an opportunity not for women to perform but for men to promote and encourage their potential for greatness. And this, Scipione argues, is the reason that the Ferraiuoli courtiers look to the example of Marc Antony’s medal – commemorating his character and gifts rather than his tangible accomplishments – to celebrate the “illustrious virtue and singular qualities of mind” of private women.41 In fact, Scipione indicates that even the men in this series – who could be commended for their famous deeds – like the women, will be distinguished only for “the virtues and qualities of mind.”42 Thus, the more traditional male template of glory based in deeds is set aside for one that speaks to the realities of women. The Ferraiuoli fortunes level the playing field, accommodating the men to the women. Strength of character, which can inhabit women in the secluded private lives, trumps tangible deeds. The process of conferring fame is not only characterized by a movement from private character to public potential, but also by an incremental transition from the specifically amatory to the more generally moral. Scipione indicates that many of the fortunes of women are anchored in the concept of love, because that realm is the only arena available to them to “prove the valour of their fine minds and manifest the loftiness and nobility of their thoughts.”43 In claiming, however, that “the virtues of that love [are] not inferior to any others,” and that anyone who wants to truly display these virtues must “[possess] optimally almost all the other praiseworthy virtuous habits,” Scipione considerably moralizes and elevates the amatory realm.44 Once again, then, he exemplifies how well-born men viewed polite women and how these

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women may have even viewed themselves – that is, broadly within the terms of the courtly love tradition. And it is from this background that any gradual changes in the perception of women must start. Similarly, the intellectual skills of women were tested in the realm of romantic literature, which, as we saw in the parlour games described by both Bargagli brothers, became the stuff of careful parsing, analysis, and competition. Thus, love, even when turned to moral, intellectual, or – in the case of the Trattenimenti – martial ends, was viewed by men as a rather inevitable trigger for the identity and self-actualization of polite women. The ninety-four reverses alternate between women and men, and this is itself a telling gesture to equality and to Scipione’s stated objective that women and private persons should have their public renown. Despite this unconventional aim, however, the tenor of the forty-seven reverses for women are largely conventional in affirming traditional female virtues of chastity and wifely devotion. But even in this case, such virtues could be given a pronounced martial frame. The first one, to Flavia Bellanti, who had been explicitly named in Girolamo’s Dialogo for a clever riposte at a parlour game, depicts the figure of Armed Minerva. Holding in one hand a shield with the image of Medusa and in the other a spear, she stands over a slain dragon and boasts the motto “Saggio Custode, e Forte” (Wise and Strong Guardian). In his explanation of the medal, Scipione explains that Minerva is a traditional symbol of chastity, who is constantly on guard against the dragon of daily snares (insidie) that threaten.45 In another medal, Eusta Petrucci is depicted as a victor over the “arms of love,” which include not only lust, sweet thoughts, and the like, but also, ironically, “pleasant games,” one of which this very text is describing. In one case, the martial imagery of female resolve against love moves beyond the traditional tropes to ones found in Scipione’s Trattenimenti. Cassandra Arrighetti’s motto declares her “Secure From the Siege of Love,” and her reverse depicts a crown of weeds (gramigna), the traditional reward for “valorous captains and soldiers” who have rescued a city from siege.46 The theme of purity is so strong that, in one medal, a young bride is depicted as being forcibly torn from her mother’s lap (so much she prized her virginity), and her motto was “Modesty Has No Place Against Force.”47 Scipione explains this scene as alluding to an ancient Roman custom in which the bride was seized by relatives of the husband and taken to her new home. The choice of this medal for Aurora Mandoli could simply have been arbitrarily didactic, but we should not rule out the possibility that these

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archetypes were chosen for reasons known to contemporaries. Had she been, for instance, a particularly young bride? Such subtexts cannot be retrieved, but they may well have constituted another level of social meaning. Some of the medals indicate other forms of conjugal duty spun out, via classical exempla, from the women’s first names. Thus, Artemisia Bardi’s medal depicts the tomb of King Mausolus, whose wife Artemisia commissioned his eponymous monument.48 Another, Portia Buoninsegni’s medal, depicts a woman placing burning coals in her mouth – alluding to the ancient Portia, daughter of Cato the Younger, who, upon hearing news of her husband Brutus’s death at Philippi, killed herself, “imitating with feminine spirit (spirito femminile) the end of her father and his manly death (morte virile).”49 Obviously, in these cases that derive from play on a name, the medals are merely didactic exercises in classical allusion (and the publicizing of social norms). In the case of Berenice Bardi, however, there was no wordplay required to assign her a medal depicting a woman on a turtle. This image, Scipione explains, alludes to Phidias’s ancient depiction of Venus holding her foot on a turtle, which Plutarch in the Conjugal Precepts (142d) interpreted to mean that women should always remain at home and hidden, venturing out only in the company of their husbands.50 This is indeed a rather ironic message – that women remain invisible – in a Befana ceremony intent on making public heretofore private persons. Do these allusions suggest that the medals simply reinforced patriarchal assumptions, that the public notice of these women was intended only to mandate their roles of chastity, sacrifice, and confinement? Perhaps not completely. Two of the medals depict virtues decidedly more masculine. Livia Forese’s medal depicted a spear and a comb with the motto “In Bel Cuor Femminile Alto Valore” (In a Fine Female Heart the Highest Valour).51 Scipione explains that this refers to the ancient Roman custom of parting the hair of brides with a spear (rather than a comb), in order to alert them that “being joined with a strong and brave person, it did not befit them to lead their lives in feminine delicacies and vanities.”52 More telling was the medal for Aurelia Tolomei, which depicted an armed woman with the motto “In Petto Femminile Alta Virtude” (In the Female Heart the Highest Virtue). Scipione’s explanation of this emblem makes it clear that this was not a case of the chaste woman armed against the snares of love. Instead, it alluded to the Spartan women who took the battle to the Messenians when their own men had begun to flag:

The Public Face of Private Women 91 The Spartans dedicated the statue of Armed Venus in order to manifest the virile virtue of these women, because, when the Spartan men were at war with the Messenians and not able to sustain the attack of those and began to yield and flee, when apprised of this their women unrestrained (incontinente) took up arms and engaging the enemy not only put back on its feet the lost squadron of their husbands, but also broke up and put to flight the Messenians. Whence the Spartans, embracing their wives, who were armed just as they were, joined with them with the greatest delight. And thus from that point on they began to worship the Armed Venus.53

This medal reverse obviously echoes the Sienese women at the walls during the siege of Siena. While the “real-time” public setting of these Befana medals perhaps precluded Scipione’s making the rather embarrassing connection to the siege, in the “literary” setting of the Trattenimenti he did connect the Spartan story to the recent siege. In his Game of Questions of Love – in a debate as to whether a lover of women should pursue arms or letters – one of his fictive players alludes to the Spartan women rescuing their husbands and then expressly alludes to the siege: “[But] why do I go looking for examples of ancient and foreign women, having modern and native ones no less certain than immediate? Do we not see with our own eyes, in this crude war, with what promptness in our city the women armed themselves to provide aid to their beloved men? And with what bravery (ardor d’animo) they encouraged them in the battles with the common enemy and with their own eyes fought to see them in combat?”54 It bears notice that Scipione had to force the historical analogy to accommodate his point. That is, the Spartan men were themselves besieging the Messenians when a contingent of the latter attacked Sparta and was defeated by the women, who had been left there alone. Scipione thus distorted the story somewhat to make the parallel to the besieged Sienese men and women a closer one.55 There is yet one further possible subtext for Scipione’s explication of this medal. He oddly characterizes the Spartan women taking up arms as “incontinente” (which can have meanings of “unchaste” as well as “unrestrained”), and he may have intended the dual meaning to suggest a connection between martial and sexual assertion – especially since he refers to the Spartan men as being “armed” just like their wives and joining with them in pleasure.56 Given its sexual allusion, Scipione’s comments on this incident evidently drew upon the version of the event in Lactantius’s Divine Institutes (1.20.29–31):

92 Parlour Games The Messenians were under siege; they tricked their beseigers, slipped out without being noticed, and sped off to plunder Sparta, but were routed and put to flight by the Spartan women. The Spartan men meantime had realized their enemies’ deception and were in pursuit. But their womenfolk, duly armed, had come out a considerable way. They met. When the women saw their menfolk preparing to fight, they thought they were the Messenians, and stripped themselves naked. The men then recognized their wives, and the sight aroused them sexually. Armed as they were, they grappled with them, quite promiscuously, since there was no time to make distinctions.57

Lactantius’s story explains Scipione’s allusion to the “armed” men uniting with the armed women, and it might also explain why he referred to the Spartan women, who had stripped for battle, as “incontinent.” This fusion of the sexual and the martial of course works to explain the notion of an Armed Venus of Aurelia Tolomei’s medal, but it might more generally allude to the incident of the women at the walls, which almost certainly was the chief inspiration for Scipione’s medal. In any case, this example reveals how these medals promoted not only traditional female virtues but also at times more masculine and martial ones that bespoke a greater recognition of female activism. As for the general agency of women, the very creation of the Court of the Ferraiuoli centred on women who, as Fortunio Martini had indicated, dared to brook the newly installed curfews imposed on the city. In like fashion, several of the female medals of Scipione’s collection hinge on the creation of the court and its continuation in festive meetings and games. Thus, the medal of Urania Piccolomini depicts youths in their winter coats (ferraiuoli), and her motto “Illustrious and Fine Beginning of the Rare Court”; later medals for Flavia Cerretani, Vittoria Guglielmi, and Fausta Nuti detail the reconvening of the court some days later and the games played at that gathering.58 In Martini’s account of the 1569 convening at the home of Flavia Cerretani, whom he praised for her “virility of heart” in bucking the curfew, Flavia ordered Martini to propose a game: he recommended the War of Love, in which players try to persuade recalcitrant women to become vassals of love. Urania Piccolomini, the other principal in the creation of the court, was designated one of the enemy castles to be taken.59 While amatory “war” and the female “castle” were familiar courtly themes, the trope may have had a another layer of meaning in the current oppressive climate of the city – much as the games depicted in the Trattenimenti

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did. From the vantage of the Sienese male elite, any “fight” left in the Sienese spirit seems to have shifted largely to the “virility of heart” of its women.60 Was this a conscious transfer of power to women or a subconscious restaging of another battle that, unlike the Florentine one, they could hope to win? Whichever one (or both) of these it may be, the interplay between the ludic/amatory and the martial/rebellious may be less a sign of exhausted tropes than of reinvigorated troops. The Ferraiuoli and the Querelle des femmes Around the time that Scipione compiled his Befana medals, the Court of the Ferraiuoli produced another text, this one anonymous and recounting a purported gathering of the group with twenty women in attendance.61 Although this text identifies all of the members of the knightly court, and names Clemente Piccolomini as the current Prince of the Ferraiuoli, it does not expressly locate the meeting as being in his home, nor does it name the women.62 This meeting simulates an encounter between some knights of the “Prince of the Indomitable Knights” from the island of Herma,63 who come to the Ferraiuoli’s court to challenge their customary subservience to women. A debate is proposed with the following terms: if the foreign knights can persuade the Ferraiuoli Knights that their submissive ways are wrong, then the Sienese knights will change their ways; if the Sienese prevail, the foreign knights will adopt their customs. Specifically, two of the Ferraiuoli’s practices are debated: their “principal concern with honouring and serving noble women” and maintaining such devotion to women who clearly offer no hope of reciprocation.64 The first of these debates is particularly revealing, because it stages a debate on the querelle des femmes in some notably feminist terms. The brief against male subservience to women – thus, the brief against women – is presented by Belisario Bulgarini dressed as one of the “foreign knights.” He offers a litany of arguments from the natural, literary, social, and medical realms: women are inferior to men as the moon is to the sun; Petrarch’s verse proclaimed that the “femina è cosa mobile per nature” (Rime sparse 183:12),65 a sentiment echoed by Sannazzaro; for every one accomplished woman in a field of human endeavour there are examples of many more men; all women innately want to be men (but not vice versa); biology teaches that woman is merely the “materia” and man the “forma et agente” (Aristotle, Generation of Animals 727b–730b); dowry payments are needed to “get them off one’s back.”66

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The rebuttal in praise of women comes from our same Fortunio Martini, who had described the formation of the Ferraiuoli in 1569. Not surprisingly, Martini’s defence mines the same traditions for countervailing evidence and attempts to parse the language of womanhood with greater precision. He adumbrates the distinction to which Tasso, as we saw in chapter 1, devoted a brief treatise in his 1582 Discorso della virtù feminile e donnesca. He claims that Petrarch and Sannazzaro in their incriminating passages both “said femmina and not donna, and a great distinction needs to be made between females and women.”67 In fact, he argues, it is not that “la donna è mobile” (pace Verdi) but rather that the “femmina” is, just as Tasso would similarly argue that “feminine” virtue pertains to the private, retiring woman but “womanly” virtue can connote a heroic, even manly type of virtue. Martini adduces passages from the likes of Petrarch and Claudio Tolomei to press the point that service to women (donne) is an avenue to all manner of supernal, active, practical, and moral forms of happiness. The language of womanhood also informs his refutation of the social convention that would make men rulers over women, for “if man is made head of the woman (putting aside matrimony, thus instituted by God, though even in this he ought to be companion and not harsh lord), it has been a tyranny and wrong, because through the name of ‘donna’ (which does not signify anything else but ‘signora’) it is shown that it ought to be to the contrary.”68 Woman is signora, then, just as man is signore. Even in the matrimonial realm where submission is biblically mandated, the man should be “compagno” rather than “duro signore.” Martini’s prescription for companionability here shows that the parlour-game debate has a serious side, and the cultural and social ills facing women need to be corrected. Along this line, Martini (as Ferraiuoli Knight) explains that one reason there are fewer women than men distinguished in arms, letters, and other pursuits is owing to the skewed filter of patriarchal history. That is, even in those cases when women actually were or would have been equally capable as men, “through the fault of invidious writers (as Ariosto well states it at the beginning of canto 37 of his Furioso) there has not endured to our times the reputations of many [women], who could possibly surpass the number of men.”69 The implication here is that history is written by the male winners. Moreover, further evidence that the arguments for female subordination are socially constructed is that they have not been universally accepted. He cites Plato’s famous brief in Bk. 5 of the Republic (cf. 453a) for women’s equal involvement in ruling the state, and he invokes the kingdom of the Amazons, who ruled “so happily for so many years,

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governed only by themselves without any aid of men.”70 Finally, as for dowries – whose price Renaissance scholars have inversely correlated to women’s esteem in the period – Martini attempts to redefine their purpose.71 Rather than being a marker of female undesirability, they are an acknowledgment of the “grave weight of matrimony, because it is indeed a reasonable thing that a woman have something from the father in order to support her children, together with her husband, and also, losing him, to be able to live.”72 This last argument shows just how far from frivolous this staged querelle des femmes was. Questions of classical history and biology dominate the continuation of this debate. The “Foreign Knight” adduces the unchastity (impudicizia) of Helen of Troy as the cause of the Trojan War, a favourite locus for misogynist claims. The “Ferraiuoli Knight” answers this by citing Euripides’s Helen, which follows the alternate story that the figure taken to Troy by Paris was simply an image of Helen conjured up by Hera to repay him for his flawed “Judgment” against her – the real Helen having been taken to Egypt where she lived chastely with her husband.73 But the mythological exoneration of Helen is less important than Martini’s brief against the double standard of the original story. Even if the real Helen had been involved, why is it, he asks, that Paris is not equally or more to be condemned?: “Perhaps because of the dishonourable and tyrannical licence that men unjustly take, not only conceding to themselves what is forbidden to women, but (Oh! grand villainy!) even glory in it, accusing however in poor women what they account a virtue in themselves – under cover of saying that women make the gravest error in bastardizing the blood by raising children not truly their own, as if they [the men] themselves were not similarly the cause.”74 Thus, the male fear of dubious parenthood that drives a condemnation of female sexuality is worsened only by male hypocrisy regarding their own behaviour. This social double standard, moreover, leads to insidious stereotyping. Even if there were one bad woman, all women should not be condemned “as if there have not been found or could not be found men far more wicked than women, and in greater number.”75 Countering the trump card of biology, Martini likewise here brings forward his own countervailing authorities. To the Aristotelian argument that women are merely the “material” of life and men the “form and agent,” he cites “the great physician Galen … who indeed imputed to the seed of the woman the (so to speak) formative virtue.”76 A Sienese parlour-game debate thus explores the case for female agency even in biological terms of “agency” that might overturn long-prevailing ones

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(as seen, for instance, in Aeschylus’s Eumenides, ll. 657–66, where the male is identified as the only true parent.) The second debate between the two orders of knights concerns the Ferraiuoli’s custom of persevering in the face of unrequited love. This debate would seem to echo the more traditional protests against unresponsive women that characterized the Intronati’s first play, the Sacrificio of 1532, in which they finally renounced their loyalties to the undemonstrative Sienese women by sacrificing their love tokens on the altar of Love.77 Here, when the Foreign Knight (Girolamo Cerretani) condemns the intransigence of the Sienese women, the Ferraiuoli Knight offers the defence that true love is a function of “destiny,” not “choice.” Their debate resurrects (and explicitly cites) Alessandro Piccolomini’s treatment of this question in his De la institutione of 1542 (discussed in chapter 2).78 Even while conforming to the more conventional plaint of unrequited love, this second debate also raises some issues about the essence of “natural” love and the role of free will in choosing a lover. The Foreign Knight argues that the first pleasurable traces of love may be by destiny, but that true love is confirmed by choice and will. The Ferraiuoli Knight attempts to exonerate the harshness of the Sienese women by emphasizing the power of love through destiny.79 Both sides, however, implicitly articulate significant defences of true love – whether the power of natural affection or the power of free will, both of which affirm an area of emotional or moral agency for women against the tradition of constrained marriages.80 When the verbal duel between the knights turns to a physical contest, Jove sends the Goddess of Justice to resolve the battle. She rules for the Ferraiuoli Knights in the cause of serving women, but for the foreign knights in the question of pursuing unrequited love. This evening party thus has the force of both tradition (in the second decision) and innovation (in the first). Indeed, this ludic querelle des femmes raises significant issues of the undervalued status and social constraints on women’s lives. Even granted that this literary depiction is an embellishment of a staged revelry, the social dynamics of this parlour game are rather dramatic, as Sienese men before an audience of Sienese women debate male oppression and female agency. Women’s Star Turn Nestled inside the large volume of papers that contained Scipione Bargagli’s catalogue of the Ferraiuoli medal reverses and the

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anonymous account of the knightly debate is a self-contained manuscript book with pen and ink wash illustrations. Labelled “La Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati con i discorsi di Messer Giugurta Tomasi,” this “book” reveals the further gelling of the Sienese Befana tradition. Now, from yet another academy, the Travagliati (the Troubled), comes a celebration that continues the tradition of female praise by enshrining women in the heavens, as constellations of personal fame. Once again, the game of the Ventura (Fortune) simultaneously acknowledges a woman’s past (and present) and predicts her future. Few traces remain of this academy, which was founded “around the time of the fall of the Republic” (1555), according to one document.81 This academy now takes up the torch of promoting women, like the Intronati and the Ferraiuoli before it. The event depicted is a 6 January 1572 Epiphany celebration at the home of Orazio Mignanelli, a festivity that seems to belie once again that the shuttering of the academies meant the complete suspension of their pursuits.82 In any event, Tomasi describes a Befana “Ventura” party, in which the names of Sienese ladies are drawn out of a vase and their futures proclaimed by members of the Travagliati. In some versions of the game, as we have noted, when the fortunes were drawn randomly from another vase, the game was to extemporaneously apply them to the person in question. In this instance – as with the medal reverses described by Scipione Bargagli – the fortunes clearly had been prepared ahead of time for particular individuals. Tomasi’s catalogue, moreover, identified the authors of the fortunes, a group that included Tomasi himself, Alessandro Borghesi, Ottavio Saracini, Camillo Chigi, Leonardo Ghini, and others. What results, therefore, are futures that are in fact public tributes to the Sienese women themselves. In Tomasi’s version of the game, “Astrologers” proclaim the women’s celestial “reward, destined by Jove up there [in the sky] to the merit of their valour.”83 The prediction of the future thus equates to a commemoration of the past and present. As a staging ground for public recognition of women, this game – like that of the medal reverses – simultaneously acknowledges what is and what could be. The depictions of individuals cannot be too far off target (for the fortunes are read in the presence of one’s cohort), and yet they can nudge, promote, or authorize female reputation and agency. These homages, moreover, signal an overt shift from exclusively seductive intentions towards women. In a song performed by the Astrologers, Jove renounces his predatory ways in favour of honouring women for their merits:

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Figure 4.1. Fortune for Elena Tolomei. From Giugurta Tomasi, “La Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati.” BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 422v–423r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

[Y]our other virtue and wisdom and beauty hold in Jove such a lively charm that he guarantees your well-being. Nor does he wish on your account to be changed into a swan or bull, but rather that you shine in the highest chorus what might be the reward equal to your merit that proceeds from your ladies and that he give you in sky both fame and an abode.84

There is a new metamorphosis taking place here: rather than transforming himself into worldly forms to couple with mortal women, Jove transforms women into heavenly constellations. The opening image

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of Jove describes a figure “who did not know to restrain his amorous appetite, to the contrary changing himself now into a bull, now into a swan, now into some other form, made it so the jealousy of his wife – to avenge the injury – placed the world often in grave dangers.”85 But a reformed Jove surfaces here, and these female fortunes reflect a corresponding shift from the sexual to the moral, from victim to celestial beacon. This becomes clear in the first fortune, to Elena Tolomei, who is depicted as the constellation Cigno (Figure 4.1). In his exposition of this fortune Tomasi alludes yet again to Jove’s transformation into a swan (to pursue Leda), but explicates the image here for its purity – “candidezza per la bontà del animo” – and especially for the “sweetness of voice.”86 The latter distinction leads to a praise of Elena as a singer, a “novello Orfeo,” whose talent is matched by her brother Count Cinthio’s skill in poetry.87 The swan symbol thus shifts from indicating a rapacious male (Jove) to a chaste and talented female (Elena). The emphasis on female talent is most prominent in the spirited – even polemical – fortune Tomasi confers upon Livia Marzi, whom he praises not for the more customary musical ability but for literary talent. This fortune depicts her as the constellation Lyra, hailing this “nuova poetessa” as the welcome return of a new Orpheus (Figure 4.2). But then Martini reflects on what she might take as the subject of her verse: “But of what will she sing first? Will she perhaps sing the praises of the female sex, showing that they would not lack their own Orpheus and Hesiod, if the arrogance of men subjugating them did not circumscribe their every boldness? Certainly not, because her modesty would not select such material. Will she perhaps sing of the patience of Psyche? I do not believe so, because, as one most shrewd, she would not wish to provoke inimical lust.”88 No, he declares, her verse will not lament and condemn male suppression of the female voice or cite longsuffering females, but rather will affirm the glory of her female companions, of the Travagliati, of all of Siena. She will make the “new deification of all of your divine young ladies the subject of her songs. Oh, you happy ones, oh you lucky Travagliati, oh you most fortunate Siena, since in the glory of the sky over the lyre of Apollo in the presence of the divine consistory through the mouth of Lady Livia will be heard the glories dangling from your merits, the learning of the Academicians, and finally the grandeur and good fortune of your city.”89 Marzi will celebrate the glories of the Sienese – even in the face of “male arrogance” that always strives to restrain any “boldness” (ardire)

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Figure 4.2. Fortune for Livia Marzi. From Giugurta Tomasi, “La Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati.” BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 496v–497r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

in women. This male praise thus acknowledges the prevalence of the patriarchal suppression of women, while hailing (or encouraging) a female voice that celebrates women and Siena without rancour. That this fortune was written by Tomasi suggests that, in compiling the collection of public homages to women, he likely had a feminist agenda. As for the general tenor of the female fortunes (and all but a couple are female), most dwell on the triumph of moral virtues. In the case of Ottavio Saracini’s fortune for Claudia Tolomei degli Ugurgieri as Ursa Major, the explication – as in the case of the opening fortune on the swan – turns on the contrast between Jove’s unworthy sexual behaviour and a woman’s moral purity. Here, the fortune invokes the story of Callisto – amorously pursued by Jove and then turned into a bear by Juno – but whereas Callisto was pleasing to Jove for reasons

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of “little chastity,” Lady Claudia is pleasing to God for “honest and chaste” reasons: namely, for the “the highest and sincere Love with which she honours the first monarch.”90 For these sublime reasons she is designated Callisto and assigned the constellation of the bear. If Jove in some way represents “men,” this fortune again suggests a reversal of tradition: from the unjust metamorphosis of a victimized woman into a bear, to the apotheosis of a pious woman, to stellar immortality. Furthermore, the binary opposition between a predatory god and an admiring one possibly suggests that these fortunes could be speaking to men as well as to women. Moral virtue can trump corporeal beauty even in fortunes that feature physical attributes. The lengthiest account in the collection is devoted to Fulvia Spannocchi de’ Sergardi, the dedicatee of Scipione Bargagli’s earlier Trattenimenti.91 Her celestial future is as the Hair of Berenice, a constellation that achieved full autonomy (from Leo and Virgo) only in the course of the sixteenth century, culminating in its enshrinement as the Coma Berenices in Tycho Brahe’s star chart of 1602.92 The story of Berenice, the only historical namesake of a constellation, deals with female honour and sacrifice. This Egyptian queen vowed to cut her beautiful hair as a sacrificial offering to her mother (later identified with Aphrodite) if her husband Ptolemy III Euergetes returned safely from battle. He did, she did, and when the hair went missing from the altar, the court astronomer decreed that Aphrodite had taken the hair to the heavens. This homage to Fulvia (composed by Ottavio Saracini), however, developed the story on yet another level, claiming that the beauty of Fulvia’s hair simply encased her “intellect and mind” just as gold encases precious gems, and golden vases hold relics. Nature enclosed her head inside the most precious golden hair, because it “knew that no treasure had been produced in the world that could equal in value her most purified soul.”93 Her celestial future might be a constellation of hair, but her immortal legacy, it seems, was defined by qualities of “intelletto,” “mente,” and “purgatissima anima.” In moralizing beauty, some of these fortunes attempt to explicitly argue that the female essence trumps the male. This notably occurs in the tribute to Sulpitia Pannilini de’ Placidi, whom Ottavio Saracini enshrines as Hercules (Figure 4.3). He identifies Hercules as the traditional emblem of all the virtues because of his many conquests and labours.94 Saracini asks: “How then is it possible that a man, son of Jove, illustrious for divine work, would give and cede his place to Lady Sulpitia?”95 His answer, that “Hercules was most worthy of the sky, but

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Figure 4.3. Fortune for Sulpitia Pannilini de’ Placidi. From Giugurta Tomasi, “La Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati.” BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 485v–486r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

Lady Sulpitia is much worthier,” is based in a Platonizing discourse.96 That is, although “virtues are human and acquired through human valour as Aristotle teaches,” beauty is divine and is radiated by God to his creatures and “as a part of God, shines in beautiful bodies, and as Good, radiating its essence, inclines minds and forces eyes to admiration, as Plato shows.” Because the female good can thus triumph over the male, even the consummate male hero will yield his place in the sky to a woman.97 The manipulation of masculine images to a feminine key also occurs in the realm of animals. This is notably evident in the fortune for Flavia Carli de’ Bellanti, written by Tomasi himself. This woman – presumably the same Flavia Bellanti earlier assigned a medal reverse as Armed Minerva – is enshrined as the constellation Leo (Figure 4.4).

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Figure 4.4. Fortune for Flavia Carli de’ Bellanti. From Giugurta Tomasi, “La Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati.” BCI, Y.II.23, 527v–528r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

Tomasi describes the lion as the symbol of “strength of mind” for the emblem of King Admetus of Thessaly, as a traditional “custodian of sacred things” (and thus often depicted on the doors of temples), and as the image appearing on the shield of Agamemnon as a “symbol of terror.”98 Tomasi transposes this hardy and fierce imagery to Flavia, whom he hails as “strong of mind, robust and beautiful in body, vigilant in guarding all of her lovely gifts, terrible and frightful (terribile e spaventevole) to those who sink to vile intentions.”99 Obviously in mock exaggeration, he implies that men shrink at her presence, as he describes the “severe charm whence she instils terror in us, whence with a nod alone frightens worldly men.”100 In appropriating such powerful, forbidding qualities that would normally be associated with lions and kings who embrace leonine images, Tomasi turns conventionally masculine terms to female ends. And even where these fortunes bear some irony in their

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excess and courtesy, such enshrinements offer a different type of public identity and fame for women. Tomasi’s 1572 illustrated star book of fortunes rendered the festive Befana tradition into full artistic form. By compiling a book that joined verse, prose, and visual treatments, he extended Scipione Bargagli’s 1570 collection of medal reverses into a more elaborate and “permanent” form of female glory. And as Scipione explicitly sought to extend the classical tradition of medals from public men to private women, Tomasi’s book reveals its own attempt to change the public image of women. Jove the seducer of women on earth becomes Jove the enshriner of women in the heavens – women who are praised variously for their musical and literary talent, for their steadfast marital fidelity and private virtue, for their Herculean stature and leonine force. Later in this same decade, Scipione reflected on some of these developments in a theoretical treatment of emblems – one in which he revealed how the male construction of lasting female emblems came to be complemented by those devised (or requested) by women themselves. Emblems for Women In 1578 Scipione Bargagli published the first part of his own massive treatment of emblems, Dell’imprese, later adding a second and third part in 1594. Framed as a dialogue, this treatise accomplished for emblems what Girolamo Bargagli’s Dialogo de’giuochi achieved for games: namely, it married theoretical discussions with examples. In treating theories of emblematic representation, the speakers – Scipione, Belisario Bulgarini, and Ippolito Agostini – engage other theorists such as Girolamo Ruscelli and Paolo Giovio. Towards the end of Bk. 1, the topic turns to the related genre of reverses of medals – one of the nine categories Luca Contile’s treatise includes in the general realm of emblems – and Scipione revisits the Befana celebration of 1570 discussed above. Here the speakers defend the adaptation of the ancient medal tradition to women and explain its sixteenth-century ludic context. Much as he had done before in his unpublished account of the ceremony, Scipione lays out how that Befana event transformed both ancient and modern traditions. That is, in contrast to the classical precedents, it celebrated women, not just men; moral qualities, not just accomplished deeds.101 In terms of modern practice, he argues that the Court of the Ferraiuoli did not devise the fortunes in the customary way, but assigned the tasks to a smaller group who took some time to prepare them (and although he does not state it, these were not random fortunes but

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obviously commemorations of particular individuals).102 All of these changes worked towards a more coherent semiology of public identity and fame for Sienese women. Scipione’s treatment of medals for women set the stage for his major treatment of female emblems per se in Bk. 2 of the Dell’imprese of 1594. Well into the discussion in this book, one of the interlocutors comments that it is odd they have not yet mentioned any emblems devised by women, given that such creations would enable them “to enjoy also the fruits of [women’s] clear wits or to understand something of their singular thoughts.”103 Such a statement recognizes that emblem culture was in fact an opportunity for both creativity and self-expression – and particularly in this latter sense it constituted for women a new vehicle for self-fashioning. This launches a survey of emblems composed either by or at the behest of women – which signals a progression from the ludic tradition that heretofore had only men composing fortunes or medals for them. The interlocutor offering this survey – Ippolito Agostini – either truthfully or coyly indicates that he cannot remember whether these emblems to be discussed were devised by women, or executed by men at the “request or command” of women.104 This ambiguity points up the elusive nature of these emblems as precise statements of female creativity or sentiment – and indicates the ongoing nature of male mediation in converting private women to public figures. How much of a role did these women play in creating the emblems? Did they devise completely on their own? Did they merely suggest the general themes that a male acquaintance would then illustrate with an appropriate image and motto? How much did men provide a filter in the execution of the mottoes and how much, in this dialogue, did male commentators embellish or alter the intended meanings in their explications of the emblems and mottoes? Even given these porous boundaries between male and female involvement, Scipione’s dialogue nonetheless generally depicts the sentiments of some of these emblems as originating with women. And Scipione clearly sees this as a sixteenth-century innovation. The possibilities for dramatic declarations – even if freighted with ambiguous meanings – are best seen in an emblem for “una giovane gentildonna” (Figure 4.5). The image depicts a birdcage on top of which perches a bird, with the motto “Amica et Non Serva” (Friend Yet Not Servant). The emblem of a bird outside of the cage might well be the emblem of any defiant young Everywoman of the day. And that defiance is likely one reason this emblem is of an unnamed “young lady.” The metaphor of a woman as a caged bird had a prominent precedent

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Figure 4.5. Emblem of an Unnamed “Young Lady.” From Scipione Bargagli, Dell’imprese … alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 432. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

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in Jean de Meun’s addition to the Roman de la Rose, in a section describing the unnaturalness of female confinement and the desire for sexual freedom.105 Equally pertinent to our image here is that printed texts of the Roman included an illustration of the caged bird.106 But whereas Jean de Meun’s use of the trope had an exclusively licentious intention, non-sexual meanings were possible as well, as was the case in Boethius’s original use of the image in the Consolation of Philosophy, Bk. 3, metre 2:18–26.107 The angry or pathetic use of the metaphor of the bird in reference to women had a resonance in Renaissance and early modern Italy. In the 1480s Laura Cereta complained of wives who behave like “little sparrows” seeking the approval of their husbands,108 and much later, in the seventeenth century, Arcangela Tarabotti (1604–52) in her Paternal Tyranny used the image of the captured bird “robbed of precious liberty” to describe fathers’ forced claustration of their daughters.109 Freeing the bird from the cage thus was almost certainly intended as a forceful feminist statement – much as it remains one today. Scipione indicates that this emblem was designed by his brother Girolamo, though “at the pleasure of a no less discreet than noble and charming woman of our city, she having conceived the subject on which he ought to expand.”110 According to Scipione – and again, this may represent another filter of her meaning – this woman wished her emblem to express the paradox that women of her day faced in regard to achieving social distinction. That is, the only way to win a glorious name was for a woman to appear shy and contemptuous of the amatory world, for to openly demonstrate interest is to incur a bad name. How then could a woman win distinction among her peers and yet retain a good name? In a word, how could women achieve a reputation without having a “reputation”? According to Scipione, her emblem splits the difference by indicating that she will “follow love and yet not be subject to love.”111 Thus, she will be able to distinguish herself in the city without abandoning a “chaste reputation.”112 Clearly, Scipione interprets this in the tradition of courtly love, saying that the middle way will enable her to achieve glory for her “virtue of shrewdness (accortezza), charm, and honest courtesy.”113 Apparently, he reads the emblem to mean “Friend (to Love) and Yet Not Servant (to Love).” And this conforms to his theory that the realm of love is the only route open to women to achieve distinction. Through his interlocutors he even cites his own Trattenimenti, where he makes the point that all honourable avenues for distinction that men enjoy have been closed off to women, and that love is the only realm in which they can excel. And Love here means, I think, the entire culture of love, including the spirited parlour games where

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they could show their wit.114 Scipione thus at third hand interprets an emblem conceived by a woman and designed by his brother, and he does so in terms that conform to his own theory that distinction for women is limited to the amatory realm. Is this the intention of this unknown woman, or even of Girolamo Bargagli’s image and motto? If so, why then did it not say “Friend and Yet Not Servant to Love”? Was there in fact a broader, more obvious meaning relating not just to social reputation but more broadly to social freedom? In further elaborating the emblem Scipione certainly broaches this wider and more consequential meaning. He says that the bird (of the image) in springtime frequents the homes and places of men, “conversing” with all, building a nest, raising her young, and yet “does not consent ever to be deemed a permanent resident, nor ever stays calm or happy whenever she would come into any confined or enclosed place; indeed, through immense grief she inconsolably soon hastens to her death.”115 Scipione then cites a line from Ariosto, who in his “Third Satire” casts the image of the caged bird in terms of his own reluctance to become a captive courtier at the papal court: “Badly can the nightingale endure the cage” and “the swallow in one day dies of madness.”116 Clearly, then, the emblem alludes to the problem of social and personal confinement – whether experienced by a male at court or a female in general society (and, in fact, an analogue between male courtiers and women was one that Mary Wollstonecraft would also develop centuries later, though her focus was on their similar debilitating indulgence in “frivolity”).117 Even so, Scipione again shades the meaning to one more situated in the courtly love tradition by saying that the analogy indicates a woman who will take delight in all the conversations, parties, and “clever discussions of love,” but “has firmly resolved that her mind and her will not be bound nor imprisoned by anything less than a pure and suitable love.”118 But in his elaboration of this point, it is clear that his interpretation touches not merely on the metaphors of toying with or being captive to love, but rather on the social dilemma that women face. The entertainments of the ludic, amatory world are their only outlet for distinction – and the excitements of polite love the only solace sweetening a constricted life. And yet, as a male writer, Scipione seems to be aware of how this might sound to his patriarchal colleagues, so he is quick to add that this licence for amatory and social freedom by no means degrades a woman’s first obligation to domestic duties, devotion to husbands, child rearing, and so on. The problem, he argues, is that acquiring a good name in these invisible ways takes so long – given that women are so confined to the home and see so few people – and

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would come to women only in old age. The amatory world is their opportunity for fame in the course of their life, not at the end. It is as well an opportunity for a fully realized emotional life, without which all the riches and comforts of the most luxurious life are meaningless to “spiritose giovani donne.”119 For Scipione, then, the bird on the top of the cage is a symbol for the desire of women to escape the confines of maintaining a wholly chaste reputation, to defy Pericles’s ideal of invisibilty, and to compensate for the emotionally empty shell of conventional (arranged) marriages. But was his interpretation correct? Was there more? Towards the end of his lengthy exposition Scipione reflects on the meanings of friendship and servitude, proclaiming “the charms, utility, and joy of the one, and the brutalities, harms, and miseries of the other.”120 In affirming that servitude is “the adversary and mortal enemy of liberty,” Scipione cites some lines on the preciousness of “dolce libertà,” including two from Dante’s Purgatorio 1:71–2 referring to the republican martyr Cato, who “goes in search of liberty, which is so dear / as anyone knows who has given his life for it.”121 (These same lines from Dante would later be invoked by Arcangela Tarabotti in her attack on the involuntary confinement of daughters in convents in her Paternal Tyranny of 1654.)122 It would seem, then, that in the closing of his lengthy exposition on this female emblem Scipione appreciated the full social implications of “Amica et Non Serva” as possibly something more than a metaphorical freedom from love. Indeed, he follows the Dante locus by proclaiming “indeed how much is being free over oneself and lord of one’s affairs something proper and natural to a human being, as much as personally submitting oneself and leading one’s life bound in servitude is so averse and completely contrary.”123 This reading certainly endows the emblem of an unknown woman with a literal desire for freedom. Rather than a freedom from Love, it proclaims a freedom from Men, or from Lover, or from Husband. Likewise, it suggests a friendship or companionability with all of the above – rather than a subservience to them. Scipione has harnessed male loci concerning freedom – Ariosto’s freedom from the courtier’s servility, and Cato’s (via Dante) from tyrannical rule – to apply them to a female call for freedom. Precisely what idea did this unnamed woman propose to Girolamo Bargagli? How did he transform it, if he even did so? How did Scipione Bargagli modify it to patriarchal concerns, presuming he followed through? We cannot know. And that in itself is a commentary on the remaining limitations of female self-fashioning. And yet, the very fact that his woman is not named suggests that the more radical interpretation was intended by her and concretized by Girolamo. Maybe

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this bird on top of the cage and its motto were in fact intended to mean what they readily suggest: an image of liberation and a slogan of gender equality. Scipione’s treatise also recorded female emblems of some named women. And if these lacked any threatening interpretation of women breaking out of their cages, they did in some cases express sentiments of female self-sufficiency. One, conceived by Aurelia Petrucci’s daughter Girolama, depicted flames being doused, with the motto “Extinguere Sueta” (Extinguishing the Usual Things) (Figure 4.6). The explication contends that she meant to express her resolve to vanquish all the various brush fires of Fortune, which included her having been widowed with three young daughters to raise and marry.124 In the course of his discussion of the emblem’s meaning, Scipione cites several loci on bearing misfortune bravely: Romulus’s belief that miseries benefit us; King Darius of Persia’s conviction that he was improved by “harsh battles and difficult circumstances”; Diogenes the Cynic’s famous aphorism of carrying all of his fortune on his person.125 All these precepts or exempla are imported to invest this female emblem with a rather male sense of fortitude. Another emblem, conceived by Fulvia Spannocchi de’ Sergardi, depicts a snail with the motto “Omnia Mea Mecum” ([I Carry] All Things with Me) (Figure 4.7). This sentiment, which echoes the previous one attributed to Diogenes, had a currency in the sixteenth century. It was included in Alciato’s Emblemata of 1551, and the saying, as Scipione here relates, was associated especially with Bias of Priene. When he and his fellow citizens were forced to flee their city and allowed to take only the provisions they could carry, Bias took only his cane, saying that he was in possession of all of his goods. Scipione develops this example in reference to Fulvia to emphasize her contempt for the “goods … of the body, or of the world, or of fortune,” and her embrace of the goods of the mind.126 He then reviews her moral qualities of chastity, faith, perseverance, and prudence. To those who would question her lack of originality in choosing a motto attributed to Bias and to the Megarian philosopher Stilbo (as mentioned in Seneca’s Ad Lucilium 9:18), he suggests that she enlivened and deepened it with the image of the snail, which carries all of its possessions on its back.127 Scipione thus takes pains to show Fulvia’s kindred spirit with ancient philosophers and her originality in fashioning an emblem. Not all of the female emblems assert female independence or selfsufficiency. One celebrates at length conventional wifely attributes, and perhaps it is no accident that this emblem belongs to Leonora Montalvi

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Figure 4.6. Emblem of Girolama Petrucci. From Scipione Bargagli, Dell’imprese … alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 440. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

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Figure 4.7. Emblem of Fulvia Spannocchi de’ Sergardi. From Scipione Bargagli, Dell’imprese … alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 461. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

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degli Agostini, the wife of one of the dialogue’s interlocutors, Ippolito Agostini. This emblem (Figure 4.8) has a male sun and female moon with the Spanish motto “Por Ti Mi Resplandor” (I Shine for You). And indeed most of the exposition is a primer on the subordinate and submissive wife, in sometimes dramatically stark terms: her every coming and going should be completely “where, how, and with whom it delights and pleases her husband,” and her “speaking or silence, laughing or crying” should conform to his will.128 But even this exposition – which seems at times to aim at being a manual for the ideal marriage – also instructs the husband that his rule should be “not tyrannical, not boorish, nor harsh, nor grave … but compassionate, sweet, dear, and jocund.”129 In fact, Scipione cites a stanza from Ariosto’s “Satire 5” (which gives marriage advice to a friend) that urges a husband to strive to have his wife be a “compagna” rather than a “serva.”130 Indeed, this sentiment implicitly serves as a conservative complement to the bolder “Amica Et Non Serva” emblem of the unnamed woman (or bird) freed from her cage. Like the earlier fortunes and medal reverses, then, the emblems and their explications represent a ludic venue for didactically reinforcing or refining gender roles. That this most patriarchal of the female emblems involves the wife of one of the interlocutors of the Dell’imprese bespeaks the social pressure and/or male psychological need to affirm conventional gender roles – placing the non-patriarchal emblems in even greater relief. Scipione’s treatment of female emblems also extended to those created by men for women. He recounts a Befana party (occurring at some unspecified time) at the home of Conte Carlo d’Elci, and, working from memory, he presents a number of emblems resulting from the game. Specific women are not attached to these emblems, and thus they lack the lengthy explications and homages found in the personalized emblems discussed above. What these male constructions of female identity show, however, is the range of ways in which female personality or circumstance could be made public in such ludic settings. Many deal with the imposing or forbidding persona of a woman in the social game of love: thus, one depicts a plant so bitter that no animal will eat it (Figure 4.9) with the motto “Amaritudine Tutum” (Through Bitterness, Safety);131 another portrays a fire in the distance with the motto “Bella da Lungi ma Mortal da Presso” (Beautiful from Afar but Deadly up Close), which connotes a woman who is a fierce enemy if approached unworthily.132 Several of these, however, deal not with such generic amatory tropes, but with the

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Figure 4.8. Emblem of Leonora Montalvi degli Agostini. From Scipione Bargagli, Dell’imprese … alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 445. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

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Figure 4.9. Emblem for an Unnamed Woman. From Scipione Bargagli, Dell’imprese … alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 458. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

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specific circumstances of women. Some, using conventional floral imagery, describe women’s marital status. One depicts a rose stem with one bud open and another closed: this to indicate a mother with a daughter (the closed bud) of marriageable age. Another, depicting a rosebud half-opened, was designed for a “new wife, very modest and shy” with the motto “Quanto si Scuopre Men, Tanto è Piu Bella” (The Less Exposed, the More Beautiful).133 Others depict women in various situations: one recovering from a recent illness or misfortune; another uncertain whether her husband was dead or alive; another of a noble woman not nobly married.134 Most original was an emblem for a “widow, related to the mistress of the house, a lady in all ways, well regarded and esteemed by polite lovers, who was found there that evening, standing however somewhat apart as was her wont. Her emblem thus was displayed in an eclipsed moon, which, as you know, yet also completely in the shadow where it is found enveloped, one can yet discern its form and something of its splendor.”135 So too this woman, who, although obscured by her widow’s status and the widow’s veil, was, as her motto declared “Conspicuus Tamen”136 (Figure 4.10). This particular emblem can be taken as a meta-emblem for the cultural phenomenon of these Befana games themselves, which publicized the traditionally private world of women, whatever the archetype: the unmarried, the newlywed, the unapproachable, the poorly married. Even a woman in mourning – conventionally the most private of women – became “conspicuous nevertheless” in the world of the Sienese parlour games. *** One consequence of the closing of the Sienese academies in 1568 was the heightened pre-eminence of women in the lingering festive life of the city. The Befana tradition of course had long been alive, but now the distributed fortunes became less random and arbitrary, and more personalized, prescriptive, and permanent. As the closed academies led to the opening of the court of the Ferraiuoli, the focus on celebrating women became even more concrete and more masculine in the ritual and semiotic progression from fortunes, to reverses of medals, to heavenly constellations, and emblems per se. And that last world – generally confined to men save for the rare Vittoria Colonna and royal women – now opened up somewhat to women. And it did so in such a manner that self-consciously transformed the classical medal (from the

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Figure 4.10. Emblem for an Unnamed Widow. From Scipione Bargagli, Dell’imprese … alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 460. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

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accomplished deeds of men to the character traits of women) and the Befana tradition (from fanciful fortunes to sometimes serious legacies). In the first part of his Dell’imprese in 1578, Scipione Bargagli was likely the first to theoretically treat the inclusion of women in this realm. In the later parts of his treatise in 1594, he presented the most numerous and extended explications to date of emblems by and/or about women – women who included the likes of the Petrucci and Spannocchi elite as well as a nameless cohort who had now, if only for the duration of one soirée, been acknowledged as “conspicuous nevertheless.” But this Sienese ludic setting yielded up something more than simply new symbols of and avenues for public female identity. The 1570 contest staged between the Ferraiuoli Knights and their foreign visitors occasioned a substantive bout of the querelle des femmes. This debate on female dignity led to an airing of an alternative history and culture of women: one that redeems Helen by resurrecting Euripides’s account; clarifies that “femmine” may be “mobile,” but “donne” are not; and reminds that “signora” as much as “signore” is rooted in lordship. These debates occurred as part of a parlour game that pitted male combatants against one another discussing the status of women in front of an audience of women. In the following century, such ludic debates would incorporate women and even spawn a new social institution.

5 The Birth of the Assicurate: Italy’s First Female Academy (1654–1704)

In 1603 the Sienese academies reopened, notably the artisan Rozzi in August and the elite Intronati in December.1 The latter occasion was commemorated by an elaborate ceremony recorded in a 140-page Breve descrittione del nuovo risorgimento dell’Accademia degli Intronati di Siena (Brief description of the new rebirth of the Academy of the Intronati in Siena), and Scipione Bargagli’s 100-page Oratione in lode dell’accademia degl’Intronati dello Schietto Intronato (Oration in praise of the Academy of the Intronati).2 Both works seek to ingratiate the academy with the Florentine Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici, and the Oratione in particular gives Scipione the chance to reflect on the history of the Intronati and its utility as a cultural institution. As in his general praise of academies of 1564,3 this praise of the Intronati – aside from surveying the academy’s history and theatrical and cultural productions – discussed the function of academies as nurturing a wider, more vibrant type of public culture. This was a culture that encouraged a more creative interaction with literary tradition than that pursued by the “expositors” in the universities, and it created a fruitful exchange with women who simultaneously inspired and deepened this new public culture.4 This synergy with women was described by a line (adapted from Petrarch’s characterization of his relationship with Laura in Rime 289) in which the Intronati proclaimed of their association with women that “noi gloria in loro, ed elle in noi virtute” (we [foster] glory in them, and they virtue in us).5 Scipione traces this involvement with women back to Plato’s Academy, citing the role of Aspasia and Diotima (in Menexenus 235e–249e and Symposium 201d–212b respectively) and Athenaeus’s comment (in the Deipnosophists 13.561d–e) that statues and rites to Eros (love) in the Greek world could be found alongside those

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to Athena (wisdom), Hermes (eloquence), and Hercules (strength).6 This citation of Athenaeus suggests some interesting parallels between the ludic revels of his Hellenistic group in the second century and those of the Intronati in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In both eras, political circumstances provoked a particular focus on ludic and convivial culture, one that involved women in both cases – though in strikingly dissimilar ways. In her study of Athenaeus’s Deipnosophists Bk. 13, which is devoted to tales and speeches about women, Laura McClure suggests that this book reflects a nostalgic desire on the part of a Greek culture dominated by the Roman state to create an idealized cultural past and to stage a lively rhetorical display vis-à-vis their overlords.7 Bk. 13 includes many tales of learned and clever courtesans (hetaera) told by learned and clever men who together constitute a Greek affirmation of culture in the face of political impotence. Transpose this situation to early modern Italy, and one finds that the powerless Sienese male elite cultivate a distinctively ludic culture as a response to their Florentine masters. Writing to or speaking before the Florentine Grand Duke, Scipione in 1603 tactfully avoids the issue of political domination, but the subtext is there. In fact, when he speaks of the importance of academies, he cites the case of the Peloponnesian War, saying that the Spartans spared the Academy when they took Athens.8 Scipione praises the role of the Intronati as a similarly stabilizing force in the period of chaos in Italy, but he consciously or subconsciously deflects the story from actual warfare to the contests and battles the Intronati mounted against similarly (rhetorically) armed sodalities in the city.9 He then urges that the academy once again, “newly armed under the same standard,” will engage in “virtuous contests and glorious battles, conserving however always pacific and courteous purposes in their hearts.”10 The Sienese men then will distinguish themselves in festive contests and displays, rather than military ones. Although the political emasculation of Athenaeus’s Greece and the Intronati’s Siena may be similar, the role of women in these two ludic cultures differs dramatically. The women in the Deipnosophists Bk. 13 are not present at the party, but rather are described by the male interlocutors. Even more telling, these women are courtesans, and thus represent outliers to the ideal female archetype. In the Sienese setting, the opposite is the case: the women at the parties are the cream of the Sienese patriciate; they are players in the conversational game, not

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objects of it;11 they are part of a current reality, not a relic of an idealized past. In all three ways the Intronati’s involvement with women is actual not virtual, respectable not decadent, competitive not subjugating. In fact, in discussing the emergence of giuochi di spirito in Siena, Scipione describes parties (often organized around the appearance of a dignitary in the city) in which the “principal ladies” of the city were present “on account of their nobility, beauty, and wit (ingegno).”12 Also revealing is his statement that “in this time the number of this (so to speak) academic flock was reinvigorated by individuals female by nature, but through wisdom and science quite virile.”13 His examples of such women, whose literary accomplishments he praises, were two non-Sienese figures, Laura Battiferra and Creusa Florida, the former of whom was the first woman inducted into the Intronati, and the latter he claims (perhaps erroneously) also to have been a member.14 The point here is that women were incorporated fully into the festive contests of the Intronati and, at times, were deemed so “virile” for their learning and literary accomplishment as to warrant inclusion as full members of the academy. Once again, it seems to be part of the social calculus of early modern Siena that as the men were politically emasculated vis-àvis their Florentine masters, women were culturally masculinized visà-vis the Intronati men. Not everyone, however, accepted the Sienese embrace of women into the male academy. In 1612, the year after Scipione’s Oratione was published, the satirist Traiano Boccalini took aim at the custom. In the first instalment of his Ragguagli di Parnasso (Reports from Parnassus), he includes one entry entitled “The Intronati Academicians, Having Admitted Into Their Academy the Main Poetesses of Parnassus, Apollo Orders That These [Women] Be Removed.”15 The “report” warrants citation in full, as it is a testimony of the Intronati’s perceived feminism against the backdrop of a pervasive misogyny: Some months ago the most excellent Intronati gentlemen, against their ancient policies, admitted into their academy the most virtuous Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Gambera, Laura Terracina, and other more noteworthy poetesses of Parnassus – and all with such great applause of the virtuous that the academicians, inflamed by the beauty of the ladies, not only met very frequently in their literary excercises, but every day published poetry that stupefied the Muses themselves. But before long a certain very unpleasant odour reached the nose of His Majesty [Apollo],

122 Parlour Games because of which he commanded the Archintronato that in every way he end this practice: because it was finally realized that the true poetry of women was the needle and spindle, and the literary exercises of women with the virtuous [men] resembled tricks and games that dogs play among themselves, who after a brief time all end up mounting each others’ backs.16

Apollo, the god of poetry, thus orders the expulsion of female poets who have newly encroached upon Parnassus and the male academy. And the reasons not surprisingly turn to the patriarchal clichés that relegate women to the realm of sexual behaviour and the fibre arts. The hostility towards women and controversies over female learning and status intensified in the first half of the seventeenth century. In fact, it was a member of the Intronati, Francesco Buoninsegni, who set off a heated debate with his satirical lecture on female vanity delivered before the Intronati (and the grand duke) and published in 1638. This work, the Satira menippea contro’l lusso donnesco (Menippean satire against female vanity), provoked the ire of the fiery Venetian feminist, Arcangela Tarabotti, who published her response, the Antisatira, in 1644, dedicating it to the grand duke’s wife, Vittoria della Rovere, who a decade later became the patron of the Assicurate.17 When the printer of Tarabotti’s Antisatira fed sheets of her forthcoming treatise to an acquaintance of Buoninsegni’s, Angelico Aprosio, the latter dashed off his response to her response. Aprosio’s treatise was never published but much of its content was channelled into a more moderate treatise, Lo scudo di Rinaldo (1646), a general attack on female fashion and vanity.18 The assault on “female displays” (pompe donnesche) and “luxury” (lusso) – the latter readily equated by polemicists with “lust” (lussuria) – was a handy cudgel for misogynists to wield against women and often was a surrogate for a more generalized assault on female character.19 It is worth noting that the intensity of this misogyny was such that a Jesuit acquaintance of Aprosio named Giovan Domenico Ottonelli in 1646 published in Florence a treatise entitled Della pericolosa conversatione con le donne, ò poco modeste, ò ritirate, ò cantatrici, ò accademiche (On the dangerous conversation with women, either little chaste, or withdrawn, or singers, or academy members).20 The existence of such a work makes it all the more relevant that in Siena, three years later, a Dominican figure, Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolini, published a treatise that not only praised the Sienese parlour games that had enshrined female “conversation” with men but also compiled a catalogue of notable Sienese women.

