The Poems and Letters of Tullia d'Aragona and Others: A Bilingual Edition (Volume 28) (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series) [Bilingual ed.] 0772721548, 9780772721549

Table of contents :
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her (1547)
Dedication
Section 1: Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona
Section 2: Sonnets by Signora Tullia, with Responses
Section 3: Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia, with Her Responses
Section 4: Tirrhenia by Muzio to Signora Tullia
Section 5: Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona
Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona and Exchanges with Her
Letters
Index of First Lines in Italian
Structure of the Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragonaand by Others To Her and Recipients and Correspondentsof the Miscellaneous Poems
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

The Poems and Letters of Tullia d’Aragona and Others a bilingual edition

E d i te d a nd tr a n sl ate d by

Julia L. Hairston

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 28

THE POEMS AND LETTERS OF TULLIA D’ARAGONA AND OTHERS

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 28

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

S e r ie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. S e r ie S ed i to r , e ng l i S h te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Madre María Rosa Journey of Five Capuchin Nuns Edited and translated by Sarah E. Owens Volume 1, 2009

Pernette du Guillet Complete Poems: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Karen Simroth James Translated by Marta Rijn Finch Volume 6, 2010

Giovan Battista Andreini Love in the Mirror: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Jon R. Snyder Volume 2, 2009

Antonia Pulci Saints’ Lives and Bible Stories for the Stage: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Elissa B. Weaver Translated by James Wyatt Cook Volume 7, 2010

Raymond de Sabanac and Simone Zanacchi Two Women of the Great Schism: The Revelations of Constance de Rabastens by Raymond de Sabanac and Life of the Blessed Ursulina of Parma by Simone Zanacchi Edited and translated by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Bruce L. Venarde Volume 3, 2010 Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera The True Medicine Edited and translated by Gianna Pomata Volume 4, 2010 Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Sainctonge Dramatizing Dido, Circe, and Griselda Edited and translated by Janet Levarie Smarr Volume 5, 2010

Valeria Miani Celinda, A Tragedy: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Valeria Finucci Translated by Julia Kisacky Annotated by Valeria Finucci and Julia Kisacky Volume 8, 2010 Enchanted Eloquence: Fairy Tales by Seventeenth-Century French Women Writers Edited and translated by Lewis C. Seifert and Domna C. Stanton Volume 9, 2010 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Sophie, Electress of Hanover and Queen Sophie Charlotte of Prussia Leibniz and the Two Sophies: The Philosophical Correspondence Edited and translated by Lloyd Strickland Volume 10, 2011

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se r ie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se r ie S ed i to r , e ng l i S h te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series In Dialogue with the Other Voice in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Literary and Social Contexts for Women’s Writing Edited by Julie D. Campbell and Maria Galli Stampino Volume 11, 2011 Sister Giustina Niccolini The Chronicle of Le Murate Edited and translated by Saundra Weddle Volume 12, 2011 Liubov Krichevskaya No Good without Reward: Selected Writings: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Brian James Baer Volume 13, 2011 Elizabeth Cooke Hoby Russell The Writings of an English Sappho Edited by Patricia Phillippy With translations by Jaime Goodrich Volume 14, 2011 Lucrezia Marinella Exhortations to Women and to Others if They Please Edited and translated by Laura Benedetti Volume 15, 2012 Margherita Datini Letters to Francesco Datini Translated by Carolyn James and Antonio Pagliaro Volume 16, 2012

Delarivier Manley and Mary Pix English Women Staging Islam, 1696–1707 Edited and introduced by Bernadette Andrea Volume 17, 2012 Cecilia Del Nacimiento Journeys of a Mystic Soul in Poetry and Prose Introduction and prose translations by Kevin Donnelly Poetry translations by Sandra Sider Volume 18, 2012 Lady Margaret Douglas and Others The Devonshire Manuscript: A Women’s Book of Courtly Poetry Edited and introduced by Elizabeth Heale Volume 19, 2012 Arcangela Tarabotti Letters Familiar and Formal Edited and translated by Meredith K. Ray and Lynn Lara Westwater Volume 20, 2012 Pere Torrellas and Juan de Flores Three Spanish Querelle Texts: Grisel and Mirabella, The Slander against Women, and The Defense of Ladies against Slanderers: A Bilingual Edition and Study Edited and translated by Emily C. Francomano Volume 21, 2013

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Ser ie S edi to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Ser ie S edi to r , e ng l i S h te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Barbara Torelli Benedetti Partenia, a Pastoral Play: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Lisa Sampson and Barbara Burgess-Van Aken Volume 22, 2013 François Rousset, Jean Liebault, Jacques Guillemeau, Jacques Duval and Louis De Serres Pregnancy and Birth in Early Modern France: Treatises by Caring Physicians and Surgeons (1581–1625) Edited and translated by Valerie Worth-Stylianou Volume 23, 2013 Mary Astell The Christian Religion, as Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England Edited by Jacqueline Broad Volume 24, 2013

Sophia of Hanover Memoirs (1630–1680) Edited and translated by Sean Ward Volume 25, 2013 Katherine Austen Book M: A London Widow’s Life Writings Edited by Pamela S. Hammons Volume 26, 2013 Anne Killigrew “My Rare Wit Killing Sin”: Poems of a Restoration Courtier Edited by Margaret J. M. Ezell Volume 27, 2013