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Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolini’s Female Prosopography In 1649 the Dominican theology professor Ugurgieri Azzolini published a massive survey of Sienese culture entitled Le Pompe Sanesi, overo relazione delli huomini e donne illustri di Siena e suo stato (Sienese splendours, or report of the illustrious men and women of Siena and its state). This theology professor also had his foot in the door of secular culture, as the title page of his work identifies him not only by his various clerical and theological offices but also as a member of the Academy of the Filomati.21 This academy, dating from 1580, had somewhat supplanted the Intronati for primacy among the elite, though within a few years (in 1654) the two academies would unite and the grand duke would even support them with revenues from the sale of playing cards.22 The Filomati member Ugurgieri Azzolini was, however, certainly respectful of the Intronati’s role in the cultural history of Siena – this perhaps partly due to the fact that the Bargagli brothers were from the Ugurgieri line on the their mother’s side. In a section on inventions he dutifully rehearses Girolamo Bargagli’s claims that the Sienese effectively (re)discovered parlour games – along the same lines that Columbus discovered the New World – despite the antecedents in, for instance, the Courtier. He also lists all of the games catalogued in Bargagli’s Dialogo de’ giuochi.23 Far more importantly, however, he extracts from Bargagli’s Dialogo the prominent female game players and includes them in a chapter devoted to outstanding Sienese women. This chapter, entitled “Illustrious and Memorable Sienese Women,” contains short sketches of 108 women. Such a female prosopography certainly reifies the cultural elevation of women in the city, and it does so in part by assigning distinction and lasting reputation to ludic personas. Such women in fact command a prominent place in the catalogue. Not surprisingly, the opening entry is devoted to Saint Catherine of Siena, but by the fourth entry the game-playing women of Girolamo’s game book begin to appear and command a sizeable section: entries nos. 4 through 20 (with one exception) and no. 30.24 These women are hailed variously for their “spiritosi” prowess, “risposte argute, e detti sentenziosi,” “vivezza dell’ingegno,” and “ingegnose proposte.”25 Morevoer, #23 is devoted to Fulvia Spannocchi, dedicatee of Scipione Bargagli’s Trattenimenti, and cites at length Scipione’s stated intention that his games in some meagre way approximate the cleverness of her giuochi di spirito.26 In a couple of instances, Ugurgieri Azzolini repeats or extends notable stories of female learning and wit in these games.

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Thus, in the sketch of Porzia Pecci, he cites the incident in the Dialogo de’ giuochi in which she drew on her knowledge of the Amadís de Gaula novels to challenge (and, it turns out, discomfit) one of the “learned and erudite” Intronati male players.27 In the biography of Iuditta Santi, he reveals how the fame of these ludic exchanges apparently achieved some lasting oral life. In his Dialogo Bargagli mentions the clever emblem created for a woman of the Santi family (the sixty-six or “se santi sei” pun, discussed in chapter 3), but when Ugurgieri Azzolini repeats the story, he includes her response, which was not found in Bargagli’s dialogue.28 Thus, this half of the story must have come down through oral tradition, suggesting that the performances in these games could have a long (in this case, an eighty-year) afterlife. Ugurgieri Azzolini’s catalogue of famous women of course also records distinctions other than those earned in the oral culture of the parlour games. He celebrates the literary achievements of various women, such as Livia and Frasia Marzi, and even reveals that he has read unpublished manuscripts of the poetry of certain figures.29 Also noteworthy in the collection is his treatment of the women at the walls, whom he clusters in a joint entry at #37–9. Because he assembled the accounts of several historians of the event (such as Monluc, Ascanio Centorio, and others), he perhaps did more than any other single writer to immortalize the actions of these “three women of vivacity and such masculine spirit.”30 Moreover, he followed their story with one on the “young unnamed woman” who replaced her brother for guard duty during the siege.31 Ugurgieri Azzolini brings his compendium of notable women up to the present day, hailing Lucrezia d’Azzolini Cerretani, who “in our academies and parties had led spur-of-the-moment giuochi di spirito so ingeniously in the presence of the most Serene [Grand Dukes] of Tuscany and other grand princes that she has amazed such [Royal] Highnesses how in a female head there could be such vivacity and wit.”32 In the penultimate chapter of his collection, Ugurgieri Azzolini reflects on the nature of the Sienese women of his time. He does so in a coda to the putative subject of the entry, Ippolita Agostini, who has demonstrated her “most elevated wit” in various parlour games played in the presence of the Tuscan court, she being the “Dama d’honore” of Maria Maddalena, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Two points are noteworthy in his eulogy of her: that her services to the grand duchess resulted in her husband’s appointment to many magistracies in Siena (thus implying that the prominence of the woman empowered the man)33 and that

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“now although advanced in age, nonetheless her liveliness is as rigorous as before” (thus according distinction to an older woman “clouded by the years,” the antithesis of the youthful woman prized in courtly praise and flirtatious games).34 But there is an even more telling shift of emphasis in the praise of Sienese women in general that Ugurgieri Azzolini appends to her profile. He contends that as many the number of outstanding women in the past years of the city and in the days when the Intronati reigned supreme, there are as many today: “Thus in these times, even in this year of 1648, they [Sienese women] have inspired … the Sienese youth to gather more, and to convene more often the flourishing Academy of Filomati, in which appears a certain desire of virtuous pursuits, which by them [the women] are always exercised on any occasion that presents itself, because there is not lacking in the ranks of our modern ladies anyone who can compose perfectly in prose and in verse, who has an understanding of more idioms, who exactly possesses the moral virtues, and who could be most vivacious in our witty games.”35 Only after specifying these literary, moral, and social talents does he describe other women who pursue “feminine exercises” of needle and thread; some who excel in painting, dancing, riding, hunting, music; and finally some who are scholarly and can probe the reaches of theology and philosophy.36 This leads to his final chapter on Margarita Biringucci, who “although a young girl has often advanced philosophical conclusions with the admiration and applause of all who have heard her.”37 Ugurgieri Azzolini thus characterizes the collective of Sienese women not simply as the muses of (male) culture by inspiration, but as the instigators of culture by example. And his survey of their talents begins and ends with the intellectual and cultural capacities, tucking (or submerging) the traditional female textile pursuits in the middle. His catalogue of the 108 Sienese women certainly reveals that the fame of women has gelled in civic panegyric, but it also shows how the oral, ludic legacy has been incorporated with the literary, military, and scholarly ones – even to the diminution of the conventionally female ones.38 The Academy of the Assicurate In 1654, five years after the publication of the Pompe sanesi, the Medici governor of Siena authorized the fusion of Ugurgieri Azzolini’s Filomati and the Intronati. A parlour game played in the same year gave birth to a female academy. Two manuscript books in Siena’s Biblioteca

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Comunale degli Intronati offer us an account of the circumstances behind the origin of the academy, a record of membership enrolments until 1704, and – most vitally – detailed narratives of some of the games played by members of this new academy in concert with their Intronati counterparts. What did this female academy signify in terms of the public life of women in early modern Italy? What serious issues underlay the ludic exchanges in these encounters? How do the “transcripts” of these games represent a unique genre – the literary record of oral culture – that allows us to recover in some detail the workings of polite society in this era? The first of these manuscript books is the “official” academy book of the Assicurate (the Assured), similar to those kept by the Intronati and other academies to record the history, statutes, and membership of the group.39 This book is entitled “Origine dell’Accademia dell’Assicurate di Siena, col ruolo di’ nomi, et imprese di quelli dame che si ascriveranno alla medesima” (Origin of the Academy of the Assicurate of Siena, with the role of names and emblems of those women who were enrolled in it) (Figure 5.1).40 It is adorned with the academy’s emblem, an oak tree with the adjoining motto “On this side the shade shields us, on that it elucidates us”(Figure 5.2).41 According to Girolamo Gigli, the emblem alluded to the academy’s patronage by the Grand Duchess Vittoria delle Rovere (whose name derives from “oak”):42 thus, the shade of the oak simultaneously (or paradoxically) both shields them as a group and elucidates or glorifies them to a wider public. Either way, these women are thereby “assured” of patronage and of fame – and more generally, perhaps, “assured” of themselves as public figures. Their official academy book (hereinafter, “Origin of the Assicurate”) then proceeds to describe the major festive meetings of the group, at which times new women were added to the original group of sixteen, usually after proving themselves worthy by their performance in a game.43 Once enrolled, they were given a nickname, emblem, and motto. The opening ceremony, describing the 1654 founding (Figure 5.3), explains the circumstances of the founding of the group and guidelines for its continuation and expansion: In 1654 there was erected in Siena an Academy of most virtuous women in a giuoco di spirito, the theme of which was to remove the Governance of the Kingdom of Love from the hands of the Knights and to transfer it to the said women: which game was played in the home of Signore Niccolò Gori Pannelini, and they took the name of Assicurate, and for an emblem

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Figure 5.1. Title Page of the Academy Book of the Assicurate. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 1r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.) an oak, with the motto “Quà ne difende, e quà n’illustra l’ombra.” These [women] continued many times to play diverse giuochi di spirito, increasing always the number of most spirited Academy members, by giving them names most appropriate to their qualities, and then emblems and mottoes conforming to the same, as will be reported below.44

This female academy – probably Europe’s first45 – thus proceeds from a parlour game simulating a transfer of power from men to women. To

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Figure 5.2. Emblem of the Academy of the Assicurate. From the Academy Book of the Assicurate. BCI, Y.II.22, Frontispiece. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

some degree, this framework is a false one, as the Kingdom (or Court) of Love, originating in Provençal courtly society, had always been one essentially dominated by women. But in Siena, the festive lead had always been taken by the male academies, certainly in the case of public and theatrical events. As the playing of this 1654 game and subsequent ones (especially one in 1691) make clear, there is evinced a desire to

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Figure 5.3. Founding of the Academy of the Assicurate. From the Academy Book of the Assicurate. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 2r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

shift control – if only symbolically – from a male academy (which entertains women and orchestrates the festive life of the city) to a female academy insistent upon freedom from male dominance and interference. And the ensuing prerogatives of public fame – a discrete academic autonomy with academic nicknames, emblems, and mottoes

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– certainly reflect the full flowering of the Renaissance parlour games that had long aimed to bring women into the public eye. According to one of the two copies of the Assicurate academy book, the “Origin of the Assicurate,” the record of the Assicurate celebrations and membership was compiled by Francesco Piccolomini (1650–1720), who together with his wife Caterina Gaetano Griffoli, had hosted five of the six games listed between 1680 and 1704 (and had orchestrated all six).46 The brief descriptions of the Assicurate games reveal that they occurred during Carnival (in two cases) or marked special occasions (a marriage, the monachization of daughters, or the appearance of notable personages in the city). The game themes in almost every case dealt with the realm of love: for instance, preparing for Love’s entry into the city, finding a spouse for Love, the hunt for Love, and so on. The central function of the game – to enable women to distinguish themselves and win enrolment in their new academy – is plainly stated in the Carnival celebration of 1691 in the home of Francesco Piccolomini, in which the “Prova di Gioco” (Test of the Game) had players compete to identify the best wife for Love.47 As for the distinctions and identities accorded the newly ascribed members, these were presumably prepared in advance, in the same way the medal reverses and fortunes had been in the Befana ceremonies of the sixteenth century. The nicknames range from the traditionally “female” – the Faithful, the Modest, and the Quiet48 – to the more assertive and bold – the Resolute, the Intrepid, the Majestic, the Active, the Insuperable, and the “Disinvolta” (the Free and Easy, or Self-Possessed).49 The Insuperable was Caterina Savini Gori Pannelini, whose emblem was the Pillars of Hercules with the motto “Curb to Human Boldness,” implying that she is insuperable like the great unknown beyond the Pillars of Hercules at the Straits of Gibraltar.50 As for “Disinvolta,” the name assigned to Camilla Alberti Buonsignori, this term or its variant, disinvoltura, appears time and again in reference to the behaviour of women at these ludic festivities.51 This word seems to represent the female equivalent to the male courtier’s artless ease (sprezzatura), praised by Castiglione.52 The opposite of shy retreat, this term surfaces so often as to make a claim on defining the new public virtue of the self-assured woman – or literally, the new Assicurate. In the case of the Camilla, the accompanying emblem assigned her “A Labyrinth with Thread of Ariadne” and her motto was “Escort of Hearts in Amorous Errors” (Figure 5.4). Her emblem thus evoked the story in which a male hero (Theseus) was rescued from the Minotaur through female agency, and suggested

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Figure 5.4. Roster of Members of the Academy of the Assicurate. From the Academy Book of the Assicurate. BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 2v–3r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

that it is now Camilla who will rescue the lost with Ariadne’s thread. The turning of a traditionally female interest in the fibre arts to assertive ends can also be seen in the immediately preceding identity and emblem assigned to Agnesa Piccolomini ne’ Piccolomini. Nicknamed the Sufficient, she was given as an emblem the silkworm with the rather visceral motto “From my guts I form the thread.”53 This fabric metaphor for complete self-sufficiency recalls the sixteenth-century emblem of Fulvia Spannocchi de’ Sergardi (the Snail), who carried “All Things with Me.”54 Finally, a couple of the nicknames have an intellectual bent – one even linking to the scientific world of the seventeenth century: in the Carnival game of 1690 Dorotea Piccolomini Bellanti was enrolled as the Perspicacious, and her emblem as the Telescope of Galileo with the motto “I search my glory in other lights.”55 Another one suggesting an intellectual or literary personality is that assigned to Caterina Pannelini Grassi, whose nickname was the Vigilant and her emblem the Lantern of Cleanthes with the motto “From my vigils others gain knowledge.”56

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One particularly triumphal nickname, not surprisingly, is assigned to the wife of Francesco Piccolomini, Caterina Gaetana Griffoli. Her entry into the Assicurate took place in 1680 in the first of many games held in her home over the next quarter century. Her nickname was “l’Impareggiabile” (the Incomparable), her emblem a ruby, and her motto “Ancor dal pensiero” (Also from Thought).57 The ruby (carbonchio) likely connotes the incomparable gem that can emit brilliance (like burning carbon); her motto might then be meant to suggest that she is likewise emitting incomparable (intellectual) rays. Her grandiose name – and the tenor of all the Assicurate aliases – raises the question of the origin of these epithets. The Assicurate nicknames generally differed from those of the Intronati, which, self-fashioned, tended to be comic, ironic, or even lewd. The names of the Assicurate may also have been in some cases self-fashioned, but it is more likely that they were conceived by already enrolled members for new members, or, in the case of the 1654 game, conceived by the Intronati. This might account for the flattering, never mocking nature of the names, emblems, and mottoes. Whether self-fashioned or cohort-fashioned, however, they likely reflected the sentiments or personalities of the female members – or such qualities as perceived by their contemporaries.58 And the general elevation of the Assicurate women in conjunction with the general lowering of the Intronati men via their respective nicknames enhanced the liminoid qualities of the games that altered patriarchal hierarchy. As for the “Incomparable” herself, we can only guess as to her role orchestrating the games at her home, which included five of the six games between 1680 and 1704 as described in the “Origin of the Assicurate.”59 According to this book, in the game organized during Carnival of 1690, it was her husband Francesco Piccolomini who was the causal force, wanting “to put back on their feet these games lapsed for ten years.”60 Moreover, in the final four games recorded in the “Origin” Pandolfo Spannocchi is identified as the figure “guiding” the games. All of this suggests that the Intronati men were largely in control of the festive life of the Assicurate – and this may have been largely the case, especially given the long-standing tradition in which the Intronati organized the Sienese games. Still, there was an attempt to attribute some role (albeit a small one) to Piccolomini’s wife in the description of 1704: here the description in the “Origin” departs from the usual to indicate that the game took place “in the house of Francesco Piccolomini and, at the instigation of his consort Lady Caterina Gaetana Griffoli, was directed by Signore Pandolfo Spannocchi.”61 Was this the only time she played

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a role? Not according to another source on the games, to which we now will turn. In this account, likely recorded by the Assicurate women themselves, Caterina is similarly credited on three other occasions, and Olimpia Chigi ne’ Gori on another: that is, the “intrecciamento accademico” (academic intermingling) or giuoco di spirito is described as being directed by an Intronati member “per comandamento” of Caterina or Olimpia.62 As to her being noted in the “Origin” (a book supposedly compiled by Francesco Piccolomini himself) only in the 1704 game, this may be a result of the fact that a publication ensuing from this game had listed her role, and Piccolomini may have felt compelled to follow suit.63 Whatever the reason, her omission as the instigator of any of the other games suggests that even the records of this female academy were prey to gender contests for cultural control. As we shall see, this battle for control would be played out even more explicitly in the content of the games. The Recording of Oral Culture What exactly transpired at these games? Girolamo Bargagli’s game book only briefly describes game themes and only occasionally cites actual anecdotes from games as actually played. Scipione Bargagli’s Trattenimenti fully simulates how games might be played, but this is a literary work with fictive characters. A compendium found in the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati in Siena at C.VIII.26 offers a contemporary record of several games as played: not a retrospective, anecdotal account as in Girolamo’s book, not a fictional account as in Scipione’s. This is an invaluable source for reconstructing in detail the ritual moment of polite society at play. This collection of narrative accounts is bound as a manucript book of 308 folios and is entitled “Relazioni d’alcuni intrecciamenti Accademici ò sieno giuochi di spirito rappresentati in Siena in diversi tempi” (Accounts of Some Academic Interminglings or, As It Were, Witty Games Performed in Siena At Various Times) (Figure 5.5). The book – hereinafter, “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito” – records lengthy descriptions of six parties, of which five are dated between 1664 and 1699 and the sixth is undated (but, according to an alternate manuscript in Florence, occurred during carnival of 1707/8).64 Five of the six games overlap with those catalogued in the “Origin of the Assicurate.”65 The accounts are in different hands, and the recorders at times comment that they cannot capture everything said at the gathering or fully convey the cleverness afoot. Thus the opening of the account of

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Figure 5.5. Title Page of “Accounts … of Giuochi di Spirito Performed in Siena At Various Times.” BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 1r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

a 1690 Carnival party apologizes: “The memory of [the recorder] who writes is not able to be so fluent in reporting all the splendours that were extemporaneously proffered by female nonchalance (disinvoltura).”66 A preliminary comment in the record of a game during Carnival of 1691 shows how much this genre bespeaks a new literary type, a

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hybrid of the oral and written in which the latter is but a poor conveyance of the former: “the discretion of whoever will turn their eyes to these pages will reflect well on the grand inequality that exists between the pen and the tongue, the folio and the room, and the examination of a desired memory and the real demonstration of an ingenious party.”67 More than just the conventional disclaimer akin to that which Scipione Bargagli presents in the preface to his fictional Trattenimenti – that his games could not possibly equal the conversational cleverness typical of his dedicatee – this statement speaks to the distinct qualities of this genre, the written record of oral culture. But these two passages also reveal the desire to emphasize the impromptu, extemporaneous nature of oral encounters: potentially a type of quickness, spontaneity, and disinvoltura that trumps the artificial, laboured, written text. In a sense, the cultural value of oral culture is consciously elevated, perhaps to further create a worthy venue for achievement for those little prepared or little inclined to produce or publish “formal” literary texts. But were these games so fully extemporaneous expressions of natural, spontaneous wit? No, for as we shall see, there likely was preparation for the motifs and verse presented at the gatherings. There were as well likely literary embellishments made by the “censors” or recorders afterward. These accounts reveal the porous boundaries between the oral and the written, the spontaneous and the contrived. But for all that, perhaps because of that, they are a rare window onto the construction of culture in a social setting – and a unique window onto the smallest details of festive life and social ritual in this period. The very creation of the Academy of the Assicurate was imputed to a transfer of power from men to women in the game of 1654. Unfortunately, the details of the game are not extant, although there is evidence of some anxiety for due “credit” for its conception. The brief description of the “Origin of the Assicurate” suggests that the Assicurate arose spontaneously out of a parlour game in which the governance of the Kingdom of Love shifted to female hands. As if to rectify any misconception that this society arose as an act of feminist spontaneous generation, an anonymous spokesman for the Intronati tried to set the record straight. Among the Intronati papers in the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, an unnamed chronicler claims that Siena’s fame is owing to giuochi di spirito and that the Intronati have orchestrated all such games since 1603.68 The historical role of the Intronati emphasized by the Bargagli brothers and repeated by Ugurgieri Azzolini is now continued by this writer who lists a sequence of games from 1654 to 1699.69 But he

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also expressly addresses the creation of the Assicurate, which “appears to have been established casually (occasionalmente)” during a game in 1654, but which, he claims, in fact owes nothing to happenstance: the aforementioned Academy of the Assicurate Ladies had its existence and origin not unexpectedly or extemporaneously like other things of the giuochi di spirito, but rather from a well-pondered and anticipated consideration made by the Intronati Academicians of that time, who fostered it unanimously and made themselves the authors. These, in order not to subject a matter of such importance to instantaneous determinations, before the game disposed and regulated [matters] as needed in order to establish it in every opportune circumstance and formal requisites and place it in a state of good existence. And to this contributed more than anything else, the application and particular thought given the matter by the … Archintronato Ugo Ugurgieri.70

This commentator thus wanted to make clear that the Intronati were responsible for orchestrating the creation of the Assicurate – and especially the Intronati head, Ugo Ugurgieri, whom, earlier in this document, he indicates as the director of the 1654 game.71 This same Ugo Ugurgieri also led the 1664 game that further explored issues of organizing such an academy.72 That the Intronati head during this period was named Ugurgieri only heightens the probability that the recent (1649) publication of Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolini’s prosopography of Sienese women could have been a notable influence or causal factor in the creation of the Assicurate. Thus, it seems that the men want to take credit for the idea of the female academy, and the Intronati were indeed the likely originators of the concept. But how did this notion play out in the games, and what in general actually transpired in the next half-century of IntronatiAssicurate games? The events of 1654 are lost to us, but accounts starting with the second game of 1664 have been recorded. In this, as in almost all of the games, the overt topic is the Kingdom of Love: the Governance of the Kingdom, the passage of Love through Siena, the succour of Love, the ideal wife for Love, the hunt for Love, and so on. This conforms to the courtly love tradition from which the games arose, and yet within these topics another, truer topic is often being contested – one that makes tangible reference to the condition of women in society. Long before, Scipione Bargagli had asserted that the realm of love was the only arena in which women were allowed to “compete.” These games

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certainly concretize this reality in literal terms, as the parlour games at times stage forceful feminist battles with patriarchal culture. In two of the games this battle plays out in terms of the structure or organization of the new all-female academy against the long-standing tradition of the Intronati’s control over festive life and their female contemporaries. The game of 1664 warrants particular attention here, as it is the first of the recorded games and one that appears to follow up on some of the institutional issues ensuing from the 1654 creation of the Assicurate (Figure 5.6). At the start of this lengthy (sixty-three-folio) account there is a list of the thirty-one Assicurate members – replete with nicknames, emblems, and mottoes – and eleven Intronati, only seven of whom as yet had been given their Academy nicknames.73 The listing of nicknames is especially relevant, as the detailed exchanges in these festivities are recorded in these names: a reminder of the alternate realm these parties constitute.74 At least in a symbolic sense, the tables have already been turned, as the women far outnumber the men and the parlour hosting the evening’s entertainment was graced with the oaken emblem of the Assicurate. Moreover, the Intronati director of the game, Ugo Ugurgieri, pays homage to the “glories of the [Assicurate’s] virtuous entertainments in past parties” and says that he will resort for help to the “favourable aid of the ancient Academy of the Assicurate.”75 Furthermore, the account of the game alludes to the 1654 game in which the “authority of the Kingdom of Love [was removed] from the hands of the Knights to place it in the will (arbitrio) of the Ladies, who reducing the said aristocratic governance, deemed to re-establish it with new laws, and among other decrees to erect (so that in it always will shine the virtues) a new Academy under the name of the Assicurate.”76 The language here suggests fundamental change: from male “autorità” to female “arbitrio”; from a traditional “governo aristocratico” to a different (i.e., non-patriarchal) regime; from a Kingdom of Love to an academy of virtues (i.e., talent). The implicit undertones of a new type of governance in 1654 becomes more overt in the course of the evening’s encounters in 1664, when the women define their own positions in the academy and work to keep the meddling men at bay. One indication of political iconoclasm comes when the game director Ugurgieri turns control of the Assicurate over to Lucrezia Bandinelli: she accepts the rule of the group only on the condition that she not be a completely sovereign figure, but rather share control with three other women who would serve as secretaries and counsellors.77 Her pointed aversion to “any sovereignty” might in part symbolize a rejection of

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Figure 5.6. Party of 1664. From “Accounts … of Giuochi di Spirito Performed in Siena At Various Times.” BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 2r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

traditional forms of princely or patriarchal rule.78 But if these women were loath to monopolize power individually, they were also anxious to keep it collectively (from men). When various Intronati apply to be beadle (bidello), the Assicurate fear male encroachment: they proclaim

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that they “are jealous in conserving that authority” recently given them.79 Their suspicion is particularly acute in the case of Ugo Ugurgieri, whom they duly recognize as being responsible for transferring the Kingdom of Love to them but whom they nonetheless fear might become a “tiranno,” given that his conversation is a “continuous discourse … of political maxims.”80 Finally, they accede to his offer on the condition that he not try to act as a “maestro politico,” that he not intrude on the affairs of the academy, and that he remember that “any good service in the first place requires silence.”81 This last is a telling reversal of the social order that has the traditionally silent women enforcing silence on the politically vocal man. Similarly, when another of the Intronati applies to be the censor – a common position in the male academies charged with assuring literary quality in any production – the women bristle at this and parse his own petition as lacking in sufficient rhetorical colours and persuasion.82 Thus, although created out of an Intronati parlour game, the Assicurate struggle for independence from any male control. The men for their part keep up the fight by lobbing various conventional misogynist barbs into the fray: that “when women rule there is neither head nor tail”;83 that, unlike male regimes that wisely favour experience, female ones favour youth over age.84 Such challenges to female governance in this party centre on the issue of whether women can competently orchestrate the civic event that is the specific topic of this parlour game: namely, preparing for the passage of Love through the city.85 All of these exchanges reveal that this 1664 game was simultaneously a ludic experiment in matriarchy and a staging ground for the querelle des femmes. This is most pronounced in an oration delivered in the wake of these challenges to female rule by Assicurate member Giulia Turamini, nicknamed “la Saputa” (Knowledge). Her “academic lecture,” entitled “Concerning the Excellence of Women Over Men,” was introduced by the above-mentioned Lucrezia Santi Bandinelli (now reigning as Principessa of the Assicurate) in a statement that might well be taken to be the feminist manifesto of Sienese ludic culture: Rejoice, Ladies of the Assicurate, that through pastime you can make war on time, and through play you can acquire immortality. With the spirited fearlessness of your wits this evening you can open up for yourselves a passage to glory. Do not be frightened of the heroic majesty that, hidden under the mantle of Royal kindliness [the della Rovere patronage], will give you courage to make public those virtues that until now you have kept hidden under the silence of a rigorous modesty and [will give you]

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Figure 5.7. Party of October 1664. Lucrezia Santi Bendinelli’s Introduction to Giulia Turamini’s lecture “Concerning the Excellence of Women Over Men” At a Party of June 1691. From “Accounts … of Giuochi di Spirito Performed in Siena At Various Times.” BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 57v–58r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

indeed time to free the tongue, secure that your charming compositions will be well received by the fortunate assistance of Love. And in order that our academy may have its beginning from the highest guiding principle, you, Saputa, commence to speak on the excellence of us other women over men (Figure 5.7).86

Here truly is the proclamation that the games and displays of this female academy are the venue for acquiring glory, ending female silence, and producing compositions (which in this and other parties included poems, lectures, and ludic debates). La Saputa’s lecture would epitomize such a composition, but more importantly, it addressed all the doubts about the plausibility of a female academy.

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In the spirit of the playful “battle of the sexes” staged at these parties, Turamini opens with a mock-forceful indictment of the Intronati’s tradition of expecting the Sienese women to be a passive, silent audience (or target) of their revelries. She bemoans the “great disgrace of poor women, who often called by the Intronati to the their academies, are placed for the most part immobile in a seat, as a fixed target for the blows of their maledictions. When they enter their accademia – although this is a feminine noun – nonetheless these ingenious ones swear mortal hostility to women.”87 Today, however, she proclaims, the roles are reversed: it is the Assicurate who will speak, and the men who will remain silent. In fact, she insists that it would be “pusillanimous” if they bore male slander with silence and failed to establish the superiority of their condition.88 Her lecture is a light-hearted combination of often half-serious feminist interpretations of theology and etymology, and somewhat more sober citations of positivist evidence from history. She argues that God created the world in a linear progression: from land to sky to light to animals to men and, finally, to women. The rules of arithmetic progression make women thereby superior to all else. The language of the natural world offers evidence of female preeminence, in that three of the elements – Terra, Acqua, Aria – are all feminine; only Fuoco is masculine and it is destructive. The four parts of the world are feminine – Europa, Asia, Africa, America – as are most cities. “Virtù” is feminine, while “vizio” (vice) predictably is masculine; the “anima” (soul) is feminine, the “corpo” masculine.89 Somewhat more seriously, she considers the etymology of “donna,” a topic treated in earlier defences of women by Moderata Fonte (Modesta da Pozzo) and Arcangela Tarabotti.90 She proclaims that the word derives from “dominio,” suggesting rule – making all the more ironic the fact that men have elevated themselves over others by taking on the title “Don,” while generally scorning the name of women.91 Even more serious is the argument from history that Turamini presents. For exempla of learned women, she cites Pythagoras’s philosopher daughter Damo, Plato’s female student Axiothea of Phlius, and Pericles’s female teacher Aspatia. From ancient authority, she cites Plato’s brief in the Republic for the inclusion of women in the government and alleges that Aristotle asserts that “delicacy of body” is the ideal personal attribute for the cultivation of the “sciences and virtues.”92 In one argument she ventures an anthropological/historical explanation for the male domination of women. She suggests that ancient women ceded their place to men by accepting males’ argument that, because

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women have a delicate nature and must protect their bodies, men exempted them from war. But then, “because [the men] had weapons in hand, they inimically issued decrees at their whim, as in a similar way [but in reverse] happened to men in the most famous rule of the Amazons.”93 Such an argument suggests that it is not nature that determines gender power relations, but historical contingency and human agency. Surely, the weight of evidence should provoke women to break out of their chains. She ends her lecture, saying to her fellow Assicurate, “If through your origin, if through the sovereignty of name, if through the comparison of virtues [to those of men], if through the constitution of the body, if through the approval of the laws, if through the treatment by great monarchs the woman is declared superior to men, why do we not wish to return to our original dignity, oh Ladies, and take off just once this vile leg-iron that has so unjustly been placed on us by men.”94 The lecture of “Saputa” – playful in some examples and serious in others – is a rich compendium of disciplines, including literature (with quotations from Petrarch and Tasso), theology, philosophy, arithmetic, etymology, and history. All this she mines to buttress the legitimacy of a female academy and to weigh in on the querelle des femmes. Unlike the case of the similar discussion in the 1570 Court of the Ferraiuoli, however, where men staged the debate before silent women, here a woman academy member presents this address before a mixed audience that includes Intronati men constrained to silence. The institutional structure of the Assicurate’s academy, only vaguely defined in the 1664 festivities, was taken up nearly thirty years later in a game in 1691 at the home of Francesco Piccolomini and Caterina Gaetena Griffoli (the Incomparable). The game had for its title “Nuova forma et opportune costitutione stabilite per l’Accademia delle Signore Assicurate,”95 and like the 1664 game used the ludic sparring over the structure of the female academy as a metaphor for a more generalized contest concerning the autonomy of the women and their right to fully control their own cultural endeavours. The occasion for the party was likely the clothing ritual for the entry of two of the daughters of Agostino Chigi, Prince of Farnese, and Maria Virginia Borghese into the nunnery.96 Of the seventeen children Chigi and Borghese bore from 1659 to 1681, thirteen were girls, seven of whom they enrolled in the nunnery of S. Girolamo in Campansi. The clothing ceremonies for taking the habit were usually accompanied by music, though Colleen Reardon finds evidence in the nunnery for such performances only in the case of the first three daughters’ entries between 1680 and 1684.97 It would seem that the celebration was taken up by the Assicurate to celebrate the claustration of two of the

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others. In attendance were ten Assicurate members and one non-Assicurate woman (who would be enrolled in the course of the evening), and eleven Intronati members and one non-Intronati man.98 The game director, Pandolfo Spannocchi, indicates that he might not be able to launch the game because women are so reluctant to engage in these games, especially the Assicurata named Guardinga (the Wary).99 And besides, as one who is bound for religious life, he does not want to transgress “the limits of an observant seclusion.”100 Guardinga tartly reminds him that he was the go-between for Love and Modesty in a previous game, so he should not be too reluctant to lead the festivities.101 This challenge from Guardinga, aside from announcing her assertiveness, points up the porous boundaries between the sacred and the secular: an aspiring monk need not remain aloof from secular festive life, and he certainly should not pretend that his piety forbids it, if his behaviour has proven otherwise. But this blurring of realms applies to the game itself, which is a secular celebration of a religious moment (entry into the convent). In fact, the unifying link in this mixing of the sacred and the secular was female solidarity. Caterina Gaetana Griffoli was identified as the agent through whose “comandamento” Spannocchi was to direct the parlour game,102 and she does so on the occasion of two women’s rite of passage into religious vocation. But there was another problem thwarting the launching of the game, and that was the current lack of an Assicurate Principessa, so Guardinga suggests that one should be elected, since a majority of the Assicurate are present. And while they are at it, a new form and constitution should be given to the academy. Far from the reluctant player Spannocchi accuses her of being, she becomes the motive force in this game of reconstructing Siena’s female academy.103 At her suggestion Spannocchi thus invites suggestions from the women and the men on forming a proper constitution for the Assicurate. The debate over the constitution replays the Intronati’s attempt to dominate the new academy in the 1664 game. One man suggests that the two institutions have always been linked – like a marriage – and should obey the same laws of such a union. This argument is rejected by the Assicurate member “Imperturbabile,” who says neither academy should adapt to the other’s laws and that this relationship is less a marriage (sponsalitio) than an alliance (lega), in which two cities live by the same laws in regard to each other but are self-governing internally. A male model grounded in (patriarchal) marriage is thus trumped by a female model grounded in politics. The women are looking outside of marriage to define a new modus vivendi with men. And so on it goes. When the men want to be censors of

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the Assicurate literary productions, the women demand autonomy for control of their own creations.104 When an Intronati member suggests that the Principessa of the Assicurate needs for assistance a “lieutenant,” along the model of the military, the women reject this attempt on the part of the man who “wants to confound military duties with the exercises of peace and virtue.”105 And one Assicurate member expressly rejects the possibility that such a lieutenant be an Intronato, invoking the pointed political argument that if women are not admitted to magistracies in the political world, then men will not be admitted to their tribunals.106 The women lay claim as well to the economic world, in the process of their electing a treasurer and hearing petitions for money. When an Intronati member submits a petition for handling various matters on behalf of the academy, the newly elected treasurer (the one non-Assicurate woman in the group, who is chosen for her neutrality) grills him on his petition, questioning his motives, challenging his accounting practices, and observing that he does not “offer suitable bonds and stipulate obligations in good form.”107 Ultimately she recommends “Non altro” (nothing else) to his request for funds.108 In part because of her display of “zeal” on behalf of the group, this woman, Onesta Vannoccio Biringucci ne’ Pecci – who also displayed her skill that evening by presenting a sonnet – was admitted to the group as an official member of the Assicurate.109 In other words, her acumen in challenging a male over financial matters was one proof of her merits that won her the right of induction. In all these cases – the women’s rights to their own censors, the freedom from a male military lieutenant, their besting a male over funding issues – the game plays out the Assicurate’s autonomy from or ascendancy over men. In one exchange in this game, however, the Intronati players’ posture towards the Assicurate women is more complex for being a bit less adversarial and more supportive. When the process of choosing a proper secretary for the academy is broached, an Intronati man says that he would like to test which of the Assicurate women has a good hand, because he has no exposure to female letters. At this point, one of the Assicurate jokes that if they have to wait until the fellow receives a letter from a woman, then they will never have a secretary – playful barbs such as this one are found throughout the games. But then the argument turns more serious as this same woman, “la Mirabile” (the Marvellous), turns the issue of female letters to a more metaphorical, literary level, extolling “the letters of … Vittoria Colonna, Isabella Andreini, and

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others rendered in print and praised by the whole world.”110 The response from the Intronati interlocutor here is revealing: he says that he “desires to see letters of those from 1675 until now,” though he knows all the Assicurate women would be quite competent.111 This comment suggests that just as the women hark back to the Cinquecento for examples of literary females, possibly the men also are using this part of the game to urge women to revive their literary standing to its former glory. This reinforces the argument of Diana Robin and others that men were sometimes collaborators – not always enemies – of female letters.112 And even as this and other games offer a mock battle for cultural control, they reflect serious desires on the part of both women and men that women achieve their cultural potential. Aside from all of the negotiations in this game in terms of the institutional offices and structure of the Assicurate, there is an even more important discussion of the purpose of the academy. And here the possibilites range from the too lowly (preparing a banquet) to the too lofty (ruling on candidates seeking the laureate), but the pattern suggests that the Assicurate generally aim for a higher role than the simply festive, ornamental, or traditionally female. Thus, when Intronati men suggest, for instance, that the leader of the Assicurate (the Archiassicurata) should lay a table for twelve every evening at Carnival and that she and her cohort should appear in masks during the season, the Insuperable (Caterina Savini Gori Pannelini) rejects both. The Assicurate should offer nourishment for the spirit, not for the body; and as for masks, she says that “an academy, which has for its object virtue, ought to abhor disguise, which is the follower of vice.”113 These Intronati were incapable of devising a duty befitting the Insuperable’s “wise cleverness” (sagace avvedimento), and she argues that the duty of the academy should instead be something more substantive, “an exemplary gravitas.”114 She proposes that the duty of the Archiassicurata should be to organize at least two giuochi di spirito a year and “other virtuous and private gatherings of their academy when the need would be made known by her.”115 This proposal by the Insuperable suggests a desire to move beyond a strictly Carnival setting for festivities (conspicuously not mentioned), giving the parlour games a more dignified, less sexualized context – and that certainly conforms with the occasion of this game, to celebrate the claustration of the two Chigi daughters. But also key here was the emphasis on “virtuous” (i.e., literary) activities. In other vignettes in this account, the interlocutors debate what should be the specific pursuits of the Assicurate. When painting is

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mentioned, the Assicurate respondent dismisses it as dealing too much with the realm of appearances, and the discourse echoes the opposition between the corporeal and the spiritual (or cerebral). This dichotomy is especially noteworthy when one of the men suggests that an ideal pursuit of the women would be fashion. Intronati member Persio Savini urges their study of “bizarre styles and new fashions” in order to “seize in this way the glory from the splendours (pompe) of France, to render vanity an ingenious thing and [make of] display a speculative matter.”116 Thus, the Assicurate ambition should be to steal the thunder of the French by making a science of fashion. The Assicurate secretary, named the Reserved, sees this pursuit as frivolous and superficial. Rather than refining vanity and luxury and simply rendering “virtuous these ornaments,” the Assicurate should aim much higher.117 They should apply themselves “to all of those virtuous exercises that may serve as ornamentation to the spirit, as in the reading and discussion of ‘istorie’ (stories or histories), in composing sonnets and madrigals, in learning foreign languages, in the performance of music and song, in staging dances, and other similarly virtuous occupations, in order to make a good display (pompa) in all the gatherings that may follow from time to time.”118 The Sienese women should thus dedicate their academy to endeavours almost identical to those pursued in the male academies: not matters of fashion, not the hollow pomp of dress and luxury. Instead, their worthy pompa or splendour should be rooted in cultural creativity, learning, and skilful display. This exchange was perhaps all the more charged with meaning owing to the heated exchanges earlier in the century on “lusso,” “pompe donnesche,” and female vanity from the pens of Buoninsegni, Tarabotti, and Aprosio. Moreover, when the Assicurate women reject the insulting Intronati suggestion that they strive to top the French in superficial pomp, they then demonstrate their talents in dance, song, and poetic composition. For the display of poetry, the Reserved (Settimia Tolomei Marescotti) “was the first to be invited from her seat to make display (far pompa) of some fruit of her talent, since this woman continually engages in similarly virtuous exercise.”119 She then recited a sonnet she had written a few days earlier in honour of the two Chigi daughters, Maria Teresa and Maria Maddalena. The very notion of female “pompa” has thus been transformed from the pomp of fashion to the pomp of talent and virtue. Earlier in the game an Intronati member had sought to distinguish between the differing duties of the Assicurate and his academy, opining that the “Intronati ought to practise the

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acquisition of the virtues (virtù) and the Lady Assicurate in making display (far pompa) of their perfect wit (spirito).”120 Now, it seems that the Assicurate have virtually conflated the “male” pursuit of virtue and the “female” display of pomp, to argue for a non-gendered display of literary virtù and other forms of talent. The Reserved then presents her sonnet to the teenaged Chigi twins “who abandon the world and set out for the glory of a true perfection,” hailing the young women for their contempt of all worldly things.121 The intersection of the religious and secular – and of the quite divergent opportunities for female glory – becomes apparent in this poem, in which ironically an Assicurate woman “makes display” (far pompa) of her literary talent by praising the religious vocation of these women who have chosen to seek their glory by scorning all manner of “human display (fasto) and worldly pomp (pompe terrene).”122 Either choice, however, could end in female glory, and it suggests a degree of female solidarity in that the secular Assicurate find a way to render glorious a vocation almost certainly forced upon these girls. As for literary performance, two other sonnets are also presented, one by Onesta Pecci, who is displaying her merit for admission into the academy.123 These poems reveal how the parlour games of the Assicurate were in part staged events meant to showcase literary compositions. For those not possessing the talent of a Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Gambera, or Laura Terracina – or not aspiring to (or not finding access to) actual publication – these games were their venue for literary performance. The chroniclers of the games, moreover, gave their works a measure of immortality. The process of recording the banter, performances, and literary productions of the games brings us back to the office of the censors, who guaranteed the quality of the academy’s productions. As mentioned above, the Assicurate insisted on the right to have their own censors, discrete from the Intronati. When two of the men now suggest that these officials should be up to date on current standards of the “moda” (fashion) to know how to correct any deficiencies, the Assicurate once again object that their censors “ought to serve to emend defects of the mind and not those of dress.”124 More precisely, Portia Bichi Gori Pannelini claims that the censors’ duties “should consist in examining the theme of giuochi di spirito, in emending those who do not rebut with efficacy the arguments of the gentlemen, and also in carefully considering the sonnets that any Academic lady wishes to recite.”125 The Assicurate censors, then, will apparently vet and “correct” the proceedings of these games. This suggests that the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito”

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are a somewhat embellished record of events. While this obviously compromises the oral authenticity of the games, it suggests that the Assicurate wanted a proper literary legacy of their revels. If the Intronati censors revised and corrected the theatrical productions and publications of their academy, the Assicurate censors similarly wished to edit their parties and attendant productions therein. This is a new type of cultural production, collectively mounted by women ambiguously fusing the oral and written realms. The duties of the censors outlined above by Portia Pannelini would suggest that these officials (probably in conjunction with the secretary as recorder) might well have been the compilers of the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito.” If so, such a female provenance of the “Accounts” would explain why women are named as instigators in the titles of four of the six games, whereas they are not so named in the descriptions of these same games in the “Origin of the Assicurate” compiled by Francesco Piccolomini. Because the June 1691 game on the “new form and constitution of the Assicurate” celebrated the monastic vocation of the two Chigi women, Love was not in the foreground, though it was in all of the other games. A party during Carnival of 1691 reveals that the realm of Love could simultaneously entail the actual social world of love and marriage as well as the ludic world of parlour games, theatre, and festive events of the Kingdom of Love. The details of this game, whose theme was the “Sindicato di Amore” (the Tribunal of Love),126 reviews how well the two genders are living up to their responsibilities in both the “real” and festive worlds. This party in particular shows how the parlour game could be not only an arena for cultural performance but also a vehicle for social debate. This stylized game opens with the fantastical appearance (supposedly) of a bird carrying a letter addressed to the Assicurate and Intronati. After much speculation as to the likely content of the letter, it is read aloud; the chronicler includes the text of the letter “of which I had the fortune of taking a copy.”127 In it, the god Love thanks the academies for having recently supplied him a wife (the topic of an earlier game) and asks the two academies to select judges to assess how well his interests are being served in his Kingdom: the Intronati judging the women, the Assicurati the men. The ludic end is to correct all the abuses in the Kingdom of Love, but the real game afoot is a battle of the sexes waged in the terms of the current social world. Two of the issues raised at the tribunal concern the demographic and economic norms of contemporary marriage. When Love issues his first grievance, the practice of delaying marriage so long, two of the

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Intronati think that the charge is directed particularly at them. In response they present their brief for delayed marriage: for instance, that “the married lose … the brio so pleasing to Love”;128 that proper household management requires economy, whereas youth are inclined to prodigality. This last point is challenged by Livia Forteguerri with the riposte that if young men lack “economia,” it is to be found in their consorts – that is, women can handle these economic matters.129 From the practical, the Intronati then turn to the cultural and social, invoking the benefits of freedom, in effect praising the sanctity of those “green years” unimpeded by a marriage. That is, they argue, when young men marry they abandon letters and knightly practices, to the detriment of Love; furthermore, Love is a youth and does not want young people to have their liberty restricted. Livia replies that the occupation of spouses does not preclude other pursuits and because Love is a youth, he wants young people in his court. This male/female exchange illustrates differing perceptions of the true realm of love: for men, the amatory world of flirtation and freedom; for women, the settled one of marriage. The men claim that marriage is a “yoke,” that if taken up too early could lead to regret and a desire for escape. Livia answers that those advanced in years find it difficult to adapt, that souls joined early develop more “durable affections,” and that earlier marriages would result in fewer of the “otiose in the world, who serve Love ill.”130 At this point the men yield: “they declare themselves conquered by the talent of such an eloquent woman,” and confess their regret at not having yet found “companions.”131 The female combatant here, Livia Forteguerri, won this debate and she is one of the women newly enrolled at the end of this game. And more broadly, the women win this round – and do so with arguments that ground love in the steadier realm of marriage, long-cultivated love and companionability, rather than in the amatory dalliances and delays of the green years. A second debate on marital practices, however, goes to the men. In another grievance Love proclaims that it is “of greatest disgust to us that custom which is commonly practised of dowering the woman, from which results grave detriment to our empire.”132 The particular target here was Bernardino Palmieri, who admits to be interested in marriage only for the dowry, a practice he defends as a “just custom.”133 One of the Assicurate interlocutors chides that he should desire “singular faculties accompanied by an exemplary virtue more than riches in a wise spouse.”134 Then why, he asks, did Cleopatra have to drink that enormously valuable pearl (dissolved in vinegar) to impress her lover Marc

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Antony?135 Not impressed, she strikes back with a creative interpretation of the iconography of Cupid, who is depicted nude, to show that love is “divested of any interests.”136 Then why, he rejoins, do we use the imagery of diamonds and pearls to describe the beauty of women? Such exchanges show the players eager to draw on the traditions of mythology, iconography, and literary metaphor to wage this battle. In the end, after the female interlocutor proclaims the wife’s utility in the home – especially in regard to the rearing of children – Palmieri cites the expense of carriages and clothing that equal or outmatch the gain of a dowry. He ends the debate with a sarcastic comment that she should suspend judgment on the matter until she has a son of marriageable age.137 This dowry debate recalls the one performed by the Ferraiuoli court in 1570, only this time a woman participates rather than simply listens. Even so, however, because Palmieri gets the last laugh, it would seem he prevailed. The debate reveals that dowries were explicitly seen by women to be demeaning of them and of marriage, and it offers an opportunity to challenge the economic interests of patriarchal tradition with an argument based on the character and utility of a wife. Aside from these social criticisms, Love also posts festive complaints in this tribunal: namely, that his worship has not been duly observed in theatrical and musical spectacles.138 Addressing these grievances provides a framework for participants to offer up a variety of performances: for instance, four women sing with the musical accompaniment of some Intronati; a man who has spent too much time hunting is punished with performing a ballet before the women; two women recite sonnets, one of which commemorates the “death” (i.e., end) of the Carnival season.139 But beyond these performances, this section of the game addresses issues of the obligation of men and women to perform publicly, a long-standing tradition of the Intronati in their theatrical productions. One of the Intronati members, Silvio Gori Pannelini, claims that he is more than willing to perform in comedies until old age, “if some of the most gentle ladies, who this past year demonstrated their talent in song, to the end of making it public later in the theatres, will have fulfilled their promise.”140 The men thus are urging the women to become more public with their talent. In response to this charge, Lady Schietta (the Frank) admits that she was one of those, but says she “sang only to obey, not to make proof of a virtue that she did not possess.”141 Clearly, the very public display of talent – beyond that shown in quasi-public gatherings – was a reluctant duty for modest women. Pannelini further charges that some women were even

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delinquent in participating in games, even though, he claims, in service to Love they are obligated to join in. Caterina Bandini (the Cautious) rebuts this criticism by reminding Pannelini that women “are subject to their husbands and to their discretionary wishes.”142 She thus echoes the enduring tension between women as free public agents and unfree cloistered wives constrained by their husbands – a problem Alessandro Piccolomini had addressed in the previous century in his De la institutione, in which he implicitly cautioned that men be attentive to women’s need for a festive space.143 And when she argues that there is no written mandate that women perform in these games, Pannelini invokes the memory of Girolamo Bargagli to say that “the masters of the Sienese games prescribe as an inviolable law that none of the women present at a party is exempt from taking part in such virtuous activities.”144 The exchange between Pannelini and Caterina thus addresses prominent issues concerning the public life of women that had been percolating in the festive tradition for the last century and a half. The male player reminds the female of the ludic rules of the game that encouraged female freedom and agency, while the female player reminds the male of the ensconced real rules of patriarchal society. As this game plays out, and following all these performances in debate, song, and sonnets, the unenrolled women are awarded their Assicurate membership nicknames, emblems, and mottoes. Thus, for instance, Livia Corti Forteguerri, who won the debate on late marriage practices against the two Intronati men, becomes “the Indifferent,” her emblem a thermometer, and her motto “[Indifferent] to Hot and to Cold.”145 This metamorphosis from Livia to the “Indifferent,” from private woman to nicknamed Assicurate, is indeed a metaphor for what these games aim to accomplish in transforming identity: moving women from the private sphere to public life. As was the case in some of the games described in Girolamo Bargagli’s game book of the previous century, many of the exchanges in these games offer the opportunity for women (and men) to draw on a common store of mythology and literature to demonstrate their cultural literacy and apply it in specific contests. Thus, in the common project of building a Temple of Love in anticipation of Love’s passage through Siena in 1664, an Assicurate woman, “la Briosa” (the Spirited), displays both classical and modern tastes. She refigures the ancient Roman Gates of War to propose gates that are always open to virtue and always waging war on vice and recommends decorative scenes on, for instance, the faithful lovers Sophronia and Olindo from the Jerusalem

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Delivered 2.16.146 Another Assicurate, “la Saputa” (Knowledge), recommends placing in this Temple of Love the fire found in the temple of the Vestal Virgins, offering up verses describing the flames of “Amor Platonico.”147 Classical motifs thus blend with Renaissance vernacular poetry, as women cite and compose poetry. In some instances, the games depict men and women vying to define the proper ludic activity, with the men chronically proposing pursuits too lowbrow, which the women reject for more elevated possibilities.148 Throughout, one finds a pattern of cultural status inversion, whereby the men, their nicknames (usually foolish), their interests, and their performances serve as foils to the tastes and abilities of the women. This contrast is nowhere better illustrated than in the last of the gatherings described in the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito.” This party occurred during Carnival of 1707/8 at the home of Anna Maria and Lattanzio Finetti, and included thirty women and over sixty men.149 One game played at this occasion signalled the equality of the sexes, but a second dramatized female superiority. The first game was one catalogued in Girolamo Bargagli’s game book from the 1560s: the Game of the Amazons, which literally enacts the battle of the sexes.150 The men, as knights, reveal what weapon they will use to conquer a woman at the party, and she replies with the defence she will use. In one exchange, undoubtedly with lewd intent, the knight says that his weapon will be a pocket pistol, while the opposing Amazon says that she will use the shield of “distance,” “in order that he not be able to reach her with a weapon so short.”151 One woman, Caterina Gori, draws upon her own emblem in the Assicurate, although this is the only mention of the Assicurate in the account. When her knight threatens to use the club of Hercules – “because in order to conquer the Amazon enemy he did not want anything less than the arms of a hero who symbolized strength” – she chooses for her defence the Columns of Hercules, “because these were given as an emblem in the Academy of the Assicurate and because they cannot be conquered.”152 This example is important as both a feminist use of the Herculean trope and as a symbol of the power of the Assicurate identity and emblem in combating men. At the end, the judge of the game rules that the combat between the knights and the Amazons is a draw, because there is strength on both sides. But the next game of the evening decidedly subordinates the men to the women – and does so not in the fantastic world of military combat but in the believable world of cultural achievement. In this game, “to

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erect a learned Parnassus more respectable than the one so praised by poets because it is not legendary,” Silvio Gori Pannelini assumes the role of Apollo, who chooses nine women to assist him in judging applicants to Parnassus.153 In all of the nine arts that the classical Muses represent, the men audition to inferior or intentionally disastrous ends, and the women appointed as Muses instruct or display how these arts should truly be done. Whether in reciting a tragedy, performing a pantomime, playing music, or composing poetry, the appointed Muses outperform the men.154 The triumph of the women is certainly a ritualized victory, as the men’s incompetent performances and pratfalls were simply meant to set up the female performances. As elsewhere in the Sienese games, women are artificially elevated, though in this case they demonstrate their superiority with actual performance in all the arts. But, as ever, the boundaries between the purely fanciful and the socially possible (or historically real) blur even in this game. The first aspirant to Parnassus applies in the field of history. “F. Gio. Bichi,” who was nicknamed the Historian among the Intronati, tells an entertaining story, but he is not even allowed to finish, because he is not deemed worthy to ascend to Parnassus “where should be expounded not fables so extravagant but only glorious deeds.”155 Apollo then turns to Girolama de’ Vecci, who has been chosen as the Muse Clio, and she tells the true story about the young woman who took her brother’s place standing guard during the siege of Siena and won “the highest praise from … Monluc and Cornelio Bentivoglio, who wished to see her.”156 The recorder of the story expressly indicates that Girolama drew this history from the account in Le pompe sanesi.157 The legacy of heroic women during the siege, which became a part of Ugurgieri Azzolini’s prosopography of famous women, now finds its way into a parlour game as a recitation of true history and as a nobler expression of love than Bichi mounted in his story. If parlour games spurred female agency in the siege of Siena in the 1550s, now the history of one such act is recycled as a truer, higher form of culture in the parlour games of the early 1700s. This incident, in particular, in the creation of a new court of Parnassus reveals that a ritual of cultural inversion was not simply an absurdist departure from reality, but a ludic opportunity for reappraising reality. Certainly, this creation of a Parnassus, based on merit and smiling upon women, stands in contrast to Boccalini’s Ragguagli di Parnaso (Reports from Parnassus) 1.22 of 1612, in which Apollo ordered that the Intronati expel the few women poets that they had admitted to their literary elite.

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An Assicurate Publication The last recorded giuoco di spirito listed in the “Origin of the Assicurate” is dated 1704.158 Although a record of the game is not found in the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito,” some of its fruits are known through a publication of two poems written for the game. These poems appear in a brief, nine-page publication from the Bonetti press, which to my knowledge is the first publication in Europe from an all-female academy (Figure 5.8). The title page indicates this to be a production of the Assicurate: Poesie per musica fatte in congiuntura che le Signore Accademiche Assicurate di Siena fanno un giuoco di spirito intitolato il Giardino d’Amore all’Illustrissimi, ed Eccellentissimi Signori Principi di Farnese e Duchi di Monterano in case del Signore Francesco Piccolomini a preghiere della Signora Caterina Gaetana Griffoli Piccolomini consorte del medesimo, frà dette Accademiche, detta L’Impareggiabile (Poems for music composed on the occasion in which the lady Assicurate Academics of Siena held a giuoco di spirito entitled the garden of love, to the most illustrious and excellent Princes of Farnese and Dukes of Monterano in the home of Signore Francesco Piccolomini at the request of Lady Caterina Gaetana Griffoli Piccolomini, consort of the same, among the academy members called the Incomparable).159 It is noteworthy that this is completely identified as an Assicurate affair: no mention is made of the Intronati or of Intronati member Pandolfo Spannocchi’s leading the game, as indicated in the description in the “Origin of the Assicurate.”160 Even more importantly, this title page bears the academy nickname of Caterina Gaetana Griffoli, a name she had received twenty-four years earlier – certainly suggesting that the Assicurate identity was enduring and worthy of print.161 Like three of the earlier games (of 1664, 1680, and June 1691), this one was occasioned by the presence of the Chigi family. This time the purpose seems to have been to invoke a pregnancy for Costanza Chigi, another of the daughters of Agostino Chigi and Maria Virginia Borghese (two of whom were honoured in the game of June 1691). Costanza, married to Emilio Altieri, Duke of Monterano, was enrolled as the first new Assicurata in the 1704 game,162 and the first of the two poems in the publication is an “Augurio di nuova prole all’Eccellentissima Signora Duchessa di Monterano parlandosi sotto l’allusione del Giardino d’Amore.”163 She gave birth to one daughter in 1697, and now at thirtytwo apparently hoped for another child: eleven months after this occasion she gave birth to a second daughter, Maria Virginia Altieri.164 Once again, then, the Assicurate celebrate another type of female rite

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Figure 5.8. Title Page of Sole Assicurate Publication, Poesie per Musica (Siena, 1704). BCI, Misc. filol e polem. xxv, n. 7, fol. 1r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

of passage: this time, not a claustration ritual but rather a desired pregnancy. These ceremonies are clearly tributes to a prominent family, but they also represent a departure from the normal tropes of the Kingdom of Love. In this case, Love comes into the garden finding a most beautiful flower and is persuaded not to pick it, because it has a greater purpose: “il Destin promette / A questo Fior FECONDITÀ felice.”165 “Onestà” curbs ardour, and rather than pluck it, Love invokes a star, in

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the shape of a bee, to make fecund the “chaste flower”: “together with the devout / band of lovely Assicurate spouses, / Love thus made to this star a prayer: / Bee, that flies in the sky / in eternal April, / Drip on the gentle flower / The pure humour of the sky. / Make fruitful the chaste flower.”166 This is a very different type of discourse for the Kingdom of Love and parlour games that frequented the realm of romantic love and seduction. Love has to be warned not to pick the most beautiful flower, but to save it for a higher purpose (fertility). He is aided in this course by the Assicurate spouses (i.e., not maidens). Pregnancy and childbirth are not common tropes in the Kingdom of Love – they are not to be found in the games of Innocenzio Ringhieri and the Bargagli brothers.167 Now, in the Assicurate parlour game on the Garden of Love fertility is elevated over the allures of beauty and desire. A second poem depicts a dialogue between the honoured flower and Love, in which the flower questions her entry into Love’s garden. He defends her inclusion, saying that “inside his garden” there “are many flowers, but few fruits.”168 Like the earlier tribute to the monastic vocation of the other two Chigi daughters, this one is also a tribute to the non-amatory, non-romantic world of choice and dignity for women. In both cases, female purpose and dignity are implicitly upheld, and in this one female destiny is defended against the shallower role of women as beautiful flowers and prizes to be gathered in the gardens of love. This woman, Costanza, at thirty-two was not young – nor was her champion, the Assicurate matriarch Caterina Gaetana Griffoli, who by now had been married for thirty-two years. The Assicurate have taken the Kingdom of Love away from men, from youth, from sexuality, from silence. This last game – especially in the fact of its publication – was a symbol of their triumph.169 The “Origin of the Assicurate” abruptly ends with the occasion of 1704: the record of the academy filled only seventeen folios, leaving the majority of book’s pages empty.170 The legacy of the academy, however, would continue in various ways, both in the idea of the institution itself (as our next chapter will show) and in the pursuits of Sienese women as authors. As for the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito,” it apparently enjoyed some circulation. Twice in the papers of the academies there appears a copy of a poem that later was published in the early eighteenth century.171 The poem was written by a Florentine woman named Maria Buonaccorsi Alessandri, who was the last inductee of the Assicurate recorded in the “Origin of the Assicurate” in the list for the final game in 1704.172 In two manuscript versions, the poem is introduced as arising from “having read the book where are recorded the Sienese parties and

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giuochi di spirito, which are undertaken there by these most noble ladies and knights.”173 The poem is a testament to the inspiring nature of the Sienese games, and Alessandri praises these occasions as affirmations of the female sex. Addressing Siena’s river Arbia she says, If I had power equal to the great desire, Of the learned scuffles and erudite contests, I would speak of your ladies, where one learns With rays of talent to illuminate the nights. But these your great women alone in the world Raise so high the female sex, That I do not have a pen that can fly so high.174

Maria thus immortalizes the games that “raise so high the female sex,” illuminate the evenings, and challenge her own poetic talent in describing them.175 But more than just a tribute to the games, this poem might also be a sign of their inspiration to other women – even those outside of Siena. Alessandri herself, inducted as a member of the Roman Arcadian Academy, published this piece along with ten other poems in the Rime degli Arcadi – a collection in which Assicurate member Emilia Ballati Orlandini also published three poems.176 If the Assicurate did not endure as a publishing academy, it launched at least some women into other academies or venues in which they did publish or have a literary identity.177 According to Carolina Scaglioso, aside from their absorption into the Arcadians, some of the Assicurate joined the Intronati. Such was the case with Settimia Tolomei Marescotti and Emilia Ballati Orlandini, who in 1710 were given Intronati – rather Intronate – nicknames.178 The emergence of the Academy of the Assicurate promoted female agency and fame at several levels. It offered the possibility – albeit not the full reality – of institutionalizing female cultural activity at a level parallel to that of male academies. It regularized the earlier ludic developments of according women medals, emblems, and mottoes. It was a staging ground for debating issues concerning the status and rights of women. It offered opportunities to compose and present orations and poems – and to record these productions first in their detailed accounts of their revels, and, in one case, in an academy publication. This last, coming from the last dated game of 1704, would seem to be their swan song. But the academy’s legacy, if not its formal activities, did persist somewhat longer. In 1714 Pandolfo Spannocchi, the Intronati game director in the last four parties in the Origin of the Assicurate, dedicated

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his translation of Horace’s Ars poetica to the “most illustrious and most virtuous Assicurate ladies.”179 But the greatest champion of their memory in the early eighteenth century was to be the Intronati memorialist Girolamo Gigli, who sought to expand the Sienese template of a female academy to a national level.

6 Girolamo Gigli: The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese Women

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Intronati memorialist Girolamo Gigli (1660–1722) enshrined the Sienese parlour games and the Assicurate in a dramatic narrative of the past and a utopian blueprint for the future. As a chronicler of Sienese culture he was the true successor to Ugurgieri Azzolini: his two-volume Diario sanese (1722) is a compendium of Sienese institutions and rites that resembles the Pompe sanesi of the previous century. But although he shared Ugurgieri Azzolini’s philogynic views, his personal biography and his cultural agenda placed him in a far more controversial light both in Siena itself and in Tuscany in general. His anti-Jesuit literary endeavours in comedy ended in his ouster from a chair of eloquence at Siena’s university. His project to construct a Sienese dictionary brought down the wrath of the Florentine scholars of the Crusca Academy.1 His cultural positions – Italian over Latin, Sienese over Florentine speech, women over men, lay over clerical culture – at times converged to make him an unusually full-throated reformer and satirist. As a tireless combatant in the culture wars of his day, his reliability as a historian perhaps needs to be questioned at times, but even where he might have infused history with mythology he nonetheless constructed a bold feminist interpretation of Sienese cultural and social history in the Renaissance and the early modern era. In doing so, he clarified – or, alternatively, manipulated – certain moments in Siena’s ludic history that earlier figures such as Scipione Bargagli had kept vague. His reframing of such moments in the past and his call for a renewal of female greatness in the present represent the culmination of the Renaissance nexus of play and female agency.

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The Women at the Walls Long before he began to get into trouble, Gigli wrote a history of the Intronati that revealed his perspectives on the historical importance of this academy’s festive life in Siena’s past – especially in regard to spurring the “virile” energies of the city’s women. In his capacity as secretary of the Intronati in 1696, Gigli gathered various documents on the academy into a collection that included a letter “Dell’ Origine, e Processo dell’Antica Sanese Accademia” that he wrote to the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi.2 In this history Gigli characterizes the Intronati’s “virtuous parties,” which included “witty games” with women, as “the unique and rare prize of this state” that “have passed down to our times and to more distant countries.”3 But most important was his reconstruction of the intersection of the Sienese games with the siege of Siena in the 1550s. During this crisis, characterized by a tragic famine, the Intronati stepped up to offer much “food for the mind” and to inspire an unusual heroism among the women: Thus while the other citizens stood watch on the walls for the defence of the liberty of the country, the Intronati stood watch for the defence of the liberty of the mind, nurturing all the while a great virtù in the hearts of even the weakest of the Sienese women, who not as legendary Pallases [Athenas], simultaneously cultivated the olive with one hand and brandished the spear with the other. Not only did our historians testify to this event but so many others who speak with such praise of these Amazons of ours, with whom, said a great captain [Monluc], he would prefer to defend the walls of Rome than with Roman men.4 Gigli then directly connects the actions and insignias of the women at the walls with the events of the games: “Among the virtuous women were the Captains La Forteguerri, La Piccolomini, and La Fausti, who in raising each her own emblem conceived and displayed in the amorous parties, served sword-bound, replete with [these] more virile emblems. And so as not to omit what images these women displayed on their standards, I make occasion to report them with the authority of Ascanio Centorio.”5 He then presents the emblems of the three women and two of the mottoes, “in whatever sense they perhaps intended them [the mottoes], either as some particular amorous or honest thought, or as some design of their mind conceived for the good of the country.”6 The games emboldened Siena’s own corps of “Amazons,” who came to the defence of the city with the “virile” emblems and mottoes conceived in the parlour games. For Gigli, then, Scipione Bargagli’s

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depictions of the siege-time games in the Trattenimenti – which included as its first game the Game of Insignias and Banners – was perhaps more actual than fictive.7 He would suggest that the female Sienese “captains” carried their ludic emblems straight onto the ramparts to lead the three thousand female troops they massed to rebuild the fortifications. The vagueness of the mottoes defied interpretation, and Gigli allows that their slogans could arise either from a purely amatory or moral sentiment or a patriotic one. For him the activism of the women and the semiotics of their agency were directly tied to the games. Over twenty years later, in his satirical Del Collegio Petroniano (1719), to which we will return later, Gigli heightened the link between the women players and the women warriors. In a brief history of parlour games included in this work, Gigli addresses the events of the siege: “these Sienese heroines, who did not hesitate to cover their blonde tresses with a helmet, as Monluc wrote in his Commentaries, were of the number who in similar virtuous exercises learned to transcend the condition of sex, equally as spirited in nocturnal debates with their courteous friends as bold in conflicts during the day with enemies of the state.”8 For Gigli, then, the games were an opportunity for these women to depart from or defy their gender – presumably because they were arenas for sparring – which naturally propelled them to defy their sex in “manning” the walls of the besieged city. In his account of the women at the walls Gigli drew on Monluc, Ascanio Centorio, and Ugurgieri Azzolini,9 yet he also went beyond them in tying the three female leaders and their emblems to the games likely played during the siege. Did Gigli here merely complete the history or rather did he add a touch of mythology? One might think the latter, and yet the same questions could be asked of Scipione Bargagli in reverse: did he feel compelled to obscure some of the history (out of respect for still-tender male Sienese pride and out of deference to the recent Florentine victors) and excessively fictionalize the Carnival games during the siege? In writing his work in the 1560s, still fresh upon the Florentines’ official control of the city, there were reasons to downplay Siena’s failed opposition to the siege and to recast the event in primarily ludic terms with fictive characters. The extent of rebellion per se was in the female characters’ openly defying a decorum that dictated that game playing during such a circumstance was inappropriate.10 Did Gigli romanticize the closer connection between the games and the female commanders of the three thousand? Or, rather, did the distance of time simply give him the licence to heroize the women not only as defiant

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game players (as Bargagli had done) but also as military champions of the city? Could he say something that Scipione Bargagli could not say, now without wounding male pride? It is worth noting that Gigli’s language in the letter to Magliabechi does bespeak a rhetoric of gender in regard to male power (or powerlessness). Obviously, this is the case when he speaks of the three female captains bedecked with swords and “more virile emblems.”11 But also, shortly before the comments on the siege, Gigli discusses a period in the 1530s, shortly after the founding of the academy, when many of the leading figures, “all of first flowers of our Pumpkin [the Intronati],” were lured away from Siena: as a result of this brain drain, “through the lack of such masculine vigour, our plant began to languish in its beginning.”12 Such language suggests that Gigli was consciously or unconsciously attuned to issues of masculinity – and this makes all the more relevant his glorifying the Sienese “Amazons” during the siege in a history that, after all, was putatively of the male Intronati. Clearly, he did not shrink from heroizing the actions of women in a period in which the men had failed. Is he correct in drawing such a straight line from the parlour-game emblems to those displayed by the captains Forteguerri, Piccolomini, and Fausti? Perhaps not, especially since the three mottoes all had the same opening of “Purche,” suggesting that they were designed of a piece. But Gigli may be correct in generally hardening the likelihood of a historical connection between women who might have played games during the siege and the women at the walls – a connection Scipione Bargagli necessarily left vague. Regardless of Gigli’s reliability as the historical arbiter here, however, he is nonetheless unquestionably valuable as an early modern cultural commentator. It is his perception and interpretation of ludic culture that is vital here: the Sienese parlour games taught women to transcend their sex (“uscire fuora della condizione del sesso”) and to battle by night in verbal sparring and by day in military manoeuvres. *** Gigli’s major effort as a cultural historian and Sienese panegyrist came in his massive two-volume Diario sanese, which was published in 1722, the year of his death. The bulk of this work is an almanac recording Sienese festivals, institutions, and historical events day by day. Embedded within this treatise is the outline for what would have been a far more massive compendium of local culture: a forty-five-volume

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anthology of published and unpublished Sienese prose and poetry, religious works, historical and other scholarly writings, translations, festive literature, emblems, and even guild statutes.13 Unfortunately, the project, which he expressly placed in the tradition of Ugurgieri Azzolini, never came to fruition, though he presents a volume-by-volume listing of what would have been included at the end of a survey of the Intronati and other academies.14 Among the projected volumes was one entitled “Giuochi, e Feste,” which was to include the game books of both Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli, the latter’s “Medal Reverses of the Befana Fortunes,” and several other works.15 A subsequent volume of emblems was slated to include the unpublished “Le imprese dell’Accademiche Assicurate presso Francesco Piccolomini,” which is the “Origins of the Assicurate” manuscript discussed in chapter 5.16 Certainly, Gigli had a keen interest in incorporating the by-products of the festive and ludic world alongside the “high” literature of the academic, religious, poetic, and scholarly worlds. We gain a glimpse of his eye for ritual life in his treatment of Carnival, in which both parlour games and the Assicurate play a dominant role. Gigli clearly reifies the Assicurate as a Sienese institution with a prominent festive function. More importantly, he presents a “history” of parlour games – which he virtually equates with the history of female assertion – and brings this unique Sienese tradition up to the present day in rather urgent terms. When describing the various rites of Carnival, such as the soccer game, the fist fight (pugna), and the comedy staged by the Intronati, he spends most time on the giuochi di spirito: “On one of the last evenings of Carnevale the Assicurate Academy Ladies (these are the ladies most spirited, and most devoted to letters) are accustomed to celebrate these games so renowned and called giuochi di spirito. These consist of improvisational dialogues on some moral amatory subject with the quickest, most erudite gentlemen, offering occasions for respectful banter and gentle satire, mixing in stories, compositions, songs, and dances: an entertainment not previously found elsewhere and by many writers mentioned to our particular credit.”17 Then in a compressed history, he traces the tradition back to the female Kingdom of Love in medieval Provence, drawing on Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni’s recent translation of Jean de Nostredame’s Lives of the Most Celebrated Provençal Poets.18 He states that tradition credits Mariano Sozzini the elder (d. 1467) for introducing the custom in Siena, and suggests that its later development was charted in the books of the Bargagli brothers.19 In speaking of the latter, it is noteworthy that

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he once again focuses on the women at the walls – and then suggests that the full institutionalization of the games is to be credited to the Assicurate: Many of these [Sienese parties] can be read about in the books that Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli have published, where one sees that even among the hardships of the siege of the state in 1554 [in fact, 1553] our virtuous and gracious women knew to comfort the battered spirit of their husbands and relatives in these pleasant nocturnal gatherings, after which they went with these [men] in defence of the walls. But more than ever the reputation [of these games] would increase when the custom became instituted in the women’s establishment of an academy called the Assicurate under the protection of the Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere.20

Although from the pen of an Intronati memorialist, this passage would seem to minimize the role of the Intronati in establishing these games and to maximize the role of the female academy in cementing the reputation of these games in the festive life of the city. In fact, Gigli arguably distorts the historical record in this account of the games, especially given that he elsewhere expressly credits the Intronati with the invention of the games and given that the Assicurate Academy itself grew out of an Intronati-sponsored game. But the point here concerns Gigli’s mythology as much as it does his history: the women are depicted as the prime movers of the tradition in 1654, just as they are hailed for joining their husbands in war in the siege in 1553.21 Gigli uses this setting – the discussion of the role of the Assicurate games in Carnival – as a forum for female advocacy. After describing the games from 1654 to the present, he launches into a discussion of the Sienese women poets, citing their inclusion in Lodovico Domenichi’s anthology of all-female poets in 1559. He says that he will update Domenichi’s work in his planned forty-five-volume anthology with a “compendium of the most recent and even still living [women], particularly of our elsewhere named Shepherdesses of Arcadi … and will place together with these the Latin orations of … Battista Berti Petrucci and of the celebrated Cecca Scotti from Siena.”22 Automatically associating the literary women with military ones, he immediately adds, “and of the other various ladies who fight with the emblem in the shield, see also the earlier [entry] for January 17,” where he recounts yet again the incident of the women at the walls.23 This planned anthology of poetry, described earlier in his Diario, was to include the works of nineteen

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women: some previously included in Domenichi’s anthology, some (such as that of Fulvia Spannocchi, the dedicatee of Scipione Bargagli’s Trattenimenti) still only in manuscript.24 The allusion to the Arcadian shepherdesses refers to Crescimbeni’s Roman Accademia degl’ Arcadi, which had enrolled numerous women (such as Emilia Ballati Orlandini) and had become the outlet for female letters once the Assicurate had effectively shut down. Part of Gigli’s agenda here and elsewhere was clearly to revivify the Assicurate and the specifically Sienese tradition of female talent – and in a sense to steal the mantle back from the Arcadians. He mentions in this section that the emblems of the Assicurate were recorded by the beadle of the academy, Francesco Piccolomini (i.e., in the “Origins of the Assicurate”), and that he himself, in the Collegio Petroniano of 1719, (fictively) extended the list of such Assicurate, providing the names and emblems of “our illustrious Academy members, chosen not only from among our [Sienese] women but also from among [other] Italian women spirited and noteworthy through high birth.”25 In this same book, he reveals, he also portrayed a giuoco di spirito. Both in extending the membership list and simulating a game, Gigli evinces his desire to revive the flagging Assicurate tradition. Gigli’s survey of the ritual role of the Assicurate ends on a note about the current fate of Siena’s female academy: But to tell the truth (and pardon me, my virtuous female fellow citizens, and President Spannocchi), I see falling little by little the branches of this most noble Oak and the loss of the illustrious shade (l’ombra illustre) in which the chorus of so many virtues took refuge there. [Here, Gigli is playing upon the Assicurate emblem of the oak and the motto, which he earlier cited, “Quì ne difende, e quì ne illustra l’ombra.”] Thus, it happens that such praiseworthy gatherings, for which our city was pointed to in wonder by all nations, have fallen into disuse. I do not wish for now to determine who is to blame, but the truth is that other cities of Italy have taken up the norm and the oracles of female wisdom (sapienza femminile), which in Siena today are mute; elsewhere they [women] speak with that concourse and credit with which once in Siena alone they spoke.26

Having spawned a tradition of illustrious games and female wisdom, Siena, now mute, has sadly ceded its distinction to other cities. This likely is an allusion to the Arcadian Academy, which was based in Rome (with colonies in other cities) and had taken in many women as members. From Gigli’s perspective, it was the Sienese who gave the

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first powerful voice to “Sapienza femminile” via their games and their female academy. The current silence of the Sienese women he likens to the hardiness of the winter rose. Given the traditional metaphors that identify women as delicate flowers, this one – somewhat like the metaphor of the “fecund” (vs. the simply beautiful) flower of the 1704 fertility game – recasts the floral trope in starkly different terms, and, once again, invokes the siege of Siena: it seems to have befallen the [now silenced] Ladies of Siena that which befalls the winter rose: just as these flowers preserve themselves greener among the snow and cold, and in the blast of north winds flower more beautifully – and by contrast in the breezes of the Mediterranean winds of April and in the fecund rays of the sun, reluctant do not open to adorn with garland the temples of Flora – so our ladies in the dreadful din of enemy drums, and among the spectres of hunger and deaths that from all sides surrounded the city in the cruel siege, cultivated in themselves every flower and every fragrance of virtue, so that their fame passed to the ages that followed. And now in the benign aspect of a more favourable light than ever looked upon this state, when they ought to produce flowers and fruits more beautiful and convey a scent always grander and more animated with their virtue, it seems that they are arid and almost devoid of cultivation and of the beneficence of a mild planet.27

This better time alludes to Cosimo III’s recent appointment of his daughter-in-law Violante of Bavaria as governor of the city, an appointment that was celebrated with a lavish festival in April of 1717.28 This celebration included floats, the staging of a play that Gigli translated from the French, and other performances by the Intronati and the Rozzi. In the accounts of the event, one by Rozzi member Giuseppe Torrenti and one by Intronati member Crescenzio Vaselli, no mention was made of the Assicurate.29 Thus, Gigli’s point about the silence of the Assicurate – even in a ritual in honour of a female governor – was borne out. But even in this negative, despairing statement about the current state of affairs for women in the city, Gigli invokes a powerful image of female hardiness, which like the winter rose persevered in Siena’s harshest winter of discontent. Why, then, can they not blossom in these sunnier times? He now turns to the new governor of the Siena, Violante, to whom he dedicates the Diario sanese. Clearly, he wants her to take up the role of Vittoria della Rovere as protector and matriarch of Sienese female

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culture. He offers a fawning tribute and implicit appeal to the city’s new ruler, who has ushered in this more benevolent time: Now, in the rule of Siena watches with her gracious light one of the most cultured, wise, gracious, and amiable princesses of Europe, who is Princess of Bavaria, Grand Princess of Tuscany, who gathers to her maternal breast every virtue, however abandoned it may be, or every good art; … now, I say, in the favour of this royal supervision productive of every good, should every other thing renew among us, and yet the spirit of the Assicurate languish and diminish? As for myself, I believe that this Academic Oak no longer hears the oracles of its doves, because these, bored of making nests in its ancient branches in which the venerable shade gave them the more hidden mysteries of wisdom, have descended to frolic about for brush.30

Gigli’s appeal to Violante then dips back into the Cinquecento, to chart the emergence of the prominent female literati in the city. Even though the Oak of the Assicurate did not materialize until 1654, he anachronistically extends the metaphor back to the Intronati/female alliances of a century before: “the Sienese Doves, who nested among the venerable shade of the ancient branches [of the oak] nested, were Laudomia Forteguerri, who conferred with Alessandro Piccolomini; Lucrezia Mignanelli, who from old Pandolfo Spannocchi learned the rules of poetry; and Isifile Toscana [who learned them] from Marcantonio Cinuzzi; the [Frasia?] Marzi, whom Antonio Vignali, founder of the Intronati, wished for his entertainer.”31 The literary and intellectual collaboration between men and women, on which Diana Robin has remarked, is clearly identified here as essential to the Sienese tradition of learned women. And here Gigli offers up his theory of how and why the social dynamics of heterosocial relationships have gone awry in his own day. In this earlier period, he argues, the notable Sienese women preferred the older, scholarly types as opposed to the younger, decadent set of Gigli’s day: “they willingly loved leaning upon a wrinkled hand covered with the stain of ink and the dust of the [academic] Chair, or smelling of the oil of the scholarly lantern.”32 Not so, today; and thus Gigli offers his prescriptions and warnings. If today’s women will not “return to the ancient branches of the prophetic Oak, that is to spend winter parties at the fireplace with some old frozen Intronato … then unfurl for them the master poets, as have done our Academy members, who in Tuscan verse expounded some books of the Aeneid

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for our ladies” – a translation that he planned to include in his fortyfive-volume collection.33 He then implicitly chides the ladies for rejecting the wise old men for the callow young ones: “If [these women] do not sooner fancy to converse in these erudite parties with a lettered man, old and toothless, than with an ignorant youngster … [with a] face painted with a painter’s entire palette, they will do like those vines that, in order to attach themselves to a new elm too weak and unfit for the weight, fall to the ground before fruit can mature.”34 In rejecting women’s preference for young men over old, Gigli has completely reversed the sexual overtones of Carnival games – and this is especially pertinent, given that this entire discussion of the Assicurate comes in a discourse on Carnival. He even offers up an interpretation of the significance of the Intronati emblem that favours the old: “And in order to use the allegory of the Intronati pumpkin, the Lady Assicurate should be advised that the pumpkins symbolic of wisdom are those dried and cracked that reside near the fire and are filled with salt – not those leafy zucchinis that make a temporary shade … and have no purpose at the meal other than to disperse aromas.”35 In contrast to the initial connotations of the Intronati emblem, in which the pestles crowning the pumpkin were likely intended as phalluses, Gigli’s exegesis here is quite the opposite.36 This praise of the wizened old pumpkin (and man) shows how much the social and cultural relationship between the Intronati men and the Sienese women has shifted from the world of the flirtatious “green years” to that of the mentoring “grey” or “white” ones. Furthermore, he ends his exhortation of a revival of female learning by urging a reawakening of the dormant female presence, which Siena’s current women should have inherited from their mothers and should pass on to their daughters. Gigli’s closing shows how much his discussion of the Assicurate’s role in Carnival had fully become a brief for Sienese women to regain their voice: Here then [the favouring of young men over old] is the reason for the silence of the Assicurate; to whom I do not regret if I have brought up the matter of their muteness, because, having proposed in this book of mine to adduce all the good examples of our forebears to those who are alive so that they may be emulators and renew them in themselves, [and] thus wishing to recommend the good customs of our contemporaries to those who will succeed them, I have thought it my obligations to reawaken the dormant virtue of our ladies, so that by returning to their accustomed practices, there may be revived in them and in the Intronati (in whom their light reflects

The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese Women 169 and encourages virtuous operations) the spirits that they inherited from their mothers and ought to pass on to their daughters and daughters-in-law.37

Truly, Gigli’s account here is the first broad survey of the Sienese games from their Provençal roots to the present. His survey suggests that starting in 1654 the playing of these games, at least during Carnival, had passed to the purview of the female Assicurate (with male assistance) rather than remain fully in the hands of the male Intronati (with female participation). That the well-born Sienese women had laid a proprietary claim on such games is evident in Gigli’s comment in a succeeding discussion of the Carnival role of the artisan academy of the Rozzi: “The spirited women (Donne) of the Rozzi sometimes chattered privately in imitation of the Ladies (Gentildonne), and of the Intronati, but these [elite women and men], who claimed a monopoly on such entertainments, did not allow such chaffinches to sing outside the enclosure.”38 But even more importantly, Gigli’s survey of the giuochi di spirito at Carnival confirmed that these games could be seen as tantamount to feminist assertion: in the ways of female hardiness, female military courage, and female learning and publication. Moreover, he connects parlour games to other aspects of female agency and visibility. Tellingly, he mentions the women at the walls three times in this discussion. He outlines his plan to augment Domenichi’s publication of female writers; to extend the roster of Assicurate found in “Origin of the Assicurate”; to anthologize the literary translations dedicated to Sienese women. As for the current state of the games, he even describes yet another imagined parlour game (in his Collegio Petroniano) that could implicitly reawaken this potent ritual that seemed to be vanishing. Gigli’s Parlour Game and National Academy of Assicurate In the foregoing discussion of the Assicurate Carnival games, Gigli alludes to his treatise Del Collegio Petroniano delle balie latine, which extended the list of Assicurate to a national scale and simulated a parlour game concerning a “Seminario per l’educazione degli Umani Affetti dissoluti.”39 In the Diario sanese, this work clearly represented his own effort to resuscitate the flagging Assicurate. That purpose, however, was joined with others in a treatise that attacked the Jesuits, linguistic dogmatism, and educational tyranny. This work was simultaneously a Carnival game, a libertine rebellion, an educational parody, and a

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feminist utopia. The treatise supposedly depicted the celebratory opening of an all-Latin school in 1719 in Siena that inculcated the language in youth via Latin-speaking nursemaids. The work was written two years after Gigli began publishing his Vocabolario cateriniano, a dictionary of Sienese dialect that incurred the wrath of the Florentine Academy of the Crusca. By this point in his life, Gigli had suffered two exiles: one following the performance of his Don Pilone, and another after he had begun publication of his Vocabolario. He offended the Jesuits in the first case, and the Florentine literati and the grand duke in the second. He takes on everybody in this facetious work, which, however, also has a somewhat serious side in its promotion of women and first-ever publication of Assicurate emblems and mottoes. In September of 1717 the Florentine Grand Duke Cosimo III ordered a public burning of the remaining copies of Gigli’s Vocabolario and expelled him from Siena.40 Gigli repaired to Viterbo and then to Rome, where he died in 1722. While in Rome he wrote the Collegio Petroniano, a hoax that lampooned several birds with one stone. The work appeared under the name Dottor Salvatore Tonci, “first doctor of the said college,” and described itself as a second edition “in which are added accounts of the solemn festivities that were made in the following days of Carnival, and particularly the Academy of Sienese Ladies with the new admission of the most famous women of Italy in the same Academy.”41 But this putative festive “addition” in a “second edition” commands much of the treatise: indeed, the ludic (vs. the academic) festivities consume about half of the work.42 It is, of course, no accident that the opening ceremony for the school occurs during late February: the treatise itself is one huge Carnival joke, a literary game that contains within it a simulated parlour game. Gigli compounds the ludic moment. The pretence of the treatise is to celebrate the launch of a school in which Latin is taught to children at the earliest age. The Latin-speaking nursemaids in the opening ceremony hold babies only a few days or weeks old.43 The idea is to mock the Jesuit education that characterized the city’s Collegio Tolomei, established in 1676.44 Gigli’s quarrels with the Jesuits were long-standing, owing to his Don Pilone (c. 1707), an adaptation of Molière’s Tartuffe that took aim at “false religious bigotry” and targeted a scandalous Sienese priest named Feliciati di Sarteano.45 The play energized the Jesuits to orchestrate Gigli’s ouster from his university chair, and he decamped to Rome in 1708.46 On a return visit to Siena he wrote a follow-up play performed by the Rozzi Academy during Carnival of 1713.47 This Sorellina di Don Pilone was an only

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slightly veiled attack on his wife and her religious adviser, depicted as a religious scam artist who attended to married women and widows. Aside from reflecting Gigli’s own troubled marriage, arranged for him when he was seventeen, the work deals with the crisis of women who need dowries for their own marriages.48 The story concerns a servant, a widow in the employ of Egidia (a figure representing Gigli’s wife), who needs a dowry to remarry. In order to receive support from a charitable organization for fallen women, she has to enrol herself in the list of prostitutes to receive help. The religious director and hypocrite in the story, “Don Pilogio,” who had helped Egidia embezzle all manner of household valuables, ran a “scandalous bottega” that collected young rescued girls and wives separated from their husbands. In the end, this figure gets his comeuppance: the poor women in his charge are freed and his store of “spiritual larcenies” is divided up among them for their dowries.49 Irony of ironies (or filial revenge), one of Gigli’s twelve children, Germanico, became a Jesuit and attended him on his deathbed.50 Gigli’s assault on the Jesuits in the Collegio Petroniano focused chiefly on the all-Latin religious curriculum of the Jesuit’s ratio studiorum.51 In Gigli’s story, the college, supposedly the idea of the (actual) fourteenthcentury Cardinal Riccardo Petroni (d. 1314), has imported twenty-four learned ultramontane Latin-speaking nursemaids (from Germany, Hungary, Poland, etc.) to care for children from infancy up to twenty years of age; these are joined by fourteen Sienese nursemaids. Twelve of the foreign balie are attended by two Assicurate each, who serve as educational assistants and also guardians assuring that the nursemaids do not read any forbidden books.52 The curriculum, the Ratio Studiorum Collegii Petroniani, is predictably a mixture of classical, biblical, patristic, and scholastic studies – complemented with a strict spiritual regime of sacraments, prayer “with little or no variation from the exercises of the most disciplined seminaries of the Society of Jesus.”53 But most importantly, Latin only is to be spoken, and there must be no Italian.54 This stricture occasions a debate in the opening festivities between two members of Florence’s Academy of the Crusca, which was in reality a society staking out the dogmatic position that the Florentine dialect was the only proper Italian. One disputant in the story wants to uphold the Collegio Petroniano’s position that only Latin be spoken in its preserve; another, Uberto Benvoglienti, argues the case for Italian – and both are so intransigent in their linguistic convictions that the former speaks only Latin in their exchange, and the latter only Italian. At the end of the discussion, allusion is made to the division between

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“Florentine” and “Sienese,” and the Latin proponent suggests that peace could be restored if both states would only default to Latin. But the Intronati members present fight this and one of them asks a Signor Canonoico Provenzano Gigli to weigh in, “but as a spiritual person he judged it better to refrain in the humility of silence.”55 Here, Gigli even created an absurd religious alter ego for himself. Clearly, the Collegio Petroniano’s all-Latin rule was meant to mirror the Crusca’s insistence on Florentine dialect only, a controvery that just two years earlier had led to the burning of Gigli’s Vocabolario.56 But there are larger subversive forces at work in the treatise as well. For one, the entire fictive college is essentially a female bastion – a particular irony for an institution built on clerical and even Jesuit principles. The Latin-speaking nursemaids and their Assicurate assistants are obviously all women and the rector of the college is to be an Archimagistra, who has to be a widow.57 Moreover, in the opening ceremonies the two speeches presented (both, of course, in Latin) are given by women. The first, by the inaugural Archimagistra, Veronica Sergardi, includes comments addressed principally to the matrons who constituted the college.58 Gigli uses this speech to once again praise the traditions of female learning and female heroism in Siena. His fictive rector says that she sees in them the legacy of the Sienese women: “for not dimly I seem to discern in you that outstanding ardour, in which once so many Sienese women, inflamed by the cult of letters, vied happily for the goal of glory.” She then enumerates Battista Berti, Francesca Scotti, Lucrezia Mignanelli, Laudomia Forteguerri, Virginia Martini, Pia Bichi, Piera Cervini, and Aurelia Petrucci.59 But it is not just the literary notables she cites, but also the military ones: “In some of you also I see that noble quickness, in that you laudably wish to imitate our heroines Piccolomina, Forteguerra, and Fausta, who weary of the weakness of sex, armed and helmeted endeavoured to take up the sword against the enemy of the state and strenuously to defend it, winning immortal fame for themselves.”60 These women at the walls, she continues, were hailed by Monluc, who declared that he would rather defend a besieged Rome, “with the aid of a few Sienese Viragoes,” than with a Roman army.61 Gigli himself then reveals how his fictive college of nursemaids can be read as another statement of female intellect and might. He thereby simultaneously insults the Jesuits and glorifies the traditions of Sienese feminism. The nature of Gigli’s hoax is such that the boundary between real and fictive characters is constantly blurred. As far as I can determine, none

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of the ultramontane balie or Assicurate assistants in this section are real personages, though the Sienese women are all graced with the familiar (elite) Sienese surnames. And yet, some of the women cited in this section of the treatise were real. In describing a ceremonial procession, he identified five women as “Arcadian shepherdesses,” including the famous Assicurate matriarch Caterina Gaetana Griffoli and Emilia Ballati Orlandini.62 One of these Arcardian literati, Lucrezia Sergardi – who is described as the nipote (probably granddaughter) of the Archimagistra Veronica Sergardi – delivers an oration.63 Gigli thus uses the treatise to celebrate the fame of some of the Sienese women who have earned entrance into this now leading literary academy based in Rome. The agency of women is also notably evident in their hijacking the ceremony – and the treatise – in an Assicurate giuoco di spirito and induction ceremony. At the end of the elaborate descriptions of the Collegio Petroniano, its galleries, library, rooms, gardens, Latin inscriptions and curriculum, and after the inaugural orations and a Latin lullaby to put the infants to sleep, the evening turns to entertainment. Here the ludic, the vernacular, and the female all conspire to trump the sober, the Latin, and the academic. The Archimagistra invites a performance of improvisational poetry from Emilia Ballati Orlandini, who could offer up a song in Latin metre. Because, however, there is no one to accompany her, she is relieved of this duty, and then Francesco Piccolomini, long-time beadle of the Assicurate, suggests an improvised giuoco di spirito. By juxtaposing the plan for a poetry performance “all’improviso” with a parlour game “all’improviso,” Gigli reinforces the link between these forms of cultural performance.64 And, in fact, Emilia Ballati Orlandini was a good example of how these two realms interacted, as she was known as an improvisational poet and was depicted in a game recorded in the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito” as the Muse Calliope, who wrote and performed a madrigal.65 On this occasion, however, the Archimagistra vetoes the idea of a giuoco di spirito, because it would entail participation of many men and women who could not speak in Latin: a violation of the Collegio’s rules. Two women then offer to host the game at their homes. Gigli here injects a bit of monastic satire, as he has an abbot, the resident preacher and “house moral consultant” (Consultor Morale di Casa), offer up a playful bit of casuistry. Just as monastic rules forbidding meat in the refectory can be broken to accommodate the sick or visitors, so also the circumstances of pregnancy of the female staff of the Collegio might need accommodation: “nauseated by the ordinary food of the erudite banquet of Athenaeus or the

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symposia of Plutarch, they have an appetite for some of the dishes of Ariosto or Boccaccio.”66 In a “facetious allegory … conforming to the Carnival season,” he recommends that there be declared a “Grammatical Infirmary.” While the Archimagistra and her counsellors ponder this in private quarters, Lucrezia Sergardi steps forward and recites an Italian poem, “tak[ing] the anticipated licence to speak Italian.” She preempts the official permission for a grammatical respite, soon granted by the Archimagistra, and the treatise then recounts the ensuing festivities in a chapter entitled “Of the literary party in the custom of the celebrated Sienese parties or giuochi di spirito, which was celebrated in the Collegio by the Assicurate Academicians with the Intronati.”67 This chapter in the Collegio Petroniano occasions Gigli to present yet another history of the tradition of the parlour games from their origin in Provence, to the Sozzini villa outside of Siena, to the Intronati, to the period of the siege. And in this last phase, as we saw earlier, he presents his most robust argument about the women at the walls, who must have been among those who “in similar virtuous exercises [in the parlour games] learned to transcend the condition of their sex, equally spirited in nocturnal debates with their courteous friends, as bold in conflicts during the day with enemies of the state.”68 He cites as well the literary tributes to the Sienese games, including Giovanni Mauro’s praise of the illustrious women: “la Spannocchia, e Saracina, / La Silvia, la Ventura, e Fortiguerra.”69 As ever, then, the games signify for Gigli opportunities for and evidence of female agency (even of a military stripe) and public fame. In the Collegio Petroniano the parlour game provides an opportunity to overturn the strictures of Latinate culture and Jesuit education. Indeed, the game itself focuses on education. When the Assicurate beadle Francesco Piccolomini calls for a game theme, Monsignor Niccolò Forteguerri suggests a topic drawn from a poem written by one Girolamo Gigli entitled “The seminar of the undisciplined human affects, which the gods want to establish in the world for education and the correction of the same.”70 Gigli in fact wrote such a poem, which, appearing under the slightly different title “Il seminario degli affetti ovvero l’ipocrisia,” was an attack on the hypocrisy of Jesuit education. In this poem, all of the innate instincts of the youth Amore – the love of the beautiful, of country, of glory, of fame – are corrupted by the “soft” realms of the bed, the gluttonous, and “corrupt desire.”71 Indeed, he proclaims the hypocrisy he finds in this “seminary” (really the Jesuit-run Collegio Tolomei) to be the “Tuscan malady,” just as syphilis earned its reputation as the “French malady.”72 And he attacks in this

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work the “bacchettonesimo” (religious bigotry) just as he depicted the “bacchettone falso” and “finto bacchettone” in the Don Pilone and Sorellina di Don Pilone.73 Gigli’s resurrection of his poem in the setting of the parlour game in the Collegio Petroniano takes on a more playful, less polemical tone. As entitled here, the game does not deal with hypocrisy but with the entire realm of the human affects. In this sense, it is a fittingly benign theme for an occasion that traditionally dealt with the realm of love. The pretext here is that Mercury, as secretary to Jove, has sent a letter to “the queens of the earth and erudite princesses” reporting that Queen Reason has appeared before the Divine Senate to lay out the “complaints of all humanity against the insupportable insolence of the human Affects, undisciplined children who disrupt the entire kingdom of her Reasonable Majesty.”74 This launches a lengthy discussion of all the passions – both positive and negative – including whether there should a “Seminario Irascibile” and a “Seminario Concupiscibile.”75 Not unlike Erasmus’s Praise of Folly, Gigli’s elaboration of the passions at times embraces both the satirical and the serious.76 Thus, the clergy quickly comes under his attack when Queen Reason says that the “most dissolute Affects do not pardon her in Holy Walls, in which there enters such great Hatred accompanied by Discord, and the Despair to subvert hearts dedicated to the gods; and … intemperately disordered Happiness is introduced in the banquets of the priests, where there are prepared the meats of victims sacrificed to the idols, and in the cups of wine it makes them drink the forgetfulness of the priestly office.”77 At other times, however, the passions seem to connote positive attributes, as evident in one instance in which Gigli invokes yet again the women at the walls. He cites the “Spirit of the Sienese women, and … their good regime sustained by Love, and other Affects … as happened in the Forteguerri, in the Piccolomini, and in the Fausti, who, Siena being besieged, had with such great praise regulated their Courage.”78 Though posed as a praiseworthy regulation of Courage, the presence of this affect obviously bespeaks a more serious and positive view of the force of the passions. In this regard, perhaps the entire theme of this game – the realm of the affects – subverts the repressive, ascetic, and intellectualized setting of the fictional Collegio Petroniano (and the real Collegio Tolomei). Indeed, mirrors, not allowed in the Collegio Tolomei, were to be allowed in this seminary so that, by reasoning of Lady Leonora Bichi, those afflicted by monstrous passions can see themselves as they really are. This clever comment defends the possession of mirrors, the metonymy of vanity, but it does so for a putatively corrective purpose.79

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The theme of the “affects” resurfaces at the end of the treatise, on the second of the two days of Carnival celebrations that follow the Collegio’s opening ceremony. On this Tuesday (presumably Mardi Gras) there is a banquet at a villa outside the city, and Lucrezia Sergardi suggests that the meal should match the theme of the giuoco di spirito played two days earlier: namely, each of the courses should represent one of the human passions. Thus, Gigli lays out a multi-course meal with the first course representing Love, the minestrone Pleasure, the roast Grief, the stew Marital Love, the fish Hate, the salad Hope, the cheese and sweetmeat Envy, and so on.80 Clearly, Gigli is equating the voluptuary and the affective, and opposing both – in a game and as a meal – to the sterile and ascetic world of the all-Latin academy.81 Moreover, to this pairing of the sensual realm was added a third leg of the stool, the sexual. The evening before the “passionate” meal, a Latin comedy is performed that scandalizes the collegians and Latin nursemaids. Aretafila Savini ne’ Rossi has made a Latin translation of Bernardo Dovizi’s (Bibbiena) the racy Calandra by Bernardo Dovizi (Bibbiena). Gigli reports that Aretifila, one of the notable female members of the Arcadian Academy, did not sufficiently excise the licentious scenes, as certain monks did in the performance of Gigli’s own Don Pilone. This oversight mortifies the Archimagistra (for not having been a better censor) and embarrasses the very proper audience.82 Gigli’s simulated game, like the meal of passions, and like the lewd Calandra, is thus one part of his “affective” revolt against the putative purpose of his treatise: to celebrate a restrictive, intellectual school. The details of the game are not germane here, but it is relevant to note that Gigli’s simulation of the game conforms to the Assicurate tradition of the game as public stage and debating arena for women. Many women are featured, but one in particular bears special notice: Gigli’s daughter Geneviefa Gigli ne’ Borghesi. In a discussion of Jealousy, she offers up a sonnet that her father Girolamo Gigli composed once at a “similar erudite party.”83 Aside from offering Gigli a chance to recycle some of his own poetry,84 his inclusion of his daughter suggests that this world of women was for him close to home. Indeed, his call for a renewal of the Assicurate tradition may have been driven by his desire for his own married daughter to have such a realm of female culture. Moreover, it is not merely a daughter he incorporates into his fictive social gathering; he even places a four-year-old child on the knee of Marchese Agnese Chigi Piccolomini, identified as the child’s aunt.85 Children, or their depiction, were not to be found in such gatherings, and it is a measure of

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Gigli’s embrace of a range women as family – rather than women as romantic idols – in his festive social world. When the game ends, there follows a dance “allusive to the giuoco di spirito” (designed by Maria Tommasi Bulgarini) and “representing the passions of the four nations of Europe, which are Italy, Germany, France, and Spain.”86 In dance, in food, and in debate the Assicurate parlour game was a unified celebration of the affective. But the most important – and dominant – part of the treatise is the enrolment of new Assicurate members.87 The vice-secretary Livia Nerli Ballati arose to say, “[It is] the custom of the Academy of Sienese Women to register in their records further local ladies eminent in virtue over others, as well as matrons of Italy most illustrious through birth, moral virtues, and letters, and principally the Roman princesses and others. Of this group, which among the Shepherdesses of Arcadia many did not disdain being counted, there ought to be read this evening the list of the most noble and virtuous Academy members acclaimed for the last three years, namely since the last celebrated Academy [meeting].”88 Two things are noteworthy about this announcement: the roster of Assicurate members is being extended to a national level, and many of the female Arcadian members are included in it. Both of these points imply that Gigli was seeking to revivify the Assicurate in such a way as to compete with the national Arcadian Academy, which had recently absorbed some of the Sienese women.89 Aside from shifting the locus of culture from Rome back to Siena, Gigli’s vision of a national academy differed distinctly from that of Arcadia: it was an allfemale academy. During the tenure of Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni from 1690 to 1728 the Arcadian Academy enrolled 74 women among its 2,619 members. While certainly impressive in incorporating numerous women, this constituted less than 3 per cent of the academy, whereas Gigli’s national Assicurate academy was 100 per cent female.90 Clearly, Gigli hoped that his treatise could resurrect Siena’s distinctive academy, which had recently fallen into neglect. His vicesecretary Livia Nerli Ballati’s statement suggests that the academy last met three years back (1716). There is, however, to my knowledge no list of Assicurate enrolments after 1704, although that does not mean that there were not some gatherings and possibly unrecorded enrolments.91 Gigli acknowledged Francesco Piccolomini and Pandolfo Spannocchi as still having leadership roles,92 and it would appear that Gigli’s fictive game and enrolment was his attempt to sustain the Assicurate festive tradition.

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But it was also his desire to perpetuate female fame. By including the emblems of the newly enrolled women – emblems he claims were devised by the Intronati – he hopes to “represent some excellence of their singular reputation in order to transmit their memory to posterity.”93 The next seventy-two pages of the treatise record this list of “Heroines of our century” and represent the first time that Assicurate emblems actually made it into print. Francesco Piccolomini’s “Origins of the Assicurate” was never published, though Gigli planned to include it in his fortyfive-volume anthology of Sienese culture. As we saw in chapter 4, Scipione Bargagli included a few female emblems in his Dell’imprese of 1594. Gigli’s list caps a Renaissance tradition of the female semiotics of glory that percolated through the fortunes, medal reverses, constellations, and academy emblems of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The new Assicurate roster records 219 women, the plurality of whom are Sienese (about one-quarter of them), but also includes women from Florence, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Modena, Parma, Lucca, Perugia, Padua, Naples, Pistoia, Milan, Pisa, Mantua, Bologna, Palermo, Arezzo, Vicenza, and Ferrara. Gigli ventured to expand the net of female glory throughout Italy. The five Sienese Arcadian women whom he mentioned early in the treatise are re-enrolled as Assicurate. Caterina Gaetana Griffoli Piccolomini, matriarch of the Assicurate for nearly forty years, is readmitted, but under a new name. Inducted in 1680 as “the Incomparable,” she is resurrected as “the Predominant.”94 The improvisational poet Emilia Ballati Orlandini, originally enrolled in 1704 as “la Studiosa,” is re-enrolled under a name more expressive of her true talent, “l’Improvisa.”95 In the Assicurate tradition, members usually kept their nickname, so it is perhaps an indication that the Assicurate had indeed effectively dissolved by 1719 that Gigli felt free to rename these former members with new epithets. He also reclaimed three other Sienese Arcadian women back to the Assicurate fold: Lisabetta Credi Fortini, Maria Antonia Bizzarini ne’ Tondi, and Lucrezia Sergardi Buonsignori.96 As was the case with “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito,” several of Gigli’s newly inscribed Assicurate had figured in the simulated game of the “Seminary of the Passions”: Agnese Cosatti Spannocchi, Eleonora Agostini Bichi, Agnese Chigi Piccolomini, Verginia Bandini Bichi, Verginia Chigi Buoninsegni, and Giuditta Perfetti Agazzari were all enrolled.97 Among those who spoke up at the game was Gigli’s daughter Geneviefa, who was enrolled as “l’Ingenua” (the Candid)98 (Figure 6.1). As ever, the parlour game was envisioned as the testing ground for intellectual distinction and public recognition.

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Finally, Gigli’s list includes a woman, Girolama Accarigi Bandinelli, whom he identifies as “once Principessa of the Assicurate” and nicknames “l’Insuperable”99 (again, see figure 6.1). The 1690 roster of Assicurate in the “Origins of the Assicurate” lists Bandinelli as a new member with the nickname “l’Imperturbabile,” and it is under this name that Gigli dedicated his play L’amor dottorato to her and to the Assicurate in Carnival of 1692.100 Thus, in yet another case, Gigli rechristens a former Assicurate leader – dating back nineteen years – with a new nickname. These re-enrolments under new epithets simultaneously reveal that the Assicurate Academy had lapsed and that Gigli wanted to spark a revival. Indeed, this positive agenda in the Collegio Petroniano is as prominent as the negative agenda to mock the Jesuits, Latin learning, and linguistic dogmatism. In a sense, of course, the celebration of women in the treatise is yet another dimension of the attack on patriarchal, male, and clerical culture. But the lengthy catalogue of 219 Assicurate women is obviously meant to serve a function other than just satire. This is where Gigli’s hoax signals a rare mix of ludic parody and serious purpose. And whichever agenda may have been Gigli’s chief end, the work depicts many aspects of a female utopia.101 Women lead and largely staff the school. Women present the two Latin inaugural orations. A female academy, the Assicurate, hosted (albeit with male assistance) the giuoco di spirito played in Italian in the “Grammatical Infirmary.” A woman was the first to break the all-Latin rule. A seventy-two-page roster of female names, epithets, emblems, and mottoes is by far the pre-eminent chapter of the book. A woman prepares a scandalously frank Latin translation of a lewd comedy. Women design the dance of passions and the dinner of affects. The feminist agenda in Gigli’s Collegio Petroniano bears out sentiments found elsewhere in his serious treatments of Sienese history and culture. It is Gigli who constructs an unambiguous link between the agency of women in the Sienese parlour games and the defence of the city in the siege of 1550s. Time and again – in the letter to Magliabechi on the history of the Intronati, in the discussion of Carnival in the Diario sanese, in the Collegio Petroniano – he hails the Sienese “Amazons,” the heroines Forteguerri, Piccolomini, and Fausti, who mobilized the three thousand women to defend the walls. And whether as history (which he is free to reveal at some distance) or mythology (which he is eager to embellish), the women’s “transcendence of their sex” in parlour games is causally identified with their taking up arms and insignia during the

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Figure 6.1. Roster of Assicurate Members. From Girolamo Gigli, Del Collegio Petroniano delle balie latine e del solenne suo aprimento in quest’Anno 1719 (Siena, 1719), pp. 156–7. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)

siege. Scipione Bargagli only hints (and perhaps can only hint) at the connection in his Trattenimenti. Gigli draws a straight line from battles of wit to battles of arms, including the women’s use of parlour-game insignias as their military standards at the walls. This likely was not the case – especially since the mottoes were of a syntatical piece – but certainly the game of “insegne o bandiere” that Bargagli simulated in his Trattenimenti could have occurred in some form during the siege and could have emboldened these women to act. More importantly, Gigli offers the first full history of the origin and social significance of the Sienese parlour games. He does so in the vein of a cultural history of Carnival in his Diario sanese. Here he charts the rise of these games almost completely in female terms – ironically (for an Intronati official) eclipsing the Intronati’s role – working backwards from the fact that the Assicurate Academy normally staged a giuoco di spirito during the season. In this cultural history, it is the women who succour their dejected husbands during the siege by engaging them in games, women who then follow them to the battlements, women

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who complete the institutionalization of the games with the founding of the Assicurate. But for Gigli, history is a form of advocacy and nostalgic complaint. He laments the silence of the Sienese women. He longs for a return of the heyday of their literary presence, especially in the Cinquecento. He yearns for a revival of the Sienese female voice that has yielded its fame to others – perhaps notably the Arcadians in Rome and elsewhere. Women should strive again to respect the older Intronati men, rather than the youthful gadflies. If the ludic moment may have initially arisen in the flirtations of the Kingdom of Love, Gigli shows how it has been transformed into a feminist moment. His history of the games of Carnival bespeak a matrix of female games, female literary presence, and female agency as all being part and parcel of one historical development. The women of Siena exhibited the hardiness of the winter rose during the city’s worst times. They need now to flower even more brilliantly under the leadership of a new female governor of the city, Violante of Bavaria. The ending of his history of the Assicurate games of Carnival sounds a note of female agency. The women of Siena need to take up the mantle passed to them by their forebears, reviving the “spirits which they inherited from their mothers and which they ought to pass on to their daughters and granddaughters.”102

Conclusion

Passing through Siena in 1532, the Friulian poet Giovanni Mauro recounted that he witnessed “certain games in the Sienese style, / men and women mixed.”1 With no dancing or music, the festivities seemed almost “mute and slow,” and in one game, players “quietly reasoned” as an object (presumably the mestola) was passed around. Indeed, “it was a game of melancholy / in appearance, but it was in fact a game to hoist (rizzar) the imagination.”2 It continued through the night until morning, and what Mauro chose especially to marvel at is telling: “And I saw the Spannocchia, and Saracina, / The Silvia, and the Ventura, and Forteguerra, / Whom to witness seemed a divine thing.”3 This odd game of quiet discourse clearly struck Mauro as a different type of entertainment. More importantly, the signal participants at this public game were women. Much different from the romanticized, silent, first-named women of love poetry – Beatrice and Laura – praised here are very real, vocal, surnamed women, who have distinguished themselves through play to this outside observer. What larger contexts frame this emblematic incident in the history of Renaissance parlour games? How did the ludic realm – both as a theoretical literary space and as a lived, inhabited space – reflect or alter the experience of women in Renaissance and early modern Italy? Or, more broadly, how did the liminoid realm of polite play mirror or orchestrate social and cultural change? Certainly, the realm of the “game” in general represented an arena for competition that could redefine the interactions between men and women. Margherita Bentivoglio, the female participant in Tasso’s card game (in the Romeo and the Gonzaga secondo) wanted actually to compete and win – as did Beatrice Gambara in Ascanio Mori’s Giuoco piacevole.

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These male writers clearly saw the game world as a reflection of the patriarchal and patronizing patterns of men’s treatment of women – and both reveal that the game world was a place to negotiate change in gender relations. And for Tasso, women could want to compete and win at primiera, just as they could decisively act (as donne, rather than femminile) in the public realm. When the game involved conversation and verbal combat, namely, in the giuochi di spirito, the link between the ludic and the “real” world was even more charged with social relevance. Some writers, such as Innocenzio Ringhieri and Bartolomeo Arnigio, saw the parlour game largely as a tool for edification and reinforcement of social norms. Others, such as Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli, saw it as an opportunity for social inversion and experimentation: for profession-bound men and home-bound women a time to depart from the conventional social roles. For women, this meant an even obligatory departure from the canons of silence, restraint, and invisibility. In fact, the interlocutors in Girolamo Bargagli’s Dialogo de’ giuochi castigated women who refused to play with the excuse of honouring female onestà. They, like the men, were to exhibit a “baldanza d’animo.” This was a far cry from the prescriptions for wifely behaviour advanced by Francesco Barbaro in a treatise titled On Wifely Duties, written in the second decade of the fifteenth century. Here, a woman’s movements, laughter, and speech in public were to be carefully restrained. In fact, Barbaro prescribed for wives an “eloquent … and dignified silence” and proclaimed that “the speech of women should never be made public, for the speech of a noble woman can be no less dangerous than the nakedness of her limbs.”4 And even by the following century, in the model of polite comportment, Castiglione’s Courtier, the female architects of the game to define the ideal courtier were largely silent participants listening to the men. The Intronati’s games, however, drew women out of their silence, to do battle in literary debates over vernacular literature, in flirtatious duels in the battle of the sexes, and in serious bouts concerning the querelle des femmes. The result, Girolamo Bargagli claimed (echoing Mauro), was an “eterno grido” for such women as “la Saracina, la Forteguerra, la Toscana” and others whose reputations as players – and even at times whose quips – were enshrined in Ugurgieri Azzolini’s female prosopography of the mid-Seicento.5 Such fame certainly countermanded the Periclean mot, very much alive at the time, that the ideal wife is one who is so cloistered as to have no reputation at all. In the course of that century, moreover, a new ideal for female public behaviour had emerged: the quality of disinvoltura, a confident

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ease of manner complementing the sprezzatura of Castiglione’s male courtier. The giuochi di spirito, however, were important for reasons other than public performance. They were venues for personal expression and public recognition. The games of emblems in particular allowed – rather required – symbols and mottoes that were meant “to express one’s particular thoughts.”6 Thus, Girolamo Bargagli’s game book records an unnamed woman lamenting the burden of married life with the symbol of a powerful bull immobilized by a necklace of fig leaves and declaring that she is “Changed by That” – while another, more defiant, woman declared herself “Unburnable” with a piece of nonflammable Indian linen as her icon.7 Such statements became ever more public when Scipione Bargagli published some female emblems in his On Emblems of 1594 – including one of Fulvia Spannocchi (dedicatee of his earlier game book), whose emblem was a fully self-contained snail with the motto “Carries All Things with Me.”8 In some cases, the games offered opportunities for men to publicly recognize or characterize the women in their midst with fortunes, constellations, medal reverses, and emblems. And here the semiotics of female identity at times notably turned to more customarily masculine images such as Hercules or the lion. Even tropes that were traditionally female – flowers or birds – underwent some transformation in the course of the period. The motif of women as beautiful, delicate flowers to be admired and/or (sexually) picked, of course, had a long history including that found in the controversial Roman de la Rose; and, in our period, in Ringhieri’s Cento giuochi of the mid-sixteenth century, his Game of Garlands and Flowers compared the beauty of young women to flowers (that will fade).9 Such purely sexualized and vulnerable images of women were somewhat challenged or reshaped over the course of Renaissance emblems, games, and characterizations, as women became now a forbidding plant (Safe through Its Bitterness); now a rose girded with thorns (for a woman nicknamed “Severe”);10 now a fecund flower protected from Love’s amatory plucking and reserved for marital procreative purpose; and, finally, in Girolamo Gigli’s case, a hardy winter rose capable of enduring all hardships. The motif of the caged bird, also with sexualized roots in the Romance of the Rose, had a resonance in our period as well, but with broader connotations of unhappy submissiveness or, in the case of Arcangela Tarabotti, fathers’ forced claustration of their daughters. And in the emblem of the unnamed “young lady” in Scipione

Conclusion 185

Bargagli’s emblem book, the bird was defiantly uncaged, proclaiming herself to be “Friend Yet Not Servant.” If public performances and public identity for women were both enhanced by parlour games, did this translate into other more general or enduring forms of female agency or female presence in the period? Tasso may have thought it possible, as he linked Margherita Bentivoglio’s desire to compete in a card game to the presence of some assertive women of the day – one of whom, in fact, Barbara Sanseverino, was an energetic reveller who later orchestrated a conspiracy that led to her execution. And in his praise of heroic donne (versus traditional femminile) in his Discourse on Feminine and Womanly Virtue, he likely hoped that the Duchess Leonora of Mantua would exercise her agency to free him from imprisonment. But in Siena, where the Intronati’s games had given women a prominent opportunity for self-assertion, the link between parlour games and female agency may have been even more concrete, in the incident of the women’s brigade during the siege of Siena. Gigli’s assertion that the “women of the games” directly led to the “women at the walls” cannot be absolutely verified, but it can be reasonably assumed. Both Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli include games of emblems or insignias in their game books of the 1560s, which depict dialogues or encounters set in the 1550s either during or shortly after the siege of Siena.11 Three female captains, each bearing an insignia with a motto, led a force of three thousand women to fortify the walls on 17 January 1553. Scipione Bargagli set his games during the siege, and depicted these revels as an assertive act of women who would play in defiance of the city’s enemies. Yes, he fictionalized the players of these games, and yet he did not shrink from dedicating the book to the very real Fulvia Spannocchi. Moreover, he filled the preface to Bk. 1 with myriad details of the siege (including an allusion to the participation of the women in the defence of the city) and informed the preface to Bk. 2 with declarations that the ludic realm was a vital opportunity for female assertion and glory. Two possibilities present themselves in Scipione’s literary treatment of the siege. One is that actual Carnival games were played during the siege and may have inspired women to venture forth – and indeed January 17, following close upon Epipany (with its Befana ritual), does fall within the Carnival season. In this scenario he fictionalized the characters and minimized the actual historical moment of the women at the walls out of political necessity, given Siena’s recent capitulation to Florence.12 A second possibility is that no

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games were in fact played during the siege, and he used the historical moment of the female brigade to inform his fiction, using his game book as an exhortation to greater female agency both in the staging and the conduct of his fictive games and, by implication, in “real” life. In either case, the ludic setting – as historical fact or literary fiction – was a vital setting for social change. Gigli, writing much later, either was free to concretize the historical connection of the games and the siege or he too used the idea of a connection to buttress his own forceful vision of the role of female assertion in the ritual, cultural, and social life of Renaissance and early modern Siena. The role of game culture in enhancing the public life of women was, of course, also evident in the birth of a female academy. In this case, a parlour game created the institution by enacting the transfer of power in the Kingdom of Love from men to women. Though male Intronati members perhaps rightly claimed credit for this motif, it led to a fifty-year run of a female academy, mirroring the structure of male academies: admission via public display of talent; assumption of nicknames, emblems, and mottoes; recording and vetting of all cultural production by secretaries or censors; and eventually a publication in the name of the academy. The games and debates staged by the Assicurate in conjunction with the Intronati at times turned on issues of female rule and control in the face of male interference, as the Assicurate women resisted attempts by the Intronati men to encroach on their female academy. This ludic contest enacted and clarified the real issues in the struggle of women to carve out a larger zone of cultural and social autonomy. The very records of this female academy – an official version compiled by men and an unofficial transcript apparently kept by women – reflected the contest for control. As evident in these accounts – rare records of oral culture – certain women took advantage of the games to vaunt their new public ambitions and prerogatives. Thus, the Assicurate Principessa, Lucrezia Santi Bandinelli, in a 1664 game proclaimed to her fellow members that “with the spirited fearlessness of your wits this evening you can open up for yourselves a passage to glory” – this in her introduction to an oration entitled “Concerning the Excellence of Women over Men” by Giulia Turamini. And Turamini in turn proclaimed that the habit of women sitting silent to endure the maledictions of men would cease, and it was the turn of the men to sit silent before her speech. And, of course, her polemical oration was simultaneously playful and not so playful – as she offered a historical explanation for how men unfairly came to control women and urged that

Conclusion 187

women finally “take off just once this vile leg iron that has so unjustly been placed on us by men.”13 But despite these calls for matriarchy and these assaults on men, men were also instrumental in the process of drawing women out. And here the ludic realm is an invaluable window onto the complexity and gradualism inherent in social change. As Virginia Cox and Elisabetta Graziosi have argued, female patrons were certainly critical in promoting female letters – as exemplified by the examples of Maria Vittoria della Rovere (sponsor of the Assicurate), Queen Christina of Sweden (sponsor of the Arcadians in Rome), and Violante of Bavaria (governess of Siena and Gigli’s dedicactee in his Diario sanese)14 – but male advocates played a role as well. As Diana Robin, Meredith Ray, and Lynn Lara Westwater have contended, men were partners and collaborators of women in their quest to be published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.15 This collaboration also extended to the more intangible realms of ritual life and public presence. Alessandro Piccolomini was a seminal figure in this regard, as he was one of the original Intronati who teased and entertained women in the Sacrificio and the Ingannati in early 1532. But this ludic, festive overture led to a more serious, cultural engagement with women, as evident in Piccolomini’s 1541 lecture to a Paduan academy on a sonnet written by Laudomia Forteguerri; in his praise for her in his Institutione; in his dedication of scientific translations to her; in his Oratione in lode delle donne; and in his funeral oration for Aurelia Petrucci (whom he praised for her potent intellect and political acumen). Alessandro’s cousin, Marcantonio Piccolomini, similarly hailed the intellectualism of Laudomia Forteguerri and other women in his Ragionamento of 1538, and in his lengthy biography of Frasia Marzi he praised her facility in debate and lamented that the “iniquity of the times”16 had prevented her fuller involvement in the political world. Indeed, both Piccolominis decried the suppression of women and urged their admission to the public realm. Thus, in regard to women, the movement from the ludic to the serious in Siena in the second quarter of the sixteenth century followed a trajectory from ritual Befana fortunes and comic performances to philosophical dialogues, academic lectures, funeral orations, biographies, and treatises in praise of women. In fact, the transition from the purely ritual to the serious could be seen even within the realm of comedy itself. Alessandro Piccolomini’s early Raffaelle depicted the solution for a woman bound in a loveless marriage to be adultery. By the time of the Intronati composition of the Ingannati, in which Alessandro had a hand, the solution for a

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victimized young woman would be comic disguise (as a boy) and an assertive outcome (in a story that eventually became Viola’s in Twelfth Night).17 Such resolution by deception obviously moved the template of social freedom from the illegitimate to the legitimate sphere, creating in the literary realm worthy and inventive women rather than adulteresses. As for the actual realm of parties and disguises, which were a staging area for adulterous trysts in the Raffaelle, Alessandro Piccolomini likewise tamed these social gatherings in his Institutione as spaces in which women could be temporarily relieved of their claustration. In a word, the ludic festive realm – whether in comedy or in actual life – was being transformed from a place of marital transgression to one of social respite from confinement. As the Bargagli brothers reveal in their game books, this festive realm was also to be an opportunity for self-assertion and social distinction. Girolamo’s Dialogo de’ giuochi recounts an incident in which the men coached women in themes and ripostes for games to be held before visiting dignitaries. He claims that “the women with that little bit of help said marvellous things [and] from these first aids began to make a habit” of improvisation, which won for many of them “eternal fame.”18 Scipione further emphasized this ludic realm as a potential proving ground for female fame in a world in which professions were generally closed to women. Ugo Ugurgieri later asserted that the very idea of creating the Assicurate came from an Intronati game of 1654. And finally in the early eighteenth century Girolamo Gigli exhorted the Sienese women to reclaim their vibrant cultural role in the city: a role that, for him, revealed over time a seamless web of female agency that included the parlour games, the women at the walls, the creation of the Assicurate, and the intellectual and literary relationships with male literati. A figure such as Laudomia Forteguerri exemplified that, whatever the role of male prodding, female assertion assuredly triumphed. Laudomia, almost certainly the Forteguerri who was one of the female captains of the women at the walls, was emblematic of the connections between female agency in the games and elsewhere in public life. Visible in giuochi di spirito as early as 1532 (and thus when she was only seventeen years old), she was praised by Alessandro Piccolomini in his Institutione of 1545 as an exemplar in chapters on “urbanity” (for her “subtlest and most ingenious witticisms”)19 and on “heroic virtue” – in fact, he was inspired to write the entire treatise by a gloss Laudomia presented on Dante’s Paradiso 31. Marcantonio Piccolomini in his Ragionamento of 1538 depicted her (then, as a twenty-five-year old) as

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engaging in a philosophical “battle” in which she doubted her opponent could muster any “arms capable of defending the contrary of my view,” as she revealed her controversial pro-Protestant leanings on predestination.20 It was Laudomia who sought Alessandro Piccolomini’s help in publishing her poetry. It was she whom Giuseppe Betussi hailed in 1556 as an imposing defender of Siena during its siege.21 In Laudomia the boundary between a liminoid ludic world and the real world – of culture, debate, and even warfare – seems to have collapsed. From Ludic Laughter to Civil Conversation The potential collapsing of the ludic and the real may have been the way forward for women seeking a greater presence in public life and continuous social interaction with men. But the resistance to this type of gender integration was persistent, even at times from writers within the world of game culture. This desire to maintain that division reinforces the theory among anthropologists and social historians that there are two possible functions of liminal or liminoid activity: namely, that social inversions and marginal activities that can exist during the time of, say, Carnival, largely reinforce a hierarchy that has been only temporarily suspended; or that these status inversions may be a laboratory for social change.22 As Victor Turner argues, “breaking the rules” is one of the rules of the liminal realm of tribal society.23 Girolamo Bargagli’s rules of the game in his Dialogo de’ giuochi suggest that departing from the norm would also be a requirement in the liminoid realm of his parlour games. The question is whether such a subversion of the traditional hierarchy of polite society was absurd and temporary, or potentially serious and lasting. For some Renaissance and early modern commentators, parlour games appear to have ritualized and delimited male/female contact and ultimately reinforced gender roles. For others, they were viewed as an avenue for or provocation to change. First, to take the prevailing traditionalist view. The inclination towards gender separation is tersely epitomized in a seventeenth-century epigram by the Welsh poet John Owen: “Nocturnum imperium muliebre, virile diurnum est; / Regnat enim noctu Cynthia, solque diu” (The night-time rule is feminine, the daytime one is masculine, / For Cynthia [the moon] rules by night and the sun by day).24 This epigram simultaneously proclaims two distinct realms of private and public life and, with the sun/moon analogy, makes it clear which is superior. This epigram was taken up by Angelico Aprosio in his misogynistic Lo scudo di

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Rinaldo overo la specchio del disinganno (1654), in which he assails female vanity and fashion.25 And it was, moreover, a Jesuit acquaintance of Aprosio’s, Giovanni Ottonelli, who dramatized the dangers of free exchange between men and women. His 1646 Della pericolosa conversatione con le donne, ò poco modeste, ò ritirate, ò cantatrici, ò accademiche (On the dangerous conversation with women, either little chaste, or secluded, or singers, or academicians) is a massive (579-page) treatise on the casuistry of social encounters with women. As his subtitle indicates, it assembles “many cases of conscience” and “responds to the many objections of those who little regard the dangers of such conversations.”26 Although allowing that, for instance, visiting the home of a lewd actress or a public prostitute is not necessarily a sin, in the main Ottonelli warns that conversation with women presents constant perils to men – and partly so because of the weakness of men to resist the allure of women. Indeed, this peril exists even in situations in which men listened to a learned “academic” woman’s discourse, an event questionable both because, as St Paul advises, women should not teach, and because of the dangers inherent in listening to and beholding women for any length of time: “in the end, the Woman is Woman, although learned and chaste; and nearness to her and her conversation can cause temptation and danger of sinning, at least in thought.”27 As for parties in a woman’s home where games are played, Ottonelli suggests that such events occasion endless offences to God. He presents a duly censorious, yet almost wistful, view of a social world he necessarily must reject, writing of the conversation of many who, having arrived as a group or separately, are found united to converse in the house of such a [little chaste] woman, and there receive sweet entertainment either from her erudite and eloquent discourse, or from her most sweet singing or her most amiable music, or from the variety of games maintained by her, or by collations or meals made with the most sumptuous excellence and abundance of finest food and generous wine, or by the courting and chatting with other women who live under her roof with the title of daughters, granddaughters, relatives, or even servants of the main woman, or from other customs that, to give delight, are not lacking in a house of similar delights, and where the Lady, as an artful Enchantress of Love, entertains with amorous conversations all the assembled [guests]. Now from all these said activities truly derive multiple occasions to multiply by a hundred and by a thousand ways offence to God.28

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This parlour-game setting, apparently a bit too tempting for this Jesuit, obviously poses one of the greatest dangers of the “conversation with women.” Ironically, Ottonelli drew some of his ammunition against socializing with women from Stefano Guazzo’s La civil conversatione of 1574, which depicted a game meant to control and order the appetites. Whereas Ottonelli forbade games, Guazzo thus admitted them to the realm of civil conversation, albeit it with an eye to their moderating the excesses of eating, drunkenness, and lewdness. Elsewhere in the treatise Guazzo devoted a section to the proper conversation with women, in which he commends their silence, advises restraint in all their social behaviour, and warns against their acting as boldly as men in social settings. Guazzo’s interlocutors introduce this traditionalist assessment of women, furthermore, by discussing the dangers of talking to women, who, because of the frailty of men, pose an ongoing moral threat. Thus, he argued, it is more dangerous for a man to converse with a good woman than to consort with wicked men, because a woman will more likely tempt him. Ottonelli, in turn, later included this argument as one of his testaments of the perils of male contact with women.29 Guazzo allowed that encounters with women are legitimate in social gatherings – which, he argued, would suffer greatly by the absence of women – but still he cautioned against too much contact. Indeed, he warned that continuous conversation threatens to make men effeminate and that there should be “proper boundaries” (dovuti termini).30 In a word, Guazzo’s vision of civil conversation with women was quite confined, generally patriarchal, and clearly delimited in extent, just as his vision of parlour games largely emphasized the controlled and the didactic. In that sense, he viewed the parlour game as a reinforcer rather than a subverter of traditional gender roles. For Ottonelli, obviously, even this temporary festive contact with women was fraught with spiritual dangers, and his mammoth work shows one extreme of the continuum of views of heterosocial contact. If Ottonelli favoured virtually no extended conversations with women and Guazzo only temporary, controlled ones, the Intronati represented the other extreme: one that envisioned continual conversations with women and an enduring integration of the sexes. Certainly, their games and promotion of women bespoke changed social assumptions in the Sienese world. Indeed, the women’s inroads into the Intronati realm clearly prompted a misogynistic response by Traiano Boccalini. In his Ragguagli di Parnaso of 1612, Apollo requests that the

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Archintronato remove the new female interlopers who have, with their male colleagues, created a climate akin to dogs mounting each other.31 This opposition to the Intronati’s feminist nod to inclusion ironically confirms that social change was under way, just as Gigli’s later lament that the women’s public presence had died out likewise affirms the legacy of social change. Just a few years after Gigli’s death in 1722 an Intronati document reveals that some of his successors envisioned the full social integration of the sexes as the logical future of civil conversation. This manuscript in Siena’s Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati presents a dialogue on the topic of public conversation that supposedly took place at the Intronati Academy in the presence of women. Entitled “Dialogo del Signore Cosimo Finetti intorno all’uso del conversare recitato nell’Accademia Intronati; Alla presenza delle Dame al di 22 Febbraio 1725 [or 1726, new style],” it depicts a dialogue between Finetti and the physician Crescenzio Vaselli.32 Presumably, this Cosimo Finetti was related to the Lattanzio Finetti who hosted the last of the parties in the “Accounts of the Giuochi di Spirito” during Carnival of 1707 [or 1708, new style].33 In essence, the physician questions the current practice of too much conversation between men and women, and Finetti challenges his conservative position. Vaselli believes that men and women innately inhabit different zones and that “too much frequency renders [men and women] less suited to their own necessary functions.”34 When the doctor pines for an earlier golden age, Finetti suggests that the sixteenth century was such an age and that in that age there was great frequency of contact between the sexes. He recounts the early contacts of the Intronati with women and their testimony to this in the prologue to their comedy, the Ortensio of the early 1560s.35 Such contacts, he argues, gave rise to “an honest and virtuous conversation that continuously was introduced and lasted for a long time among the young men and women of that most flourishing age. From that was born those jocund, witty games that were the delight of learned Italy.”36 Finetti then goes on to hail the fruits of this “continuous conversation” that nurtured the rise of noted female writers such as Veronica Gambera, Tullia d’Aragona, Laura Terracini, and Vittoria Colonna.37 But why go two centuries back to cite such games, the doctor asks: how about the more recent elaborate giuochi di spirito staged with such magnificence? Finetti counters that, in comparison to the older games, these latter-day games are too planned and too stylized and lack true improvisational spontaneity.38 Even if that is so, the doctor argues, the conversations in Finetti’s earlier, ideal games did not long outlast the games and penetrate

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the “real” social world, since too much contact, he argues, inevitably leads to boredom.39 The dialogue here seems momentarily to derail from its larger theme and debate the relative merits of the older, more improvisational games and the more recent, artificial ones. But here an important point arises: in his defence of the more recent games, the physician makes the argument that even such staged games have encouraged women “to respond spontaneously with vivacity of spirit and according to the opportunity also to sting with gentleness.”40 Now the two speakers come close to an accord, as Finetti then makes the crucial point that “if the talent of these spirited women had been exercised by continuous conversation, so much more [that talent] would have distinguished itself on [other] occasions, for nothing confers more to the propriety and quickness of our thoughts and to what we call disinvoltura than having heard much and having dealt with many people.”41 For Finetti, the extension of conversation of the parlour games into real life can lead to a general elevation of and naturalness in the relations between men and women. And he argues that the “ridiculous severity of men and women living apart” is owing not to innate social forces but to something else.42 He dates the interruption of normal social intercourse in Italy to the chaos resulting from the Sack of Rome in 1527 and the ensuing occupation of foreigners – and later to the climate of discord and factionalism in Siena.43 Finetti thus assigns a historical, circumstantial cause to the segregation of the sexes, ultimately defeating the physician’s position that there is something inevitable in the sexual divide. Moreover, his dialogue implicitly suggests that the conversational contacts orchestrated by the Intronati’s parlour games provided a template for female cultural notoriety and for a general social “disinvoltura” that would be wrought by a continual conversation. In the end, the physician capitulates and Finetti has the last word in promoting a moral “science” of conversation – and here he is proposing a sociology of discourse – that “has the force to inspire in whoever it may be, and much more in noble minds, a mutual friendship and esteem; a much more just idea of things, of circumstances, and of that which convenes to each one according to one’s age and station; a greater consideration in familiar discourses; and a strong, lively desire to embellish our minds and act with ingenuity and decorum.”44 Finetti’s civil conversation may thus vary by age and station, but not, it seems, by sex. Presenting and then refuting patriarchal assumptions, this dialogue simultaneously affirms the benevolent social role of Sienese parlour

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games and explains the hostile role of historical forces (war and civil unrest) that affect male/female interactions. This Intronati treatise marks an attempt to fully transform the ludic moment to an enduring social reality: to transform the liminoid encounters of the parlour game to the continuous conversations possible within a sexually integrated society. Certainly, Finetti presents the heterosocial opposite to Ottonelli’s homosocial extreme – and his treatise suggests that the ludic may indeed have promoted change rather than reinforced hierarchy.45 *** The social ideal of a Gigli or a Finetti is one thing; the social reality is another. Where do parlour games fit into the larger social history of women in the early modern period? How enduring a change did they spark? Certainly, the Assicurate Academy was short-lived, disappearing the decade following its sole publication of 1704. And yet, the energies of the academy may well have influenced – and certainly fed into – the Arcadian Academy in Rome. Indeed, the Florentine poet Maria Buonaccorsi Alessandri, enrolled in the Assicurate in 1704, became one of the Arcadian poets, publishing eleven poems in the 1717 volume of the Rime degli Arcadi.46 One of these poems was devoted to the “Sienese parties” where the “learned brawls and erudite competition / Of [the Sienese] ladies” teach “with rays of light to illuminate the night” and “lift the female sex so high in the world.”47 Another Assicurate member, the improvisational poet Emilia Ballati Orlandini – who had a part in a game during the last party recorded in the “Accounts of the Giuochi di Spirito” as the muse Calliope – also became an Arcadian poet. In both instances, moreover, these women’s Arcadian poems reflect how their inspiration in ludic settings could nonetheless lead to serious forms of personal expression. In Alessandri’s case, one poem “on her continual misfortunes” is a lengthy lament declaring that “Ogni cosa è quì mutabile: / Il mio duolo è sempre stabile” (Every thing here is mutable / my grief is always enduring).48 In Orlandini’s case, she offers a more traditional poem of the lovelorn, declaring herself “in the sea of a tempestuous love, / [a] poor and unhappy vessel.”49 The verbal jousts and poetic contests of the Sienese games thus clearly helped propel some women into a public life of publishing. But what of the larger currents of the public life of women in the early modern period? Indeed, the progress of Italian women in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries prompted Rebecca Messbarger

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to agree with the playwright Pietro Chiari (1712–85), who called his eighteenth century the “century of women,” as they made inroads into universities (earning doctorates and university chairs), translating scientific works, launching literary journals, and founding scientific academies.50 In fact, the absence of a strong female salon culture in Italy – relative to France – may have been partly owing to the mainstreaming of women, who gained access to universities and literary academies.51 As for the filtering of Italian games or Italian feminism north of the Alps, the possible influence began as early as Ringhieri’s dedication of his Cento giuochi to Catherine de’ Medici and her court in 1551. Later, Marie de’ Medici, Henry IV’s second wife, invited to Paris Giambattista Marino, whose praise of the Sienese games in his Adone (1623) Gigli cited time and again. In fact, Marino did eventually spend many years in France (1615–23), and he exercised a notable cultural presence at the royal court and in the salons.52 It may be telling that the first notable French salon was that of Madame de Rambouillet (Catherine de Vivonne) – the daughter of the French ambassador to Rome and his Roman wife, Giulia Savelli – who spent her early years in Rome and who had a taste for intellectual, witty games and riddles.53 Charles Sorel attested to the currency of Italian games in mid-seventeenthcentury France in his massive La maison des jeux (The house of games) of 1642, which drew on both Ringhieri’s and Girolamo Bargagli’s game books.54 It is worth noting, however, that Sorel characterized Ringhieri’s games as being often too learned (especially for women) and the Sienese games as being too licentious – at both extremes, then, implicitly criticizing features of the Italian games that overestimated women’s intellect on the one hand, or overindulged their sexual freedom on the other.55 His glosses on Castiglione and Stefano Guazzo would suggest that he was more approving of the discussions of games found in the Courtier and the Civil Conversation, templates that depicted the female persona in more traditional, courtly terms.56 But Sorel’s was a male view, and early modern French women may have found in their Italian predecessors another, bolder model. In fact, the most famous – and most radical – woman of the French salons, Madame de Staël, modelled her novel Corinne ou Italie (1807) on the Italian improvisational poet Maria Maddalena Morelli of Pistoia, who in 1750 was inducted into the Arcadian Academy as Corilla Olimpica.57 This Corilla achieved fame as the only woman to be crowned poet laureate on the Capitoline Hill in Rome (in 1776). She thus became the female counterpart to the earlier male improvisational poet, Bernardino

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Perfetti, who was so crowned in 1725.58 The Sienese Perfetti and his female associate and Assicurate member Emilia Ballati Orlandini were both present at the 1707/8 parlour-game event at the Finetti household, where Orlandini performed a madrigal.59 Indeed, the setting of the giuochi di spirito was likely a common venue for such compositions. Elisabetta Graziosi suggests that the improvisational poetry of the Arcadian women Faustina Maratti Zappi and Petronilla Paolini Massimi in Rome was often connected with the parlour game called Sybil60 – and the Arcadians staged periodic “Olympic Games” that could be (contested) venues for female poets.61 One wonders if Corilla Olimpica’s Arcadian name itself may have reflected these Giuochi olimpici. In any case, praised for declaiming with “un’aria disinvolta,” she perhaps represents the culmination of the tradition of such a female performer.62 Madame de Staël’s Corinne, half-Italian and half-English, professed that her improvisational poetry was akin to lively conversation – and, in fact, declared that she returned to Italy from the England of her adolescence because she could not abide the social segregation and submission of women.63 Returning to Italy as a free spirit – and with a single name lacking a patronymic – she won renown and a Roman crowning.64 For Madame de Staël, twice exiled from France by Napoleon, her fiercely independent character Corinne obviously drew on the legacy of Corilla, who in turn was herself likely in part the heir of the performance culture of the Italian parlour games.65 Did Italian women, then, have a Renaissance? The story of Corilla Olimpica certainly illustrates that in one notable way they did. If Petrarch’s crowning in 1341 on the Capitoline Hill was a symbolic beginning of the Italian Renaissance, Corilla’s crowning could be seen as the belated female end. Game culture – as part reflection of social reality and as part engine of social change – was an important, if neglected, dimension of the shifts in female status in the period. The parlour game in particular afforded a transition from private to more public life, just as the parlour was a literal and metaphorical space mediating between the private world of the family and the public world of conversation, competition, and fame. And play in general became a realm for renegotiating gender relations.66 Tasso’s Margherita wanted to authentically win at primiera, not be humoured. The Assicurate women wanted to declaim assertively in front of the Intronati men, not be silent listeners. The social dynamics of the ludic setting had changed both from the ancient to the Renaissance eras and within the period of the Renaissance itself. The women depicted in Athenaeus’s banqueting Deipnosophists

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were (absent) prostitutes. The women in Renaissance parlour games – extending a courtly tradition of female literati that dated back to medieval Provence – were proper women with a place at the table. And within the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the presence of these women became more pronounced. The women orchestrating the games in Castiglione’s Courtier said little as the men expounded. The clever women in Siena’s parlour games and beyond claimed an increasingly assertive role in the festivities, as they did as well at the walls, in the emblems, in the academies, in the press – and in the conversation.

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Notes

1. The Renaissance Theory of Play 1 On this list of games in Bk. 1.22 see Rabelais, 98–105; Bakhtin, 231–9; Mehl 1990, 23, 493–5. As to whether all these games are real (or some fanciful, as one might suspect from Rabelais), Psichari (1–2) argues that although he has not been able to verify all of the games, “la proportion de ceux qui ont été éclaircis autorise à imputer les autres à notre ignorance, plutôt qu’à la fantaisie de Rabelais” (ibid., 2). On the general theory of play, see Huizinga’s remarkable Homo Ludens; Caillois; Turner; Sutton-Smith. On leisure, see Veblen; De Grazia. On play and games in the medieval period, see Mehl 1990; Mehl 2010; in the Renaissance, see the wide-ranging conference proceedings in Les jeux à la Renaissance and in Passare il tempo. 2 As for games in encyclopedic works see, e.g., Raffaele Maffei’s brief chapter “De ludo diverso quo summi viri quandoque occupati fuerunt” in his Commentariorum urbanorum libri octo et trigenta (1506) at Maffei, 693–4. 3 Garzoni, 903: “The game, which by Torquato Tasso in his Gonzaga is defined as being a contest of fortune and skill among two or more.” Another reason Garzoni may have cited Tasso here could be that Tasso’s patron, Alfonso II d’Este, was the dedicatee of the Piazza. 4 For the Capitolo and Commento, see Berni, 80–4, 205–64; on Berni’s assault of high culture, see Reynolds. 5 Aretino, esp. 290–2, 364, 375. 6 Solerti 1895, 1:323, dates the composition of the work to the second half of 1580. 7 It is the usually private, sometimes public middle realm of polite play “che molte fiate nelle domestiche camere si suole usare, tutto ch’alcuna volta in publico si faccia” (that often occurs in private quarters, although

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8

9

10 11 12

somes takes place in public) (T. Tasso 1996, 46) on which the discussion will focus. On the ludic character of Alfonso II’s court, his Saletta dei Giuochi and Salone dei Giuochi (rooms frescoed with images of games), and the influence on Tasso of a chess treatise written (probably by Annibale Romei) for Alfonso’s sister Leonora d’Este, see G. McClure 2008. For instance, the history of games – confined to a history of chess in the Romeo – swells into a survey of classical Greek and Roman public games, with comments on their origins (e.g., obsequies) and larger public functions (e.g., honouring the gods, imitating war). The discussion of the origin of chess, which appears in both treatises, shows Tasso’s interest in applying a critical historical eye to theories that assign chess’s invention to the era of the Trojan War: he has Margherita (based on her reading of Homer in translation) challenge anachronisms that would place Palamedes and the Amazons at Troy in the same period, or that would suggest that rooks – as symbols of elephants (not in use in the war) – were introduced to the game in that period (T. Tasso 1996, 44–5; T. Tasso 1959a, 232–3). From the vantage point of gender, it is worth noting that the discussion of the Amazons in the Romeo comes in relation to Margherita’s asking why the queen has so much power in the game and the king so little (T. Tasso 1996, 44), on which issue in relation to the power of women rulers see Yalom, who ties this development to the reign of Queen Isabella of Spain; Mehl 2010, 330–1. Ibid., 235–6. Cf. T. Tasso 1996, 47; T. Tasso 1959a, 237–43. In his De remediis utriusque fortune Petrarch not only generally counsels Stoic remove from the spes and gaudium of good fortune and the metus and dolor of bad (on which see G. McClure 1991, 46–72), but also (in De rem. 1, chaps. 25–7, 29) reveals a general scepticism concerning games (such as ball playing, dice and board games, gambling, and wrestling) that lead to any loss of control or that emphasize too much the physical over the intellectual; he even rejects play as an antidote for work, suggesting that classical exemplars (such as Quintus Mucius Scaevola and Augustus) who played dice and/or board games to relax should not be emulated. The only game he seems to approve is a cerebral one – his own moral adaptation of a logic game drawn from Aulus Gellius’s Attic Nights 18.13, in which intellectuals gamble to fund their dinner by posing competing bon mots (Petrarch 1991 1:78–83, 85–90; 2:141–2; cf. Huizinga, 196).

Notes to pages 6–7 201 13 In the Gonzaga secondo, this issue is tied to a related question of whether a player should allow himself to be deceived by a woman (T. Tasso 1959a, 225, 242). 14 T. Tasso 1996, 47–8: “Chi con esso voi giocasse, graziosa signora, potrebbe ragionevolmente por la vittoria nel perdere e a bell’arte lasciarsi vincere, come fanno alcuni cortesi, i quali, giuocando con le dame, si lasciano vincere a bello studio … Ma sì come è creanza e cortesia il lasciarsi vincere dalle donne, così sciocchezza sarebbe quella di colui che da gli uomini volontariamente vincer si lasciasse, perché ciascuno dee procurare d’esser altrui superiore ne le cose oneste e lodevoli; ma onestissima e lodevolissima è la vittoria.” 15 Ibid., 48: “da voi è chiamata creanza e cortesia, da me è stimata inganno et artificio: perché, come poco anzi diceste, non [si] lascian vincere se non per vincere.” 16 Ibid., 48: “Non nego ch’alcuni non ce ne siano che per disegno si lascin vincere o d’amore o d’altro che si sia; ma molti ancora il fanno semplicemente per creanza.” 17 T. Tasso 1996, 48, emphasis added: “Ma forse questo nome di fortuna è un nome vano, a cui niuna cosa corrisponde; onde, se noi cediamo di fortuna, questo avviene perché cediamo di forze, tutto che d’ingegno siamo eguali: e la violenza de gli uomini è fabricatrice di questa fortuna, che, se pur alcuna cosa è (ch’io ne dubito), altro non è ch’effetto della lor tirannide.” 18 Ibid., 48: “Io crederei più tosto che la bellezza della donna fosse fabricatrice della fortuna de gli uomini, perché, s’in alcuna cosa ha forza la fortuna, l’ha ella nel giuoco e nell’amore.” 19 Ibid., 48: “Ma nel regno d’Amore signoreggia la fortuna feminile: percioché la donna, in quanto amata, è sempre superiore all’amante, se bene, in quanto moglie, è inferiore al marito.” 20 Ibid., 49: “In tutti gli altri uffici della vita nascono all’uomo inferiori: solo amor è forse quel ch’agguagliando le lor disagguaglianze, rende le donne eguali a gli uomini.” The conversation then sheers off into an abstract discussion of fortune’s sway in human affairs, arts, and games. 21 Even at the end of the dialogue, Pocaterra compares the hopes and fears that players have awaiting the outcome of a game to those experienced by lovers, arguing that “successful players may resemble successful lovers who, cheerfully serving their ladies are nonetheless not able to ask themselves whether they are happy until they possess their desired end” (ibid., 54). 22 See C. Ossola and S. Prandi in T. Tasso 1996, 34.

202 Notes to pages 7–8 23 The passage reads: “sì ch’a me pare che più tosto di fortuna che d’ingegno voi debbiate cedere a gli uomini, poiché da la vostra [fortuna?] non v’è conceduto molte fiate dimostrar il vostro ingegno” (T. Tasso 1959a, 245, emphasis added). 24 Ibid., 225, emphasis added: “una sola ne avete lasciata a dietro, come debba giuocare chi desidera di vincere.” 25 Gonzaga comments, “ben vorrei, se in alcun modo possibile fosse, ch’insegnassimo a la signora Margherita di vincere, com’ella desidera” (T. Tasso 1959a, 252) and, more precisely, proposes that “if we are not able to teach Signora Margherita to win assuredly, let us at least try to teach her how she can aspire to victory by making some pacts (accordi)” (ibid., 252). 26 See for example, a specific scenario from primiera that he constructs in which Margherita “might have 39 of clubs without any hope of a new point, and Signor Giulio Cesare holding 35 of diamonds and cups and can win with two cards, and I, bidding primiera, can win with only one card, then” (ibid., 254–5; on primiera see Dossena, 2:948–50; Ore, 113–18, 172–6, 206–14). 27 When Gonzaga questions, “ought then the player not consider in any way the quality of the person in the distributions?” and Pocaterra says no, Gonzaga presses the point: “And the same distribution ought to be made to a woman with whom he plays as would be made to a merchant, if he played with a merchant?” To which Pocaterra answers, “The same” (T. Tasso 1959a, 255). 28 Ibid., 255: “Poco cortese dunque sarà, o signor Annibale, questo vostro giuocatore, e poco meritevole di giuocare con le donne gentili.” 29 Pocaterra comments, “however, if I should hold forth on something in which I have never made profession, and discuss it in the presence of Signora Margherita, I would resemble that philosopher or sophist (whichever it was), who reasoned on the art of war so ardently in the presence of Hannibal” (ibid., 219; and see E. Mazzali’s comment at note 3 there). It is also worth noting that at one point, when Pocaterra introduces an amatory example, Margherita rather condescendingly acknowledges his preoccupation with love, saying “Conveniently enough, Signor Annibal finds the occasion to mix discussions of love in this proposition” (ibid., 246), before she directs attention back to the intellectual issue at hand. Thus, the one vestige of amatory culture in this dialogue (in comparison to the Romeo) is introduced only to be mocked. 30 Ibid., 244–5.

Notes to page 9 203 31 For Giberto’s comment and a very helpful account of Claudia’s marriage and separation (including some of her unedited letters), see Odoardo Rombaldi’s “Contro corrente: Claudia Rangoni” in Rombaldi, 146–50, here 146; on her life (including some of her letters), also see Tiraboschi, 4:260–77. 32 Fulvia earned praise for her rule from the likes of Francesco Sansovino and the poet Muzio Manfredi, who hailed her as a latter-day Dido as widow/ruler (Ceretti; A. Ghidini in DBI 29:434–6). 33 Several princes – including the duke of Parma, Duke Alfonso II, and Prince Vincenzo of Mantua – were apparently infatuated with her, and Tasso and a competing poet at the Este court clashed over her. Tasso first met her when he was in Rome in late 1572 and early1573 and wrote a sonnet about her, but it would be her visits to Ferrara in 1576 and 1577 that made a dramatic impression on observers. For this discussion of Barbara I am indebted to Solerti’s portrait of her, which includes lengthy excerpts from Canigiani’s letters (see Solerti 1891, cxi–cxxv); on Tasso and Barbara, also see Solerti 1895, 1:180, 221, 256–7. 34 So she was characterized by the Florentine ambassador to Ferrara, Bernardo Canigiani, who had been charged with reporting closely on the affairs of the court (Solerti 1891, cxxii). Canigiani depicts Barbara as the tyrannical taskmaster of the revelries: “But indeed the boss (padrona) – and she who is the reason for the expenses and hardships of everyone – appears to be the Contessa di Sala: at the will of whom one goes, one stays, one rises, one eats, one plays, and so forth. I hear that she has organized there a game of calcio comprising eight women and sixteen men per side and they have sent here for the balls” (ibid., cxxi). 35 According to one contemporary account, it was she who, using the festive setting with “various artifices of private parties, banquets, evening discussions, and games, sought to gather in her palace relatives and friends, constituting herself almost as ringleader”; and it was she who at one meeting passed around a document swearing the conspirators to silence, signing it first herself. For the citation of this unpublished contemporary account of Vittorio Siri, “Della congiura dei cavalieri di Parma contro il loro Principe, di lui famiglia e Stato,” see Odorici, 25n2, 26. On the conspiracy, see Odorici; also Bazzi and Benassi, 199–210. 36 In a variant edition of the Gonzaga secondo, Tasso added a fifth woman to the list, Ermelina Canigiani, likely some relation to Bernardo Canigiani mentioned above, and has “Margherita” say “these five women I have known [to be] of intelligence (ingegno) so quick and vivacious that I

204 Notes to page 10

37

38

39

40

41 42

would have had greater fear of contending in speaking with any of them than in finding myself facing an armed knight” (T. Tasso 1958, 485, n. 2). Tasso spent time with Speroni while a student at Padua and, later, when he again came in contact with Speroni in Rome in 1575, read him his Jerusalem Delivered. Speroni offered his criticism and advice and became one of Tasso’s many consultants for his revision of the work (Solerti 1895, 1:53, 55–6, 166n2, 205–6n3, 216, 227–8). Speroni, 1:257–65. Speroni also wrote several other short pieces on games. In his “Avvertimenti a messer Ascanio Bolognetti,” in which he discusses various types of games, he warns against gambling and cautions that his friend should not defeat superiors (in age or rank) out of courtesy, but “take care that it is known that you yield to them through courtesy, not through unworthiness or impotence” (Speroni, 3:474). Thus, he illustrates how the etiquette of winning and losing extended to men of unequal standing. In a brief “Del gioco” in his Trattatelli di vario argumento he praises ball games and chess, but is quite censorious of card playing, which he calls a “diabolical invention” (Speroni, 5:441–2), though in an unfinished work, “Della fortuna: sogno,” cards are depicted more favourably, as Fortuna, an angel of God, explains that card playing is perhaps the only legitimate vehicle for gaining or losing the goods of fortune (riches) (Speroni, 3:351–5). Whatever his true position on cards, Speroni was praised as a model card player by Aretino, who with the customary dash of burlesque asserted that “he who wishes to hear and see Plato in the colloquy, observe and listen to Speroni at play” (Aretino, 242). On the intersection of courtship and chess playing, see Yalom, 123–47; on the relationship between board games and women rulers (such as Leonora of France or Mary of Hungary) who were sometimes themselves depicted on game pieces, see Wilson-Chevalier. After being freed from Sant’Anna in 1586, Tasso would come into contact with Mori upon his coming to Mantua (T. Tasso 1959b, 255, n. 3). Mori gave Tasso a copy of his Giuoco piacevole in c. 1586 (which Tasso acknowledged in T. Tasso 1852–5, 3:20), and Tasso wrote consolatory sonnets for Mori on the death of his son in 1586 (Solerti 1895, 1:502–4; T. Tasso 1852– 5, 3:27–8) and addressed numerous letters to him in the course of that year (see, aside from those cited above, ibid., 3:32–4, 36–9, 41, 57, 60, 75–6, 79–80). Mori, 139. Mori, 140: “Non la piglio in quel taglio – replicò ella – ché non volgio essere di cattivo essempio agli altri, nè voglio trionfare senza vittoria.”

Notes to pages 10–11 205 43 There is of course the possibility that Mori’s treatise, dated to 1575 in its dedication, was influential on Tasso’s Romeo of 1581, and on the Gonzaga secondo of 1582 or its revision in 1587 (on which see Solerti 1895, 1:521–2). 44 In turn, softening the portrait of Margherita may have been calculated to cultivate further her help or that of her father Cornelio, to whom he later (in early 1585) appealed for help (see Solerti 1895, 1:393; T. Tasso 1852–5, 2:306–7). 45 On Tasso’s service at the Este court (first under Cardinal Luigi d’Este and then under Alfonso II), his fragile mental condition, his doubts about his religious orthodoxy, his attacking a servant of the duchess with a knife, and finally his rages at his patrons in March 1579 that led to his subsequent confinement in the hospital of Sant’Anna until 1586, see Solerti 1895, 1:103–495; Brand, 11–26. As for Tasso’s own perception of his mental condition, his comments in a letter to Maurizio Cataneo of 1581 (the same year in which the Romeo was published) are dramatically illustrative; he complains of “human and diabolical” disturbances, including the “cries of men and particularly women and children, laughter full of scorn, and various voices of animals that are stirred up by men for my distress and the noise of inanimate things that are prompted by the hands of men” (T. Tasso 1959a, 888.) He then discusses how some of his writings are produced in a troubled state: “Not only letters written by me, but other compositions as well have been written with the same mental disturbance” (ibid., 889). On Tasso’s comment, however, in another letter that he feigned madness as a ploy to return to Alfonso’s good graces, see the remarks of his acquaintance and contemporary biographer Giovan Battista Manso (see Manso, 112–21; on dissimulation in Tasso, also see Cavallo, 225–8). As for Tasso’s religious doubts, these plagued him not only in regard to the Jerusalem Delivered but also in regard to certain passages on fortune and classical philosophers in the Romeo and the Gonzaga secondo (on his amending or excising certain such passages between the former and the latter and in unpublished revisions made to the latter in 1587, see Prandi 1999, 295, 311; Prandi 1997, 433–7, 441–50). 46 Giulio Cesare and his brother, the future cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, one of Tasso’s consultants on the revision of the Jerusalem Delivered (see T. Tasso 1959a, 763n1) were two of the children of Carlo, marchese of Gazzuolo, and Emilia Cauzzi. When their father died in 1555, they and their brothers were entrusted to the care of, among others, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga and his nephew Duke Guglielmo of the Mantuan court. Giulio Cesare took control of the Mantuan territory of Pomponesco in 1578, and

206 Notes to page 11 Scipione would be elevated to cardinal in 1587 (R. Tamalio in DBI 57:787; G. Benzoni in DBI 57:843, 852). 47 As for the composition of this work, Doglio, 505, 513, dates it between September and November 1580, and thus around the same period in which Tasso wrote the very patriarchal Il padre di famiglia (which he sent to Scipione Gonzaga in late September), in which he argued that men and women have distinctly different virtues (men cultivating prudenza, fortezza, and liberalità; women modestia and pudicizia), that women are meant to obey men, and that women are subordinate to men in the same way that cupidity is to intellect (T. Tasso 1998, 409). It is unclear whether Tasso composed the more feminist Discorso before or after Il padre – though I would guess it was after, since its dual argument is more compatible with Il padre than the latter’s strictly patriarchal argument, if appearing later, would be compatible with the Discorso. If, as is likely, it was written between the Romeo (dated by Solerti to the summer or fall of 1580) and the more feminist Gonzaga secondo (written in 1581 prior to Margherita’s death on September 18), it may have laid the groundwork for the changed assumptions in the latter (on the dating of the composition of the Romeo and Gonzaga secondo, see Solerti 1895, 1:322–3; also T. Tasso 1996, 34). It is worth noting that Giulio Cesare and Scipione themselves witnessed the vulnerability of widows in the case of their own mother Emilia Cauzzi, who after the death of her husband lost control of Commessaggio owing to the aggression of her late husband’s cousin Vespasiano Gonzaga, a conflict Scipione described in his Commentarii, (see Gonzaga, 107, 109–11, 115; G. Benzoni in DBI 57:844). 48 T. Tasso 1997, 54–67. See Thucydides’s account of Pericles’s funeral oration in the History of the Peloponnesian War 2.45 in which Pericles states that the greatest virtue of a woman is that she not be pubicly spoken of (positively or negatively), and Plutarch’s explicit refutation of that position in his Bravery of Women in the Moralia 242e–263c. On Plato’s view that women can have the same qualities and virtues as men, see the Republic 5.451d–466d and 7.540c; on Aristotle’s differing views, see the Politics 1.13 (1259b–1260a) and the Ps.-Aristotelian Economics 1.3 (1344a). On Tasso’s Discorso, see Doglio; Kelso, 276–8; Jordan, 147–9; Cox 2008, 168–72. As for arguments for the equality of women, in the fifth day of discussions in his Discorsi, Annibale Romei examines women in terms of the day’s topic “On Nobility.” Here, against the Greek scholar Antonio Barisano, who asserts the inferiority of women (drawing upon Aristotle), he has Ercole Varano come to their defence (drawing upon Plato and Plutarch) (Solerti 1891, 224–33).

Notes to pages 11–12 207 49 T. Tasso 1997, 67: “alla virtù donnesca ritornando, dico ch’ella nelle donne eroiche è virtù eroica che con la virtù eroica dell’uomo contende, e delle donne dotate di questa virtù non più la pudicizia che la fortezza o che la prudenza è propria. Nè alcuna distinzione d’opere e d’uffici fra loro e gli uomini eroici si ritrova.” 50 T. Tasso 1996, 49. 51 Among the ladies at court, he might have been particularly hopeful in regard to Lucrezia d’Este, the duchess of Urbino, as he adds a fulsome praise of her in this treatise: after Margherita presents her list of women of “ingegno,” Gonzaga praises the ladies at court and singles out Lucrezia, known not only for her beauty but also for her “accortezza,” “gravità,” and “modestia” (T. Tasso 1959a, 245). 52 For this letter to Angelo Grillo, see T. Tasso 1852–5, 2:310. For the full story of release and Grillo’s role, see G. McClure 2008. 53 And given the fact that Tasso later appealed to Margherita’s father Cornelio for help, he may even have envisioned her as a potential advocate and mediator via her father. Alternatively or simultaneously, of course, Tasso could have been featuring Margherita in the dialogue to flatter her father and thereby directly enlist his support. For Tasso’s appeal to Cornelio Bentivoglio in 1585, see T. Tasso 1852–5, 2:306; Manso, 97, 113. 54 See King, 176–239; Kelso; on women in general in Italy, see Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society. In fact, Tasso’s treatise provoked a response from a female participant in the querelle. In a second (1601) edition of her La nobiltà et eccellenza delle donne, et mancamenti de gli uomini (orig. 1600), Lucrezia Marinelli adds sections rebutting various other male writers (in addition to her initial target, Giuseppe Passi, who wrote a Donneschi difetti in 1599). In a section on Tasso she charges him with restricting non-gendered virtue “to queens, princesses, and those whom he calls heroic ladies” (trans. in Marinella, 139; Benedetti, 456). If Tasso disappoints Marinella in his equivocal postion, this is perhaps partly because she sees the glass as half empty rather than half full, given Tasso’s emphasis on and list of prominent women in the treatise. That others saw Tasso to have presented a flattering view of women in the treatise is suggested by his cousin Ercole, who in 1593 wrote a dialogue on marriage (Dell’ammogliarsi: Piacevole contesa frà i due moderni Tassi, Hercole, cioè, e Torquato) in which Torquato defends women and the estate of marriage against Ercole’s attack. Indeed, at one point “Torquato” raises the issue found in the Discorso concerning Plato’s and Aristotle’s opposing views as to whether woman have the same or differing kinds of virtue and cites as authoritative Basil the Great’s judgment that their virtue was one and the

208 Notes to pages 12–13

55 56 57

58

59 60

61

same (E. Tasso, K1v–K2r). In this sense, then, Tasso’s cousin placed him on the “feminist” side of this particular issue in the querelle des femmes. In a rebuttal of Ercole’s treatise in her Nobility and Excellence of Women, Marinella addresses only “Ercole’s” attack on women, not “Torquato’s” defence of them – just as she largely ignores Tasso’s more positive comments on heroic women in his Discorso and his Stanze in difesa de le donne, the latter a response to Antonio de’ Pazzi’s verse attack on them (Marinella, 132–6, 139–41; Doglio, 520–1). On Marinella, also see Jordan, 257– 61; Malpezzi Price and Ristaino, esp. 105–19; Ross, 286–99. See T. Tasso 1997, 62, 67–9. See T. Tasso, 1961. Tasso’s citing of such women suggests that those who, based on his epic poetry alone, would characterize him as misogynistic relative to Ariosto’s more positive treatment of women, might gain a more rounded view by considering the Gonzaga secondo and the Discorso della virtù feminile e donnesca. As for Tasso’s depiction of women in the Jerusalem Delivered, John McLucas argues that, compared to the portrayals of women in Castiglione and Ariosto, Tasso’s major female characters (Clorinda, Erminia, and Arminia) all in the end reflect a submissiveness and that it is “futile … to seek feminist sensibility in so nervously misogynist a poet as Tasso” (McLucas, 52; for a reaction to this view, see Migiel, 5–7). McLucas attributes this to the repressive Counter-Reformation climate in which Tasso wrote. And whereas he would see Armida’s eventual union with Rinaldo as an example of submission, Jo Ann Cavallo sees this ending (which defiantly legitimizes a Circe-like temptress) as part of Tasso’s literary revolt against Counter-Reformation constraints (Cavallo, 186–228). In any case, Tasso’s prose writings need to be more fully integrated with his epics to assess his overall – or changing – attitude towards female agency. Thus, in an alternate version of the Gonzaga secondo, he has Margherita characterize these three women and Felice della Rovere (likely not Julius II’s daughter, who died in 1536) and Ermelina Canigiani (T. Tasso 1958, 485n2; cf. n. 36 above). On Athenaeus, see L. McClure. See the women named in the biography of the twelfth-century troubadour Jaufre Rudel in Nostredame, 15–19; and for a biography of one of them, the Countess of Dia (Beatriz di Dia), see ibid., 31–3; for the poetry of the Countess of Dia and other women troubadours, see Bogin, esp. at 82–91. For an argument that the medieval courtly love tradition was empowering for women, see Kelly, 141–8. Boccaccio 1952, 15–23.

Notes to pages 13–15 209 62 Boccaccio 1985, 244–99. 63 Castiglione, 18–24; Greene; Cox 2000. In her pessimistic assessment of Renaissance women, Kelly grounds much of her argument in the Courtier. If, however, one moves ahead in time into the late Renaissance, as my study does, and uses the Courtier as a starting point for parlour games, the picture dramatically changes as women are depicted in an increasingly positive and activist light. 64 Following the 1551 first edition, the Cento giuochi was reprinted in Venice in 1553 and in Bologna in 1580, and it appeared in an abridged French translation in Lyons in 1555. On Ringhieri, see Crane, 285–90; G. McClure 2004, 51–60. 65 Ringhieri, 157v. If he was at all influenced by the earlier tradition of games in Siena, he does not own up to it. Given the fact, however, that he cites Claudio Tolomei in his book (ibid., 67), Sienese influence is possible. Tolomei was among the members of the Grande Academy that preceded the Intronati and, according to Girolamo Bargagli, did experiment somewhat with games early in the century (G. Bargagli 1982, 58, 67). On Tolomei, see Sbaragli 1939; on his invention of a card game, see Aretino, 311–12. 66 For the view that Ringhieri’s “hyperbole encomiastique” of women in fact compromises a true feminist idea, see Lecercle, 194–5. 67 Catherine would bear ten children within twelve years (Hèritier, 48). As for the intersection of games and Catherine’s reality, eight years after Ringhieri sent his book (in which he remarks on the French proclivity for the joust as a game), her husband Henry II died from a jousting accident, and Catherine herself, arguably a good illustration of the powerful chess queen (see Yalom), had to play Catholic versus Protestant forces against each other for many years. Some scholars have argued that she may have used court masques and mock jousts between warring religious parties in the 1560s and 1570s to sublimate tensions (Yates 1947, 251–9). 68 Ringhieri, 111v. 69 In fact, Roberta Novelli (esp. 697–9) argues that the work in many places recasts a set of dialogues Ringhieri published the previous year (1550) entitled Dialoghi della vita e della morte. 70 Ibid., 157. One of the more interesting didactic games, Maxims and Signs, is a primer on semiotics in which he offers a list of images with their associated meaning: e.g., Sardanapalus signifies “magnifi[cence] of body, impruden[ce] of mind”; and “a deer who, fleeing a dog falls into the jaws of a lion” signifies that “he who attempts to flee an evil, sometimes falls into something worse” (ibid., 89v–90). In some cases, Ringhieri uses the

210 Notes to pages 15–18

71 72

73 74 75 76 77

78

79 80

81 82 83 84

85 86 87

games to incorporate literature, as in the Game of Beauty, which uses verses from Petrarch (ibid., 129r–v; Lecercle). Ringhieri, 2r–v. “cercai de’ fieri morsi indegnamente traffitte, le honeste Donne a’ suoi primieri pregi ridurre” (Ringhieri, unpaginated dedication to Catherine de’ Medici). Ibid., 1v. Ibid., 9v. Ibid., 48v–49r. Ibid., 49r. Ibid., 49r. On Diotima, who purportedly taught Socrates the “Socratic method,” see Plato’s Symposium 291d–212b; on Pericles’ mistress Aspasia, whose rhetorical skill Socrates cites and whose funeral oration he recounts, see the Mexenemus 236b–249e. On Vittoria Colonna, the first woman to publish a volume of poetry (1538), see Robin, xviii and passim; on Veronica Gambera, twenty-one of whose poems would be published in Lodovico Domenichi’s volume of all-female poetry (1559), see ibid., 72. For another defence of women’s intellectual capacities, see Ringhieri, 11r. Ibid., 137v. Laura Terrracina published several volumes of poetry and criticism from the late 1540s through the early 1560s; see Robin, xviii, 107, 334; on the learned Cassandra Fedele,whom Poliziano compared to Pico della Mirandola, see Fedele; King, 198–201. Ringhieri, 127r. In the Game of the Triumph, Ringhieri relates the Roman tradition of the military triumphal procession to the triumph of female Chastity over “voglie ardenti, & insane, and gli empetuosi desideri” (ibid., 161r). The Game of the Husband and Wife cites, among the many things a husband expects from his wife, “la vostra fideltà, virginità, purità” (ibid., 72r). Ibid., 99. Ibid., 99v; Boccaccio 1975. Ringhieri, 99r–102r. As for cautionary tales of the amatory world, Ringhieri reveals a sympathy for the travails of women due to the jealous behaviour of husbands. He implies that his game is addressed in part to men, so that they end their jealous ways, in order that women may live a freer life (ibid., 117v–118r). Ringhieri, unpaginated dedication. Ibid., 50r; on proverbs, see, e.g., 85r. As for social issues, see the debate topics appended to the longest of the games, the Game of Ceremonies, or of the Sacrifice of Venus and Love

Notes to pages 18–19 211

88

89

90 91

(an elaborate ceremony in which lovers make sacrifices at the altars of the gods Venus and her son Cupid). Eight of the ten questions attached to this game have a somewhat sceptical or critical tone concerning the role of ceremonies in the social, political, and even religious realm: e.g., “if it is true that men and women are less pleasant the more they are ceremonious”; “why so many ceremonies are used at court”; and even one religious topic with reform or Protestant overtones, “whether for a Christian it is necessary to be ceremonious” (ibid., 70v). On political issues, see those appended to the Game of the King Drawn from the Game of Cards, such as “why it is said that the evil teacher corrupts the student the same way that a King of perverse and impious nature does the people” (ibid., 133v). After incorporating fifty of Ringhieri’s games and discussing games that require “a knowledge of the Greek or Latin lanugage and an understanding of various works of poets,” Sorel observes: “Il en est de mesme de la pluspart des autres Ieux de Rhinghier qui ne sont entendus que par es personnes qui ayent un peu estudié, au lieu que les Ieux se partiquent d’ordinaire parmy de jeunes gens soit de la Cour soit de la Ville, qui enfine sont tous gens du mondi & de conversation vulgaire, sans avoir une grande aplication aut lettres. Cela ne se fait point aussi sans qu’il y ayt des femmes, qui la pluspart n’ayant pas faict grande lecture, ignorent beaucoup de choses que l’on ne peut sçavoir sans avoir esté au College” (Sorel 1657, Seconde journée, 294–5; Sorel 1977, iv). Also, cf. his comment in his “Avertissement aux Lecteurs” that among the Italians some have relied “trop de mots de science ou de Poësie à retenir pour ceux qui n’ont pas estudié; Cela est rendu trop pedantesque, pour estre exercé parmy les gens le Cour, & parmy des femmes” (Sorel 1977, a7v). More lays out the moral function of the game in some detail: “wherin vices fyghte wyth vertues, as it were in battell array, or a set fyld. In the which game is verye properlye shewed bothe the striffe and discorde that vices haue amonge themselfes, and agayne theire unitye and concorde againste vertues; and also what vices be repugnaunt to what vertues; with what powre and strenght they assaile them openlye; by what wieles and subteltye they assaute them secretelye; with what helpe and aide the virtues resiste, and overcome the puissaunce of the vices; by what craft they frustate their purposes; and finally by what sleight or meanes the one getteth the victory” (More, 61). Guazzo 1590, 283v. Guazzo’s ideal would teach how “a gustare i cibi con temperanza, & da essercitare la lingua senza vanità, il giuoco senza lascivia, la concordia

212 Notes to pages 19–20 senza rispetto, la dottrina senza vanagloria, la cortesia zenza macchia” (Guazzo 1590, 284r, emphasis added). The work went through ten Italian editions by 1621, and would be translated into English, French, and Latin (see Edward Sullivan’s introduction in Guazzo 1925, 1:xv). Also see Jeanneret, esp. 46–9. 92 On Arnigio, see S. Carando in DBI 4:253–4; for a 1575 treatise on the fear of death, which he presented to the Paduan Academy of the Animosi, see Arnigio 1575; Tenenti, 316–17. 93 Arnigio, 359–72. 94 Ibid., 370. 95 Ibid., 361. 96 Ibid., 370. 97 “Ma come la scuola de’ Giovanetti Ludo da latini si dimandava, & da noi Giuoco; cosi Giuochi dimandare si ponno gli honesti, & virtuosi trattenimenti, che nelle Accademie si fanno da sublimi & affinatissimi Ingegni, ne’ quali oltre il trattenimento soave della Musica, ò per canne, ò per corde, ò per voci, ò per tutte insieme, che della Storia, chi della Philosophia, chi della Poesia, chi dell’Astronomia, chi dell’Eloquenza, & chi della sagra Disciplina, altramente di scorrendo, & bellissime poesie tessendo, com per ìscherzo & diporto, traduce bene & con gloria sua il tempo, tra le quali quella de gli Intronati di Siena, quell’altra de gli Affidati di Pavia” (ibid., 370). On the link between leisure (schole) and contemplation/education (and, thus, “school”), see De Grazia, 3–21; Turner 1982, 36. 98 The title of this veglia of Bk. 10 is “Nella quale si tratta del Trattenimento, & della virtù in universale” (ibid., 616–700). 99 “non essendo cosa più cara, & dilettevole a civili huomini, che da negotii disoccupati siano, d’un vago & gentile trattenimento, il cui piacere nel ragionar & conversar convenevole con altri consistendo, fà che sia parte di quella vita, che attiva & civile chiamiamo” (ibid., 626). 100 Ibid., 635. 101 Ibid., 646. 102 Ibid., 226–7, 240, 243–6. 103 After the character “Persio” delivers this speech, Arnigio says: “Poi che si tacque Perseo, il cui ragionamento prima con un poco di rossore havea punto gli animi delle Donne, sentendosi elle biasimar il lor sesso di leggierezza, e tor di mano la maggioranza, che s’avisavan d’havere a petto al virile: e dopò conciliato con tener grado della lor Dignità, Hortensio & Lucillo voltatosi, a cui toccato era ultimamente di tutti a parlare, impose, che seguitasse trattando della cura della famiglia, & dell’allevar & crear’ i figliuoli” (ibid., 247). The rebuttal by “Hortensio” comes in Bk. 6,

Notes to pages 21–2 213

104 105

106 107

108 109 110

111

112 113

which deals chiefly with educating youth and safeguarding them from vice. Although this defence does briefly address, e.g., social constraints on women and Plato’s inclusion of them in the political and military realm in the Republic, it relies rather much on theological themes and reinforces chiefly traditional female virtues (e.g., temperance, compassion, patience, continence) (ibid., 281–2). As for Arnigio’s own view of women, his position likely is closer to Perseo’s than Hortensio’s, because even though Persio’s attack contains some extreme statements it also at times acknowledges the presence of educated women – Veronica Gambera and Laura Cereta (244) – and warns against husbands’ severity in dealing with wives and cites some model marriages (ibid., 228, 246). For a brief praise and blame of women, also see the end of Bk. 1, though here the vices of women are rather too detailed (ibid., 49–51) and there is found a lengthy verse normative statement on the ideal married woman (51–5). On Arnigio’s background and career, see S. Carando in DBI 4:253–4. On G. Bargagli and the Intronati see Crane, 263–85, 297–308; Maylender, 3:350–62; Cochrane, 3, 31; R. Bruscagli’s “Introduzione: nel salotto degli Intronati,” in G. Bargagli 1982, 9–39; Iacometti; Seragnoli; Riccò 1993; Riccò 1993a; Bruscagli; Marchetti 1982; G. McClure 2004, 52, 60–9. G. Bargagli 1982, 124–5. Ringhieri, 9v and above. Nowhere does G. Bargagli explictly acknowledge Ringhieri’s book, just as Ringhieri does not recognize the existence of the Sienese parlour games, which certainly predate his book. G. Bargagli 1982, 127. See Tutti i trionfi; Trionfi e canti; G. McClure 2004, 40–51. G. Bargagli 1982, 201. See the “Canto degli spazzacamini” in Grazzini’s collection (Tuffi i trionfi, 102). On this practice, Tomaso Garzoni in his Piazza universale observes that during “Carnevale young men sometimes dress up as chimneysweeps, shouting ‘Belle madonne chi vuol spazza camino?’” (Garzoni 1996, 976; G. McClure 2004, 92). He adds that if one must wear a mask it should not be crude or ugly. The elder figure in the dialogue, “Sodo” (Marcantonio Piccolomini), says: “E se occorresse il comparire in maschera, come al mio tempo si usava assai e oggi intendo essersi quasi dismesso, loderei il farsi sempre vedere con nuova invenzione di maschera a guardandosi da maschera di schifa o di brutta figura o da abito disprezzabile” (G. Bargagli, 1982 145). Ibid., 147. Again, then, Bargagli draws on the analogy of Carnival, transforming the literary masking princes were known to do into the metaphorical masking of the game: “E sì come in un mascherata se bene si conosce il

214 Notes to pages 23–5

114 115 116

117

118

119 120 121 122

123 124

125

principe a maschera, non di meno si finge di non conoscerlo e come l’altre maschere si tratta, così quando un signore si ritrova in vegghia, quasi coperto dalla maschera del giuoco, in quel atto per signore non si riconosce” (ibid., 199). G. Bargagli 1982, 140. Ibid., 141–2. “Egli è ben vero, ch’io non perciò intendo che le donne diventino scotte, né gli uomini buffoni, ma desidero che una certa baldanza d’animo vadano mostrando, or maggiore o minore, secondo che più o meno sieno stati naturalmente al riso prodotti” (ibid., 142). Barberino, 92, draws this list from a work by a Monas d’Egitto (who was possibly the early thirteenth-century Provençal woman Gidas di Mondas); on dating the final version of this treatise to 1314–16, see ibid., 300; Bérard, 505. “Ben è vero che in un ristretto domestico io loderei che la donna ancora un giuoco facesse e a più d’una ho io qualche giuochetto veduto fare, perciò che come cosa che has del libero e de l’insolito, arreca seco molto diletto” (G. Bargagli 1982, 86). Ibid., 61. He cites Suetonius’s brief description of Saturnalia in Augustus 75. Ibid., 61–2. Cited in Burke, 209. On the influence of the Spanish (who had a strong presence in the city starting in the 1530s), see Bargagli’s comment at ibid., 147; on the Spanish in Siena, see Schevill, 404–20. For biographies of Provençal poets and gatherings of men and women in the “Cour d’Amour” discussing amatory questions, see Nostredame, esp. at 17. G. Bargagli 1982, 69. Ibid., 72. I settled on “intellect” for “spirito” here, because Bargagli emphasizes the quality of invention rather than humour in his distinction: “Perciò che questi e simili altri giuochi si chiamano di spirito, perchè sono da spiriti svegliati e dilettano più per la varietà delle invenzioni che si dicono, che per lo riso che muovano. Giuochi di scherzo si chiamano quelli che allegrezza più tosto apportano, che spiritosi concetti mostrino” (ibid., 72–3.) The games of gravitas and intellect were usually to be played before dinner and in “public and grand gatherings”; the ridiculous ones after dinner (i.e., when presumably everyone is a bit tipsy) and in smaller domestic settings (ibid., 86). Finally, he explains that giuochi di spirito may also have a forfeit (pegno) and/or judge. See the table of games in the 1592 Venice edition.

Notes to pages 25–8 215 126 Ibid., 103–4. And he offers a template for inventing games based on professions/arts and human qualities. 127 Ibid., 205–6. 128 Ibid., 208. On the Filocolo and “questions of love,” a common parlourgame theme, see above. On “novelty” or the appearance of novelty in storytelling, cf. G. Bargagli 1982, 224. 129 S. Bargagli 1989, 262–3, emphasis added. 130 G. Bargagli 1982, 109. 131 For his phrase “indice de’ giuochi proibiti,” see ibid., 84. 132 See ibid., 79–85. He also includes among these one game, the Tinted, which is condemned for being too déclassé, more suited to the rural “ville fra contadini, che nella città fra persone nobili convenienti” (80); cf. Riccò 1993, 380–5. 133 For instance, the forbidden game of the Temple of Venus (ibid., 83) is discussed without criticism elsewhere at ibid., 119, 157, 188, and 194. 134 Ibid., 82, emphasis added. Bargagli seems to show how some players used the games to mock the dire consequences of erroneous theological opinions in the Reformation controversies over justification. 135 Ibid., 112–13. 136 Ibid., 114. 137 See ibid., 158; and for a “troppo licenzioso” comment made by a woman at a game, see 183. 138 Ibid., 157. 139 Ibid., 142. 140 Ibid., 142–3. 141 On the theme of the anonymous identity and masking, especially in the context of publishing, see Gagliardi. Ludic identity should be more fully explored for its role in the Renaissance emergence of the “authentic” self, complementing John Martin’s stress on humanist notions of “prudence” (which distinguished between outward show and inward self) and Protestant emotionalism (Martin). On Renaissance and early modern notions of dissmulation, see Torquato Accetto’s Della dissimulazione onesta of 1641; Zagorin; G. McClure 2008, 781–83. 142 Ibid., 199–200. 143 Ibid., 140. The interlocutors here even suggest, by way of analogy, that some women have feigned interest in poetry or music in order not to look boorish or to win praise and reputation through such pursuits undertaken on their behalf by their male admirers. Like princes, women then can inspire culture even when they may not naturally appreciate it: “onde quando anche s’inducessero a ciò più per apparenza del mondo

216 Notes to pages 28–30 che per loro naturale istinto, essendo cagione di lodevoli effetti, son degni anch’essi di lode” (141). Thus, in this case Bargagli argues for favouring social appearance over natural instinct – all in the cause of pressuring women to engage these games. And even while he allows that women may have to force their involvement, he goes on to say that they should not thereby participate only half-heartedly or distractedly, as Caesar was criticized for doing when he read papers during the performance of tragedies (141). 144 In his Carte parlanti of 1543, Aretino depicts some female card players (including several of his lovers and Duke Cosimo de’ Medici’s wife, Eleonora di Toledo) (Aretino, 189–95, 217, 249–50). 2. The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women (1525–1555) 1 G. Bargagli 1982, 58. 2 BCI, Y. I.1, fol. 1r; and Y.I.1. fol. 44v.; Mazzi 1882, 2:385–90; Maylender, 3:354. 3 These statutes open the forty-nine volumes of papers of the Intronati in Siena’s Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati (BCI). The opening chapter of these statutes, entitled “Del origine de li Intronati,” addresses the political chaos in the opening line: “In quel tempo che le Armi de barbari chiamate de la discordia de nostri principi per infin dalle extreme parti d’occidente intrate nella santa casa di Dio, havevano non pur di Toscana ma di tutte le parti d’Italia cacciato ogni altro pensiero che quel de la guerra & interrotti & guasti tutti li exercitii de le lettere” (BCI, Y. I.1, fol. 1v). The Intronati laid claim as the oldest academy, though they have some competition from the Rozzi, an artisan academy whose initial statutes are dated 1531 (Mazzi 1882, 1:342–79). For rosters of Intronati members for 1525 and thereafter, see Sbaragli 1942; on Intronati, also see Maylender, 3:350–62; Iacometti; R. Bruscagli’s “Introduzione” in G. Bargagli 1982, 7–39. 4 In their history “Del Origine de li Intronati” they indicate “E da un fermo loro proponimento di fingere di non intendere e non curarsi di nissuna altra coso del mondo, lo’ (loro) piacque di pigliar nome d’Intronati, e che questa loro adunazione si chiamasse la compagnia delli Intronati” (this is the transcription found in Mazzi 1882, 2:390; I believe Mazzi is correct in amending here “intedere” [in BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 1v] to “intendere”). For another theory that their name was facetiously given to them by women at a social gathering, who noted that the men appeared “stupefied” at social gatherings (to which the men replied that the women were the cause of their condition), see comments of Scipione Bargagli cited in Fahy 2000, 440.

Notes to pages 30–1 217 5 Cochrane, 1–34; Samuels, 599. 6 “si dessi opera alli exercitii delle lettere cosi volgari come greche & latine leggendo, disputando, compenendo [read componendo], interpretando, scrivendo, & per darle in uno facendo tutto che per imparare far si suole, ne pur solo. Ivi fusse scuola di philosofia ma di humanita, di legge, di musica, di poesia, d’arismetica [read aritmetica], & universalmente di tutte le discipline & di tutte le arti liberali & gentili, dando liberta a ciascuno di detta congregatione di potere per exercitatione maggiormente del ingegno prepor conclusioni, motti, gergli, imprese, nuove lingue, & qual si sia altra spetie di’invensioni intorno a li studii litterali” (BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 1v). 7 The others were “Orare” (or in the later set of statutes, “Deum colere”), “Neminem laedere,” “Studere,” and “Nemini credere” (or in the later version, “Non temere credere”) (BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 2v and ibid., fol. 45r). As for the precept of “praying” or “cultivating God,” I do not see much evidence of this, though this might be something of a confraternal fig leaf for the group. 8 See the first set of statutes in BCI, Y.I.1, at fol. 9v and a later set of statutes (from the early eighteenth century) in BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 57v. 9 See Chapt. XV “Della pena di chi parlassi di stati” (BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 8r). 10 BCI, Y.I.1, fols. 59v–63r. This document appears to be in the hand of Girolamo Gigli and contains marginal citations from as late as 1703/4, which would thus be the terminus a quo for these undated statutes. The Intronati and the Rozzi were the principal producers of comedy in Siena. A letter of Uberto Benvoglienti of 12 March 1711/12 offers a history of comedy and lists seventy-nine plays in the sixteenth century from various groups (e.g., the Rozzi, the Intronati, and the Desiosi) and individuals (BCI, C.IV.27, pp. 417–40 [alternate pagination, fols. 210r–221v]). Also see Intronati 1611; Mazzi 1882; Seragnoli; Borsellino. 11 G. Bargargli 1982, 134. 12 See, for instance, the Comedia del Sacrificio de gli Intronati, performed during Carnival in 1532 (old style, 1531) in which academy members, discouraged by the diffidence of the Sienese women, sacrifice various tokens of these women on the altar of love. In doing so, they lament that they “have lost the flower of their green years” pursuing these women, who themselves are also in their “piu verd’anni” (Intronati 1559, fols. 3v, 5r). 13 G. Bargagli 1982, 135. 14 G. Bargagli 1982, 136. 15 BCI, P. IV. 27, no. 13, 21–22v; Marchetti 1969, 89. As for other comments on the law or letters to his law professors Girolamo Benvoglienti and

218 Notes to pages 31–5

16 17

18

19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

Giovanni Biringucci (the latter also a member of the Intronati), see BCI, P. IV. 27 no. 13, fols. 10v, 11v, 26v, 27r, 28r, v, 31v, 33r; Marchetti 1969, 88–9. On Sozzini, see Marchetti 1969; Cantimori, 346–9; Cantù, 2:491–8. On his fleeing the city by September of 1560, see Marchetti 1975, 221. “et io [trovo occupato intor, cancelled] son dato ad perpetuam cartarum revolutionem, che così fu ben chiamato da qual galantehuomo lo studio dele leggi nele quali mi sono ingolfato per essertation [read essortation], e per [content …, cancelled] satisfatione de miei” (BCI, P.IV.27, no. 13, fol. 28r–v). Ibid., fol. 28v; Bruscagli’s “Nel salotto degli Intronati,” in G. Bargagli 1982, 16. Elsewhere he also cites the case of another figure similarly “ingolfato neli studi legali, et è risoluto il seguitarli come si èssortato da tutti i suoi” (ibid., fol. 40v). Erikson, 155–8; Turner 1982, 54–5. G. Bargagli 1982, 137. On the confraternity as model for Ficino’s Platonic Academy in the fifteenth century, see Kristeller. Van Gennep, 101–2. See N. Newbigin’s comment in Intronati 1996, 252. See Vignali, and Ian F. Moulton’s introduction therein, which dicusses both political and homoerotic subtexts of the dialogue between the author and Marcantonio Piccolomini, whose nickname “Sodo” (solid), as Moulton suggests, probably has another meaning as well (Vignali, 165n3). On such groups in early modern France, see Davis, 97–123. Van Gennep, 170–1. On the erotic function of flagellation, whipping, and striking, see van Gennep, 174–5. In 1444 such young people who aged out of the youth confraternities at 24 were forbidden to join adult confraternities until fully enfranchised politically at age 29–30; in 1455 this age was lowered to 20. Thus for a decade these youth in their twenties were cut adrift, were prone to sexual libertinism and largely served a function of performing in festive settings (Trexler, 387–99; Eisenbichler 1998, 19–20). On the Venetian state’s ritual incorporation of the occasionally boisterous, “liminoid” young men (in their twenties) into the political establishment, see Chojnacki. Trexler, 388. Intronati 1559, esp. fol. 5r. Maylender, 3:358; Belladonna 1992, 48–9. “The liminal phases of tribal society invert but do not usually subvert the status quo, the structural form of society; reversal underlines to members of a community that chaos is the alternative to cosmos, so they’d better

Notes to pages 35–6 219

32

33

34 35

36

37

38

stick to cosmos, i.e., the traditional order of culture, though they can for a brief while have a whale of a good time being chaotic, in some saturnalian or lupercalian revelry, some charivari, or institutionalized orgy” (Turner 1982, 41). For an analysis that these liminal rites could in fact be transformative, see Davis, 124–51. “Liminoid phenomena develop apart from the central economic and political processes, along the margins, in the interfaces and interstices of central and servicing institutions – they are plural, fragmentary, and experimental in character” (Turner 1982, 54). They can often be found “in particular groups – ‘schools,’ circles, and coteries – [and] they have to compete with one another for general recognition and are thought of at first as ludic offerings placed for sale on the ‘free’ market” (ibid., 54). Furthermore, they “are often parts of social critiques or even revolutionary manifestos – books, plays, paintings, films, etc., exposing the injustices, inefficiencies, and immoralities of the mainstream economic and political structures and organizations” (ibid., 54–5). For a brief and, in the case of the Intronati, unpersuasive revisionist argument that “there was … no liberal attitude towards women in Cinquecento literary academies,” see Fahy 2000 (here, at 438), who generally minimizes the Intronati’s promotion of women, even in the face of Alessandro Piccolomini’s intellectual engagement with them (ibid., 443). Ceretta, 6, 73, 96–9. On Piccolomini’s vernacular scientific works, commentaries (on Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics), and translations (e.g., of these two works and Xenophon’s Economics, which he dedicated to Frasia Placidi de’ Venturi), see Cerreta, 12, 35–41, 67–71, 173–96; R. Belladonna’s introduction in Piccolomini 1984, 5–7. On the popular press, see Grendler 1969, 3–19; Burke 1987, 71–2; Quondam; G. McClure 2004, 27–9. On Laudomia and praises of her by Benedetto Varchi, Bernardo Tasso, and Giuseppe Betussi, see C. Zarrilli in DBI 49:153–5; A. Lisini in Forteguerri, 6–7. On Piccolomini and Laudomia, also see the excellent discussion in Robin, 136–58. The work, dated 1538, and thus composed when Alessandro was thirty, was published eleven times in the sixteenth century (Cerreta, 175). On the ludic context of the work, see Baldi. “le mogli e i mariti si pigliono a la cieca senza aversi mai veduti, e gran ventura sarebbe, s’amasser di cuore e non per ceremonia e per obligo, o vogliamo dir per forza” (A. Piccolomini 2001, 108; John Nevinson’s afterword in A. Piccolomini 1968, 99).

220 Notes to pages 36–8 39 “Io vi confesso bene, poiché gli uomini fuori di ogni ragione tirannicamente hanno ordinato leggi, volendo che una medesima cosa a le donne sia vituperosissima e a loro sia onore e grandezza, poich’egli è cosí, vi confesso e dico che quando una donna pensasse di guidare un amore con poco saviezza, in maniera che n’avesse da nascere un minimo sospetuzzo, farebbe grandissimo errore, e io piú che altri ne l’animo mio la biasmarei: perché io conosco benissimo che a le donne importa il tutto questa cosa. Ma se, da l’altro canto, donne mie, voi sarete piena di tanta prudenza e accortezza e temperanza, che voi sappiate mantenervi e godervi l’amante vostra, elletto che ve l’avete, fin che durano gli anni vostri cosí nascosamente, che né l’aria, né il cielo ne possa suspicar mai, in questo caso dico e vi giuro che non potete far cosa di maggior contento e piú degna di una gentildonna che questa” (A. Piccolomini 2001, 30–1, emphasis added). Also see Piccolomini’s earlier comment that “fra le altre buone parti ch’io dico convenirsi a una gentildonna, intendo esser convenevolissimo ch’ella con gran destrezza si ellegga uo amante unico in questo mondo e insieme con esso goda segretissimamente il fin de l’amor suo” (ibid., 30). 40 A. Piccolomini 2001, 72–3. 41 In his Orazione … in morte di Monsignor Alessandro Piccolomini, Arcivescovo di Patrasso, & eletto di Siena (1579), Scipione Bargagli does not refer to the Raffaella directly but only to Alessandro’s “dialogues” (S. Bargagli 1594, 546–74). As for Piccolomini’s own renunciations of the work, see his comments in the Institutione at A. Piccolomini 1545, fols. 5v, 230r, 231r–v. 42 On the “contradictions” among these three works, see Piéjus 1993; and Rita Belladonna calls the Raffaella and the Orazione in lode delle donne “antithetical works” (A. Piccolomini 1984, 5). 43 A. Piccolomini 2001, 29. 44 On Laudomia’s marriages and children, see C. Zarrilli in DBI 49:153. On Benedetto Varchi’s observation that she was Piccolomini’s Laura, see ibid., 154; Robin, 136. 45 See A. Piccolomini 2001, 30–1, cited above. 46 A. Piccolomini 1545, fol. 4r. Piccolomini gave public lectures on Aristotle’s Ethics at the Academy of the Infiammati while he was studying in Padua between 1538 and 1542 (Ceretta, 19–48; Samuels, 610–11, 614), and while it is possible that Laudomia’s discourse on happiness also inspired both the Institutione and these lectures, it is more likely that he is elevating her in these philosophical issues rather than she him. 47 Addressing young Alessandro, Piccolomini refers to a commentary he previously made on Laudomia’s twelve “divine stanze, composte da la honestissima e virtuossima vostra madre Mad. Laudomia, in lode de la

Notes to pages 38–41 221

48 49 50 51 52 53

54 55 56 57

58 59

60

61

62

virtu, e in dispregio insiememente de la Fortuna, dove, si come ne gli altri suoi componimenti, appar palese l’ingegno di si gran donna” (A. Piccolomini 1545, fol. 236r). On the lecture on her sonnet “Hora te’n va superbo,” see Robin, 148, who suggests it was “perhaps the first critical essay ever presented at an Italian literary academy on a woman’s poetry”; also see Cox 2008, 106–8. For the sonnet itself, addressed to Margherita d’Austria, see Robin, 153; Forteguerri, 18. On her poetry and on the possibly homoerotic currents and possibly (and, I think, more likely) political motives in her sonnets to Margherita, daugher of Charles V and wife of Alessandro de’ Medici, see Robin, 148–59; Eisenbichler 2001; Cox 2008, 106–8. A. Piccolomini 1545, fol. 120r. Ibid., fol. 121r. Ibid., fol. 122v. Ibid., fol. 181r. Ibid., fol. 153r. Ibid., fol. 153r–v. And this is especially the case when there comes along someone “non come Donna, ma come cosa non mortale” like Alessandro’s mother Laudomia (ibid., fol. 153v). Ibid., fol. 238r. Although this chapter generally deals with “destiny” via natural forces, this passage obviously broaches social ones. Robin, 143–7. A. Piccolomini 1545, fols. 195v, 263v, 266r. On these two versions of the treatise and on Piccolomini’s plagiarism of Sperone Speroni’s Dialogo de amore, see Fahy 1962, esp. 123, 128–31; Cerreta, 81 (I have not seen the 1560 revised edition). On Piccolomini and views on marriage in general in sixteenth-century Italy, see Richardson. A. Piccolomini 1771, 19. “Era la beltà di quel viso, Popol Sanese, non languida, e morta, ma piena di spirito, non molle, or caduca, ma d’un non so che d’aer virile” (ibid., 16). Ibid., 16. Piccolomini’s leading off with the quality of “veemenza” here is perhaps noteworthy, as this would seem to be a particularly unusual quality to ascribe to female demeanour. As for Bruni’s view that women should not concern themselves with the public realm of rhetoric, see his letter to Battista Malatesta in Bruni, 244. A. Piccolomini 1771, 17. As for festive occasions, he returns to this theme later, citing her involvement “nei sollazzi, e ricreazioni dell’animo, che a chi vuol vivere son necessarj,” saying that she did not overindulge but appropriately exercised moderation (ibid., 22). Ibid., 18–19.

222 Notes to page 41 63 Ibid., 19. And he later returns to the theme of her forced political disenfranchisement, when he praises her sense of justice, which at first glance “via virtù, che più all’uomo, che ala Donna appartenga, nondimeno Ella non solo nelle azioni sue particolari faceva sempre conoscere, e trasparire, quanto amica del gusto fosse: ma delle pubbliche azioni ancora, sebben ella con danno della Città vostra non interveniva, nondimeno a questo si conosceva la giustissima mente sua, che con gran sua noja udiva quelle cose, che ingiustamente su fossero fatte, e non senza infinito contento d’animo godeva di tutto quel, che giustamente intendeva, che si operasse” (ibid., 24.) 64 Domenichi, 1559, 9. And the poem closes: “Cosi tem’Io, anzi vegg’Io, ch’in duolo/Verrai misera ogn’hor, piena di lutti;/ Che cosi avvien, dove discordia regna” (ibid.). On Domenichi’s collection, see Robin, xviii, xxi– ii, 50–1, 59–78. On the political turmoil in Siena in the later fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century, see Schevill, 398–422. On Petrucci’s poem, see Eisenbichler 2003, 94–5. On Piccolomini’s 1543 treatise of civic concord, see Cerreta, 50–1; Piéjus, 526n9. 65 Eisenbichler 2003, 95, suggests that Aurelia lived in Rome from the time the Petrucci faction was driven out of power in 1524 (when she would have been thirteen), but Piccolomini’s funeral oration of her suggests a strong Sienese presence in various contexts: for instance, her circle of close friends in the city (A. Piccolomini 1771, 12–13); her public visibility in the city (ibid., 23); the impression she made on visiting dignitaries to the city: “Quante volte, com’ognun sa, essendo occorso passar per Siena Principi, Marchesi, Duchi, Duchesse, e gran Signori nelle occasioni che venivano, secondo il decoro, che s’apparteneva, parlò seco lungamente questa Donna con stupore, e maraviglia di che si voglia?” (ibid., 17–18); and her death in Siena, concerning which Piccolomini describes Aurelia’s mother hearing news of her illness in Rome and hurrying to Siena to attend to her (ibid., 30). Whatever the details of Aurelia’s permanent domicile, Piccolomini’s funeral oration certainly suggests that she spent considerable time in the city. Other details on her life are sparse, other than the fact that she married Jacopo di Francesco Petrucci and, after his death, Camillo Venturi, and that children issued from both marriages (Nelson Novoa, 534). As for other literary ties, Mariano Lenzi dedicated his 1535 edition of Leone Ebreo’s Dialoghi d’amore to Aurelia, comparing her to Mercury as a beacon of wisdom (Ebreo, 7, 23–4); and Antonio Vignale, one of the founders of the Intronati and author of La Cazzaria, dedicated an unpublished dialogue to her (ibid., 540–4). 66 Cerreta (16) and Piéjus (524) following him suggest that the Orazione may have preceded the Raffaella. Their evidence for this – a vague reference in

Notes to pages 42–3 223

67 68 69 70 71

72 73

74 75

76

the Raffaella that Stordito has many times argued that God gave women to make the miseries of the world more bearable – is not convincing. A slightly more plausible argument for this dating is found in Marcantonio Piccolomini’s Ragionamento, in which the interlocutors allude to Alessandro’s debating at a party in 1537 with a woman “si dolesse de la natura essendo nata donna; et sappiate non solo in questo, ma sempre che gli occorre intendo che parla molto in benefizio de le donne; ancor che già si credesse il contrario et certo a gran torto” (Belladonna, 74). Although I agree that the closing phrase alludes to the Raffaella I am not persuaded that the preceding one refers to the Orazione (cf. ibid., 74n28). Given the language Alessandro uses in his Orazione on the “eccellenza e divinità delle donne” (Piéjus, 546), the timing of the publication of the work the year after the first Italian translation of Agrippa’s On the Excellence and Nobility of Women, and his address to women in the prologue of his play Alessandro in 1544 (on which see below), I think 1544–5 is, by the logic of Occam’s razor, a far more plausible dating. See the edition in Piéjus, 546, 548. Ibid., 550. Ibid., 550. Ibid., 549. On Piccolomini’s earlier comedy, L’amor constante – written (but apparently not actually performed) for Charles V’s entry into Siena in 1536 – and on Piccolomini as a dramatist and on theories of character types, see Seragnoli, 19–31, 46–66, 93–134; Andrews 1993, 89–108; Clubb, 68–9. A. Piccolomini 1984, 45; I am using the translation of Rita Belladonna therein. Ibid., 21–2. The character “Alessandro” in the play makes the same complaint about the bastardized tastes of contemporary women relative to an earlier era of more refined behavior (ibid., 59–60). Belladonna’s translation at ibid., 23. On the intermediary texts likely linking Twelfth Night to the Ingannati, see N. Newbigin’s introduction to her translation of the play in Intronati 1996, 284–5; Andrews 1993, 93–100; on Shakespeare and Italian comedy, see Clubb 1989, 65–89. On the Ingannati’s likely influence by an earlier play, Parthenio (performed in Siena in 1517 [new style] and published there in 1520) by the Aretine exile Giovanni Lappoli (or Pollastra), see Clubb 2010, 1–56. She argues that the heroine Galicella in the Parthenio prefigures Lelia in the Ingannati. Giannetti, 49–56; Shepard; Günsberg, 34–5, 80–2.

224 Notes to pages 44–5 77 See the edition in Belladonna, 59–90 at 59–60; on the dialogue, see Belladonna, 48–58; Robin, 130–7. 78 On the recent publication of Paleario’s De animorum immortalitate and his staying at the home of Girolama Carli de’ Piccolomini, and on Agostino Museo’s preaching in Siena in 1537, see Belladonna, 55. 79 Ibid., 70, 83–4. 80 Ibid., 63, 73. 81 Ibid., 74. The first three of these five women are named by Girolamo Bargagli as among those women who won fame as great parlour game players in his Dialogo de’ giuochi (G. Bargagli 1982, 92). In a 1542 literary embellishment of a Sienese party, the Sienese ambassador Marcello Landucci assigns two of these women, Atalanta [Donati, presumably] and Isifile Toscana, as having prominent roles in festivities that included a game of Questions [of Love] and a game of Versifying, both found among Girolamo Bargagli’s later catalogue of games (Glénisson-Delannée; G. Bargagli 1982, 95–102, 150–3). 82 When Laudomia says “Uno degl’Intronati sentii l’anno passato, che con molte et vere ragioni parlò in una veglia in favor de le donne, intorno a questa materia,” Girolama responds: “Credo intender di chi voi dite et fu in casa di Madonna Atalanta Donati, ove egli mostrò con belle et dotte ragioni alla nobilissima et gentile Mad. Contessa d’Elci (con la quale disputava) quanto poco a ragione ella si dolesse de la natura essendo nata donna; et sappiate che non solo in questo, ma sempre che gli occorre intendo che parla molto in benefizio de le donne; ancor che già si credesse il contrario et certo a gran torto” (Belladonna, 74). Belladonna (74n28) argues that the last comment refers to the Raffaella, which she suggests may have been floating in ms. before its dedication date of Oct. 1538. 83 While I agree with Belladonna that this refers to Piccolomini and another comment in this section to the Raffaella, I do not agree that the allusion to the defence of women at the party at Donati’s home refers to the Orazione, as that address was identified as being presented to the Intronati and no reference is made to this context of a debate with the Contessa d’Elci. 84 Belladonna, 62. 85 Ibid., 62. 86 A testimony by the visiting poet Giovanni Mauro, who passed through Siena in 1532, suggests that the women were actively involved in the games by that year (see the conclusion and n. 1 therein below). 87 Ibid., 64. 88 Ibid., 79.

Notes to pages 45–7 225 89 Belladonna, 55; Robin, 130–6; on Agostino Museo, see Marchetti 1975, 18–24. 90 Belladonna, 85–90. 91 BCI, P.V. 15, fol. 161v. The undated biography was written after the 1538 Ragionamento, because Piccolomini refers to the dialogue in the biography (ibid., fol. 162r). The ms. (no. 7 in P.V.15, fols. 147r–171v) contains edits in the same hand and thus appears to be an autograph (though it is not signed). 92 Ibid., fols. 148v–149v. 93 Ibid., fol. 156v. 94 “Doppo la sua morte poi essendo voi anchor fanciuilla, & non havendo chi devesse esser’ herede de la virtù, & nobil sembranze vostre, volse vostro padre rimaritarvi, & voi come obendientissima [read obbedientissima] lo contentaste” (ibid., fol. 157r). 95 “‘l maturo discorso, il saldo giuditio, il savio consiglio, il suave ragionar’, le saggie parole, che van sempre giocando intorno à mille vaghezze, ò le belle & dotte materie illustrati dall’accesi fiaccole de le vostre parole” (ibid., fols. 165v–166r). 96 “Accennerò dunque solamente parte de le cortesi & accorte [parole cancelled] maniere, che tenete nel vivere: non gia ch’io dica le perigliose guerre, le vittoriose imprese di esserciti, di cittadi, &di provincie, & la giustitia, & la providentia nel reggiere i sudditi, & tenere inpace i cittadini, com’ à gli imperadori s’appartiene: non che voi cosi donna non sapesse reggere & governare qual si vogl’[?]imperio, che pur’in Macedonia, in Egitto, in Lacedemonia, in Siria, in Scithia, molte donne si trovarono di maggior’ authorità ch’ i Re propri, & molte anchora ne furono che si gran peso con le femminili spalle sole sostennero, & si gagliardamenti, che gli huomini & di virtù & di valore passorno [read passarono?] di molto” (ibid., fol. 165v). 97 Ibid., fols. 165v–166r. Both of these figures are included in Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris (Boccaccio 2001, 17–25, 199–203). 98 “Ò non sembrate voi, non dico d’esser’ discesa da Marte, ma lo stesso Marte? Qual’hora un’animoso destrier volgete in mille giri da prodo cavaliere” (BCI, P.V.15, fol. 166r). 99 “Si che poi che l’iniquità del tempo seguendo l’oppinion’ di Thucidide il quale non voleva che pur’ ’l nome de le donne uscisse de le camare, & non mancamento di valore, fà che voi non potete mostrare quanto la vostra virtù potesse volare alto” (ibid., fol. 166r–v, emphasis added). 100 Ibid., fols. 168v–169r.

226 Notes to pages 47–9 101 “Ornate anchora, per seguire l’istoria, i vostri belli & dotti ragionamenti con tanta vaghezza de leggiadri motti, ch’egli par’ un miracolo a le persone che l’intendono, [tal che cancelled] con questa maravigli fate che men’ si maravigliano di quel che prima gli faceva stupire & non sete men presta nel ribatter’ i colpi che venisser’ per offendersi, che pronta nell’assalire, & con tanta leggiadria, & si mirabil destrezza, ch voi non fate mai alcuna offesa” (ibid., fol. 168v). 102 “io fò argumento che la maestra natura non possi esser immitata dall’arte in tutte le cose, & accordomi con glialtri che vogliono che la prontezza dell’ingegno sia propria dote dela natura, & che in ciò non ha hauta [read havuta?]la natura liberale, indarno s’affadiga con l’arte per aqquistarne, & la gratia de motti non vin da altro che da la prontezza dell’ingegno” (ibid., fol. 169r). 103 “Et per questo io havrei gran desiderio d’ornar’ quest’istoria de vostri bei detti, & motti leggiadri cosi nel rispondere come nel dire, ma io mi son’ disposto di lassargli per hora, & non vò dirne la cagione” (ibid., fol. 169r). 104 Aside from this social presence, Marcantonio does not mention any publication by Marzi, although he does record her having written a selfconsolatory sonnet on the death of her brother and consolatory verse to Girolama Carli de’ Piccolomini (her disputant in the Ragionamento) (ibid., fol. 157r–v). He does not mention that she composed a poem in honour of Alessandro Piccolomini’s 1540 pilgrimage to the grave of Petrarch – and this suggests that his biography was written between the 1538 Ragionamento (which is mentioned) and this 1540 poem (which is not). For the poem she wrote on Alessandro’s pilgrimage, see Cerreta, 242. In his brief sketch of her in his biographies of Sienese women in his Pompe sanesi of 1649, Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolini comments that she was interested in poetry and that he has seen many of her compositions in manuscript (Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:399). 105 Schevill, 398–420; on the siege also see Pepper. 106 Cantagalli (50) dates the beginning of the project to build the fortification to 28 December 1552. He also cites the argument of P. Courteault that Monluc draws his account from Guillaume Paradin (ibid., 81n173). For side-by-side texts of the passages from Paradin’s Continuation de l’histoire de nostre temps jusques à l’an mille cinq-cens cinquante-six (Lyon, 1556) and Monluc’s Commentaires, see Courteault, 79. Courteault (79n1) argues that Paradin, in turn, (and Ascanio Centorio) drew their accounts from Marco Guazzo’s initial account in his Cronica of 1553. There are discrepancies in the dating of this event. It is dated to 1554 in Gigli, 1854, 1:418; Robin, 126; Forteguerri, 13 (by A. Lisini); Sozzini, 279–80, dates it to August 1554.

Notes to pages 49–51 227

107

108

109

110 111 112

113 114

115 116

I shall follow Centorio’s date of 15 January 1553, because this conforms with Cantagalli’s account of the war (Cantagalli, 50; also C. Zarrilli in DBI 49:154). Monluc confesses to not being an eyewitness to the event, as he did not enter the city until July 1554 (Cantagalli, 281, 286–7) and says that he had heard of it many times from the French marshal Paul de Thermes, who since August of 1552 had headed up the French forces prior to Monluc’s arrival (Cantagalli, 35). Furthermore, in reporting de Thermes’s account of the incident, Monluc says that he placed the event near the beginning of the siege: “Au commencement de la belle resolution que ce peuple fit de deffendre sa liberté, toutes les dames de la ville de Sienne se despartirent in trois bandes” (Monluc, 306). “Il ne sera jamais, dames siennoises, que je n’immortalize vostre nom tant que le livre di Monluc vivra; car, à la verité, vous estes dignes d’immortelle loüange, si jamais femmes le furent” (Monluc, 306). Monluc, 306–7. On this lost song and on other patriotic female poetry at the time, such as Virginia Martini Salvi’s specific appeals to Henry II’s wife, Catherine de’ Medici, see Eisenbichler 2003; Lisini, 1898. Lisini, ibid., 38, contends, however, that the lost song was not written by Salvi, but by Laura Civoli. Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:407–8; Monluc, 371–2. On the currency of Monluc’s account of the siege, its citation by Alessandro Sozzini (in his Diario delle cose avvenute in Siena dal 20 Luglio 1550 al 28 Giugno 1555), and its translation into English, see Robin, 127, 305n10; Sozzini, 279–80, who dates the event (incorrectly, I believe) to August 1554. Centorio, 6. P. Courteault (79–80n1) suggests that Centorio repeats Guazzo’s account (which I have not been able to see). Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:403, 406–8. The first such identification that I have found is from the eighteenth century in Guglielmo della Valle, 3:38; also see A. Lisini in Forteguerri, 13; C. Zarrilli in DBI, 49:154; Robin, 126–7. Betussi, 74–5. Ibid., 76: “Non crederò mai, che spirito alcuno fosse stato si barbaro, & duro verso la libertà della sua patria sua; il quale una sola volta havesse sentito lei a pigliare la protettione di quella; che non si fosse piegato, humiliato, & rimosso: tanta è la maestà dell’aspetto, tanta la facondia del dire, & tanta la prontezza delle ragioni” (Robin, 125–6). C. Zarrilli in DBI 49:162; Cantagalli, 395, 427–8, 449–50. Citing Centorio, Ugurgieri Azzolini (2:408) repeats these mottoes in his biography of the three women. One can only speculate about the meaning of these mottoes. Given Forteguerri’s name, perhaps her motto “Pur

228 Notes to pages 51–3

117

118 119 120 121 122

123

124

125

che sia vero” (Indeed, that it be true) alluded to the hope that her name be true and that she wage a strong war (forte guerra). Fausta’s “Pur ch’io l’habbia” (Indeed, that I may have it) might express hope that she truly obtain the peace symbolized by the olive branch on her standard. These are, however, simply speculations. He relates that the captains of the women were “La Forteguerra, la Piccolomini, e la Fausti, quai in alzando ciascuna la propria impresa concepita, esplicata nelle veglie amorose, servirono vestite d’acciaro fino all’imprese più virile” (BCI, Y.I.3, fols. 128r–129r). This letter is found in a collection of material on the Academy of the Intronati entitled Zucchino de gl’Intronati, o sia guarda memorie dell’antichissima Accademia Intronata and dated 1696. As we shall see in chapter 6, Gigli could be somewhat imprecise and/or possibly imaginative in his reconstruction of the early history. Centorio, 6. Ibid., 6–7. Israëls, 370–1. Monluc, 307. Two other events of the siege were similarly commemorated in verse: the arrival of Piero Strozzi to aid in the Sienese cause and the expulsion of the “useless mouths” (on which poems, see Vanni, 1890). On the arrival in January of 1554 of Strozzi, a Florentine exile aiding the Sienese cause against Duke Cosimo I, see Cantagalli, 153ff. On the policy formulated in August of 1554 of expelling the “bocche disutili” (in Strozzi’s intention to number 6,000–7,000 of the city’s 24,000 as “useless mouths,” including those from the contado who had sought refuge in the city), see Cantagalli, 326, 333–6; also see account in Scipione Bargagli’s Trattenimenti at S. Bargagli, 1989, 19–26. Vanni 1890, 11–12: “A letto te! A me la spada e il giaco. – / Eh, via, che dici? Tu me sei impazzita. – / Non vedi? Alla statura io ti assomiglio. – / Se sei scoperta, oh Dio! Che ti faranno? – / Di che temer? Non è poi mala azione. – / No, veh! Coraggio di Fontebrandese.” Ibid., 12: “M’han fatto festa, e dette tante cose./ E più di tutti il capitan di Franza./ Parlava, e aveva i lucciconi agli occhi./ Ha aperto u libro e il nome m’ha segnato./ Poi borbottò non so di che memorie …” Following Monluc, who included the incident immediately after his account of the women at the walls, Ugurgieri Azzolini (2:408) devotes a chapter to this “Giovane Sanese innominata” following his linked chapters on the three squadron leaders. As for the appearance of this incident in a parlour game of 1707/8, see BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 281r–v; Mazzi 1919; and chapter 5 below.

Notes to pages 53–6 229 126 On the rituals of cross-dressing, see Davis, 124–51. 127 Robin, 147–8. 3. The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (1563–1569) 1 In that decade Girolamo also had a hand in two plays: the Ortensio, which he helped to revise for publication while Archintronato in 1561 (BCI, P.IV.27, no. 13, fols. 11v, 21v), and La Pellegrina, which he likely completed in 1567–8 (on which see below). 2 As for the dates of composition of the Dialogo, R. Bruscagli (at G. Bargagli 1982, 9n3) argues convincingly for the summer of 1563, just before Girolamo took up his legal career with an appointment teaching law in Siena in the 1563–4 academic year. In her otherwise excellent edition of the Trattenimenti (to which I am greatly indebted), Laura Riccò argues unpersuasively for 1564, on the basis of a reference to an oration in praise of academies by his brother in 1564 (though she acknowledges this could be a later addition, as the work was published only later in 1572). She also contends that the reference to an “index of forbidden games” derives from the March 1564 publication of the Tridentine Index (S. Bargagli 1989, xxxvii–viii), but the earlier 1559 Index could just as well have been the inspiration for this motif. As for the composition of the Trattenimenti, his printer Luca Bonetti dates it to 1564, though in Scipione’s Latin oration on academies presented on 23 April 1564 there is no mention of it. It is, however, mentioned in the 1569 Italian version of this oration. Thus, the likely dates fall between 1564 and 1569, though he could have continued to revise it until its publication in 1587 (L. Riccò in S. Bargagli 1989, xv–xvi, xxxv, xxxviii, lxxx). On the dating of the setting of the Dialogo, see Seragnoli, 182; there is a reference in the dialogue to the reopening of the academy (G. Bargagli 1982, 49), which presumably occurred in 1557, as there is a roster for that year (Sbaragli, 193–4). 3 Bargagli suggest that the Greeks and Romans had a game of the king of the banquet (on casting lots for kingship of the banquet, cf. Horace’s Odes 1.4:18), and he cites Horace’s Letters 1.1:59–60 to argue that in children’s games there was a practice of rewarding winners of a game with lordship of the next (G. Bargagli 1982, 60, 66). 4 G. Bargagli 1982, 66. Also, cf. the opening of the discussion in which Sodo minimizes his expertise on the topic by saying that “questa è una di quelle cose dove più vagliono i giovani che’ maturi” (ibid., 54). 5 G. Bargagli 1982, 58–61. As for Sozzini’s assertion concerning pre-Intronati precedents, some of Bargagli’s games could be found in the earlier

230 Notes to page 57

6 7 8 9 10

11

work entitled Veglia villanesca (1521) of Francesco Fonsi (Valenti, 261–2). It is appropriate that Bargagli assigned Sozzini the sceptic’s role in the dialogue, given that it was Sozzini who, a couple of years after fleeing Siena to escape persecution by the inquisitors, in April 1563 wrote Bargagli a chiding letter, urging him to abandon his amatory, frivolous ways (and the law) for more pious pursuits. As for festive revels of the Intronati such as Befana: “Quanta alla Befana e il resto che tu mi racconti intorno a quelle cose che già m’erano tanto grate, me ne passerò leggermente. Ti dirò solo che mi par che tu abbi voluto far prova della mia fermezza, la quale con l’ajuto di Dio non scemerà mai, anzi ogni giorno anderà crescendo” (Cantù, 2:492; Cantimori, 347–9). And later in the letter he warns Bargagli “mutar vita e di lasciar da parte coteste frascherie, che da qui a poco tempo ti saranno omai troppo disdicevoli,” or else he will come to ruin, “poichè per un pezzo ti sarai fatto beffe di Dio, egli si farà di te, e ti abbandonerà in maniera tale, che cadrai poscia strabocchevolmente in ogni sorte di vizj” (ibid., 494). If, however, Sozzini hoped to thus discourage Bargagli’s interest in festive life, the very opposite occurred, as Bargagli likely wrote his Dialogo in the course of the ensuing summer. In fact, one wonders if this pious scolding in part provoked his desire to enshrine the games as his swan song before embarking on his legal career. G. Bargagli 1982, 57. See, for instance, the games described in the homes of Contessa Agnolina d’Elci, Porzia Pecci, and Francesca Sozzini (ibid., 96, 102, 159). Ibid., 58. Ibid., 87. These two games were the Temple of Immortality and Crowns (ibid., 88–9). The first of these may have inspired – or, alternatively, been inspired by – Giuseppe Betussi’s Le imagini del tempio della signora donna Giovanna Aragona of 1556, a work that, in turn, Diana Robin has shown continued and improved upon the anthology of poetry in Girolamo Ruscelli’s Del tempio alla divina signora donna Giovanna d’Aragona of 1555. Both authors had some Sienese ties: Ruscelli published three of the Intronati’s plays and Betussi completed his treatise in Siena, bewailing the plight of the city during the siege and praising the women of the city (“O’ di che rare Donne è adornata cosi magnifica Città?”), and bestowing upon Laudomia Forteguerri the virtue of Fame (Betussi, 74–80, H8v; Robin, 102–24; Andrews 1993, 65). Whichever direction the influence went, this is yet another illustration of the interpenetration of the games with literary culture. G. Bargagli 1982, 88.

Notes to pages 58–60 231 12 I have not been able to determine the date of this visit of Alfonso d’Avalos and Sanseverino to the city; on the ties between these Neapolitans and the Sienese in the 1530s, see Corsi, 31n42. 13 G. Bargagli 1982, 91. In his Oratione in lode dell’accademia degl’Intronati dello Schietto Intronati, presented at the reopening of the academy in December 1603, Scipione Bargagli grounds the emergence of the games – especially as public spectacles – in occasions in which notable figures (and here he specifically mentions Marchese del Vasto) passed through the city. On such occasions the Intronati stage parties to showcase the poetry, wit, discussions of the giuochi di spirito, apparently hosted at the palace of Girolamo Piccolomini Mandoli (Intronati 1611, 2:532–3). 14 G. Bargagli 1982, 91–2. 15 Ibid., 92. 16 Belladonna, 74. 17 See chapter 2 above, where Piccolomini observes that this incident led to an hour-long debate between Frasia and Alfonso. 18 As to whether this was in fact the pivotal moment in female visibility in the games, it should be noted that the Friulian poet Giovanni Mauro praised Sienese women players in his poem “Del viaggio di Roma,” which ensued from a game he witnessed in 1532. That game may have preceded this occasion involving Alfonso d’Avalos’s and Ferrante Sanseverino’s visit to the city “a few years” before 1538, though it is possible that the two occasions are one and the same, especially given that, of the five women Mauro names, two of them, Camilla Saracini and Frasia Venturi (Opere burlesche, 1:252–3), overlap with the women named in the game described in Marcantonio Piccolomini’s Ragionamento. Whether these testimonies refer to two occasions or one, however, visitors to the city attested to (and likely catalysed) the public nature of the Sienese parlour games. 19 G. Bargagli 1982, 92. 20 Ibid., 188. 21 “‘Voi sete, Attonito [Maretti],’ rispose il Sodo ‘un sollecito procrator donnesco, onde non è possibile che voi non siate ben provisionato da loro” (ibid., 197). 22 Ibid., 198. 23 “Dico bene che quando fosse una donna ben parlante già d’età e che si avesse qualche autorità acquistata, in tal caso le sarebbe lecito il ragionare al lungo, il contradire e il paradossare, nella guisa che de gli uomini abbiamo detto” (ibid., 198).

232 Notes to pages 60–3 24 G. Bargagli 1982, 80; cf. Ruggiero, 19–40. In some cases, anecdotes of the playing of these games reveal their lewdness, such as the game of the Mezzaiuoli, “o lavoratori de’ poderi,” in which a young field worker, whom ten women would love to have work their field, is recommended to a wealthy matron for but a small loan (G. Bargagli 1982, 121–2). 25 If the Carnival season (roughly Epiphany to Lent) was the most common setting, it was not the only one. Weddings and visits of foreign dignitaries, for instance, were two of the other occasions. 26 Ibid., 104. 27 Ibid., 115–16. This anecdote concerning one of the “weighty” games certainly reveals the creative, extemporaneous demands of such contests. 28 Despite its full description, this game is not given a discrete title or number entry in Bargagli’s catalogue (G. Bargagli 1982, 126). 29 Ibid., 107. 30 See the Games of Versifying (in which men and women might duel with lines from Petrarch, Bembo, or Ariosto); ABC (in which contestants must offer up a line of poetry beginning with a certain letter); the Portrait of Beauty; the Figure of Cupid (ibid., 150–3, 160–1). 31 Ibid., 159–60. 32 Ibid., 161. 33 Nostredame; Kelly, 141–8; Boccaccio 1985, 244–99. 34 G. Bargagli, 1982, 96. 35 Ibid., 96. 36 G. Bargagli 1982, 96–7. Aside from Agnolina, this group included Giuditta Santi, Cincia d’Elci, and Urania d’Elci. On the series of novels constituting the Amadís de Gaula and its continuation in the story of Don Florisello (and Bernardo Tasso’s Italian translation in the Amadigi of 1560), and the novels appearing under the title of Palmerin de Oliva, see Patrizia D’Incalci Ermini at G. Bargagli 1982, 96–7nn148–9; on the Amadís and Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, see Helen Moore in Amadis de Gaule, ix–xxviii. 37 Furthermore, the dismissive comment about romantic literature is somewhat contradicted by the fact that Bargagli treats some of these romantic scenarios is such detail. In this way Bargagli’s Dialogo in part validates this romance literature by repeating it, especially on behalf of Intronati males who are a bit behind in their reading. 38 G. Bargagli 1982, 102. 39 Ibid., 99. 40 For instance, Bargagli cites some of the tragic tales (4.4 and 4.9) to illustrate themes to be avoided because they would not predispose women to love; and he refers to others (2.6, 2.8, 3.7) exemplifying themes of

Notes to pages 64–5 233

41

42 43

44 45

46

“constancy, greatness of spirit, and loyalty” that would be more appealing, and especially those that concern stories of women who “after great persecution and calumny reveal themselves to be chaste and innocent” (and here, of course, he cites the famous Griselda story of 10.10) (ibid., 223–4). Ibid., 224. By contrast, the closing scene of the treatise depicts an incident in which two Intronati tell stories drawn from their own experience (or imagination). In the company of three women, these two men relate tragic personal love stories (in which they witnessed the deaths of their beloved) and then pose four questions as to who showed the greater love, suffered the greater loss, etc. (ibid., 229–30). Ibid., 216. The earliest documented evidence for women appearing on the Italian stage is among the companies of the commedia dell’arte in the 1560s, though there is an earlier instance of women on stage in commedia erudita performed by Italians in Lyons in 1548 (Richards and Richards, 39, 52, 73–6, 223–5; Andrews 1993, 154, 169; Andrews 2000). G. Bargagli 1982, 113. The “frequency of these two games” (ibid., 161) made even more challenging the requirement posed that one never reuse an emblem or pose for discussion a proverb previously used in any Sienese game. As for proverbs, Sodo indicates that he amassed a compilation of three thousand Italian proverbs for a planned anthology (which he never completed) (ibid., 162). Such a project would be completed later by Giovanni Torriano, who published collections of Italian proverbs (with English translations) in 1642 and 1666 (see Torriano). The degree of overlap in these genres is well illustrated by Luca Contile in his 1574 Ragionamenti … sopra la proprietà delle imprese, in which he argues that there are in fact nine different traditions all (improperly) lumped under the genre of “imprese,” including coats of arms, liveries, emblems, reverses of medals, hieroglyphics, etc. (Contile, 1r–43v). Bargagli includes two games on this topic – one on Devices and another on Reverses of Medals – explaining how both differ from the “emblem” proper (which, unlike the “device,” lacks words and, unlike the “reverse,” pertains to the universal, is admonitory, and is oriented to the future) (G. Bargagli 1982, 174–6). Aside from Contile’s work, sixteenthcentury collections of and treatises on devices and related forms include Andrea Alciati’s 1531 Emblemata; Achille Bocchi’s 1555 Symbolicarum quaestionum de universo genere (on which see Watson); Paolo Giovio’s Dialogo dell’imprese militari et amorose (orig. 1555); Lodovico Domenici’s 1556

234 Notes to pages 65–9

47 48 49 50

51 52 53 54 55 56 57

58

59 60 61 62 63 64

Ragionamento nel qual si parla d’imprese d’armi, e d’amore; Girolamo Ruscelli’s 1556 Discorso … intorno all’inventione dell’imprese, dell’insegne, de’ motti, & delle livree; and Scipione Bargagli wrote a Dell’imprese, the first part of which appeared in 1578, the second and third parts in 1594. See Patrizia D’Incalci Ermini in G. Bargagli 1982, 166n343; Stephen Orgel’s “Notes” in Giovio; on emblems and the meaning of naming ceremonies, see van Gennep, 101–2. On these requirements, cf. Paolo Giovio’s criteria (Giovio, 12–13). G. Bargagli 1982, 168, emphasis added. See his Le pompe sanesi of 1649 (2:403) and chapter 5 below. “Un’altra differenza è ancora, che dove l’impresa si fa per esprimere i suoi pensieri particolari e a se stesso principalmente, l’emblema si pone come precetto e avvertenza universale per gli altri ancora” (ibid., 175). Ibid., 171–2. G. Bargagli 1982, 172. Ibid., 172. On Vittoria Colonna, see Robin, xviii, 1–40, 79–101. G. Bargagli 1982, 176–7. On Scipione Bargagli’s view of this realm of culture as the unique venue for female recognition, cf. Laura Riccò in S. Bargagli 1989, 264n2. As in the case of the men, sometimes Bargagli named the speakers (as in the case of Flavia Bellanti at 212), but more often did not (as at 65, 89, 116, 213). G. Bargagli 1982, 49. The only specific reference to a particular battle and to the destructiveness of the Spanish (a touchy issue given their role in assisting the Florentines in defeating the city in 1555) comes at the very end of the treatise when an Intronato nicknamed “Bertino” (whose real name I cannot identify, as he is not on the Intronati roster of 1525 or 1557 (Sbaragli, 189–94) told of his tragic loss of a woman he loved in the aftermath of the Sack of Rome in 1527 (G. Bargagli 1982, 229). Ibid., 53. Intronati 1611, 2:486–7. S. Bargagli 1989, 262. Ibid., 263–4. Ibid., 265. Ibid., 266. Here, Scipione’s critique of arbitrary and oppressive social convention – discrimination “per cagione del sesso” and the “duro possesso stato preso gravemente loro addosso da i parenti e mariti loro” of family – is a bit stronger than Boccaccio’s analogous comment in the Proemio of

Notes to pages 69–71 235

65 66

67

68 69 70 71 72

73 74

75

the Decameron where he speaks of the melancholy and isolated condition of women “ristrette da’ voleri, da’ piaceri, da’comandamenti de’ padri, delle madri, de’ fratelli, e de’ mariti” (Boccaccio 1952, 4). See n. 101 below. His account principally describes events from January 1554 to February 1555, although it also refers to some earlier events (namely, the women’s involvement in the fortification of the city, which presumably refers to the women at the walls in January of 1553) and later ones (up through the last two months of the siege) (S. Bargagli 1989, 12–37, esp. 28n1). S. Bargagli 1989, 27. Also cf. Scipione’s comment later in the treatise on the Sienese women arming and “con quale ardor d’animo” encouraging them and watching them fight (ibid., 100–1). On this game, which is basically a combination of modern soccer and rugby, see the description in Scaino, 197–200; Magoun. Ibid., 35–6. Ibid., 36; see L. Riccò at ibid., n. 2. See BCI, P.V.16, packet no.1, f. 1v–2r; on this response to the criticism of Alessandro Tessauro, see n. 101 below. Ibid., 35–6n7. This Florentine game was visible to the enemy and provoked some artillery fire (Magoun, 8). This reinforces the possibility that the Sienese calcio game may also have been in part a wartime statement; certainly Scipione depicts Clizia’s motive as being defiant. Ibid., 42. In order to play these games the women needed men. And here the precedent in the Decameron is turned to far more feminist ends. In the latter, when Pampinea suggests they flee the city, a timorous Filomena says that, as women who are weak, fickle, and cowardly, they need men to lead them. In Scipione’s account, Clizia suggests that they need men rather to complete a festive occasion, give them an audience, and serve as a conduit to the outside world. If men are lacking, she argues, “non ci lasserebbe disporre e guidare i nostri giuochi con quell’ordine e con quella maniera che da noi senza meno si eseguirebbe al cospetto d’ingegnosi e valenti uomini, specchi invero sempre e scorte al mondo d’ogni lodevole operazione” (ibid., 45, emphasis added). Men are the conveyors of female glory to the public world – not, as Boccaccio’s Filomena would have it, leaders for incompetent women. S. Bargagli 1989, 56–7; the term “valore” here could translated as “value” or “valour,” but given the theme of this game, I think the latter is more appropriate.

236 Notes to pages 71–3 76 Ibid., 59. As for the literary “temples,” this genre had been recently explored (in 1555 and 1556) by Girolamo Ruscelli’s and Giuseppe Betussi’s temples in honour of Giovanna d’Aragona (Robin, 105–23; and see above). 77 S. Bargagli 1989, 59. 78 Ringhieri, 1r–2v. 79 G. Bargagli 1982, 166. 80 S. Bargagli 1989, 60. 81 Ibid., 64–82. The explication of the first one of these, Ognun Pareggia, for Clizia (who organized the games) contains some interesting political and male imagery. The design is a sun, which is denoted as being her family crest, and to it the male player adds the zodiac to which she shines all equally. And while this in part refers to her bestowing her grace and light on all admirers equally, there are other subtexts, as the player suggests that the image shows that she knows “molto bene con gli atti suoi conformare all’esempio od immagine statale nell’arme proposte da imitare da’ suoi nobilissimi maggiori” (very well with her acts to conform to the example or state image in the coat of arms her most noble forbears proposed to be imitated) (69–70, emphasis added). Thus, the sun is a “state image,” a political image, she will emulate; this is all the more relevant, as a traditional iconography associated women with the moon to the man’s sun; see the sun/moon discussion in the debate of the Ferraiuoli in chapter 4 below; also cf. Scipione’s discussion of it in regard to the device of Leonora Montalvi degli Agostini in his Dell’imprese (S. Bargagli 1594, 448–9). Furthermore, later in explaining her making “all equal,” the player compares this to a father who gives garments to all of his sons equally though that for the elder son is greater: again, a patriarchal analogy (S. Bargagli 1989, 71). On two counts, then, Scipione depicts her in patriarchal, political terms – perhaps not surprising, given that she is the instigator of the games. Finally, we could ask whether “She makes all equal” is a veiled commentary about gender equality: that is, the statement might doubly mean that she makes equal all who admire or follow her, and that her very role and agency makes plain that all men and women are equal. 82 Ibid., 69. 83 Ibid., 340–1. This game has no counterpart in Ringhieri’s or Girolamo Bargagli’s game books, though Girolamo’s does include one riposte from a woman in the Game of Crowns who refers to a certain married man who should be given the “murale” crown for successfully being the first to have breached the fortress of this woman (G. Bargagli 1982, 89).

Notes to pages 74–6 237 84 Ibid., 381. 85 On this proverb (which occurs not only in Italian but also in Latin, French, Spanish, English, and German) and its application to the Decameron, see Barolini; Gittes, 202–6. 86 S. Bargagli 1989, 381n1. 87 S. Bargagli 1989, 417. The “male deeds/female words” polarity could be a matter of sensitivity on the part of male writers. In his Worlde of Wordes (1598), John Florio defends his book against the charge that such an endeavour is not masculine, but rather feminine, citing the same proverb. He counters that words and deeds are one gender to him, and he argues that the strength and vigour of his work anyway proves it to be a male child (Florio, a4v; also Yates 1934, esp. 188–9). 88 S. Bargagli 1989, 394–401. 89 This appears to be the reading Laura Riccò would give, as she unearths the many sexual puns in this game at, e.g., 392n3, 396n1, and notes throughout this section of the text, 381–401. 90 That the complete fusion of the sexual and the martial/political was possible without compromise to the integrity of either theme is exemplified in Aristophanes’s Lysistrata. 91 Ibid., 393. 92 Ibid., 265–6; on hunting and fishing (on the part of both males and females) as sexual metaphor, see Gittes, 203–5; Grieco, 99–109. 93 Ibid., 543. 94 Ibid., 536. 95 Ibid., 544. As for the Florentine Carnival songs, first collected and published by Antonfrancesco Grazzini in 1559, see the anonymous “No’ sìan, donne, cacciatori” and especially the closing stanza, which opens “Tutta l’arte del cacciare/ nel pertica veggiàno” (Trionfi e canti, 425–6); cf. also the “Canzona de’ Cacciatori di golpi [dialect for volpi]” (ibid., 475–6; S. Bargagli 1989, 534n1). See also Tutti i trionfi; G. McClure 2004, 40–51. In Ringhieri’s Game of the Hunt there are necessarily cacciatrici as well as cacciatori (because his work was specifically addressed to women), but the metaphor is not strongly sexualized, as the game turns on hunters (whether male or female) calling out how they will hunt or wound a doe (Ringhieri, 59v–60v). 96 “facendo a gli uomini fare il romore e l’abbaiamento de’ cani, si cominciasse poi a gridare ‘All’Amore! All’Amore!’”(G. Bargagli 1982, 130). They seek out the beast of love in the cheek of this woman, for instance, and she says no, it is in the grace of that man, and the hunt proceeds. 97 G. Bargagli 1982, 61–2.

238 Notes to pages 76–8 98 See Riccò at S. Bargagli 1989, 232n1, who also makes this observation. As for the more phallocentric development of this theme, cf. Girolamo Bargagli’s citation of the story of ten women who would gladly like their fields to be worked by the young mezzaiuolo (sharecropper) (G. Bargagli 1982, 121–2 and n. 217 thereat). As for another precedent for the game of gardening (though one not truly sexualized), see Ringhieri’s Game of the Gardener, in which men and women plant seeds in their own gardens (Ringhieri, 53v–55r). 99 S. Bargagli 1989, 234. 100 Ibid., 242–4. 101 There exists a badly damaged document in BCI, P. V.16, packet no. 1, that records Scipione’s ghostwritten response to a criticism of the Trattenimenti by Alessandro Tessauro. That Scipione wrote the piece and later wanted to disguise his authorship is evident in his referring to Tessauro’s critique “intorno all’ operetta de [miei cancelled] Trattenimenti” (fol. 1r). Excising the “my,” he thereafter refers to the “author.” In this piece Scipione responds to various criticisms, including the main ones that it lacks propriety (given the bitterness of the memory) and lacks verisimilitude (that in a time so “lugubre, e calamitossimo … Donne, e Giovani si dimorino in ociosi diletti, et amorosi diporti”) (fol. 1r); Riccò in S. Bargagli 1989, 35–6n7. Scipione offered several rebuttals: no readers would take offence because the outcome was in God’s hand and the Sienese behaved admirably; young people would indeed have been inclined to carry on with their customary amusements, because “chi non sa la forza d’un habito, o d’una invecchiato usanza” and he cites the game of “pallone a livrea” played by some young men at the time; that the games took place not “in luogo pubblico, ma privato” and were “non palese, ma segreto, non pensato, ma fortuito, non di notte, ma di giorno, fra pochi, e non moltitudine di gente” (BCI, YP.V.16, packet no. 1, fols.1r–2r). As for the setting of the games, the Trattenimenti does specify that the group gathered “in uno onorato salotto ch’ivi dalla strada maestra è assai remoto” (S. Bargagli 1989, 48 and Riccò’s n. 3 thereat. On Tessauro (b. 1558), who published a poem entitled La Sereide in 1585, see Domenico Valla. 102 In speaking of the bravery of the Sienese, he says “di che sono per tutto buoni approvatori, come in que’ dí furono ottimi veditori, i principali capitani e i prodi cavalieri d’Arrigo Valerio, trovatisi quivi, come si suol dire, nella medisima nave, da’ quali si prendeva tuttavia ammirazion maggiore dello scorgere quanto numero di persone e con quanto fervor d’animo il giorno andassero e la notte portando sopra le proprie spalle, a tal opera non consuete, legni, pietre e terra a drizzare ognora nuovi ripari

Notes to pages 79–82 239 e riparare a’ luoghi dentro e fuore delle mura opportuni” (ibid., 26–7). And he then follows with remarks about the efforts of the women. On the currency of Monluc’s remarks, and the earliest publications on the event from Marco Guazzo (1553) and Guillaume Paradin (1556), see chapter 2 above, nn. 106 and 109. 103 S. Bargagli 1989, 465. 104 The dating of this work is disputed. Ferdinando de’ Medici and, later, Francesco de’ Medici had both requested a play from Alessandro Piccolomini, who farmed out the project to Girolamo Bargagli for plot and Fausto Sozzini for dialogue. The play, which thus was something of a collaborative effort (including revisions by Piccolomini), was published much later (1589) by Scipione Bargagli (see Bruno Ferraro’s discussion in G. Bargagli 1988, 11–16; Andrews 1993, 225–35; Seragnoli, 167–80). 4. Fortunes, Medals, Emblems: The Public Face of Private Women 1 For a consideration of the evidence and a survey of the literature on the closing of the academies, see G. McClure 2010, 1201. 2 This statement from the “Deliberazioni dei Rozzi” unearthed (but undated) by Curzio Mazzi, seems to be the firmest documentary evidence yet to be found on the closing: “Nel mjle cinquecento sesanta otto regnjava nela nostra cjtta di siena moltte academje e congrege quale fra ditte academie e congre (congreghe) regnjava la nostra sugara [the cork-tree, their emblem] e congrega de rozi qualj academje e congrege per buono rjspetto funo fatte tutte chudare da nostrj padronj ora con buona grazia de medesimj la congrega de rozi si erjmesa su e comjnciono aragunasi in casa … sotto il ei 31 di agosto 1603” (Mazzi 1882, 1:93n1; Riccò 1993, 140). 3 In a letter to the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi “Dell’origine, e processo dell’antica sanese accademia [of the Intronati],” Gigli discusses the cessation of meetings of the Intronati “à cagione di non ingelosire con i particolari congressi gli occhi veglianti del nuovo dominio” and in a marginal notes adds that in addition to the Intronati, the Rozzi and the confraternity Sotto lo Spedale also ceased meeting (BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 129v). In his Diario sanese, Gigli 1854, 1:278, dates the closing to 1563 (though 1568 is the more accepted and plausible date). 4 Mazzi 1882, 1:92. 5 Ibid., 1:91–2, 259–63; Seragnoli 72–4; Catoni 1986, 27–9. 6 The punishments included confinement outside the city for varying lengths of time; fines for the host of the party and another figure who dressed with a beard; and in the case of women, restrictions on certain

240 Notes to pages 82–3

7

8

9 10

11

12

13

14

forms of clothing and jewellery for varying lengths of time according to whether they performed at the comedy, merely watched, or dressed in disguises (Mazzi 1882,1:260–3; Seragnoli, 73–4). Mazzi describes the pre-Rozzi drama mocking Florentines in 1526, the pope’s woes in the Sack of Rome in 1527, and the appearance of the Spanish in comedies by the 1530s (Mazzi 1882, 1:264–9). Plaisance; Zanrè 2004, 15–21. According to Plaisance (421): “Pour Côme, l’Académie constitue un moyen d’occuper les intellectuels florentins et de les flatter, et permet de canaliser l’activité des jeunes en les éloignant de la politique. Plus largement, elle constitue un organisme culturel d’État jouant un rôle au niveau de tout Florence et de toute la Toscane.” Zanrè 2001. The Ortensio was performed either at Cosimo’s initial entry into Siena in October 1560 or on his return visit in January of the next year (Seragnoli, 147–8, 152–4). The second play, the Pellegrina, performed in 1589, resulted from a request by both Ferdinando de’ Medici and his brother Francesco for a play from Alessandro Piccolomini, who transferred the task to Girolamo Bargagli and Fausto Sozzini (see B. Ferraro in G. Bargagli 1988, 11–16). On heretical currents in the city beginning in the 1530s and 1540s, the exile of Lelio and Camillo Sozzini, the entry of the Inquisition, and the flight of Fausto Sozzini, see Marchetti, 1975 1–35; Belladonna; Caponetto, 100–3, 300–3. The specific circumstance concerned a lecture by a member of the Academy of the Travagliati on Purgatorio 21:1–3, where Dante mentions the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (in John 4:7–15). (As it turns out, probably the only reason the speaker chose this passage is because Dante uses the term “travagliava,” which resembles their academy name.) For a transcription of the relevant passage from a letter of June 1561 in Bargagli’s letter book, see Marchetti, 1969 83–4; for a translation, see G. McClure 2010, 1157. BCI, P.IV.27, no. 13, fol. 45v: “Qua chi ragionasse di ceppo, di veglie, di sembollo ragionarebbe d’heresia; chi disegnasse intertenimenti piacevoli per il Carnovale, machinarebbe contro lo stato.” This letter to Ascanio Salimbeni is immediately preceded in the copialettere by one dated 18 October [1562], so this letter presumably falls sometime in the last quarter of that year. P. Piccolomini, 163: “Ch’io sia acerrimo persecutore delle heretici.” On Cosimo’s political policy regarding the papcy, see Jedin; Diaz, 186–8, 194; Cantagalli 1985, 239, 271–8.

Notes to pages 83–4 241 15 On Ghislieri’s role in heading up the investigation of Sienese heresy starting in 1559, see Marchetti 1975, 172–8. On Benvoglienti, detained by the Inquisition for Calvinist views in December 1568, and the ties of Intronati member Attilo Marsili and Cristoforo Turamini to his group, see Seragnoli, 162n82; Marchetti 1970, 69; Celsi, 588n1; P. Piccolomini, 170–88. On Marsili’s indictment for heresy along with with Benvoglienti in December 1568, see ibid., 170–4. On Cinuzzi, see Marchetti 1975, 152–3; Marchetti 1970, 63–5. On Celsi, who wrote a brief history of the Intronati, and for his treatise In haereticis coërcendis quatenus progredi liceat, see Celsi, passim and 538–41. 16 The extradition of his acquaintance Pietro Carnesecchi, who was executed for heresy in 1567, was undoubtedly the greatest concession Cosimo made to Pius V to earn his new title. In any case, when the pope enumerated the sixteen reasons for bestowing the honour on Cosimo, he listed first his vigilance in safeguarding Tuscany from heresy (Cantagalli 1985, 271–8; Diaz, 188–91; Gigli 1854, 1:84; D’Addario, 154). 17 Bertini, 118–19; Bertini, 116, argues that “quell’odore [of heresy], ossessionava, intorno al 1567–68, Francesco de’ Medici.” 18 P. Piccolomini, 168–9; Catoni 1996, 142. 19 Catoni 1996, 142, 148; for the grand-ducal decree regarding the “Capitoli et Privilegi degli Huomini d’arme del dì 25, Giugno 1568,” see Cantini, 7:22–6. 20 Habermas, 1–56. In the treatise’s prefatory statements Bargagli traces the group back to Cosimo’s founding and its continuation under his successors Francesco and Ferdinando ([S. Bargagli] 1591, 4). He claims that the emblems are original and composed “da ingegni Sanesi, così come nobili Sanesi sono i portatori d’esse” (ibid., 9) as if to emphasize the split between the intellectual and the noble elite; the creators (who sign their emblems) included Scipione himself and other such literati as Fortunio Martini, Bellisario Bulgarini, Giugurta Tomasi, and others. At one point he notes that emblems are the special preserve of the “Academie (delle quali si è quello dell’ Imprese propriissimo studio)” (ibid., 9). One other way in which this body of knights co-opted academy culture was in the identification of each figure with a nickname: for instance, “Cavalier del Chiuso Pensiero” or “Cavalier Aggravato” (ibid., 61, 33). 21 In this letter on the origin of the Intronati to the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi, Gigli writes “Mà perchè gli allori di Minerva da tanto tempo trascurati, mostrano à quel buon Principe aver di bisogno d’una distinta e particolar cultura da quelli di Marte” (BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 130v). 22 Curzio Mazzi plausibly argues that such a court devoted to women would not pose a political threat in the current crackdown: “Notevole è

242 Notes to pages 84–6

23 24 25

26 27 28 29

che questa Corte nascesse e vivesse a quel tempo in cui tutte le Accademie e Congreghe furon tenute chiuse dal nuovo duca e signore; il quale in vero niente avendo a temere da una brigata di gentiluomini intesi solamente a convitare e festeggiare le belle gentildonne, avrà anzi veduto volentieri tali lieti ritrovi, durati almeno fino a dieci anni dopo, restandoci del 1579 un ricordo della Corte” (Mazzi 1882, 2:359). Now edited in Riccò 1993, 147–61. Riccò 1993, 148. Although use of the term “essecutiva” here surely is largely owing to the fact that the sentence opens with the passage “lascio da banda mille altre difficultà che apportano seco tutte le essecutione delle cose,” it is nonetheless plausible to argue that Martini’s referring to Flavia’s winning fame as an “essecutiva e … valorosa donna” (ibid, 149) also suggests an acknowledgment of female agency. Riccò 1993, 149. Mazzi 1882, 2: 359. G. Bargagli 1982, 159–60. This treatise (in BCI, Y.II.26) remained unpublished until Laura Riccò’s edition in Riccò 1993, 165–242, which I will cite. As Riccò (ibid., 300–1 and Riccò 1985) shows, probably in the 1590s Scipione Bargagli appears to have planned a Venetian edition of the medal reverses together with a ludic debate between the Ferraiuoli Knights and some fictive foreign visitors (see below) and a new edition of Girolamo Bargagli’s Dialogo de’ giuochi. The ms. fragment of this project, preserved in BCI, P.V.16, 2nd packet, fols. 1r–3r (or 138r–140r), contains an anonymous “Lo Stampatore in Venetia a’ benigni Lettori” in Scipione’s hand. Most revealing are the emendations in the ms. that show Scipione’s indecision as exactly how to characterize his city of Siena and its women. In speaking of the games of the city, he emends “nobilissima Città di Siena” to “si riguardevole Città” (in superscript), then in the margin to “egregia Città” and finally settles on “spiritosa Città” (ibid., fol. 2v [or 139v]; Cf. Riccò 1985, 252). Even more intriguing is his vacillation as to how, in the anonymous voice of a “Venetian printer,” to characterize the Sienese women. In the first mention of them, he decisively identifies them as “belle, e valorose Donne” (ibid., fol. 2v [or 139v])., but in a second reference he has several changes of heart. He emends an initial wording of “spiritose Gentildonne” to “accorte e sapute Gentildonne” (in superscript), and then in the margin to “leggiadre Gentildonne, ” before finally settling on “virtuose e belle Gentildonne” (BCI, P.V.16, fol. 140r; cf. Ricco 1985, 253–4). In the changes he thus has reassigned “spirited” to the city and removed it from the

Notes to pages 86–90 243

30 31 32 33

34

35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

women. It would seem that the accurate (or acceptable) characterization of Sienese women was a matter of debate for Scipione, as in this second reference to them he moves incrementally to more conventional adjectives: from “spirited” to “shrewd and wise” to “charming” and finally to the more traditional “virtuous and beautiful.” Perhaps he sensed the need to assign the Sienese women more mainstream female attributes for a Venetian publication for the voice of a Venetian printer. These emendations are perhaps a telling reflection of the new and conflicting attitudes towards more intellectual, shrewd, and spirited (as opposed to virtuous or beautiful) women in the public domain. Riccò 1993, 168. On parlour games revolving around astrology and fortune, as in Sigismondo Fanti’s Triompho di fortuna of 1527, see Brown, 136–40. Riccò 1993, 184, 216–17. Ibid.,168: “Dove incontra ben le più volte che per quelle siano fatte saper le cose della passata vita d’alcuno, non altrimenti che non essendo elleno state mai gli debbano avvenire una volta, et siano ancora scoperte le fantasie et i pensieri, et come si suol dire gl’humori altrui, di cosa che stimi essergli tra l’altre più fissa nell’animo.” Ibid.: “Là onde ben comprender si può quanto di piacere et di giovamento insieme debba portar’alli spiriti nobili e leggiadri in sentirsi con dolcezza raffrenar’o spronare da quello, od a quel corso al quale si trovino di già haver mossi i pensieri dell’animo loro.” Ibid., 174. Ibid., emphasis added. Ibid. See the “Proemio alle dichiarationi de’ riverci de’ Cortigiani Ferraiuoli” (ibid., 196–206). Ibid., 198. Ibid., 198, emphasis added. Ibid. Ibid., 199. Ibid., 198. Ibid., 199. Ibid.,180, 207. Ibid., 190, 233; cf. the Giuoco dell’Assedio in the Trattenimenti (S. Bargagli 1989, 339–80) and chapter 3 above. Riccò 1993, 188. Ibid., 180, 208. Ibid., 184, 218.

244 Notes to pages 90–3 50 Ibid., 190, 233. 51 Ibid., 189. 52 Ibid., 231: “Havendo in costume i romani d’usare per loro spose novelle in vece del dirizzacrine un’hasta ferrata, questo era per renderle avvertite che, essendo congiunte con persona forte et valorosa, non conveniva guidar la vita loro in delicatezze et vanità femminile.” As for this custom, cited in, for instance, Ovid’s Fasti 2:560 and Plutarch’s Quaestiones romanae 87 (Moralia 285c–d), see La Follette, 60, who discusses various other interpretations of the meaning of the “hasta caelibaris” (though oddly omits the one cited here, even though it is one of the possible explanations of the custom posed by Plutarch). 53 Ibid., 221, emphasis added. 54 S. Bargagli 1989, 101. 55 Cf. L. Riccò in S. Bargagli 1989, 101n1. 56 Scipione’s explication here reads: “le donne loro, di ciò fatte accorte, incontinente presero l’armi et, fatto sforzo contr’a’ nimici, non solamente rimessero in piedi la già perduta schiera de’ lor mariti, ma roppero ancora et messero in fuga i messenii, onde i lacedemoni, abbracciando le mogli loro armate, così come essi ancora erano, si congiunsero con sommo diletto insieme” (Riccò 1993, 221, emphasis added). 57 Anthony Bowen’s trans. in Lactantius, 106, emphasis added and spelling Americanized. 58 Riccò, 1993, 184, 216; 185, 221–2; 187, 226–7; 191, 234–5. 59 Ibid., 149–50. 60 On the larger theme of the emasculation of the Sienese male elite and the masculation of the female elite during the siege in the 1550s, see Girolamo Gigli’s views in chapter 6 below. 61 This work, in manuscript until Lauro Riccò’s edition of 1993, is not formally entitled and appears in the collection “Raguaglio delle cose da ripresentarsi dalla radunanza de’ Ferraiuoli.” Based on her examination of another manuscript of the text at BCI, C.III.30 (which consists largely of an autograph text of Belisario Bulgarini), Riccò assigns the text to him and possibly others (Riccò 1993, 244–86, 306–23). 62 The suppression of some of these details, as well as the author’s name, may be owing to a desire to keep the event somewhat under the radar of the authorities – although in his text Scipione identified the site of his gathering: at the home of Ascanio Borghesi (ibid., 175). The other gathering, presumably at the home of Piccolomini, is described as occurring on the first anniversary of the creation of the court (ibid., 248), and thus presumably in the same Carnival season of 1570. It may be indicative of

Notes to pages 93–6 245

63

64 65 66 67 68 69

70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79

80

the emerging accommodation of the Sienese academies to the granducal regime that five of the Knights are identified as being Knights of the Order of San Stefano, an order Duke Cosimo created in 1561 to fight the Turks (ibid., 132, 247, 281). As for further co-opting of academies, in June of 1568 Cosimo created another order of knights for policing Florence and Siena, and in 1591 Scipione and other literati composed emblems for these knights: see [S. Bargagli] 1591; Riccò 1993, 131–2; G. McClure 2010, 1165–6. It is unclear whether this island of “Herma” is meant to refer to the tiny channel island of Herm. In any case, this is meant to depict an obviously fanciful encounter. Riccò 1993, 249. Petrarch 1976, 329. Riccò, 1993, 250–5. On Aristotle’s biological views of women, see Jordan, 29–34. Ibid., 255. Ibid., 257. Ibid., 257. As for Ariosto’s catalogue of notable women and his similar charge that they have been deprived of their fame by invidious writers, see Orlando furioso 37:1–23 (Ariosto 1966, 1095–1102.) Riccò 1993, 258. On dowries, see King, 26–9; Molho. Riccò 1993, 258. Ibid., 267. Ibid., 267. Ibid., 267. Ibid., 263. See chapter 2. See Bk. 9.11, entitled “Se’l vero Amore è per elettione ò per destino” (A. Piccolomini 1545, 236–41). Thus, the Ferraiuoli Knight: “Ma mi dite: guarda che se amore è per destino non sarà degno biasimo né di lode, volendo (per quel che io credo) inferire che per destino et naturalmente sia una cosa istessa. Et io vi rispondo che in quel modo è degno di lode, ché meritono d’esser lodate le cose di pregio donateci dalla natura, come sarebbe a dire la bellezza corporale, la destrezza et vivacità dell’ingegno, la gagliardia et simili” (Riccò 1993, 278). In the first edition of the De la institutione of 1542, Piccolomini makes the interesting comment that if choice is not in play, then “the beloved would not be obligated to love … as in those who through force and violence,

246 Notes to pages 97–9

81

82 83

84

85

86 87 88

89

would be induced to love and not through free choice, from which merits and demerits and praise and blame is weighed and measured” (A. Piccolomini 1545, 238, emphasis added). Mazzi 1882, 2:424–5; Maylender, 5:346–7. Aside from its traces here in BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 406r–549r, the academy was also depicted in an anonymous, undated ms. describing a ludic emblem contest between the academies of the Intronati, the Accesi, and the Travagliati (Y.II.23, fols. 298v–378r; on which see G. McClure 2010). In his copialettere of 1561, Girolamo Bargagli also refers to the Travagliati running afoul of the religious authorities for presenting a lecture on a passage from Dante’s Purg. 21:1–3 (G. McClure 2010, 1157). BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 411v, 417r. This passage is from the title of the prefatory piece: “A le nobile, e caste giovani, cui piaqque al cielo sotto protesto de la Ventura di palesare il premio da Giove lassù destinato, al merito del valor loro, il libro per commissione del autore” (BCI, Y.II.23, fol. 412v). BCI, Y.II.23, fol. 417v: “vostra altra virtute, / E’l senno, e la bellezza / Hanno in Giove di voi desta vaghezza / che v’apporta salute / Ne vuol per voi cangiarsi in cigno, o n’toro, / Ma che splendiate intorno al sommo choro / Qual poi sia il guiderdone uguale al merto / ch’in voi Donne s’avanza / e chevi [?] da nel cielo, e fama, e stanza.” Ibid, fols. 421v–422r: “Giove … non però seppe al amoroso suo appetito por freno, anzi horo in toro hora in cigno, hora in altra forma cangiandosi, fece si che la gelosa sua moglie per venicarsi del ingiuria messe più volte in gravi pericoli il mondo.” Ibid., fol. 423v. Ibid., fols. 224r–425r. Ibid., fols. 497v–498r: “Ma di che cantera ella prima? Dira forse le lodi del sesso donnesco? Mostrando che ne à loro mancarebbero Orfej o Esiodj, se l’arroganza degl’huomini sottoponendose, non circoncrivesse loro ogni ardire? Certonon, che la modestia sua non eleggerebbe simil materia. Cantera forse la patientia di Psiche? Ne quello credo io, perche come accortissima non vorrà provocarsi venore inimica.” Ibid., fol. 498r–v: “nuova deificatione di voi tutte divine giovanj farà del suo carme soggetto. Ò beati voi, ò felici Travagliati, ò felicissima Siena. Poiche in gloria del cielo sopra la lira d’Apollo à la presentia del Divino Consistoro per bocca di Madonna Livia s’udiranno le vostre glorie da i meritj vostri pendentj s’udirà il sapere degl’Academici s’udirà finalmente la grandezza, e la buona fortuna de la città vostra.”

Notes to pages 101–3 247 90 Ibid., fol. 540v: “Piacque Calisto à Giove, ma fu poco modesta la cagione del compiacimento. All’incontro piace Madonna Claudia à Dio, ma honesta, e casta cagione cio è il sommo, e sincero Amore, con che ella il primo monarca honora; il Fattor muove di cosi rara fattura à compiacersi: Compunta dunque Calisto la chiama et il luogo suo le consegna.” 91 For the fortune and a subsequent poem, see ibid., fols. 530v–535r. 92 The first allusions to the Hair of Berenice date to Eratosthenes, and the cluster was first isolated as a discrete constellation by Caspar Vopel in 1536, followed by Mercator in 1551, and then achieving its permanent name (and status) in Brahe’s catalogue in 1602 (Ridpath, 53–4; Allen, 168–72). It is perhaps only a coincidence that the autonomy of the Hair of Berenice in the astronomical charts comes in the course this century in which female fortunes, medals, and emblems are gelling, but perhaps not a coincidence that the longest of Martini’s expositions would be devoted to this newly autonomous female constellation honouring one of the most notable of the Sienese elite. 93 Ibid., fol. 532v: “Non sapete voi che una gemma pretiosa si lega in oro, non vedete che una reliquia, o un liquore di molta virtù in un vaso d’oro si serra? Lo intelletto e la mente de lei legate, o serrate con queste fila d’oro non sono gemme pretiossime non son reliquie e liquori di pretiossima e potentissima virtù [?] Non senza cagione la natura circuindo la testa di Madonna Fulvia di pretiossimo oro, che ben sapeva che niuno tesoro haveva al mondo prodotto che in valore à purgatissima anima di lei agguagliasse.” 94 On Coluccio Salutati’s prominent development of the motif in the De laboribus Herculis of 1381–2, see Witt, 212–26. 95 BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 486v–487r (emphasis added): “Come dunque esser esser [word repeated] puote ch’un huomo figlio di Giove illustre per l’opere divino, à madonna Sulpitia doni, e ceda il luogo suo?” 96 Ibid., fol. 487r: “Hercole fu dignissimo del cielo, ma madonna Sulpitia è molto piu degna.” 97 Ibid., fol. 487v: “Humani sono le virtù, e per humano valore acquistate, cosi ad un suo libro insegnò gia Aristotele. Divina è la bellezza, e da Dio à le creature participata, e come parte di Dio, ne i belli corpi risplende, e come buona dando odor di se gl’animi, ad ammiratione inclina, e gl’occhi sforza, cosi à piu suoi libri mostrò Platone.” 98 Ibid., fol. 529r–v. 99 Ibid., fol. 529v: “essendo dunque madonna Flavia forte di animo, robusta e bella di corpo, vigilante nel custodine tutte le sue belle doti [,] terribile

248 Notes to pages 103–7

100 101 102

103 104

105

106

107

e spaventevole à coloro che à vili intendimenti declinano.” And earlier he asks: “conosceste mai fra di voi donna di più vigoroso cuore, e di animo piu forte” (fol. 528v). Her praises also include the intellectual: “Udiste mai raccontare di donna di piu alto intendimento!” (fol. 529r). Ibid., fols. 528v–529r: “la severa piacevolezza ond’ella comanda ce il terrore, onde con un cenno solo gl’huomini terreni spaventa.” S. Bargagli 1594, 107–8. S. Bargagli 1594, 104: “vollero dico i Cortigiani Ferraiuoli, che la notte della Befania, secondo l’usato costume, si traesse alla presenza d’amorose gentildonne alcuna Ventura; ma che la maniera di quella esser non dovesse cosi dell’usitate. E perche tutti quasi que’ belli Spiriti erano gravemente occupati nel detto magnifico apparecchiamento, diedero di ciò la cura ad alcuni pochi de’ loro, ma la principal carica è vera, e certa, che fu posta sopra il Domestico nostro della medesima schiera, e con spazio di tempo brevissimo pur da pensarvi.” Ibid., 433. Ibid., 433: “m’è caduto in animo, che l’Imprese c’havete a sentire da me al presente, siano da donne composte e non da huomini; overo, che trovate siano a richiesta, o comandamento of leggiadre, e nobili donne.” In chapter 63, ll. 73–92, the duenna explains the comparison of the confined women (desiring sexual freedom) to the caged bird: “The bird that’s captured in the forest green, / Shut in a cage and nourished carefully, / And fed delicious food, may seem to sing / With happy heart, in your opinion; / And yet it longs to be among the boughs / Out in the woods, which naturally it loves, / And howsoever well it may be fed / Would much prefer to flit among the trees, / Ever it pines and struggles to get free. / With all the ardor which fulfills its heart / It treads its food beneath its feet, and seeks / Throughout its cage, in greatest agony, / To find some door or other opening / Through which is may escape into the wood. / Know well that every damosel or dame, / Whatever her environment may be, / Has the inclination naturally / To long and search for roadways and for paths / By which to come into that liberty / Which all of them forever wish to have” (Harry W. Robbins’s trans. in Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, 291). On Chaucer’s use of the motif in the Manciple’s Tale (lines 163–74; Chaucer, 225–6) and elsewhere in the Canterbury Tales, see Economou. For a study of the 21 editions of the work between c. 1481 and 1538 and the woodcuts of the birdcage as an illustration of the “Power of Nature, ” see Bourdillon, 17–18, 205–7, plates VI. Kay, 40.

Notes to pages 107–10 249 108 Cereta’s comment comes in a letter to Pietro Zecchi that has been characterized as “the first anti-marriage treatise authored by a woman” (McCue Gill, 1104, credits this characterization to Diana Robin; Cereta, 72 and 26). 109 L. Panizza’s trans. in Tarabotti, 59; King, 90. As for woman as birds, see Ringhieri’s Game of Trees and Birds at Ringhieri, 34v. Also, on the use of the birdcage in a sexualized context, see Anton Francesco Grazzini's Florentine Carnival song of the “Masters of the Making Birdcages” in Tutti, 496. 110 S. Bargagli 1594, 433. 111 Ibid., 433. 112 Ibid., 433. 113 Ibid., 434. A more gendered version of such a sentiment (that is, one dealing with the relationship between the female and male lovers, rather than the female’s abstract relationship to Love) can be found in one of the female troubadours of the twelfth century, Maria de Ventadorn. In her poetic dialogue with her lover Gui d’Ussel, she argues for an equality of relations between the two lovers: “Gui, the lover humbly ought to ask/ for everything his heart desires,/ and the lady should comply wit his request/ within the bounds of common sense;/ and the lover ought to do her bidding/ as toward a friend and lady equally,/ and she should honor him the way/ she would a friend, but never as a lord (cum ad amic, mas non cum a seignor)” (M. Bogin’s translation in Bogin, 100–1; emphasis added; Kelly, 142. 114 Ibid., 435; cf. S. Bargagli 1989, 263–4. 115 S. Bargagli 1594, 433–4. 116 Ibid., 434; Ariosto 1976, 60, and Peter Desa Wiggins’s preface in ibid., 51–6. 117 Wollstonecraft, 150–3. 118 S. Bargagli 1594, 434. 119 Ibid., 436. 120 Ibid., 438. 121 Ibid., 439. 122 Tarabotti, 91. 123 S. Bargagli 1594, 439: “Che quanto invero l’esser liberto di se, e signore delle sue operazione è cosa propria, e naturale della creatura humana, altrettanto il sommettersi a persona, & il menar la sua vita legata in servitù, è cosa avversa e tutta a quella contraria.” 124 He presents an account of the elaborate triple wedding she staged at the Petrucci palace and all the attendant spectacles (ibid., 441). 125 Ibid., 442.

250 Notes to pages 110–16 126 Ibid., 464. 127 Ibid., 469–70. He further explains that her choice of the snail was owing to its similarity to a treasured shell of pearl she possessed, and out of which her medal was sculpted (ibid., 469). Of course, the Chiocciola (Snail) was one of the contrade of Siena, but there is no reason to suspect that this was the reason for her choice, as this was not the contrada (Drago) in which the palazzo Spanocchi was located, nor, for that matter, the one (Selva) in which the palazzo Bindi Sergardi was to be found. 128 Ibid., 446. 129 Ibid., 447. 130 Ibid., 447. The stanza from Ariosto, “Satire 5”: lines 265–7, is “Ch’ella ti sia compagna abbi disegno; / non come in comperata per tua serva / reputa aver in lei dominio e regno” and the next stanza urges that “quanto più amica puoi te la conserva” (Ariosto 1976, 138). Even though this satire certainly has some comic and even (at the closing) vulgar features, some of the advice – such as the lines cited above – can be seen as genuine reflections on a proper marriage. In fact, the satirical force in part may come from the fact that Ariosto addressed the satire to Annibale Malaguzzi, who was about to marry a daughter of the Pio family of Carpi. Thus, when Ariosto urges that one should not seek to “marry up” – as Malaguzzi was set to do – but rather find a social equal, his counsel is satirical only in the context of the dedicatee. Indeed, in some ways Ariosto’s satirical target was the conventional customs surrounding marriage, rather than simply marriage itself. On the circumstances of this satire, see Peter Desa Wiggins at ibid., 117–22. 131 And similarly he depicts one (fig. 11) of a mustard plant (which can bring tears to the eyes) with the motto “A Chi la Noia, Pianto” (or in Latin “Fletum Lacessenti”) (Tears to One Who Disturbs). 132 S. Bargagli 1594, 456: “si mostrava cortese per natura, gioiosa, e lieta a chi cosi da lontano seguitasse in amarla … e ch’a qualunque amadore lascivamente, o poco honestamente accostar le si voleste, ella non pur gli si renderebbe avversa, ritrosa; ma nimica mortalissima.” In a similar vein, Scipione describes one depicting a building material that will not burn, with the motto “Impenetrabile,” to indicate a woman impervious to the flames of love (ibid., 457). 133 Ibid., 460. 134 This last emblem depicts a laurel plant with the motto “In Arido Terreno,” drawn from a stanza of Petrarch’s Rime sparse 64:9–11, which describes a laurel plant unsuitably situated in arid ground that would welcome a new site (Petrarch 1976, 143). Scipione says that he does not

Notes to pages 116–19 251 remember if this woman’s name was indeed Laura, as these emblems often played upon the woman’s name. In any event, given the meaning (and further implications) of her emblem, we may assume that her husband was not present at the party. 135 S. Bargagli 1594, 459. 136 In his collection of medal reverses, Scipione Bargagli also included one for “una nobilissima vedova,” which depicted a black dove (Riccò 1993, 182). In his explication of the medal, he explains how the ancient Egyptians recognized the dove as the paragon of devotion to its mate and thus saw it as the ideal symbol of a woman “in perfect and respectable widowhood.” Black, moreover, was not only the traditional colour for dolorous matters but also a “segnal di fermezza et di perseveranza” (ibid., 212). One of only two of the ninety-four medals that had an unnamed recipient, this medal, like the eclipsed-moon emblem above, reflected the ambiguous status of the “widow in public.” 5. The Birth of the Assicurate: Italy’s First Female Academy (1654–1704) 1 On the reopening of the Rozzi on 31 August and the Intronati on 14 December 1603 see Mazzi, 1:92–3. 2 Both the Breve descrittione (Intronati 1611, 2:411–451) and the Oratione (ibid., 2:452–553) were included in a two-volume edition, Delle commedie degli Accademici Intronati di Siena, published in 1611. The Breve descrittione opens with an account of the effigies, devices, and mottoes of Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici (identified as their “Maecenas”), his wife Christine of Lorraine, and their son Cosimo, all to show their submission to their Florentine overlords: “Tutto ciò per denotare, la dovuta singolare osservanza, e devotione degl’Accadèmici Intronati, verso i loro Serenissimi Padroni” (ibid., 2: 417). 3 This oration, addressed to the Accesi Academy in April 1564, was originally composed in Latin, and then revised and republished in Italian in 1569 (see L. Riccò in S. Bargagli 1989, xxxv). Written and revised during the decade in which the Sienese academies faced increasing suppression and finally (in 1568) closure (on which, see G. McClure, 2010), Scipione’s oration tries to defend the usefulness of academies in fostering civic peace and buttressing the power of princes, and especially the Grand Duke Cosimo (see S. Bargagli, 1594, 511–45, esp. at 538–40). 4 Intronati 1611, 2:472–75. 5 Ibid., 2:470; cf. Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:432; for Petrarch’s sonnet 289, line 14, “io gloria in lei, et ella in me virtute!,” see Petrarch 1976, 469.

252 Notes to pages 120–1 6 Scipione conflates two observations from the Deipnosophists here to suggest that all these gods were honoured in the Platonic Academy, but in fact Athenaeus observed that Eros could be found worshipped alongside Hermes and Hercules in Greek gymnasia and alongside Athena in the Platonic Academy. 7 L. McClure (no relation), 27–58. 8 Intronati 1611, 2:526–7. 9 “Che questa valorosa squadra accademica si sia pe’ tempi trovata in alcuna competenza, e contrasto con altre simili schiere di pari armi, e ardire guernite; e ch’ella n’habbia allo spareggio riportata l’insegna gloriosamente alzata” (ibid., 2:527). 10 Ibid., 2:527–8. The dominant strand of Sienese culture, comedy, is also framed in terms of political docility. In a prologue to the Ortensio, performed by the Intronati for Duke Cosimo’s entry into Siena in 1560 (or early 1561), Scipione constructs a dialogue between two sisters, Tragedy and Comedy. When Tragedy appears in town drawn by the fame of the academies, Comedy says she should not expect a strong interest: Tragedy deals with high personages and can advise princes, but Comedy says that their prince has no need of Tragedy’s advice (Intronati 1611, 1:540). Comedy proclaims that she is more attuned to those of the “mezzano stato,” deals with “the more common affairs of human life,” and owes her prominence in the city to women, to whom comedies are directed (ibid., 1:539–40). The point here is that the prologue expressly depicts political tragedy as now irrelevant in Siena, so much are they under the “protection” of their Florentine masters, and comedies – and festive life in general – can now return to the city (ibid., 1:543–4). Political domination thus facilitated the ascendancy of comedy in the city (and in this dialogue between Comedy and Tragedy); on the prologue, see Seragnoli, 138–42). 11 A measure of how women were viewed more as pawns than competitors in the ancient world can be seen in Athenaeus’s account of one interpretation of a scene in the Odyssey (1:106–7) in which the suitors are depicted as playing a board game (pessoi). In this account two teams of fifty-four suitors essentially shoot marbles to win the figure of Penelope poised in the middle (Deipnosophists 1.16e–17b; Kurke, 255–6). 12 Intronati 1611, 2:533. 13 Intronati 1611, 2:533–4, emphasis added: “in quel tempo venne rinvigorito il numero di questa (per modo di dire) accademica greggia, di persone femminili si per natura, ma per senno bene, e per iscienza virili.”

Notes to pages 121–2 253 14 Although Scipione identifies both as Intronati members, he admits to not being able to remember the Intronati nickname of Creusa Florida, “contessa di Pratta [Prata] in Venetia” (Intronati 1611, 2:534). This may be because she was not an official member: Battiferra, wife of the Florentine sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati, is found (as the first woman member) in the list of 1557, but Florida, whom Scipione hails for her prose and verse in Greek, Latin, and Italian, is not listed for that year or the subsequent list drawn up in 1603 (Sbaragli1942, 183–4, 193–8). In a poetic exchange between Girolamo Bargagli and Battiferra, the latter expresses her gratitude to the Intronati, by whose “shining bountiful splendour I was / lifted from such thick shadows[.] // To what more learned and honored troop / than this one, that I not fear the passing of / the hours, could others’ late-night vigils and my / sweat open to me a more glorious entry? // How much then do I owe you, elect and rare / spirits so courteous to me?” (Victoria Kirkham’s trans. In Battiferra, 171.A letter by Florida is included in Ortensio Landi’s collection, Lettere di molte valorose donne of 1549 (Landi, fols. 129r–130v). 15 “I signori accademici Intronati nella lora accademia avendo ammesse le più principali poetesse di Parnaso, Apollo comanda che sieno levate” (Ragguaglio 21 in the first Centuria; Boccalini, 66; Varese, 2). 16 Boccalini, 66. On the publication of Colonna, Gambera, and Terracina by Lodovico Domenichi, Gabriel Giolito, and others, see Robin, 50–1, 60, 205–42. 17 For editions of Buoninsegni’s Satira and Tarabotti’s Antisatira, see Buoninsegni and Tarabotti. On Tarabotti, whose coerced entry into a nunnery at age thirteen provoked her Tirannia paterna (this, her original title for the work that eventually appeared as Semplicità ingannata) and Inferno monacale, see ibid., 7–28; Tarabotti; Heller, 57–68; Biga, 49; King, 89–91; Weaver in Buoinsegni, 7–28; Westwater, 69–74. 18 On Aprosio’s acquaintance with Buoninsegni when he spent time in Siena between 1626 and 1632, see Biga, 49. For an edition of Aprosio’s unpublished La maschera scoperta and the controversy, see Biga; Heller, 63–8. 19 Buoninsegni, 40; Biga, 49–52, 121. 20 See Ottonelli (and discussion in my conclusion below); Biga, 106. Moreover, in the following decade (1656) a Lucchese Dominican named Lodovico Sesti (writing under a pseudonym) also attacked Tarabotti, publishing in Siena his Censura dell’Antisatira di Suor Angelica [sic] Tarabotti, in which he marvelled that “una femmina infarinata” (lightly learned woman) dared to challenge a “huomo” and “Accademico” (cited and discussed in Biga, 89–90).

254 Notes to pages 123–4 21 He identifies himself as being “dell’ordine de’ Predicatori, gia publico lettore nell’Università di Pisa, ed hora Professore della Sagra Teologia nello Studio Generale, Teologo Collegiato, Consultore del Sant’Offizio, ed Accademico Filomato di Siena” (Ugurgieri Azzolini, title page). 22 According to Girolamo Gigli’s “Lettera dell’Economico Intronato all’Illustrissimo Signore Antonio Magliabechi Bibliotecario … dell’origine, e processo dell’antica sanese accademia,” Prince Mattias de’ Medici (son of Grand Duke Cosimo II), governor of Siena, authorized the union of the two academies and obtained “dal Serenissimo Granduca [his brother Ferdinando II de’ Medici) un annua rendita per la accademia sopra l’appalto per le carte da giuocare” (BCI, Y.I.3, ff. 131v–132r). 23 See the section entitled “Giuochi usati da’ Sanesi nelle veglie loro” in chapter 20 (Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:647–9). 24 Ibid., 2:396–400, 403. 25 Ibid., 2:397. 26 Ibid., 2:401; S. Bargagli 1989,7–9. 27 Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:398; G. Bargagli, 1982, 102. 28 G. Bargagli, 1982, 168, relates the story without identifying Iuditta as the Santi woman, though she is mentioned earlier in the treatise in another context (ibid., 98). According to Ugurgieri Azzolini, her silent reply was a box with a pearl and a broken wedding ring to symbolize his broken faith. Of her he then continues: “Questa è stata tra le Dame di Siena, che furono ò scopo, ò motivo delle più nobili azzioni virtuose de’ vecchii Accademici Intronati la principale; perche per formare Imprese, comporre poeticamente, e far tutto ciò, che à persona ornata di belle lettere non hebbe molti eguali, anco parlando di quelli di prima classe” (Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:403). This story bears out Bargagli’s claim that the games could win “eternal grido” for the Sienese women, though he does not cite Santi as one of those (G. Bargagli 1982, 92). 29 On Livia Marzi, whom he praises for her published sonnets and madrigals (and who was enshrined as the constellation Lyra in Giugurta Tomasi’s star book), see Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:398. On Frasia Marzi – to whom Marcantonio Piccolomini dedicated his Ragionamento of whom wrote a biography (see chapter 2 above) – Ugurgieri Azzolini reveals that he has been able to read some of her unpublished poems, as well those of Frasia Bandini, whom he charactersizes as a “Dama di bizzarrissima fantasia” (ibid., 2:399). He also includes an entry for Francesca Scotti (d. 1509), a poetess praised by Sannazzaro (ibid., 2:396). 30 Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:406. See chapter 2 above. He does not give the first name of Forteguerri, and would thus distinguish her from Laudomia Forteguerri, who receives a separate entry at #29 (ibid., 2:403, 406).

Notes to pages 124–6 255 31 Ibid., 2:408. 32 Ibid., 2:404. He then goes on to cite her inclusion in Angelico Aprosio’s 1646 misogynistic Scudo di Rinaldo as one of the female literati in a chapter entitled “Se le Donne siano atte a gli esercitii delle Armi, e delle Lettere, e se perciò meritino de essere superiore a gli huomini” (Aprosio, 27). This citation from Aprosio’s recent work shows Ugurgieri Azzolini’s knowledge of this work and makes clearer the context of his own feminist agenda in this female prosopography. 33 Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:431: “essendo stata ama d’honore di Maria Maddalena Arciduchessa d’Austria, e Grand Duchessa di Toscano, liberalmente rimunerata de’ suoi servigii nella persona del suo Consorte con molti Maestrati, ed offizii in questa Città, e suo stato.” 34 Ibid., 2:431: “Hora se bene è avanti con l’età, nondimeno le sue vivezze sono, come prima, rigorose … E si come nella sua gioventù fù albergo delle grazie, e seggio bellezza, così hora ne scintillano gli spendori, se ben annuvolati da gli anni.” 35 Ibid., 2:432. 36 Ugurgieri Azzolini pays special attention here to the musical accomplishments of Sienese women, singling out by name several nuns (on whom, see Reardon, 3, 27, 33). 37 Ibid., 2:433. 38 On his awareness of this last point, cf. his praise of Francesca Scotti, who applied her “non femminili talenti alli studii delle belle lettere” (ibid., 2:396). 39 For the Intronati, see BCI, Y.I.1, ff. 1r–10v and last document (pp. 1–53 [or fols. 42r–71r]); also BCI, Y.I.4; for the Rozzi, see Mazzi 1882, 1:342–457. 40 See BCI, Y.II.22; a second copy of the book can be found at BCI, B.II.26. Little has been written on the Assicurate. The only discrete study that I know of is the sixty-six-page 1993 work of Carolina Scaglioso (which I was able to consult in the Biblioteca of the Università per Stranieri in Siena), which was very helpful in identifying ms. sources for the academy and published works of individual members. 41 Although the motto listed here reads “Quà ne difende, e quà n’illustra l’ombra” (BCI, Y.II.22, frontispiece, and fol. 2r), it is more commonly listed as “Quì ne difende, e quì n’illustra l’ombra” (at BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 5v–6r; cf. BCI, B.II.26; Mazzi 1882, 2:348. 42 Gigli 1854, 1:275, 418; Mazzi 1882, 2:348. 43 Given our discussion of the Ugurgieri Azzolini’s treatise above, it is worth noting that among the original 16 Assicurate were Caterina Ugurgieri Spannocchi and Violante Bargagli Ugurgieri (BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 1v and 3r).

256 Notes to pages 127–31 44 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 2r. 45 Of the Assicurate, Maylender, 1:366, comments: “Fra le adunanze letterarie istituite e composte da gentildonne, questa delle Assicurate costituisce il più antico e bell’esempio.” 46 In BCI, B.II.26, the title page reads: “Origine dell’Accademia dell’Assicurate di Siena col ruolo de’ nomi, et imprese di quelle dame, che si acriveranno alla medesima. Raccolto dal G. Signore Francesco Piccolomini” and recopied by Galgano Bichi. On the six games between 1680 and 1704, see BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 8r–16r; on the game not hosted by Piccolomini, but identified as being orchestrated by him, see ibid., fol. 14r. 47 Ibid., fol. 10r. 48 These women, Caterina Ugurgieri Spannocchi, Acritia Chigi Cerretani, and Margarita Piccolomini Nelli, respectively, were all among the founding members (ibid., fols. 1v, 3v, and 4r). 49 Of these, La Resoluta (Filomena Marsili Petrucci), L’Intrepida (Ginevera Guidini), La Maestosa (Caterina Chigi Piccolomini Mandoli), and La Disinvolta (Camilla Alberti Buonsignori) were among the original 16 (ibid., fols. 1v, 4r, 2r). In all, the number of women enrolled in the Assicurate in Y.II.22 totalled eighty-eight, though this number does not include any others (aside from Camilla Placidi Lucarini, inducted in 1672) who may have enrolled in games in 1672 and 1673 as listed in BCI, Y.I.2, pp. [134]–135. 50 Ibid., fol. 12r; on the alternate use of this emblem by, e.g., the Emperor Charles V, as a symbol of ambitious daring beyond the accepted frontiers, see Giovio and Domenichi, 24; E. Rosenthal. 51 In the detailed accounts of the parlour games (to be discussed below), see the recorder’s reference to the challenge of reporting “tutte quelle vivezze, che dalla femminile disinvoltura furono improvisamente proferite” (BCI, C.VIII, 26, fol. 69r); Giulia Cervini’s combatting a point with “maravigliosa disinvoltura” (ibid., fols. 81v–82r); the reference to Caterina Gaetana Griffoli Piccolomini’s “consueta disinvoltura” (ibid., fol. 120r); Portia Bichi Gori Pannelini’s interrupting a discussion “con un inesplicabile efficacia, et ammirabil disinvoltura” (ibid., fol. 143r). 52 In the Courtier 1. 28 (Castiglione, 50); on sprezzatura, see Lehfeldt, 471–2. 53 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 3r. 54 See fig. 8 and the discussion in chapter 4 above. Likewise, nicknames and emblems that seem to be wholly female in a traditional sense can take on a more assertive connotation. Vittoria Tancredi Ballati’s nickname, la Ritarata (the Secluded), suggests female retreat, and her emblem, “A Pearl Inside a Seashell,” female jewellery, but her motto is a rather defiant “I Open Myself Only to the Rays of the Sun” (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 3v).

Notes to pages 131–3 257 55 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 10v. 56 Ibid., fol. 12v. The locus for the lantern of Cleanthes would seem to be Varro’s De lingua latina 5.9, in which he referred to his night-time lucubrations by the lanterns of Aristophanes (of Byzantium) and Cleanthes (the Stoic philosopher); other references to these lanterns can be found in Poliziano’s Miscellanea (Godman, 81) and Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantegruel 5.33 (on this image, see Ker, esp. at 229n71.) 57 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 8v. 58 That there was prior planning for these names and emblems is unequivocally apparent in the case of the fourteen new members created in 1704 and the thirty-one women celebrated in the party of 1707/8: in the first case all of their mottoes were drawn from lines of verse from Dante, Petrarch, or Torquato Tasso (BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 16r–17v) and in the second all were drawn from Petrarch (BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 258v–263v, repeated at 303r–308r), a uniformity that obviously required preparation. 59 And a sixth game during this period, held to celebrate the entrance of Patritio Bandini’s new daughter-in-law to his home (site of the game), was orchestrated “per opera, e a preghiere del Signore Francesco Piccolomini [her husband]” (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 14r). 60 Ibid., fol. 10r. 61 Ibid., fol. 16r, emphasis added. 62 Thus the party of 1690 is entitled “Intrecciamento accademico guidato per comandamento dell’Illustrissima Signora Caterina Gaetana Piccolomini dall’Albagioso Intronato” (BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 68r). Caterina is similarily acknowledged in two other parties in 1691 (ibid., fols. 116r and 168r), and Olimpia Chigi ne’ Gori is named in the first game of 1664 (ibid., fol. 2r). In this supervisory role, the Sienese women conform to a role seen the Courtier 1:4–12, where Elisabetta Gonzaga and Emilia Pia are overseers of the launch of a game (though only marginal participants in its execution). What is notable here is that this record of the Sienese parties identifies a female role on four occasions, whereas the record book kept by Piccolomini did only in the case of the 1704 party. 63 The title page of this, the sole Assicurate publication, reads in part: “Poesie per musica fatte in congiuntura che le Signore Accademiche Assicurate di Siena fanno in Giuoco di Spirito … in casa del Signore Francesco Piccolomini a preghiere della Signora Caterina Gaetana Griffoli Piccolomini consorte del medesimo frà dette Accademiche, detta L’Impareggiabile” (Assicurate, 1704); see further discussion below. 64 On the alternate manuscript of this account of this last party, found in the papers of Giovanni Battista Pecci in the Biblioteca Moreniana in Florence,

258 Notes to pages 133–6

65

66

67

68

69 70

see Mazzi 1919, who cites the title of this anonymous account as “Veglia della domenica del carnevale fatta in Siena l’anno 1707 nella sala del. Sig. Lattanzio Finetti” (ibid., 171), but this presumably old-style date, falling as it does during Carnival, would likely denote 1708 in new style. Namely, games in 1664, 1690, two in 1691 (February and June), and 1699. (The dates between the two books are inconsistent, as I believe the compiler of the “Origin of the Assicurate” used modern dating, and the scribes of the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito” used old style.) If one adds two more games not recorded in either of these books, but listed in a manuscript in BCI, Y.I.2, pp. 133–[136] as occurring in June of 1672 and 1673, the aggregate number of recorded parlour games in the period totals twelve. BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 69r: “La memoria di chi scrive non puol esser così facile in reportare tutte quelle vivezze, che dall femminile disinvoltura furono improvisamente proferite.” The “chi scrive” in the above passage does not reveal the gender of the recorder, nor is it clear in any of the accounts, although I think it very likely that women wrote these accounts, given that the games discussed the creation among the Assicurate of offices such as the secretary and the censors. Sometimes, the recorder confesses to weakness of memory, as in a game during Carnival of 1691, where the scribe writes “se non erra la mia memoria (ibid., fol. 126v). At another point in this same game, the recorder suggests that the banter was simply too lively to capture: “seguirono scambievolmente vivacissimi motti, la moltiplicità de quali rende più scarsa la penna nella relatione” (ibid., fol. 121v). In the last party of the book of 1707/8 (not explicitly identified as an Assicurate/Intronati event, though it likely was one) the recorder writes: “Degli altri non pote souvenire ne al Segretario, ne a me”; ibid., fol. 274v). Ibid., fol. 116r: “la discretezza di chi rivolgerà l’occhio à queste carte refletterà molto bene alla disuguaglianza grande, che corre dalla penna, all lingua, da fogli, alle sale, e dall’esame di una ricertata memoria, alla real dimostrazione de un ingegnoso trattenimento.” BCI, Y.I.2, p. 133: “A condotta, e directione degl’Accademici Intronati, sono stati fatti tutti i Giuochi di Spirito seguiti in Siena dal dal [word repeated] Anno 1603.” Ibid., pp. 133–[136]. Ibid., pp. 137–[138]: “la predetta Accademia delle Signore Assicurate hebbe l’essere, e la sua origine, non inaspettata, e improvisa come l’altre cose di Giuochi di Spirito, ma ben si dan una ben ponderata, e preventiva consideratione fatta dagl’Accademici Intronati di tal tempo che la

Notes to pages 136–7 259

71

72 73

74

75

76

promoverono di concerto, e se ne fecero Autori, i quali, per non assoggettare cosa di tanto rilievo, a determinationi instantanee, disposero avanti al gioco, e regolorono quanto occorreva, per stabilirla in ogni circostanza opportuna, e requisito formale, e porla in stato di buon essere, a che vi contribuì assai superiormente ad ogn’altro, l’applicatione, e particolar pensiero che di cio si prese il prenominato Signore Ugo Ugurgieri Archintronato.” Ibid., p. 137: “L’Accademia delle Signore Dame Assicurate di Siena se bene apparì essere eretta occasionalmente nel farsi in casa del Signore Niccolò Gori Pannelini nel Anno 1654 un gioco di spirito diretto dal Signore Ugo Ugurgieri Accademico Intronato, fra quali era nominato L’Impatiente, e di tal tempo haveva fra gli stessi il grado d’Archintronato.” Given that the description of this game in the “Origin of the Assicurate” (at BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 2r) does not credit Ugurgieri as the director of the game, it is again likely that the anonymous chronicler here is trying to correct the record by assigning the latter his due credit. See the brief descriptions of this game in this same document at ibid., p. 139, and in “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito” at BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 2r. BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 3r–5v. The list of 31 Assicurate includes the original 16 from 1654 and the 15 more enrolled at this gathering. To the number of the Intronati must be added Ugo Ugurgieri, who was charged by Olimpia Chigi with directing the game. Only the Assicurate have emblems and mottoes; none of the men do – this a symbolic indication of the primacy of the women over the men in these events. And, as we shall see in other games, in the case of women who are not yet enrolled in the academy, their real names are used, which further reinforces how they are being tested for entry into the Assicurate and transformation into a new public identity. He remarks, “Quella gloriosa imprea [the oak tree], questa maestosa residenza [where the 1654 game had also been played], mi riducono à memoria leggiadrissime dame, le glorie de vostri virtuosi trattenimenti nelle veglie passate” (ibid., fol. 10r). Having been charged by Olimpia Chigi with creating a game, he says, “come povero d’ concetti ricorrerò all’auiti favorebole dell’antic Accademia dell’Assicurate; sicuro, che quando haverò radunata la medesima haverò fatto un composto le più elevati spiriti di questa Patria (ibid., fol. 10r). Though this exaggerated praise (of an academy only ten years old, with only one recorded event in its past) is part of the courtly excess of female praise, it nonetheless signals the passing of the mantle of ludic control considerably to the Assicurate. Ibid., fols. 5v–6r.

260 Notes to pages 137–9 77 She says, “Acceto l’honore … con conditione però di non rienere appresso di me alcuna sovranità, mà d’appoggiare le mole di questo nostro governo al saggio consiglio di trè virtuose Accademiche” (ibid., fol. 11r). For instance, Caterina Pecci is named “prima Consultrice, e Segretaria della Consulta del Regno d’Amore” (ibid., fol. 11r) 78 And in this sense, the Assicurate possibly envision themselves as a republican alternative to autocratic rule. On the political feature or agenda in Renaissance and early modern Italian academies, see Cochrane, 52–3. 79 BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 14v. 80 One of the counsellors, Caterina Spannocchi, acknowledges their debt to him, but fears his natural inclination to control them: “dubito solo, che ammettendolo noi all’amministatione di nostra Accademia, con tate sue massime in testa non cerchi un giorno di venirne tiranno” and there is a side note reading: “perche il continuo discorso di questo Cavaliere è di Massime Politiche” (ibid., fol. 14v). 81 Ibid., fols. 15r–16r. 82 Francesco Accarigi submits a written offer to be censor to improve upon their literary efforts: to impartially correct errors, “to moderate huge amplifications,” and “to give a rule of rhetorical colours with which in the shadow of fables well depicted they will make the near appear distant, and the distant near, in order to cause hope or despair according to the occasions that occur in their inventions” (ibid., fols. 21v–22r). One of the Assicurate, Laura Marsilii Vecchi (the Spirited), challenges him on every sentence and turns the tables, censoring the would-be literary censor. She tells him: “Vada à studiar’ meglio i colori rettorici, che per adesso questa sua figura non è così bella, che possa persuaderci, però vada in pace” (ibid., fol. 23v). This mock contest between the “la Briosa” (the Spirited) and the aspiring male censor who offers up a florid application letter suggests that both groups – the men and the women – are aware of the issue that men may exaggerate their literary and rhetorical capacities, and women may want more control over their own forms of cultural production. 83 Ibid., fol. 56r. 84 Ibid., fols. 33v–34r. 85 The game director, Ugo Ugurgieri, proposes the theme (ibid., fols. 31v– 32r) of preparing for Love’s passage through the city with proper arrangements: two members of the Assicurate, Alessandra Fantoni Gori (the Witty One) and Filomena Marsili Petrucci (the Resolute), were charged with supervising the festivities. The entry of Love into the city was really a metaphor for the real reason for the party, which was on the “occasion

Notes to pages 140–1 261

86

87

88 89 90

91 92

of the passage that [Cardinal Flavio Chigi] made through Siena on return from a legation in France” (this from the description of the game in BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 5r). BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 58r: “Rallegratevi Signore Assicurate, che per passatempo potrete far’ guerra al tempo, e per ischerzo acquistarvi l’immortalità. Potrete con briosa intrepidezza de vostri ingengi in questa sera aprirvi il varco alla gloria. Ne v’atterrisca l’apprentioni d’ heroiche Maesta che nascoste sotto il manto di Regia benignita, vi daranno più tosto animo di palesare quelle virtù, che fino ad hora sotto il silentio di rigorosa modestia tenesti celate e gia tempo di sciorre la lingua, sicure, che i vostri gratiosi componimenti saranno graditi dalla fortunata assistenza d’Amore; e perche questa nostra Accademia habbia il suo principio da un’ottimo regolamento, voi Saputa cominciarete a dire dell’Eccelenza di noi altre Dame sopra degl’Huomini.” It should be noted that in this introduction to Saputa’s speech, the Assicurate Principessa invokes some of the Academy members’ nicknames or their variants: “briosa,” “intrepidezza,” “maesta,” “modestia.” Ibid., fol. 58v: “la gran’ disgratia delle povere donne, che chimate bene spesso da Signori Intronati alle loro Accademie, siano poste per lo più immobili in una seggiola, come fisso bersaglio à i colpi delle loro maledicenze. Quando entrano nell’accademia, se bene anch’essa ha il nome di donna, para nulla di meno, che questi ingegnosi giurino mortale nemicitia alle donne.” Ibid., fol. 59r: “Certo che saria pusillanimità la nostra, se mostrassemo col silentio d’acconsentire alla malignita de’ loro detti.” Ibid., fol. 59v–60v. Moderata Fonte’s Il merito delle donne (The worth of women)(pub. 1600) and Tarabotti’s Tirannia paterna (or Semplicità ingannata) (Paternal tyranny, or innocence betrayed) (pub. posthumously in 1654) both counter the misogynist derivation of “donna” from “danno” (harm) with positive derivations. Moderata Fonte has her interlocutor Corinne suggest that it comes from “dono celeste” (Fonte, 92–3) and Tarabotti poses the possibilities of “dono di Dio,” “delizia,” and “dea” (Tarabotti, 134). On Fonte, see King, 228–32; Smarr, 215–30; Cox 2011, 236–49; on Tarabotti, see n. 17 above. BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 59v–60r. She asserts that the “prince of the Peripatetics” says “che le gentilezza del corpo è più atta di qualunque altra condizione di persone per le scienze, e virtù” (ibid., fol. 61r); presumably, this comment is an embellishment of the De anima 2.9 (421a) that those with “soft flesh” are more intelligent (though cf. Agnesi, 84; and the Ps.-Aristotelian Physiognomics 6 (813b).

262 Notes to pages 142–4 93 Ibid., fol. 61r. For other evidence from social practice, she cites (surely, ironically) arguments from current custom and civil law that would imply the superiority of women: namely, that girls are freed from tutors two years before boys, and that they can marry at age twelve (as opposed to fourteen for boys) (ibid., fols. 61v–62r). Other examples of female dignity from social custom are that the king of Spain removes his wig for women and the pope has them sit during audiences (ibid., fol. 62r). 94 Ibid., fol. 62r: “dunque se per la tua origine, e per la sovranità del nome, se per le comparationi delle virtù, se per le costitutione del corpo, se per l’approvatione delle leggi, se per i trattamenti de i gran’ monarchi è la Donna dichiarata superiore à gl’huomini, e perche non vogliamo ritornare al nostro primo grado ò Signore e trarci per’ una volta questa vile catena dal piede, la quale troppo ingiustamente c’è stata posta da gl’huomini.” 95 Ibid., fol. 168r. 96 The description of the game indicates that it took place “alla presenza degli Eccellentissimi Signori, Prencipessa e Prencipe Chigi, e lor Signore due figlie spose à monache” (ibid., fol. 168r). 97 Reardon, 129–31. 98 BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 169r–170r; cf. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 13v. 99 Guardinga (Caterina Bandini), however, claims that she is quiet or participatory depending on the compositon of the gathering (BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 170v–171r). 100 Ibid., fol. 171r. 101 This earlier game was held during Carnival of 1690; the theme was the choice of a wife for Love (ibid., fols. 68r–113v). 102 Ibid., fol. 168r. 103 Ibid., fols. 171v, 188r. These two pages are in fact contiguous, because the pages describing this game in the collection were scrambled when the book was bound and misnumbered accordingly. The proper order of the pages is the following: fols. 168r–171v, 188r–191v, 180r–183v, 176r–179v, 172v–175v, 184r–187v, and 192r–202r. 104 When it is decided that the academy’s pursuits will be literary and cultural (rather than focusing of matters of fashion and appearance), Guardinga appropriately is chosen as one of the two censors guaranteeing the quality of the academy’s productions (ibid., fol. 194v). 105 Ibid., fol. 182r. 106 Ibid., fol. 182v. 107 Ibid., fol. 198v. 108 Ibid. fol. 200r.

Notes to pages 144–7 263 109 Ibid., fol. 200r. 110 Ibid., fol. 176r: “se li bastava sapere come mettano bene in carta le dame, poteva leggere le lettere della Marchesa di Pescara, di Signora Vittoria Colonna, d’ Isabella Andreini, e di altre date alle stampe, e lodate da tutto il mondo.” (Oddly, the passage suggests the Marchesa di Pescara and Colonna to be different figures, but they are one and the same.) On Vittoria Colonna and Isabella Andreini, see Robin, 79–101, 202–3; MacNeil, 4–5, 32–126; Ross, 212–34. 111 BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 176r-v: “Soggiunse il Signore Sparnicciato [Alessandro Marsilii], che questa erano dame di la dal Seicento, e che egli desiderava di veder lettere di quelle dal mille seicento settantinque [read settantacinque] in qua, et allora direbbe chi scrivesse bene, ò male, benche non mettesse niente in dubio, che tutte le dame Assicurrate potessero esser degni Segretarie in ogni genere di lettere.” 112 Robin, xx–xxi; also see Ray; Westwater; Ross. 113 BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 180v: “un Accademia, che hà per oggetto la virtù, deve aborrir la fintione, che è seguace del vitio.” 114 Ibid., fol. 180v. 115 Ibid., fol. 181r: “la Signora Archiassicurata per debito di sua carica fosse ogni’anno obligata di fare almeno due Giuochi di Spirito, et altre virtuose, e private adunanze di loro Accademia, quando dalla medisima vene fosse conosciuto il bisogno.” 116 Ibid., fol. 172v: “e togliere in questa guisa la gloria alle Pompe di Francia, e rendere insieme ingegnosa la vanità, e speculativo anco il lusso.” 117 Ibid., fol. 172v. 118 Ibid., fol. 172v, emphasis added: “à tutti quei virtuosi esercizi, che servano d’ornamento allo spirito, come nella lettura, e conferenza d’istorie, nel compor sonetti, e madrigali, nell’apprender lingue straniere, nell’esercizio del suono, e del canto, nell’intrecciar bene le danze, et altre simili virtuose occupationi, per farne poi bella pompa in tutte le adunanze, che di tempo in tempo fossero seguite.” 119 Ibid., fol. 173v: “E per non fare ingiustitia al singolar talento della Signora Accademica Reservata, fù la prima ad essere invitata dalla sede à far pompa di qualche parto del suo ingegno, giache questa dama continovamente s’impiega in simile virtuoso esercitio.” 120 Ibid., fol. 189v: “perche gl’Intronati devono esercitarsi nell’acquisto delle virtù, e le Signore Assicurate nel far pompa del perfetto loro spirito.” 121 Ibid., fols. 173v–174r: “Alle Eccellentissime Signore Donna Maria Teresa e Donna Maria Maddalena Chigi, che abbondano il mondo, / S’incaminano alla gloria di una vera perfettione.” Born in 1675 (Reardon, 124, 130) the

264 Notes to pages 147–50

122

123 124 125

126 127 128 129 130 131

132 133 134

135 136 137 138

twins were fifteen–sixteen years of age at the time of this ceremony in 1691. BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 174r: “Hanno presso di voi picciolo vanto / Queste del fasto uman, pompe terrene, / L’oro prole del sol, con rie catene / Sepe al cuore di huom leggiadro incanto, / Ma voi, sprezate il luminoso ammanto.” She presented a sonnet in honor of the visiting Principessa Maria Virginia Borghesi Chigi, mother of the twin girls. (ibid., fol. 175r–v.) Ibid., fol. 193v. Ibid., fol. 193v: “il loro impiego doveva consistere in esaminare il them [read tema?] dei Giochi di Spirito, nell’emendare che is essi non rebuttasse con efficacia le’ ragioni dei Cavalieri, et ancora nel ben considerare i sonetti, che qualche Accademica volesse recitare.” Portia Pannelini, nicknamed La Pretiosa, had for her motto “E’ Tesor di Virtù, Pompa d’Onore” (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 12v), revealing yet again the transvaluation of “pompa” to a more honourable plane. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 12r. BCI, C,VIII.26, fol. 124r. Ibid., fol. 129r. Ibid., fol. 129r. Ibid., fols. 129v–130r. Ibid., fol. 130r: “Si dichiarorono superati dal talento di dama si eloquente gli Signori Inflessibile, et Allocchito, confessando, che il cuore sentiva ancora per gli occhi le di lei ragioni, e molto si pentivano di non haver trovata compagnia, per farsi ascrivere al vero ruolo dell’Arciero bendato.” Ibid., fol. 135v. Ibid., fol. 135v. Ibid., fol. 136r: “e s’autenticò con dimostrare bastanti le singolari prerogative, accompagnate da un esemplare virtù, ambita assai più delle ricchezze in una sposa sagace.” For the story of Cleopatra and the pearl, see Pliny’s Natural History 9.119–21. Ibid., fol. 136r. Ibid., fol. 137r (but should not he likewise wait until he has a daughter to dower?). Love also lodges a complaint that the “casino del gioco” (gambling) diverts time from worthy “impieghi amorosi, e tutte quelle lodevoli e virtuose operationi (ibid., fol. 130v), which launches a debate on men wasting money on such games that would be better spent on “comedies, jousts, masquerades, and similar festivities” (fols. 131v–132r).

Notes to pages 150–2 265 139 Ibid., fols. 141r–v, 161v, 163r–v; as for the poem, its theme was meant to “unire al Moribondo Carnevale Morte et Amore” (fol. 163r). 140 Ibid., fol. 138r: “se alcune Gentilissime dame, che fecero l’anno passato prova del lor talento nel canto, ad effetto di publicarlo poi ne teatri, havessero adempito alla loro promessa.” 141 Ibid., fol. 138r. 142 Ibid., fol. 158r: “La Signora Guardinga non capiva d’onde deducesse questa obligatione, perche non sapeva, che esse fossero soggette, che à i mariti et alle dicrete volontà.” 143 See chapter 2 above. 144 Ibid., fol. 158v. Part of the debate between Pannelini and Caterina turns on the analogy between the performance of comedy, which the Intronati routinely staged, and the performance in parlour games. When Caterina claims that the latter is as difficult as the former, Pannelini denies this, saying that theatrical performance requires memorization of lines, costume changes, and altering one’s persona, whereas in giuochi di spirito women simply rely on their “lively quickness” (vivace prontezza) (fol. 159r), which should be easy for them, since “in all their gatherings, in all their visits and conversations, they always make a giuochi di spirito,” so “why do they not wish to make a display (far pompa) of something that is so familiar to them” (fol. 159v). Thus, for Pannelini, theatrical comedy is laboured; the parlour game is merely an extension of a natural female vivacity. Still, however, the women see these games as acts of public performance – and we saw in chapter 3 above, Girolamo Bargagli’s game book included a Game of Comedy (G. Bargagli 1982, 113) that implied the porous boundaries between the parlour game and theatrical comedy. 145 Ibid., fol. 166r. 146 Ibid., fol. 44v. 147 Ibid., fol. 47r–v. 148 For instance, in the second game, which eventually dealt with the selection of a wife for Love, preliminary discussion on the topic of a game included a proposal from a woman to consider how the passions are like a badly ruled state needing a prince to rein them in. One of the Intronati said that this was beyond the ken of the gentlemen and would require command of Aristotle’s Ethics (ibid., fol. 74v). Other men suggested the theme of Love as a “biribissaio” (gambling director) or as a gypsy dispensing fortunes to women, but the women reject these as too lowly (ibid., fols. 75v–76v). 149 In the “Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito” this party is undated, but an alternate ms. dates it to 1707/8 (see n. 64 above and Mazzi, 1919).

266 Notes to pages 152–6 150 151 152 153 154

155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167

168 169

G. Bargagli, 1982, 107 BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 275v. Ibid., fol. 277v. Ibid., fol. 278v. For instance, Eufrasia Nini (as the Muse of Tragedy, Melpomene) movingly presents the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, after Orazio Mignanelli mishandled a theme from Ariosto (ibid., fols. 284v–285r); Olimpia Ganducci (as Muse Polennia) mimed Niobe’s grief at the death of her children, outperforming the male aspirant (fols. 285v–286r); Emilia Orlandini (as Muse Calliope) wrote a better madrigal than the male on the theme of being a soldier in the battles of love (fols. 291v–292r). In some cases the men are described as intentionally failing, as in the case of an accomplished violinist who intentionally played poorly as a “strattagemma dell’accortezza, non colpa dell’ignoranza” (fol. 287v). Ibid., fol. 281r. Ibid., fol. 281v. Ibid., fol. 281r. BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 16r–17v. Assicurate, [1]. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 16r. Ibid., fol. 8v. Ibid., fol. 16r. Assicurate, 3. See www.royalblood.co.uk./D234/I234372.html (accessed 04/08/2011). Assicurate, 5 Ibid., 6. Although the Lover in the Roman de la Rose impregnates the Rose, this is, as Charles Dunn suggests (Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, xxv), the exception rather than the rule in the literature of courtly love. Moreover, in this scenario of the Assicurate, the impregnation will not come from a predatory Love (who restrains himself) but from a heavenly bee (suggesting an other-worldly, pure, essentially non-sexual fertilization). Ibid., 7–8. Caterina was married in 1672 to Francesco Piccolomini, bringing an enormous dowry of 8,000 florins (Lisini, 63). She was the daughter of Fulvia Piccolomini and Lelio Griffoli, whose dramatic love triangle (or rather, quadrangle) – resulting in the deaths of Fulvia’s admirer Paride Bulgarini and Lelio and her remarriage to Paride’s brother Lattanzio – was the subject of the 1869 novel, Il destino of F.D. Guerrazzi. As for Caterina, she was enrolled in the Assicurate in 1664 as La Pomposa (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 6r),

Notes to pages 156–7 267

170 171 172 173

174

175

176

177

and despite her role as long-time matriarch of the Assicurate, who were championed by the anti-Jesuit Intronati member Girolamo Gigli, her will of 1722 left 2,000 scudi to the Jesuits (Cohn, 228). Likewise, in the alternate copy of the “Origin” (in BCI, B.II.26) only fifteen of the fifty-nine folios were filled. See BCI, C.V.25, fol. 25r (or p. 47, old numbering) and C.III.18.2, fol. 277r (or fol. 234r, old numbering). It was published in Rime degli Arcadi, 4:185. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 17v. “In aver letto il libro ove sono registrate le veglie senesi e giochi di spirito, che ivi si fanno da quelle nobilissime dame e cavalieri” (BCI, C.V.25, fol. 25r (or p. 47, old numbering); cf. BCI, C.III.18.2, fol. 277r (or fol. 234r, old numbering), where the poem is dedicated to a Sienese woman Francesca Ugolini nelli (Arrighi?). Rime degli Arcadi, 4:185: “S’io pari avessi al gran desio il potere, / Le dotte risse, e l’erudita gara / Direi delle tue Donne, ove s’impara / Co’ rai d’ingegno ad illustrar le sere. / Ma quelle tue gran Donne al Mondo sole / S’alzan così sovra il femmineo sesso, / Ch’io non ho penna, che sì alto vole.” On Arbia as metonymy for Siena, see Battiferra, 101, 168–9, 399n137. In BCI, C.V.25, Alessandri’s praise of the Sienese parlour games is answered in a poem by Giovanni Gori, who, in turn, praises her praise. His poem depicts Arbia speaking to her nymphs, saying “Che è costei, che con tai voci altere, / Ninfe gentili, e con virtù preclara / Fà la stima di voi piu bella e chiara? / Donna è o Dea’ (fol. 25r [or p. 47]). For Alessandri’s poems, see Rime degli Arcadi, 4:181–9; For Orlandini’s, see ibid., 6:195–6. Orlandini was enrolled as an Assicurate (as the Studiosa) in the 1704 game in which Alessandri was enrolled (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 17v). Both of these women joined the Arcadian Academy (and published under Arcadian nicknames in this collection), but in the listing of the authors in the index of the Rime, in which authors’ academy memberships were often identified, neither of these women is shown as being affiliated with the Assicurate, further confirming that by the time this collection was published (1716–20) the Assicurate had effectively ceased to exist and/or revealing that the Rime’s editor Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni did not recognize the academy. The influence of the Assicurate likely bore upon the Sienese woman Aretafila Savini de’ Rossi, for whom a medal was struck in 1710 commemorating her as a fusion of Venus (love) and Minerva (wisdom), which in turn prompted Piero Jacopo Martello to dedicate his 1721 tragedy Elena Casta (Chaste Helen) to her. Aretafila weighed in on the debate on female

268 Notes to pages 157–60 learning hosted by the Paduan Academy of the Ricovrati: in 1723 she responded to Giovanni Antonio Volpi’s attack with her Apologia in favore degli studi delle donne. (Messbarger, I believe, is incorrect in suggesting that Savini’s praise of an improvisational peasant poetess in this treatise referes to Emilia Ballati Orlandini [at Agnesi, 115n19]; it was rather probably Menichina della Legnaia [on whom see Graziosi 1992, 347–8].) A document in Siena’s Archivio di Stato includes Savini de’ Rossi and Orlandini among five women similarly identified as being “erudita donna, Pastorella Arcade, e Assicurata” (cited in Scaglioso, 55); although there may be no other record of Savini de’ Rossi as an Assicurate, certainly her admiration for Orlandini places her in that circle. On Savini de’ Rossi, see Giordano, 146–8; Catoni, 166; Agnesi, 67–116; Messbarger, 21–48; Graziosi 2009, 105–6. As for other Sienese women active in publishing in the eighteenth century (and enrolled as Arcadians), see the portraits of Livia Accarigi, Emilia Ballati Orlandini, Elisabetta Credi Fortini, Lucrezia Sergardi Buonsignori, and Settimia Tolomei Marescotti, in Giordano, 23–32, 37–9, 94–7, 149–50, 165–67. 178 Marescotti wrote a letter (cited in Scaglioso, 54) that same year to the head of the Intronati acknowledging the “union of the weaker trunk of the … oak” of the Assicurate with the “vines of the … famous pumpkin” of the Intronati, effectively conceding the end of the Assicurate’s autonomy. As for the option presented by the Arcadian Academy, in addition to Alessandri and Orlandini, the Assicurate matriarch Caterina Gaetana Griffoli herself (along with her husband) became a member of this academy (ibid., 57). 179 A point made and passage cited in Mazzi 1882, 2:349. 6. Girolamo Gigli: The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese Women 1 See L. Spera in DBI, 54:676–8; Tylus, 1–52; also the comments of Luciano Banchi in Gigli 1865, x. 2 This collection is entitled “Zucchino de’gl’Intronati o sia guarda memorie dell’antichissima Accademia Intronata, Madre di tutte ll’Accademie Italiane. Libro di carte 204 dove si scriveranno varie notizie, che appartengono all’Intronataria dall’Economico [Gigli] Intronato Segretario l’anno 1696” (BCI, Y.I.3). 3 “E determinarono sia l’anno alcune cene erudite, all quali facevano alle volte succedere virtuose viglie, non senza mescolanza d’oneste, e nobili donne, da quali trattenimenti ne sono passati fino ai tempi nostri, e fino ai paesi più lontani, tanti, e tanti spiritosi giuochi, unico, e raro pregio di

Notes to pages 160–3 269

4

5

6

7 8

9

10

11 12 13

questa Patria” (BCI, Y.I.3, fols. 126v–127r). He then cites the praise of the Sienese games in Giambattista Marino’s Adone 6:41 (Marino, 1:350). BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 128v, emphasis added: “Cosi mentre gli altri cittadini vegliavano sù le mura, alla difesa della libertà della Patria gli Intronati vegliavano all difesa della libertà dell’animo, allattando in tanto della gran virtù fino nei petti più deboli delle donzelle Sanesi, quali non favolosi Palladi, nel tempo, che da una mano trattavano gli Olivi, impugnavano, l’Aste coll’altra; e di ciò fanno testimonianza non solo le nostre Istorie ma tante altre, che parlano con tanta lode di quelle Amazzoni nostre, con le quali disse un gran Capitano, che più tosto averebbe voluto difendere le muragli di Roma che coll’Uomini Romani.” Ibid., fols. 128v–129r: “Di tutte queste virtuose donne furono Capitane la Forteguerra, la Piccolomini, e la Fausti, quali in alzando ciascuno la propria Impresa concepita, e spiegata nelle veglie amorose, servirono vestite d’acciaro fino all’Imprese più virili, e perche non è qui da tralasciare, quai Geogrifici esse portarono spiegati nelle loro Bandiere, mi farò occasione di riferirli, con l’autorità d’Ascanio Centorio.” Ibid, fol. 129r: “Ne’ quali sensi spiegavano forse, ò qualche particolare amoroso, onesto pensierio, ò qualche disegno dell’Animo loro à prò della Patria conceputo.” He alludes to Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli’s game books at ibid., fol. 127r. Gigli 1719, 94, emphasis added: “anzi quelle Sanesi Eroine, le quali non dubitarono coprirsi le trecce bionde coll’elmo, come scrisse il Monluch ne’ suoi Comentari, furono di quelle medesime, che in somiglianti esercizi virtuosi imparavano ad uscir fuora della condizione del Sesso, ugualmente spiritose nelle dispute notturne co’loro onesti Amici, che animose ni’ contrasti del giorno co’Nemici della Patria.” See BCI, Y.I.3, fols. 128v–129r; Gigli1719, 94. And in following these writers, Gigli maintains the ambiguity as to who Lady Forteguerri was among the three female captains, though it was almost certainly Laudomia Forteguerri (see chapter 2). And indeed one of the literary criticisms of Bargagli’s Trattenimenti (by Alessandro Tessauro) was that he would set his games in a period of warfare (which Bargagli responded to in a badly damaged document in BCI, P.V.16, packet no. 1). BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 129r. Ibid., fol. 127v: “sicchè per le mancanza di cosi maschio vigore, incominciò à languire nel suo principio la nostra Pianta.” Gigli 1854, 1:282–291.

270 Notes to pages 163–4 14 The treatment of the Intronati came in his chapter on May, as the first Sunday of this month was the date of the Intronati’s founding; moreover, his having been appointed secretary occasioned his investigated into the history of the academy (Gigli 1854, 1:266–7). 15 Ibid., 1:287. 16 Ibid., 1:287. 17 Ibid., 1:417; as always, he cites Marino (in his Adonis 6:41) and Mauro (in his poem “Del viaggio di Roma al Duca di Malfi”) as two such writers hailing this Sienese tradition (Marino, 1:350; Opere burlesche, 1:252–3). 18 Gigli 1854, 1:417; on the women attending these gatherings, see the biography of Jaufre Rudel in Nostredame, 15–19; Crescimbeni, 10–13. 19 Gigli’s dating the origins of the games to Mariano Sozzini is tentative, claiming that this practice “fu cominciato in Siena (per quanto ne abbiamo dalla tradizione) dall’insigne nobilissimo Giurisconsulto, ed in ogni maniera di buone Lettere Professore egregio Mariano Sozzini il vecchio nella sua Villa di Scopeto” (Gigli 1854, 1:417–18). Gigli does not offer further evidence that the Sienese games date from that period and setting. Scopeto, a villa located a few miles outside of Siena, was a holding of the extended Sozzini family, although Gigli is technically incorrect in calling it Mariano the Elder’s estate: while a document of October 1457 indicates that he repaired there to escape the plague (and thus presumably spent other time there as well), the villa actually came into his immediate family later, when Mariano the Younger bought it in the sixteenth century from Francesco Sozzini (Nardi, 84n61; Tedeschi , 159n2). As for evidence of later games played there, in Girolamo Bargagli’s Dialogo de’ giuochi Lelio Maretti referred to “la gentilissima madonna Francesca Sozzini, facendosi un tal giuoco alla sua villa di Scopeto” (G. Bargagli 1982, 159). 20 Ibid., 1:418. 21 In this sense Gigli perhaps chooses to follow the spirit of the more philogynic depiction of the games in Scipione Bargagli’s (fictive) Trattenimenti than the more Intronati-oriented depiction in Girolamo Bargagli’s (historical) Dialogo de’ giuochi. He does, however, go on to describe the orchestration of these games from 1654 to the present as involving men: that is, whereas the female leadership entailed the princess, two counsellors, and the secretary, he names Francesco Piccolomini as beadle and Pandolfo Spannocchi as game director and president of the Kingdom of Love (ibid., 1:418–19). 22 Ibid., 1:418–19. On Battista Berti Petrucci and Francesca Scotti, see Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:395–6. On Domenichi’s Rime diverse d’alcune nobilissime, et virtuossime donne, see Robin, xviii, 50, 59–60, 159, 238–42.

Notes to pages 164–8 271 23 Gigli 1854, 1:419. At the January 17 entry, Gigli records the incident as an official part of the calendar of Sienese greatness: “In questo giorno la Forteguerra, la Piccolomini, e la Fausti Dame Sanesi si fecero condottiere d’una squadra di Donna, e si armarono in difesa della Città assediata dagl’Imperiali, con tanto coraggio, che il Sig. di Monluc, che era in que’ tempi Comandante delle Milizie Sanesi, ritrovandosi in altra congiuntura alla difesa di Roma potè lasciare scritto ne’ suoi Commentarii, che più tosto avrebbe voluto difendere le mura di Roma colle Donne di Siena, che co’ Soldati di Roma stessa” (ibid., 1:34). 24 In his listing of vol. XLI (at ibid., 1:290) he opens with female writers: “Di Cecca da Siena degli Scotti, Ermellina Aringhieri dei Cerretani, Cassandra Petrucci, Atalanta Sanese, Aurelia Petrucci, Onorata Pecci, Lucrezia Figliucci, Laodamia Forteguerri, Pia Bichi, Silvia Piccolomini, Verginia Martini de’ Salvi stampate in Lucca presso il Domenici [sic]. Di Lucrezia Mignanelli, di Margarita Marescotti, di Fulvia Spannocchi, manoscritto della libreria Chigi: di Camilla Piccolomini, e d’Isifile Cesari, manoscritto del Benvoglienti. E delle viventi, Sig. Lisabetta Credi Fortini, Sig. Emilia Orlandini Ballati, Sig. Aretafila Savini Rossi, tutte tre Pastorelle Arcadi addietro nominate.” 25 Ibid., 1:419. 26 Ibid., 1:419–20, emphasis added; also, 1:418. 27 Ibid., 1:420. 28 She was the widow of Cosimo’s son, who died of syphilis in 1713. 29 Torrenti, esp. 25, 53–60; for Vaselli’s account, see Gigli 1854, 1:135–40. 30 Gigli 1854, 1:420–1. 31 Ibid., 1:421. On Laudomia Forteguerri and Piccolomini, see chapter 2 above. On Lucrezia Mignanelli, see Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:404; Aprosio, 27. The reference to Pandolfo Spannocchi teaching his poetry alludes to his dedicating his translation of Horace’s Ars poetica to her and the Assicurate in 1714. Marcantonio Cinuzzi dedicated his translation of Claudian’s Rape of Proserpine to Isifile Toscana (which was jointly published with Spannocchi’s trans. of Horace above in 1714) (Gigli 1854, 1:291; Mazzi 1882, 2:349). Presumably this is “la Toscana” whom Girolamo Bargagli refers to as one of the famous female game players in this Dialogo de’ giuochi (G. Bargagli 1982, 92); also, she is one of several female intellectuals named in Marcantonio Piccolomini’s Ragionamento (Belladonna, 74). 32 Gigli 1854, 1:421. 33 Ibid., 1:421. This volume forty-four of his planned set included a translation of Bk. 1 of the Aeneid by Alessandro Sansedoni dedicated to Aurelia Tolomei; Bk. 2 by Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici to Giulia Gonzaga; Bk. 3 by

272 Notes to pages 168–70

34 35 36

37 38

39 40 41 42 43 44 45

46

Bernardino Borghesi to Giulia Petrucci; Bk. 4 by Bartolomeo Carli Piccolomini to Aurelia Petrucci; Bk. 5 by Aldobrando Cerretani to Girolama Piccolomini; Bk. 6 Alessandro Piccolomini to Frasia Venturi. In this description of the volume he also lists the recent translations of the Ars poetica by Pandolfo Spannocchi and the Rape of Proserpine by Marcantonio Cinuzzi (dedicated to Lucrezia Mignanelli and Isifile Toscana respectively (ibid., 1: 291). Ibid., 1:421–2. Ibid., 1:422. On the likely sexual meaning of the emblem (designed by the Antonio Vignale, author of the highly pornographic La cazzaria), see Domenichi 1979, 236–7; Vignali; Nerida Newbigin’s comments in Intronati 1996, 252; Toscan, 997, 1373–4, 1385, 1612; G. McClure 2010. Gigli 1854, 1:422, emphasis added. Ibid., 1:424: “Si provano le spiritose Donne de’ Rozzi talora a cingottare privatamente, ad imitazione delle Gentildonne, e degl’Intronati; ma questi, che pretendono la privativa sopra tali trattenimenti, non permettono, che tali erudite fringuellotte cantino fuora di chiusa.” Ibid., 1:419. Favilli, 27; Gigli 1963, 21–2; L. Spera in DBI 54:678. Gigli 1719, title page. On Gigli’s use of masked personas, see Gagliardi. The Assicurate parlour game and roster take up 100 of 213 pages of the treatise. Gigli 1719, 15. See Vincenzo Buonsignori’s Sulla condizione civile ed economica della città di Siena al 1857 (Siena, 1857), pp. 17–18, published in Gigli 1854, vol. 2. See Mauro Manciotti’s comments in Gigli 1963, 30, 349–50; L. Spera in DBI, 54:677. In fact, in the 1711 Lucchese edition of the work the Don Pilone is subtitled Il bacchettone falso. In his letter to reader before the work, Gigli comments, “Avemmo però somigliante la sorte il Molier ed io. Quegli fu perseguitato a morte dagli’ipocriti di Parigi, io altresì da’ falsi bacchettoni d’Italia,” whom he calls a “diabolica setta, la quale a’ di’ nostri ancora, al coperto di falso mansuetudine e divozione, fa tanta rovina di roba e di onore, nelle case e nelle corti, nelle città e ne’ regni” (Gigli 1963, 39). Gigli himself performed the role of Don Pilone in the initial production of the play (probably 1707) and again, in a performance in June 1709 (in honour of a visit to Siena by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni) (Strambi, 162, 185–6; M. Manciotti in Gigli 1963, 349–50). As for his ousting from his university chair and departure to Rome in 1708, see Favilli, 16; L. Spera in DBI 54:676, 677 (but cf. Antonio Di Petra in Gigli 1973, xxxii).

Notes to pages 170–2 273 47 Although many scholars date this production to 1712 (Frittelli, 246–7; M. Manciotti in Gigli 1963, 350; A. Di Preta in Gigli 1973, xxxii; L. Spera in DBI, 54:677), a stronger case is made for 1713 (based on letters of Uberto Benvoglienti) in Strambi, 160, 190n102, 192n106 (the confusion is possibly owing to old style/new style dating). 48 On his maternal uncle’s adopting him and marrying him off to a woman with whom he did not get along, see Antonio Di Preta’s comments in Gigli 1973, xxiv–xxv. Gigli’s concern with arranged marriages is evident in his La scuola delle fanciulle, a story about women rebelling against such matches, which he adapted from Montfleury’s L’ecole des filles, which in turn was a jab at Molière’s own May-December match (ibid., xxiv). Gigli’s own constrained – and unhappy – marriage may have been another source of this sympathy for the plight of women so often married off unwillingly at a very young age. 49 Gigli 1963, 228, 262. 50 Gagliardi, 225. 51 On which see Grendler 1989, 363–81. 52 Gigli 1719, 8–9, 13–21, 80. 53 Ibid., 71–6, 78. 54 Even though the curriculum calls for training in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and even the modern languages of French, Spanish, German, and English (ibid., 75), Italian is not studied: “E perchè tale Istituto è stato ordinato a nuovamente naturalizzare la Lingua Latina, e all’esercizio della Greca, e d’altre Orientali, non escludendosi a tempo suo le Oltramontane, non si è mai parlato di esercizio di lingua Italiana” (ibid., 76). To ensure proper Italian grammar, however, before students leave the school they will spend four months (in a special room) studying a Jesuit text entitled the Cristiano istruito. Moreover, the youth will be warned against the “pernicious writings of Boccaccio, [Franco] Sacchetti, [Giovan Battista] Gelli, [Francesco] Berni, and Machiavelli” (ibid., 76–7). 55 Ibid., 66. 56 On this point, see Mauro Manciotti’s comments in Gigli 1963, 21–2. 57 Gigli 1719, 8. 58 She is identified as “Veronica Sergardi de’ Signori di Monte Po, Vedova del Signor Balì Mariano Sansedoni” and as brother of “Monsignor Lodovico Sergardi.” I have not been able to identify Veronica or Sansedoni as actual people, although Lodovico Sergardi (1660–1726) was a functionary at the papal court (and designated a monsignor) and was a lively satirist. He was known for mocking a fellow Arcadian literato, Gian Vincenzo Gravina, as a pedantic Grecist (Dixon, 26–8, 125; and Ronald

274 Notes to pages 172–4

59

60

61 62 63 64 65

66 67 68 69 70

71

Pepin in Sergardi, 1–9). Sergardi apparently was one of Gigli’s accomplices in his fake news dispatches, the Gazzettino (or avvisi ideali) of 1712– 13 (Vanni 1888, 44; for his appearance in the Gazzettino both as “Settano” [his literary pseudonym] and as “Monsignor Sergardi,” see Gigli 1864, 67, 132–8). Cf. Gigli’s list of female writers he planned to include in one of his volumes of poetry in his forty-five-volume anthology of Sienese culture (Gigli 1854, 1: 290). Gigli 1719, 42: “In vestrum etiam nonnullis generosam illam alacritatem conspicio, quam Picolomineam, Fortiguerriam, & Faustam nostrates Heroidas imitari laudabiliter cupitis, quae sexus infirmitatis pertaesae, indutis armis, tectoque galea capite, ensem in Patriae hostes stringere, ac eandem strenuè defendere parta ideo immortali sibi fama, gestierunt.” Ibid., 42–3. The others were Lisabetta Credi, Marla Antonia Bizzarini, and Lucrezia Sergardi (ibid., 12). Ibid., 67; this connection may well be fictive, as I have no basis for knowing whether Veronica Sergardi was an actual person (see n. 58 above). Ibid., 90. See BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 280r, 291v–292r; also chapter 5 above. As for this occasion in the Collegio Petroniano, they also sought out her famous male counterpart in improvisational poetry, Bernardino Perfetti, but he had suffered a mishap and had earlier left the gathering; and two other possible accompanists had also departed (Gigli 1719, 90). As for Perfetti, his fame as an improvisational poet was such that Gigli correctly predicts his crowning as poet laureate later in 1725: the Archimagistra “fece pure cercare del Signor Cavalier Bernardino Perfetti prima gloria della Poesia di questo secolo, a cui fu ultimamente in Roma preconizzata la corona del Campidoglio pel suo divino cantare all’improviso” (ibid., 90; Dixon, 29– 30, 124; Agnesi, 115n19, 116n21. Gigli 1719, 91. Ibid., 92. Ibid., 94. Ibid., 94; Opere burlesche, 1:253; he also cites a comment on the Sienese games from Marino’s Adone 6:41 (Marino, 1:350). Forteguerri says that he had heard Gigli read part of the first stanza of the poem at a party at the home of Francesco Piccolomini, and that Gigli had also read the poem at a gathering in Rome (ibid., 92). Gigli 1865, 94. Students of this “seminary” write home describing how “the gluttonous Tuscan priest grows fat, / and with food of more

Notes to pages 174–7 275

72 73 74 75 76

77 78

79 80 81 82

83

84 85 86

87

excellence absolves and uncrates the sin of gluttony / while the novice lives in abstinence” (ibid., 101). Ibid., 99n1, 108. Ibid., l07; Gigli 1963, 37, 150; Favilli, 46–50, 60. Gigli 1719, 95. Ibid., 98; and he similarly makes reference to a seminary for “Affetti legittimi” and another for “Affetti bastardi, e mostruosi” (ibid., 101). An Erasmian touch occurs when Mars objects to the founding of a school to correct the passions, because Ire and Ambition are crucial to the realm of war (ibid., 96). Ibid., 95. Ibid., 97; and Gigli continues by saying that having heard of the Ardire of these three women and “of their women followers in defence of the country and of many, many more [Sienese women], the gods therefore wanted to hear the opinions of the virtuous Assicurate concerning the education of the baby Love” (ibid., 97). Ibid., 102. Ibid., 204–9. On food (as “nature”) as an archetypal symbolic opposite to “culture,” see Jeanneret, esp. 2–4, 62–88; Bakhtin, 278–302. Gigli, 1719, 200. Gigli wryly adds, however, that the “Latin milk” of the nursemaids the next day was “poco riscaldato” and in some cases bore signs of the nursemaids’ “desire to sleep one night with their husbands” (ibid., 200). On the Calandra, see Andrews 1993, 48–50, 57–63. As for Aretifila Savini, it is odd that she is not included in Gigli’s list of new Assicurate, even though the other five female Arcadians he mentions are. The poem, “Se il libro di Bertoldo il ver narrò,” argues that a husband should place over the bed of a new bride a sieve (presumably here, a fine netting), so that “onde veda, e non veda quel che fa” (Gigli 1719, 103) – that is, so that he does not see too closely what she does. For this poem, also see Gigli 1722, 293. Similarly, Gigli has Olinda Tancredi ne’ Savini perform one of his poems, “Colombaja amorosa” (Gigli 1719, 111–13). Gigli 1719, 117. Ibid., 118; the choreographer, Maria Tommasi Bulgarini, would be inducted into the Assicurate in the following roster as “la Favorita” (ibid., 142). This chapter of the treatise is entitled “Dell’acclamazione fatta dalle Accademiche Assicurate di alcune delle più insigni Principesse, e Gentildonne Italiane ascritte nel Ruolo Accademico; e dei Nomi simbolici, e ingegnosi

276 Notes to pages 177–8

88 89

90

91

92 93 94 95 96

97 98

Emblemi significanti le particolari virtù di dette Eroine del nostro secolo, con che si chiude la giornata 19. Di Febrajo memorabile per l’aprimento del Collegio Petroniano” (ibid., 119). Ibid., 119. In alphabetizing his Assicurate list by nicknames, Gigli says that he follows the practice of the Arcadian Academy in their “raccolte” (collections), presumably meaning here their poetry anthologies, their rosters, or both. Also, in describing the Collegio Petroniano in his Diario sanese, Gigli places it in the context of Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics, and the “present reign of Arcadia in Rome” (Gigli 1854, 1:419). Quondam 1973, 412; Dixon, 105. He notes, however, that a proportionately higher percentage of women were included in the publications of Arcadian poetry: of 237 authors in these volumes, 20 were women, constituting 8 per cent of the total and 27 per cent of the female Arcadians (ibid., 412). In his Gazzettino, a satirical compilation of fake news releases written in 1712–13, Gigli makes two references to the Assicurate (as hosting a trousseau of detached left breasts of Chinese Amazons passing through the city) (Gigli 1864, 42, 62). Gigli 1719, 92, 94. Ibid., 119. Her motto, drawn from a sonnet of Bernardo Tasso, is “Che grazia, ed onestà regge, e governa” (ibid., 170; BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 8v). And on the margin by Orlandini’s name is written “la Dama fa poetare all’improviso” (Gigli 1719, 151). Ibid., 12, 171, 179, 184. Oddly, the other Sienese Arcadian woman, Aretifila Savini, whom Gigli cites for translating the Calandra into Latin on the last day of festivities (ibid., 199–200), is not among the new Assicurate. On Lisabetta Credi Fortini and Lucrezia Sergardi Buonsignori, see Giordano, 94–7, 149–50. See respectively their nicknames, emblems, and mottoes at ibid., 135, 148, 153, 138, 170, 165. As Gigli indicated (at ibid., 119), some of these women were enrolled by virtue of their birth or station (rather than accomplishments). This would no doubt apply to one young woman, identified as “nubile,” who was none other than the now fourteen-year-old child of Costanza Chigi, whose birth was “invoked” in the 1704 partially published Assicurate game. This child, Maria Virginia Altieri de’ Duchi di Monterano, was born in 1705 and appears here with the nickname “La Festegiatta”

Notes to pages 179–82 277

99

100

101 102

(the Celebrated) (ibid., 144), perhaps alluding to the fact that her beckoned birth was celebrated at a parlour game. Her mother, Costanza Chigi Duchessa di Monterano Altieri, and her older sister, Vittoria Altieri Principessa di Civitella Rospigliosi, also appear in the list (at ibid., 143, 160). Her emblem is a card table piled with primiera cards – because, the marginalia says, her family’s emblem included nineteen gold lilies, “quanta ne ha il flusso maggiore” in that game (ibid., 157) – adjoined with a motto from Dante’s Inferno 3:9: “Abandon all hope, who enters here.” BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 10r. Following her nickname on this page of the “Origins of the Assicurate” in another hand there is added “3a Princip [essa?],” suggesting that indeed she may have been the third Principessa of the Assicurate. For the dedication of the L’amor dottorato to Bandinelli and the Assicurate, see Biblioteca Moreniana, 59. The Biblioteca Moreniana in Florence also contained a set of poems Gigli wrote in honour of her and thirty-five other Assicurate women, a collection entitle Passaggio delle stelle Accademiche Assicurate and published in Siena by the Bonetti press in 1699 (ibid., 38–40). The poems depict the Assicurate as stars, and in this resemble the constellation book of Giugurta Tomasi discussed in chapter 4 above. In fact, when he describes the work in his Diario sanese, he places it in the context of, among other works, Thomas More’s Utopia (Gigli 1854, 1:419). Gigli 1854, 1:422. Gigli may have acted further to immortalize the Assicurate. His eighteenth-century biographer, Francesco Corsetti, lists among Gigli’s unedited works a “Raccolta di Poesìe delle Gentildonne Sanesi Accademiche Assicurate” (Corsetti, 51).

Conclusion 1 Opere burlesche, 1:252. He goes on to say that these games revealed a “familiarity” (between the sexes) common in France or Lombardy but not in Rome: “Eran domestichezze a ala Francese, / O per non gir più oltra, alla Lombarda, / Non usitate nel Roman paese” (ibid., 1:252). Mauro addressed his poem “Del viaggio di Roma” to the Duke of Amalfi (Alfonso Piccolomini) current governor of Siena and himself a member of the Intronati (G. Bargagli 1982, 53; Sbaragli 1942, 191). Mauro passed through Siena in 1532 en route with a papal entourage from Rome to Bologna (www.nuovorinascimento.org/n-rinasc/ipertest/html/orlando/ mauro_d'arcano.htm: accessed 11/18/2010). It is this passage that Gigli cites (along with one from Giambattista Marino) in more than one place in his praise of the Sienese games (see chapter 6).

278 Notes to pages 182–5 2 Opere burlesche, 1:252. 3 Ibid., 1:253. For another outsider’s admiration for the Sienese games and the women’s impressive showing in them, see the comment by the Venetian figure Celio Malespini, cited in Robin, 129–30. As for the general fame and influence of the Sienese games in Italy, see Fabris 1996, in regard to musical games and particularly in terms of the 1575 Giuoco piacevole of Ascanio de’ Mori of Mantua. Also, various banquet comedies performed for Doge Marino Grimani in Venice between 1595 and 1605 (and probably written by Enea Piccolomini [b. 1545]) seem to have been modelled on them (Shiff ). Also in Venice, a madrigal comedy of Orazio Vecchi, the Veglie di Siena of 1604, reflected Girolamo Bargagli’s games, and in nearby Treviso in 1610 Guido Casoni hosted games in the style of the “Sienese game” (Haar, 24n13, 32–4). Casoni also describes a game he attended in Venice as a “giuoco Sanese” (cited in Shiff, 337–8). 4 Benjamin Kohl’s trans. in Kohl, 206, 205. The latter passage followed upon Barbaro’s citation of a locus from Plutarch’s Conjugal Precepts 31 (142D): “When a certain young man saw the noble woman Theano stretch her arm out of mantle that had been drawn back, he said to his companions: ‘How handsome is her arm.’ To this she replied: ‘It is not a public one’” (Kohl’s trans., Kohl, 205). On the male ideal of female silence and views of female comportment, also see Günsberg, 46–7; Knox. 5 G. Bargagli 1982, 92. 6 Ibid., 175. 7 Ibid., 172. 8 S. Bargagli 1594, 461 (and fig. 8). 9 He warns his female audience, for instance, “sappiate quanto sia questa vostra bellezza caduca, & fugace, & come in breve a guisa di fiore si scolorisca & languida divegna” and that they should enjoy life to the fullest in “questa giovenile, & verde etade” (Ringhieri, 36v–37r.). 10 The rose in the Romance of the Rose had thorns as well and was briefly mentioned as a deterrent to the Lover’s approach, in contrast to the considerable description of the rose’s beauty and aroma (Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, 34), but in the case of this 1664 parlour game, forbidding thorns are the defining feature of the identity of Pandolfina Marsilii Vecchii, whose Assicurate nickname is “la Severa” and whose motto was “Più frà le spine mie sicuro hò il Regno” (Among my thorns I have a more secure rule) (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 5v.) 11 Granted that both treatises – written in the 1560s – could have drawn their emblems and insignia games from the historical moment of the women at the walls, rather than vice versa, this is not as plausible as the likelihood

Notes to pages 185–9 279

12 13 14 15

16 17 18

19 20 21 22

23

that the Intronati games, which had in general been under way since the 1530s, sparked both the assertion of the women and their bearing of insignias. Laudomia Forteguerri, surely the Forteguerri among the three, had been praised as a notable player as young as a seventeen-year-old (in Mauro’s 1532 poem), and her reputation as an outspoken intellectual (in Marcantonio Piccolomini’s Ragionamento), her promotion by Alessandro Piccolomni, and her praise as a defender of the city’s freedom (in Betussi’s 1556 Imagini del tempio) all point to her being the leader of this force – and doing so as a natural extension of the spirited games. Along these same lines, this might explain why he placed the playing of the games somewhat later in the siege. BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 62r. Cox 2008, 206–8, 229–31; Graziosi 1992, 347. Robin, 116–23; Ray; Westwater. On Domenico Vernier as literary advisor to Veronica Franco, see M. Rosenthal, 58–115, 149–51. On male/female collaboration – whether father/daughter, husband/wife, or male patron/ authoress – see Ross. BCI, P.V.15, fol. 166r–v. Similarly, Piccolomini’s later Alessandro (1544) depicted couples overcoming their arranged marriages. G. Bargagli 1982, 91–2. Bargagli’s comments suggest, then, that this public occasion – when the Neapolitans Alfonso d’Avalos (Marchese del Vasto) and Ferrante Sanseverino passsed through the city sometime in the 1530s – was the beginning of women making a notable showing in the games (on ties between Neapolitan and Sienese culture in this period, see Corsi, esp. 31n42). Presumably this was the same occasion to which Marcantonio Piccolomini alludes in his 1538 Ragionamento in which he depicts the Marchese del Vasto at a game “pochi anni fa” (Belladonna, 62), which might put the event some time after Mauro’s observance of the games in 1532 in which he noted the performance of the women. A. Piccolomini 1545, 121. See chapter 2 above. Betussi, 74–6; Robin, 125–6. Turner 1969, 94–130; 166–203; Davis, 97–151. Turner 1982, 20–60, generally distinguishes between liminal rituals (e.g., rites of passage) as universal, compulsory events in tribal societies, and liminoid activity (participation in Carnival play) as voluntary events orchestrated by self-defined groups in advanced societies. The latter, part of the realm of leisure, would include literary academies such as the Intronati and Assicurate. Turner 1982, 42.

280 Notes to pages 189–92 24 See Epigrams 10:9 in Owen, 123. 25 Aprosio, 27–8. 26 Ottonelli, title page. Although citing a few exemplary women (at 389–91, 392–6), the book is largely a summa of misogyny with citations from theologians and ancient writers on the evils and perils of women. On Ottonelli’s attacks elsewhere on theater and female performers, see Andrews 2000, 317. 27 In the full passage here, Ottonelli explains that this encounter between a virtuous man and a learned woman is not innately wrong, but in fact is fraught with danger: “In quanto alla Donna Accademica, tengo certissimo, che un’huomo, forte di Spirito, e virtuoso, non pecchi, con l’andare à conversatione in casa sua, per udirla discorrere Accademicamente; perche tal conversatione è un fiore di Virtù; & un frutto dell’Arbore di una virtuosa Politica, e di un’erudita, & honorata Civiltà. E ben vero, che anche un’huomo forte di Spirito; anzi un Savio, e di più un Santo, può correre pericolo di peccare per le ragioni dà me spiegate di sopra … perche alla fine la Donna è Donna, tuttoche sia letterata, e modesta; e le vicinanza di lei, e la sua conversatione, può cagionar tentatione, e pericolo di peccar, almeno con il pensiero” (ibid., 397–8); also see 398–405. 28 Ibid., 379–80. 29 Guazzo 1590, 153v; Ottonelli, 55; and also cf. 58–9. 30 Guazzo 1590, 161v. 31 Boccalini, 1:66; Cox 2008, 198. 32 BCI, C.IV.4, fols. 1r–8v. It is unclear whether the author was using old style or modern dating: thus, the brackets. This Crescenzio Vaselli was presumably the same Intronati figure whose account of the 1717 celebration of Violante of Bavaria’s appointment as governor of Siena was included in Gigli’s Diario sanese (see Gigli 1854, 1:135–40). 33 See BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 257r–308r; Mazzi 1919. 34 BCI, C.IV.4, fol. 2r–2v: “Dico però, che essendo per se medesime differenti molto le particolari incumbenze degl’uomini da quella delle Donne, non meno per la Gloria, la buona armonia, [il?] avanzamento delle famiglie, ne nascesse per consequenza, che confuto un tal regolamento per la troppa frequenza del conversare, e quelle, e questi rendasi meno atti al proprio necessario ministero.” 35 BCI, C.IV.4, fol. 4r. Finetti attributes this prologue (for which see Intronati 1611, 1:535ff, which is a dialogue between Comedy and Tragedy) to Alessandro Piccolomini, an attribution much debated, and complicated by Piccolomini’s distancing himself from the Intronati’s theatrical efforts at that time (on which see Seragnoli, 138–73).

Notes to pages 192–3 281 36 BCI, C.IV.4, fol. 4r: “Questo non meno utile, che piacevole esercizio diè [read diede?] motivo ad una onesta, e virtuousa conversazione, che del continovo s’introdusse, e si mantenne ben lungo tempo tra i giovani, e le Donzelle di quella fioritissima età. Da ciò nel nacquero quelle gioconde spiritose veglie, che furono il diletto della dotta Italia.” 37 Ibid., 4v; on these writers see Cox 2008, esp. 64–82. 38 Ibid., fol. 5r: “Per lo contario le antiche veglie non erano di troppa invenzione ripiene, essendo che tali cose molto sono inverisimili, e lontane dall’improviso parlare.” 39 Ibid., fol. 5v: “Egli é altresí vero, però che quella gran’ frequenza di conversare non ebbe lunga vita. Credite voi, che quando un tal’ uso fusse stato congiunto col ben’ pubblico, e con l’utilità delle faccende dimestiche si fusse combiato costume? Io non lo credo per certo, specialmente quando da ciò, che ci diletta si ha da far passaggio all’austerità, e all ritiratezza; E poi pur troppo é vero quel detto, che il troppo conversar genera noja.” 40 Ibid., fols. 5v–6r: “tutta volta molte, e molte valorose Donne ha auto [read avuto?] la Città nostra, le quali anno saputo all’improviso rispondere con vivacità di spirito, e secondo l’opportunità pungere ancora con gentilezza.” 41 Ibid., fol. 6r (emphasis added): “ma vi soggiungo, che se il talento di quelle spiritose Donne fusse stato esercitato dalla continova conversazione, molto più sariasi segnalato alle occasioni, non essendovi cosa, la quale più conferisca alla proprietà, e prontezza de nostri concetti, & a quella, che disinvoltura si appella, quanto l’aver molto udito, e molte persone trattato.” 42 Ibid., fol. 7r: “quella ridicola severità di vivere segregati gl’uomini dalle Donne.” 43 Finetti suggests that the restrictions on contact were quite severe: “Io só, che l’Austerità del convivere era ad un tal grado di riputazione ascesa, che fuori del primo grado, ò al più al più [sic] del secondo di strettissima parentela, era un grave delitto far visite a qualsivoglia Dama. Ne pure a mariti davasi l’accesso in quelle confidenziali veglie, allora quando ora dall’una, & ora dall’altra adunavansi quelle povere Donne” (I know that the austerity regarding association had risen to such a degree of reputation that to visit any woman whomsoever outside of the first – or at the most second – degree of tightest kinship was a grave crime. Not even husbands gained access to these private parties then, when these poor women were gathered together by one or another of their number) (ibid., fol. 7v).

282 Notes to pages 193–5 44 Ibid., fol. 8v: “Questa altrettanto utile, che necessaria scienza [of good moral and civil conversation] ha tutta la sua forza per ispirare in chi che sia, e molto più negl’animi nobili una scambievole amistà, & estimazione, un Idea molto piu giusta delle cose, delle circostanze, e di ciò, che a ciascheduno convenga, secondo la propria età, e grado; una maggiore consideratezza ne familiari discorsi, & un forte vivissimo desiderio d’ornare le nostre menti, & operare con ingenuità, e decoro.” 45 Finetti’s was not the only male defence of unrestrained conversation in this period. In the previous decade, a Neapolitan figure, Paolo Mattia Doria, defended open exchanges (il libero conversare) in a treatise on female equality of 1716. I have not been able to see this work, entitled Ragionamenti … ne’quali si dimostra la donna, in quasi che tutte le virtù più grandi, non essere all’uomo inferiore, but Elisabetta Graziosi suggests that “Era uno scritto ardito, dove si difendevano il gioco e le conversazioni comme mezzo di perfezionamento intellettuale nella convinzione che ‘non punto il libero conversare è quello che le città guasta e corrompe, ma le genti guaste e corrotte sono quelle che fanno il libero conversare dannevole e pernicioso’” (Graziosi 1992, 330). 46 Rime degli Arcadi, 4:181–9. 47 Ibid., 4:185. 48 Ibid., 4:187. Other poems recount her withdrawing her hand in marriage from a Gio. Battista Arrighi (ibid., 4:182, index at Bb3); praise Maria Francesca Raffaelli Tuccetti (ibid, 4:184, index at Bb3); and mark the entry of Violante of Bavaria (Duke Cosimo III’s daughter-in-law) into Tuscany. (ibid., 4: index at Bb3v). 49 Ibid., 6:195. 50 On these developments and the ongoing defence of female learning by such figures as Aretafila Savini de’ Rossi and Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola (who translated Descartes’s Principles of Philosophy in 1722), see Rebecca Messbarger in Agnesi, 1–22; Paula Findlen in ibid., 37–46, 117–27; Agnesi, passim; also Messbarger, esp. 3–19. 51 Eric Cochrane, who generally underplays the role of women in the life of the Italian academies, perhaps erroneously credits the lack of a strong salon culture to the general absence of women in Italian public life: “The private salotto in Tuscany never developed into anything like the salon in France – partially because women played a considerably less important role in Tuscan society and partially because informal groups could not fulfill the particular demands of Tuscan intellectuals as well as permanent organizations” (Cochrane, 41). Rebecca Messbarger reads the situation in a totally opposite – and, I think, more plausible – way: “In other parts of

Notes to pages 195 283 Europe, notably France and England, women intellectuals exerted their influence in the shadow academic world of the salon because they were forbidden entry into academies and universities” (Agnesi, 7). Carolina Scaglioso makes a similar point when she argues that the all-female Assicurate ceased to exist around the time that three of their number were inducted into the Intronati (in 1710); she argues that at this juncture: “Di una Accademia esclusivamente femminile non c’era più bisogno” (Scaglioso, 54). Thus, the decline or absence of specifically female institutions may then be ironically some measure of women’s success in their integration into the public intellectual realm. 52 On an invitation to Marino from Marie de’ Medici in 1609, see Picco, 43n1, and on the Marino’s presence and literary influence in France, see Picco, passim; Mirollo, 36–85, 227–42. Picco, 39, cites Marino’s biographer Francesco Ferrari’s comments that Marino influenced the “vogue of parlour literature” by transporting his experience with improvisational poetry in Italy to Paris: “Giambattista Marino, che a Parigi vedremo contribuire alla voga della letteratura da salotto, aveva praticate a Rome sale aristocratiche secondo quanto si rileva da’ suoi biografi ‘… in casa Mancini a Roma … per proprio trattenimento alle volte sopra qualche leggiadro soggetto all’improviso … recita[vansi] commedie in presenza di poche Dame … in modo che i medesimi personaggi erano spettatori e nobili Istrioni … quindi nacque … [l’Accademia] dei Begli Humori … [ai quali] … con molto honore G. B. Marino [fu] aggregato.’” In his travels, Marino passed through Siena and was inducted into the Academy of the Filomati (Mirollo, 17). 53 Picco, 28, suggests that among the parlour games favoured at Rambouillet’s salon “molto gustati sono i cosidetti ‘pointes’ dovuti all’influenza italiana e spagnôla e parimenti gli ‘énigmes,’ componimentuzzi poetici dai peregrini concetti evanescenti, anzi addiritura aeriformi, dei quali Cotin si compiacque mettere insieme un’intera raccolta.” On the collection of riddles made by the abbé Charles Cotin, the Recueil des enigmes de ce temps (1638), see Cotin; Livet, 120–2. On the Italian antecedents of riddle collections in, for instance, Giovanni Francesco Straparola’s Le piacevoli notti (1550–3) and Giulio Cesare dalla Croce’s Ducento enigmi piacevoli da indovinare (1609), see Cotin, xxxiii–xxxiv, lvi–lxi; Straparola. Exploring the possible influence of the Italian parlour games on the French salons is beyond the scope of this book but would merit further study. On French salons prior to Rambouillet, see Keating; Yates, 1947; for a social history of the seventeenth-century French salon, see Lougee. 54 The collection also included children’s games and board games (see Daniel-A. Gajda in Sorel, i–xvi). The French Jesuit Claude-François Menestrier

284 Notes to pages 195–6

55

56 57 58 59 60

also cited the prominence of the Sienese games in a discussion “des jeux d’esprit et de divertissement” in his 1682 Des ballets anciens et modernes selon des regles du théâtre (Fabris 1995). Menestrier noted that although such games first began in France, it was the Italians who invented the majority of them – “quoique les Italiens ayent inventé la plûpart de ces petis jeux, ce sont les François que en sont les premiers Auteurs” (cited in ibid., 37) – and his treatment draws on such works as Girolamo Bargagli’s game book and Ascanio de’ Mori’s Giuoco piacevole. In his Second Day, Sorel includes fifty of Ringhieri’s games (Sorel 1657, Seconde journée, 245–97), but not only does he excise the questions appended to each game (see Daniel-A. Gajda’s comment at Sorel 1977, iv), he also at the close of his series of Ringhieri’s games warns of the overly intellectual calibre of games requiring too much learning (see chapter 1, n. 88 above). On the Sienese games, see the section on games that allow or mandate kissing (marked as “Que ces Ieux ne se pratiquent point avec tant de liberté in Italie”) in which one of Sorel’s interlocutors reacts to such games “en quoy l’on prend une trop grande licence” by saying “Ie voudrois bien sçavoir, reprit Isis, si dans ces veilles de Sienne dont Clymante a parlé, l’on baise avec une liberté semblable, & si les Italiens qui sont si ialoux de cette faveur, le peuvent souffrir” (Sorel 1977, 308). See his summaries of the Courtier and the Civil Conversation at ibid., 545–74. See Corilla Olimpica; and Biagini therein. Cochrane, 68; Messbarger 2002, 9. BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 268r, 291r–292r. Graziosi 1992, 348; on the game of Sibillone, in which a Sybil utters a prophetic word and players expound upon its possible meaning, see the description in the Discorsi accademici … sopra alcuni dubbi proposti nell’Accademia degli Apatisti (Salvini, 2:415–17). The case of Petronilla Paolini Massimi (1663–1726), inducted into the Arcadian Academy in 1698, reveals how ludic activities could be a source of marital friction, as her husband opposed such gatherings. Petronilla, who had been married off at age ten to the Castellano of Castel Sant’Angelo, separated from her husband in 1690 after the death of her child. She sought refuge from the “chiuso orrore” and “rigida prigion” of her married life in the Castel by returning to the convent of Spirito Santo, where she had received her education. She was free to host her own social events only after his death in 1707 (Tozzi, 8, 15–16, 20–1; Graziosi 1992, 334–5). Gigli refers to her in his La finta conversione di Madama Adelaide as a “dama di singolar saviezza e letteratura ancora” (Gigli 1865, 4–5).

Notes to pages 196 285 61 As for the Arcadians’ Olympic Games, female participation may have been a bone of contention, as women were not allowed participation in these events until 1701 – and a few years later, the academy’s founder Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, in his brief for female inclusion in the academy in his 1708 Arcadia, offered a literary depiction of “nymphs” who protested their exclusion from such games (Giuli 2009, 315–16). For an example of female participation, see Lisabetta Girolami Ambra’s madrigal in a game of the Garland in the 1721 Giuochi olimpici (I giuochi olimpici 1721, 79). 62 Giuli 2002, 156; on Corilla and the oral tradition of extemporaneous poetry in the eighteenth century, see Giuli 2009; Finotti; Di Ricco. In 1754 she was praised as one of the three women improvisers (out of ten such poets) in a Dialogo pastorale emanating from the Arcadians’ Olympic Games of that year (Giuli 2009, 318–19). Apparently, Corilla even founded a literary academy called the “Ordine dei Cavalieri Olimpici,” in which she envisioned monthly meetings for readings of poetry or philosophical pieces (Giuli, 162). Elisabetta Graziosi sees Corilla as part of the Tuscan flowering of women under the patronage of such figures as Vittoria della Rovere (patroness of the Assicurate) and Violante of Bavaria (who became governor of Siena in 1717 and was later the dedicatee of Gigli’s Diario sanese) and views her improvisational poetry in part in the context of a Tuscan ludic tradition: “Ammessa nell’[Arcadian] Accademia dal fiorentino Michele Giuseppe Morei insieme a una valanga di Toscani, Corilla rappresentava una regione culturale dove le dame di corte e le poetesse avevano trovato (dopo quello concesso da Maria Vittoria della Rovere a Maria Selvaggia Borghini) un buon patrocinio in Beatrice Violante di Baviera (1716 Elemira Telea [her Arcadian induction and name]), e dove il gusto dell’improvvisazione, non solo come esercizio d’ingegno, ma anche come gioco o sfida o ricupero del canto popolare, aveva una tradizione” (Graziosi 1992, 347). 63 Staël, esp. 45–6, 248–60. 64 Ibid., 21–35. 65 In her notes to the novel, Staël ironically emphasizes the connection by indicating that “the name of Corinne should not be confused with that of Corilla, an Italian improviser, of whom everyone has heard” and indicates that her character’s name alludes to the ancient Greek poetess Corinna of Tanagra (S. Raphael’s translation in Staël, 408n29; also ibid., 260). Similarly, Stendhal, somewhat later, in his Charterhouse of Parma modelled his character, the Duchess Sanseverina (Gina del Donga), on Barbara Sanseverino, one of Tasso’s notable women of ingegno in his

286 Notes to page 196 Gonzaga secondo – a noted reveller who later used her festive gatherings to hatch the political conspiracy that led to her execution (G. McClure 2008, 767–8). 66 On European salon culture in general as a setting mediating the private and the public and as a venue for women to engage in the querelle des femmes, see Campbell, esp. 1–19.

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Index

ABC, game of, 232n30 Abbeys of Misrule, 33–4 Accarigi, Francesco, 260n82 Accarigi, Livia, 267–8n177 Accesi, Academy of the, 246n81, 251n3 Accetto, Torquato, 215n141 adultery, 36–9 Aeschylus, 96 Agazzari, Giudetta Perfetti, 178 Agostini, Ippolita, 124 Agostini, Ippolito, 104–5, 113 Agostini, Leonora Montalvi degli, 110–14, 236n81 Agrippa von Nettesheim, Cornelius, 41, 222–3n66 Alciato, Andrea, 110, 233–4n46 Alessandri, Maria Buonaccorsi, 156–7, 194 Altieri, Emilio, 154 Altieri, Maria Virginia, 154, 276–7n98 Altieri, Vittoria, 276–7n98 Amadís de Gaula, 62–3, 124 Amazons, 51, 52, 94, 160, 200n9

Amazons, game of the, 53, 61, 152 Ambra, Lisabetta Girolami, 285n61 Andreini, Isabella, 144 Animosi, Academy of the, 212n92 Apatisti, Academy of the, 284n60 Aprosio, Angelico, 122, 146, 189–90, 255n32 Aragona, Giovanni d’, 230n10, 236n76 Aragona, Tullia d’, 192 Arcadians, Academy of the, 157, 165, 177, 194, 195–6 Archive, game of the, 25, 67 Aretino, Pietro, 3, 4, 216n144 Ariosto, Lodovico, 31, 61, 62, 94, 108–9, 113, 174, 208n57 Aristophanes, 237n90 Aristotle, 11, 95, 102, 141; Eudemian Ethics, 276n89; Generation of Animals, 93; Nicomachean Ethics, 14, 38, 220n46, 265n148; Poetics, 219n35; Rhetoric, 219n35 Arnigio, Bartolomeo, 19–22, 24, 27, 60 Arrighetti, Cassandra, 89 Artemisia, 90

308 Index Aspasia, 13, 17, 119, 141 Assicurate, Academy of the, 61, 125–58, 171–4, 176–81, 187 Athenaeus, 13, 119–20, 173, 196–7 Avalos, Alfonso d’, 44–5, 58, 63 Axiothea of Phlius, 141 Ballati, Livia Nerli, 177 Ballati, Vittoria Tancredi, 256n54 Bandinelli, Girolama Accarigi, 179 Bandinelli, Lucrezia, 137, 139 Bandini, Caterina, 151, 262n99 Bandini, Patritio, 257n59 banquets, 19 Barbaro, Francesco, 183 Barbolani da Montauto, Federigo, 83 Bardi, Artemisia, 90 Bardi, Berenice, 90 Bargagli, Girolamo, 3, 19, 29, 37, 82, 84, 107–10, 239n104, 253n14; Dialogo de’ giuochi che nelle vegghie sanesi si usano di fare, 21–8, 30–5, 43, 56–67, 68, 72, 85–6, 89, 123, 124, 133, 151, 152, 163–4, 195, 242n29, 270n19, 283–4n54; La Pellegrina, 79, 229n1, 240n10 Bargagli, Scipione, 3, 25; Dell’ imprese, 104–18, 236n81; Oratione in lode dell’accademia degl’Intronati dello Schietto Intronato, 68–9, 119– 21, 231n13; Orazione … in morte di Monsignor Alessandro Piccolomini, 220n41; Riverci di medaglie della Ventura Befana de’ Cortigiani Ferraiuoli, 66–80, 85–93, 104, 251n136; Rolo, overo cento imprese de gl’illustri signori huomini d’arme sanesi, 83–4; I trattenimenti, 25, 67–80, 88–9, 91, 92, 101, 107, 123, 125, 133, 160–1, 163–4, 238n101

Barisano, Antonio, 206n48 Battiferra, Laura, 121 Bawd, game of the, 17 bawds, 17, 42 Befana, 43, 66, 85–7, 97, 104, 113, 116 Belladonna, Rita, 44 Bellanti, Dorotea Piccolomini, 131 Bellanti, Flavia, 89, 102–3 Bentivoglio, Cornelio, 5, 153, 207n53 Bentivoglio, Margherita, 5–13 Benvoglienti, Achille, 83 Benvoglienti, Girolamo, 217–18n15 Benvoglienti, Uberto, 171, 217n10 Berenice (wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes), 101 Berni, Francesco, 4 Berti, Battista, 172 Betussi, Giuseppe, 51, 219n36, 230n10, 236n76 Bias of Priene, 110 Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, 125–6, 135, 192 Bichi, Annibale, 10 Bichi, Eleonora Agostini, 178 Bichi, Galgano, 256n46 Bichi, Margherita, 52 Bichi, Pia, 172, 271n24 Bichi, Verginia Bandini, 178 biography, 45–8 Bird Pecking at the Fig, game of the, 60 birdcage, image of, 105–10 Biringucci, Giovanni, 31, 217–18n15 Biringucci, Margarita, 125 Bizzarini, Maria Antonia, 274n62 Black Death, 69 board games, 14, 24 Boccaccio, Giovanni, 31, 174; Corbaccio, 17, 42; Decameron, 13, 63–4, 68, 69, 77, 234–5n64, 235n74, 237n85;

Index 309 De mulieribus claris, 225n97; Filocolo, 13, 25, 62 Boccalini, Traiano, 121–2, 153, 191–2 Bocchi, Achille, 233–4n46 Boethius, 107 Bologna, 41, 42 Bonetti, Luca, 229n1 Borghesi, Alessandro, 27 Borghesi, Ascanio, 244n62 Borghesi, Bernardino, 271–2n33 Borghesi, Geneviefa Gigli ne’, 176, 178 Borghesi, Maria Virginia, 142, 154 Borgia, Lucrezia, 12 Brahe, Tycho, 101, 247n92 Bruni, Leonardo, 40 Bulgarini, Belisario, 93, 104, 241n20, 244n61 Bulgarini, Lattanzio, 266–7n169 Bulgarini, Maria Tommasi, 177 Bulgarini, Paride, 266–7n169 Buoninsegni, Francesco, 122, 146 Buoninsegni, Portia, 90 Buoninsegni, Verginia Chigi, 178 Buonsignori, Camilla Alberti, 130, 256n49 Buonsignori, Lucrezia Sergardi. See Sergardi, Lucrezia Buonsignori, Vincenzo, 272n44 burlesque poetry, 4 Canigiani, Bernardo, 203n34 Canigiani, Ermelina, 203n36, 208n58 Cantini, Lorenzo, 81 cards, 4, 24, 28, 57, 123, 204n38 Carnesecchi, Pietro, 241n16 Carnival, 19, 29, 34, 35, 45, 53, 81, 152; Academy of Assicurate, 130–4, 145, 148, 150; Ferrara, 5, 9;

Girolamo Bargagli, 22–4, 27, 60, 82; Girolamo Gigli, 163–9, 170, 176, 179; Scipione Bargagli, 69, 71, 74–5, 79 Casale Monferrato, 19 Casoni, Guido, 278n3 Castiglione, Baldassarre, 10, 13, 19, 56, 57, 64, 123, 130, 195 Cataneo, Maurizio, 205n45 Catherine of Siena, Saint, 123 Cauzzi, Emilia, 205n46, 206n47 Celsi, Mino, 83 Centorio, Ascanio, 50–2, 124, 160–1 Ceremonies (or Sacrifice of Venus and Love), game of, 210n87 Cereta, Laura, 107, 212–13n103 Cerreta, Florinda, 41 Cerretani, Aldobrando, 271–2n33 Cerretani, Ermellina Aringhieri dei, 271n24 Cerretani, Flavia Tolomei, 85, 92 Cerretani, Girolamo, 96 Cerretani, Gironimo, 84 Cerretani, Lucrezia d’Azzolini, 124 Cerretani, Pietro, 84 Cervini, Giulia, 256n51 Cervini, Piera, 172 Cesari, Isifile, 271n24 Challenges and Reconciliations, game of, 71, 73–5 Charles V (emperor), 49, 223n71, 256n50 chastity, 17, 27, 42, 89, 90, 109, 210n80 Chastity, game of, 17 Chaucer, 248n105 chess, 5, 24, 28 Chiari, Pietro, 195 Chigi, Agostino, 142, 154 Chigi, Camillo, 97

310 Index Chigi, Costanza, 154, 276–7n98 Chigi, Flavio (cardinal), 260–1n85 Chigi, Maria Maddalena, 146–7 Chigi, Maria Virginia Borghesi, 264n123 Chigi, Maria Teresa, 146–7 Chigi, Olimpia, 259n73 Christina of Sweden (queen), 187 Christine of Lorraine (grand duchess), 251n2 Cicirlanda, game of, 56 Cinuzzi, Marcantonio, 83, 167, 271n31 Circe, 60 Civoli, Laura, 49 Claudian, 271n31 claustration, 9, 79, 142–3, 145, 156 Cleanthes, 131, 257n56 Cleopatra, 149 coat of arms, 33 Collegio Tolomei (Siena), 170, 174–5 Colonna Vittoria, 12, 17, 66, 116, 121, 144, 147, 192 comedies, 30, 31, 34, 43, 64, 79, 82, 150, 163 Comedy, game of, 64, 265n144 coming-of-age, rituals of, 33 commedia dell’arte, 64 commedia erudita, 233n43 conduct books, 23 confessors, 37 confraternities, 34 Contile, Luca, 104, 233–4n46 Corinna of Tanagra, 17, 285–6n65 Cotin, Charles, 283n53 Counter-Reformation, 26, 83, 208n57 courtesans, 120 courtiers, 108–9; sprezzatura, 130, 184

courtly love, 89, 107–8, 136. See also love; Love, Kingdom of courtship, rituals of, 10 Cox, Virginia, 187 Credi, Lisabetta, 274n62 Crescimbeni, Giovanni Mario, 163, 165, 177, 267n176, 285n61 Crowns, game of, 236n83 Crusca, Academy of the, 30, 159, 170, 171–2 Cupid, 61, 150, 210–11n87 Cyrus (king of Persia), 47 Damo (daughter of Pythagoras), 141 dancing, 57 Dante Alighieri, 13, 17, 38, 61, 82, 109, 257n58, 277n99 Devices (Imprese), game of, 64–6, 78 Dia, Countess of (Beatriz di Dia), 208n60 dice, 5, 10, 19 Diogenes, 110 Diotima, 13, 17, 119 disinvoltura, 130, 134–5, 183–4 Domenichi, Lodovico, 41, 164–5, 210n77, 233–4n46, 253n16 Donati, Atalanta, 44 Doria, Paolo Mattia, 282n45 double standard (sexual), 36, 37, 95 Dovizi, Bernardo (Bibbiena), 176 dowries, 93, 95, 149–50, 171 Duke of Alva, 50 Ebreo, Leone, 222n65 Egitto, Monas d’, 214n117 Elci, Agnolina d’ (countess), 62, 230n7 Elci, Carlo d’ (count), 113 Elci, Cincia d’, 232n36

Index 311 Elci, Margherita de’ Salvi d’ (countess), 44 Elci, Urania d’, 232n36 Eleonora di Toledo (duchess), 216n144 Elizabeth I (queen of England), 12 emblems, 28, 33, 65, 84, 104–18, 129–33, 160–2 Enchantress, game of the, 60 Epiphany, 85, 97 Erasmus, 24, 175 Erik Erikson, 32 erotic allusions, 33–4, 60, 74, 76, 152, 168 Este, Alfonso II d’ (duke), 5, 203n33 Este, Isabella d’, 12 Este, Leonora d’, 200n8 Este, Lucrezia d’ (duchess), 207n51 Euripides, 95 Fanti, Sigismondo, 243n31 Farnese, Ranuccio I (duke), 9 Fausta, Livia, 49, 50, 51, 75, 160–2, 172, 175 Fedele, Cassandra, 17 feminism, 40, 54, 76, 78, 93, 141, 181 Ferraiuoli, Court of, 84–118, 142 Ferrara, 5, 9 fertility, 34 Figliucci, Lucrezia, 271n24 Figure of Cupid, game of the, 232n30 Filomati, Academy of the, 123, 125, 283n52 Finetti, Anna Maria, 152 Finetti, Cosimo, 192–4 Finetti, Lattanzio, 152, 192 Florence, 13, 34, 49, 69, 70, 73, 81–4, 119–21 Florentine Academy, 82

Florentine Carnival songs, 22, 27, 75–6 Florida, Creusa, 121 Florio, John, 237n87 Fonsi, Francesco, 229–30n5 Fonte Moderata (Modesta da Pozzo), 141 Fontebrandese, Caterina, 52–3 forbidden games, 26 Forese, Livia, 90 Forteguerri, Laudomia, 36, 37–40, 43–5, 48, 51, 58, 75, 160–2, 167, 172, 174, 175, 182, 230n10, 271n24; son Alessandro, 38–9 Forteguerri, Livia, 149, 151 Forteguerri, Niccolò, 174 Forteguerri, Nicomedo, 51 Forteguerri, Tarsia, 50, 51 Fortini, Lisabetta Credi, 178, 267–8n177, 271n24 fortune (and goddess Fortuna), 5–8, 14–15, 44, 58–9, 110, 204n38 Fortune, game of, 85 fortunes (prophecies), 85–93, 97–104 Francesco da Barberino, 23 Franco, Veronica, 279n15 Fulvia da Correggio, 8–9, 12 funeral orations, 40–1 Galen, 95 Galileo, 131 Gambara, Beatrice, 10 Gambera, Veronica, 17, 121, 147, 192, 212–13n103 Ganducci, Olimpia, 266n154 Garden of Love, game of the, 154–6 Gardeners, game of the, 76 Garland, game of the, 285n61 Garzoni, Tomasi, 3, 213n110

312 Index Gazzaia, Buoncompagno di Marcantonio della, 81–2 Gellius, Aulus, 200n12 Gennep, Arnold van, 33, 34 Ghini, Leonardo, 97 Ghislieri, Michele (cardinal, pope), 83 Giberto da Correggio, 9 Gigli, Girolamo, 48, 51–2, 78, 81, 84, 126, 159–81, 217n10; Del Collegio Petroniano, 161, 165, 169–80; “Dell’Origine, e Processo dell’ Antica Sanese Accademia,” 160–2; Diario sanese, 159, 162–9, 239n3; Don Pilone, 170, 175, 176; Gazzettino (or Avvisi ideali ), 273–4n58, 276n71; L’amor dottorato, 179; La finta conversione di Madame Adelaide, 284n60; Sorellina di Don Pilone, 170, 172, 175; Vocabolario cateriniano, 170 Giolito, Gabriel, 253n16 Giovio, Paolo, 104, 233–4n46 Gonzaga, Carlo, 205n46 Gonzaga, Elisabetta (duchess), 13, 257n62 Gonzaga, Erecole (cardinal), 205n46 Gonzaga, Giulia, 271–2n33 Gonzaga, Giulio Cesare, 5, 7–8, 11, 205n46 Gonzaga, Guglielmo (duke), 11 Gonzaga, Guglielmo (duke), 205n46 Gonzaga, Margherita (duchess), 5, 8, 11 Gonzaga, Scipione, 205n46 Gonzaga, Vespasiano, 206n47 Gonzaga, Vincenzo, 11, 203n33 Gori, Alessandra Fantoni, 260–1n85 Gori, Caterina, 152 Gori, Giovanni, 267n175

Gori, Olimpia Chigi ne’, 133 Grande, Academy of the, 29, 56, 209n65 Grassi, Caterina Pannelini, 131 Gravina, Gian Vincenzo, 273–4n58 Graziosi, Elisabetta, 187, 196 Grazzini, Antonfrancesco, 22, 237n95, 249n109 “green years,” 29–35, 168 Griffoli, Caterina Gaetana, 130, 132–3, 142–3, 154–6, 173, 178, 256n51, 268n178 Griffoli, Jacopo, 63 Griffoli, Lelio, 266–7n169 Grillo, Angelo, 207n52 Grimani, Marino (doge), 278n3 Guazzo, Marco, 50, 226–7n106 Guazzo, Stefano, 19, 21, 191, 195 Guerrazzi, Francesco Domenico, 266–7n169 Guglielmo, Vittoria, 92 Guidini, Ginevera, 256n49 Haberman, Jürgen, 18, 83 Hannibal, 8 Happiness and Goods, game of, 14–16 Helen of Troy, 95 Henry II (king of France), 49, 209n67 heresy, 82–3 Homer, 17 Horace, 31, 158, 229n3, 271n31 humanists, 4, 18, 30, 40 Hunt, game of the, 75–6 Imprese (devices), 30, 33, 51, 65. See also emblems Index of Forbidden Books, 26 Infiammati, Academy of the, 38 Inquisition, 83

Index 313 insignias, 65, 72, 73 Insignias and Banners, game of, 71–5, 78, 161 Intronati, Academy of the, 21, 29–35, 42, 44, 68–9, 121–2, 192–4; and Academy of the Assicurate, 125–58, 186; closing, 81–4; Ingannati, 43, 79; Ortensio, 31, 192, 229n1, 240n10, 252n10; re-opening, 84, 119; Sacrificio, 34, 43, 96 Italian Wars, 65, 76 Jeanneret, Michele, 19 Jesuits, 159, 169, 170–2, 174, 190–1, 266–7n169 jousts, 14, 15, 57, 69, 72 Judith, 17 Knight, game of the, 72 knights, 33, 53, 61, 83, 93–6, 137, 152, 157 Lactantius, 91–2 Landucci, Marcello, 224n81 Lappolli, Giovanni (Pollastra), 223n75 law, 30–2, 43 League of Cognac, 70 Leisure, game of, 14 Lenzi, Mariano, 222n65 Leonora of Austria (duchess), 11, 12 “liberal” games, 17 Liberal and Noble Arts, game of the, 17 love, 36, 39–40, 42–3, 61, 63, 73, 76, 88, 96, 130. See also courtly love Love, Kingdom of, 7, 26, 126, 128, 135–9, 143, 148, 156, 181

Lucarini, Camilla Placidi, 256n49 Lucca, 41 Lucretia, 17 Lupercalia, 24, 27, 34, 76 Lutheranism, 83–4 Maddalena, Maria (grand duchess), 124 Maffei, Raffaele, 199n2 Magliabechi, Antonio, 51, 160–2, 239n3, 241n21 Malaguzzi, Annibale, 250n130 Malatesta, Battista, 221n60 Malespini, Celio, 278n3 Mandoli, Aurora, 89 Mandoli, Caterina Chigi Piccolomini, 256n49 Mandoli, Girolamo Piccolomini, 231n13 Manfredi, Muzio, 203n32 Manso, Giovan Battista, 205n45 Marchese del Vasto. See Avalos, Alfonso d’ Marescotti, Margarita, 271n24 Marescotti, Settimia Tolomei, 146, 157, 267–8n177 Maretti, Lelio, 59, 270n19 Margaret of Austria, 54, 220–1n47 Marinella, Lucrezia, 207n54 Marino, Giambattista, 195, 268–9n3, 270n17, 274n69 Mario da Venadorn, 249n113 marriages (arranged), 36, 37, 39, 43, 46, 96 Martello, Piero Jacopo, 267–8n177 Martini, Fortunio, 84, 92, 94–6, 241n20 Martini, Virginia, 172 Marzi, Frasia, 43, 45–8, 124, 167 Marzi, Livia, 99–100, 124

314 Index Massimi, Petronilla Paolini, 196 Mauro, Giovanni, 174, 182, 224n86, 231n18, 270n17 Maxims and Signs, game of, 209n70 Mazzi, Curzio, 81, 85 McClure, Laura, 120 Medici, Alessandro de’ (duke), 82 Medici, Catherine de’ (queen of France), 12, 13–14, 195, 227n108 Medici, Cosimo I de’ (duke, grand duke), 67, 81–3, 228n122, 244–5n62, 251n3; daughter Isabella, 67, 69 Medici, Cosimo II de’ (grand duke), 251n2 Medici, Cosimo III de’ (grand duke), 166, 170 Medici, Ferdinando de’ (grand duke), 82, 84, 119, 239n104, 251n2 Medici, Francesco de’ (grand duke), 82–3, 239n104 Medici, Gian Angelo de’ (pope), 83 Medici, Ippolito de’ (cardinal), 271–2n33 Medici, Marie de’ (queen of France), 195 Medici, Mattias de’, 254n22 Menestrier, Claude-François, 283–4n54 Mercator, Gerardus, 247n92 Messbarger, Rebecca, 194 Meun, Jean de, 107 Mignanelli, Lucrezia, 167, 172, 271n24 Mignanelli, Orazio, 97, 266n154 misogyny, 40, 42, 95, 121–2, 139, 189–90 Molière, 170

monasticism, 32–3 Monluc, Blaise de, 49–53, 70, 124, 153, 160–1, 172 Montalvo, Garci Rodriguez de, 232n36 Montfleury, Antoine Jacob de, 273n48 moratorium, 32 More, Thomas, 18, 276n89 Morelli, Maria Maddalena (Corilla Olimpica), 195–6 Mori, Ascanio de’, 10, 28, 278n3, 283–4n54 mottoes, 30, 50–1, 65, 72–3, 84, 86–93, 105–18, 129–33 Museo, Agostino, 44, 45 nicknames, 32–3, 38, 129–32, 137 Nicodemism, 32 Nini, Eufrasia, 266n154 Nostredame, Jean de, 163 Nuti, Fausti, 92 Order of the San Stefano, Knights of, 244–5n62 Orlandini, Emilia Ballati, 157, 165, 173, 178, 194, 196, 266n154, 267–8n177, 271n24 Ottoboni, Pietro (cardinal), 272n46 Ottonelli, Giovan Domenico, 122, 190–1, 194 Ovid, 244n52 Owen, John, 189 ozio, 14 Padua, 38, 41, 42 Pagni, Lorenzo, 82 Paleario, Aonio, 44 Palmieri, Bernardino, 149–50 Panico, Jeronimo, 10

Index 315 Pannelini, Caterina Savini Gori, 130, 145 Pannelini, Niccolò Gori, 126 Pannelini, Portia Bichi Gori, 147–8, 256n51, 264n125 Pannelini, Silvio Gori, 150–1, 153 Paradin, Guillaume, 226n106 Parnassus, game of, 153 Passi, Giuseppe, 207n54 patriarchy, 6–7, 90, 132, 206n47; Alessandro Piccolomini, 39–42; Academy of the Assicurate, 137–8, 143–4, 150–1; Bartolomeo Arnigio, 20; Fortunio Martini, 94; Scipione Bargagli, 69, 108–9, 113 Pecci, Caterina, 260n77 Pecci, Giovanni Battista, 257–8n64 Pecci, Onesta Vannoccio Biringucci ne’, 144, 147 Pecci, Onorata, 271n24 Pecci, Porzia, 63, 124, 230n7 Penelope, 17 Perfetti, Bernardino, 195–6, 274n65 Pericles, 23, 86, 109, 141 Petrarch, Francesco, 13, 31, 61, 67, 142, 257n58; De remediis utriusque fortune, 6; Rime sparse, 93–4, 119, 250–1n134 Petroni, Riccardo (cardinal), 171 Petrucci, Aurelia, 40–1, 58, 110, 172, 271n24, 271–2n33 Petrucci, Battista Berti, 164 Petrucci, Cassandra, 271n24 Petrucci, Eusta, 89 Petrucci, Filomena Marsili, 256n49, 260–1n85 Petrucci, Girolama, 110–11 Petrucci, Giulia, 58, 271–2n33 Petrucci, Jacopo di Francesco, 222n65

Petrucci, Pandolfo, 41, 49 Philip II (king of Spain), 49 Pia, Emilia, 13, 257n62 Piano, Academy of the, 82 Piccolomini, Agnesa Piccolomini ne’, 131 Piccolomini, Agnese Chigi, 176, 178 Piccolomini, Alessandro, 33–43, 44, 47, 48, 167, 226n104, 240n10, 271–2n33, 280n35; De la institutione di tutta la vita de l’huomo nato nobile e in città libera, 37–40, 96, 151; Dialogo della bella creanza delle donne (or Raffaella), 36–40, 42–3; L’Alessandro, 42–3; L’amor constante, 223n71; Orazione fatta in morte di Aurelia Petrucci, 40–1; Orazione in lode delle donne, 41–2 Piccolomini, Alfonso (duke), 277n1 Piccolomini, Bartolomeo Carli, 271–2n33 Piccolomini, Camilla, 271n24 Piccolomini, Caterina Gaetana Griffoli. See Griffoli, Caterina Gaetana Piccolomini, Clemente, 93 Piccolomini, Enea, 278n3 Piccolomini, Fausta, 50, 51, 75, 160–2, 172, 175 Piccolomini, Francesco, 130, 132–3, 142, 148, 154–5, 163, 165, 174, 177, 270n21, 274n70 Piccolomini, Fulvia, 266–7n169 Piccolomini, Girolama Carli de’, 43, 224n78, 226n104, 271–2n33 Piccolomini, Marcantonio, 23, 34–5, 43–8, 56–66, 77, 218n23; “La vita de la nobilissima Madonna Arithea de’ Marzi,” 46–8;

316 Index Ragionamento, 43–5, 222–3n66, 225n91, 231n18 Piccolomini, Silvia, 271n24 Piccolomini, Urania Cerretani de’, 84, 86, 92 Pico della Mirandola, Lodovico II, 9 Pius II (pope), 36 Pius III (pope), 36 Pius IV (pope), 83 Pius V (pope), 83 Placidi, Sulpitia Pannelini de’, 101–2 Plato, 11, 44, 102; Menexemus, 13, 119, 207n77; Republic, 94, 141, 212– 13n103, 276n89; Symposium, 13, 119, 207n77 Pliny, 264n135 Plutarch, 11, 90, 174, 244n52, 278n4 Pocaterra, Annibale, 5–11, 60 Poliziano, 257n56 Portrait of Beauty, game of the, 232n30 priests, 33, 36, 37 primiera (card game), 4, 8, 12 Protestantism, 26, 31, 45, 210–11n87 Provence, 13, 24, 62, 128, 163, 169, 174 proverbs, 18, 74 Proverbs, game of, 64 Ptolemy I Soter, 21 querelle des femmes, 12, 20, 54, 93–6, 139, 142, 286n66 “questions of love,” 12, 62, 63 Questions of Love, game of, 62, 91, 224n81 Rabelais, 3, 257n56 Rambouillet, Madame de (Catherine de Vivonne), 195 Rangone, Claudia, 8–9, 12

Ray, Meredith, 187 Reardon, Colleen, 142 Renata of Ferrara, 12 reverses (of medals), 65 Reverses (of medals), game of, 66, 85–93 Riccò, Laura, 70 Ricovrati, Academy of the, 267–8n177 Ringhieri, Innocenzio, 3, 13–18, 19, 21–2, 24, 26–7, 28, 60, 72, 195, 238n98, 249n109 Robin, Diana, 45, 51, 54, 145, 167, 187 Roman de la Rose, 107, 184, 278n10 romances, 61–3 Romei, Annibale (count), 5, 206n48 Rossi, Aretafila Savini ne’, 176, 267–8n177, 271n24, 282n50 Rovere, Felice della, 8–9, 208n58 Rovere, Vittoria della (grand duchess), 122, 126, 164, 166, 187, 285n62 Rozzi, Academy of the, 81, 119, 166, 169, 170, 216n3, 217n10 Rudel, Jaufre, 208n60 Ruscelli, Girolamo, 104, 230n10, 233– 4n46, 236n76 Sack of Rome, 29, 193, 240n7 Salimbeni, Ascanio, 240n13 salons, 195–6 Salutati, Coluccio, 247n94 Salvi, Virginia Martini, 227n108, 271n24 Sanese, Atalanta, 271n24 Sannazzaro, Jacopo, 93–4 Sansedoni, Alessandro, 271–2n33 Sanseverino, Barbara (countess), 8–9, 12, 285–6n65

Index 317 Sanseverino, Ferrante, 4, 58 Sansovino, Francesco, 203n32 Santi, Iuditta, 65, 124, 232n36 Sappho, 17 Saracini, Camilla, 44, 45, 58, 174, 182, 231n18 Saracini, Ottavio, 97, 100–1 Sant’Anna hospital (Ferrara), 11 Saturnalia, 23–4 Savelli, Giulia, 195 Savini, Olinda Tancredi ne’, 275n84 Savini, Persio, 146 Scaglioso, Carolina, 157 Scaino, Antonio, 3 Scipio Africanus, 47 Scotti, Francesca (Cecca), 164, 172, 255n38, 270n22, 271n24 seduction, 27, 48, 156 Semiramis (queen of the Assyrians), 47 Seneca, 110 Sergardi, Lodovico, 273–4n58 Sergardi, Lucrezia, 173, 176, 178, 267–8n177, 274n62 Sesti, Lodovico, 253n20 Shakespeare, William, 43 Sharecropper, game of the, 232n24, 238n98 Ship, game of the, 60 Siege, game of the, 71, 73–5, 243n46 Siena, siege of, 29, 45, 48–54, 67–80, 91, 153, 160–2, 164; Bardotti faction, 81; Libertini faction, 41, 49; Noveschi faction, 41, 49; theatre, 30 Siri, Vittorio, 203n35 skill, 4, 5, 6 soccer, 14, 70, 163 Socrates, 13 Sorel, Charles, 18, 195

Sotto lo Spedale, confraternity of, 239n3 Sozzini, Alessandro, 227n109 Sozzini, Camillo, 240n10 Sozzini, Fausto, 31, 56, 82, 239n104, 240nn10–11 Sozzini, Francesca, 230n7 Sozzini, Lelio, 240n10 Sozzini, Mariano, 163 Spain, occupation of Siena, 41, 49, 82; influence on Sienese games, 24, 113 Spannocchi, Agnese Cosatti, 178 Spannocchi, Caterina Ugurgieri, 255n43, 260n80 Spannocchi, Fulvia, 69, 71, 101, 110, 112, 123, 131, 165, 174, 182, 271n24 Spannocchi, Pandolfo, 132, 143, 154, 157–8, 167, 177, 270n21 Spartans, 90–2, 120 Speroni, Sperone, 9–10, 221n57 Staël, Madame de, 195–6 Stendhal, 285–6n65 Stilbo, 110 Stoicism, 5–6 storytelling, 63–4 Straparola, Giovanni Francesco, 283n53 Strozzi, Piero, 228n122 Suetonius, 214n119 Sybil, game of the, 196 Tarabotti, Arcangela, 107, 109, 122, 141, 146 Tasso, Bernardo, 219n36, 276n94 Tasso, Ercole, 207n54 Tasso, Torquato, 3, 4–13, 28, 142, 257n58; Discorso della virtù feminile e donnesca, 11–12, 94; Gonzaga

318 Index secondo overo del giuoco, 4, 5–9, 10–12, 205n43, 285–6n65; Il padre di famiglia, 206n47; Il Romeo overo del giuoco, 5–9, 10–12, 60, 205n43; Jerusalem Delivered, 12, 151–2, 204n37, 205nn45–6, 208n57 Temple of Immortality and Crowns, game of the, 230n10 Temple of Love, game of the, 151–2 Temple of Venus, game of the, 215n133 Terracina, Laura, 17, 121, 147, 192 Tessauro, Alessandro, 77, 235n71, 238n101 Thermes, Paul de, 49, 50 Thucydides, 11, 23, 47 Tolomei, Aurelia, 90, 92, 271–2n33 Tolomei, Claudio, 29, 94, 100–1, 209n65 Tolomei, Elena, 98–9 Tomasi, Giugurta, 97–104, 241n20 Tomyris (queen of the Massaetae), 47 Tondi, Maria Antonia Bizzarini ne’, 178 Torrenti, Giuseppe, 166 Torriano, Giovanni, 233n45 Toscana, Isifile, 44, 58, 167, 271n31 Travagliati, Academy of the, 96–104 trattenimento, 5, 20, 21 Trees and Birds, game of, 249n109 Trexler, Richard, 34 Tribunal of Love, game of the, 148–51 Triumph, game of, 210n80 Tuccetti, Maria Francesca Raffaelli, 282n48 Turamini, Giulia, 139–42 Turner, Victor, 32, 35, 189 Twelfth Night, 43. See also Epiphany

Ugurgieri, Violante Bargagli, 255n43 Ugurgieri, Ugo, 136–9, 259n73, 260–1n85 Ugurgieri Azzolini, Isidoro, 49, 50, 53, 65, 122–5, 136, 153, 161, 163, 226n104 Umidi, Academy of the, 82 universities, 61, 62, 63 Urbino, 13, 19 Ussel, Gui d’, 249n113 Valle, Guglielmo della, 227n112 Varchi, Benedetto, 219n36, 220n44 Vaselli, Crescenzio, 166, 192 Vecchi, Laura Marsilii, 260n82 Vecchi, Orazio, 278n3 Vecci, Girolama de’, 153 Venturi, Camillo, 222n65 Venturi, Frasia, 44, 58, 63, 174, 182, 219n35, 231n18, 271–2n33 vernacular, 61–3, 67, 171, 174 Vernier, Domenico, 279n15 Versifying, game of, 224n81, 232n30 Vida, Girolamo, 3 Vignali, Antonio, 33, 34, 37, 167, 222n65 Vignali, Cinzio, 65 Violante of Bavaria, 166–7, 187, 282n48, 285n62 Virgil, 4, 17, 167, 271–2n33 vocation, 33, 34 Volpi, Giovanni Antonio, 267–8n177 Vopel, Caspar, 247n92 War of Love, game of the, 92 Westwater, Lynn Lara, 187 widows, 116–17, 206n47 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 108 women: acting, 64; agency, 9–12, 75–80, 85, 95–6, 97, 157, 163, 181;

Index 319 conversation, 39, 44, 189–97; disinvoltura, 130; domestic life, 65–6, 110–13, 177; eloquence, 40–1, 47, 139–40, 149, 173, 179; fame, 58, 68–9, 87–9, 97, 104, 105, 107, 125–6, 129–30, 140, 157, 166, 178, 195; flowers, 155–6, 166; ingegno, 7, 8, 15, 17, 48, 121; intellectual combativeness, 45; military, 48–54, 70, 75, 80, 90–1, 160–2; music, 150, 153, 196; philosophy, 44–5; poetry, 41, 146, 150, 153, 154–8, 164–5, 167, 173, 178, 194–6; political

realm, 42, 46–7, 94, 144; pregnancy, 154–6; professional restrictions, 68–9, 88; prosopography, 49, 123–5, 136; shyness, 57; silence, 20, 21, 23, 59, 74, 140–1, 165; universities, 195; vanity (fashion), 122, 146–7 Xenophon, 38, 219n35 Zanrè, Domenico, 82 Zappi, Faustina Maratti, 196 Zecchi, Pietro, 249n108