The Poems and Letters of Tullia d’Aragona and Others A BILINGUAL EDITION •

Edited and translated by JULIA L. HAIRSTON

Iter Inc. Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Toronto 2014

Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance Tel: 416/978–7074 Email: [email protected] Fax: 416/978–1668

Web: www.itergateway.org

Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Victoria University in the University of Toronto Tel: 416/585–4465 Email: [email protected] Fax: 416/585–4430 Web: www.crrs.ca © 2014 Iter Inc. & Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. Iter and the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies gratefully acknowledge the generous support of James E. Rabil, in memory of Scottie W. Rabil, toward the publication of this book. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Aragona, Tullia d’, approximately 1510-1556, author The poems and letters of Tullia d’Aragona and others / edited and translated by Julia L. Hairston. — A bilingual edition. (Other voice in early modern Europe. The Toronto series ; 28) Includes poems by: Alessandro Arrighi (flourished 1544), Benedetto Arrighi (died July 1550), Ercole Bentivoglio (1507–1573), Lattanzio Benucci (1521–1598), Giulio Camillo Delminio (1485–1544), Simone Della Volta (1506–1554), Antonfrancesco Grazzini, (1504–1584), Camillo Malpigli (flourished 1546), Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti, (1485/6–1553), Ludovico Martelli (1500–1527/28), Niccolò Martelli (1498–1555), Ugolino Martelli, (1519–1592), Ippolito de’  Medici (1511–1535), Francesco Maria Molza (1489–1544), Girolamo Muzio (1496–1572), Simone Porzio, (1496–1554), Filippo Strozzi (1489–1538), Benedetto Varchi (1503–1565). Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Issued in print and electronic formats. Text in English and Italian. ISBN 978-0-7727-2154-9 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-0-7727-2155-6 (pdf) 1. Italian poetry—Translations into English. 2. Lyric poetry—Translations into English. 3. Aragona, Tullia d’, approximately 1510–1556—Correspondence. I. Hairston, Julia L., editor of compilation, translator II. Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, issuing body III. Iter Inc, issuing body IV. Title. V. Series: Other voice in early modern Europe. Toronto series ; 28 PQ4562.A9A2 2014 851’.4 C2013-908558-0 C2013-908559-9 Cover illustration: Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of a Lady, Longford Castle collection. Photo © Private collection. Photo credit: The National Gallery, London. Cover design: Maureen Morin, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries. Typesetting and production: Iter Inc.

For my parents, Shirley and Bill

Contents

Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Editorial Norms and Note on Translation 55 Abbreviations 59 Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her (1547) 61 Dedication 62 Section 1: Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 64 Section 2: Sonnets by Signora Tullia, with Responses 119 Section 3: Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia, with Her Responses 133 Section 4: Tirrhenia by Muzio to Signora Tullia 153 Section 5: Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 183 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona and Exchanges with Her 253 Letters

287

Index of First Lines in Italian 307 Structure of the Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her and Recipients and Correspondents of the Miscellaneous Poems 315 Bibliography 319 Index 345

ix

Acknowledgments Over thirteen years ago I began working on several projects regarding Tullia d'Aragona, and this edition of her poems and letters is the first to come to fruition. Needless to say, I have incurred numerous debts—institutional, professional, and personal. I thank Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, whose acceptance of my proposal for a fellowship in 2000-01 provided the initial impetus for my research on d’Aragona. Since that time, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded me a translation grant in 2002 and, more recently, the Banfi Fund for University of California, Rome Faculty Research also contributed resources to this project. Al Rabil, the Other Voice in Early Modern Europe series coeditor, together with Margaret King, wins the prize for patience; I thank him heartily for never giving up or, in exasperation, assigning this volume to another editor. Among the scholarly community, two colleagues read the entire manuscript and offered numerous suggestions to improve the text and translation: Luca Marcozzi and John McLucas. Clearly, all errors are my own, but they gave generously of their time and wisdom, and I thank them. Other scholars and friends read parts of the manuscript—occasionally very large parts—and also contributed useful critical commentary: my gratitude to Virginia Cox, Carla Gabrieli, Ann Rosalind Jones, Renée Baernstein, Deanna Shemek, Libby Cohen, Paolo Alei, and Mary Wardle. Colleagues from the archives signaled to me documents regarding d’Aragona: Renée Baernstein, James Nelson Novoa, and— most recently—Philippa Jackson, and I am grateful for their generosity. I thank the staffs of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, especially William J. Sheehan; the Archivio di Stato di Roma, especially Orietta Verdi; the manuscript room at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze; and the Biblioteca Comunale di Siena degli Intronati, especially Renzo Pepi. Orsetta Baroncelli helped with transcribing documents and Inge Weustink with making sense of them. Keala Jewell provided me with some very timely art work, and the efforts of several research assistants—Kailyn Danielson, Andrew Raffaele, Victoxi

xii Acknowledgments ria Paul, and Candice Guzman—merit recognition. Rachel Shapiro helped extensively and ably with the index. Thanks to MJ Devaney for excellent copy editing, yet again. I would also like to recall the various colleagues who supported my work and research in myriad ways: many thanks to Albert Ascoli, Douglas Biow, Margaret Brose, Tom Cohen, Guido Ruggiero, Laura Giannetti, Vicky Kirkham, Diana Robin, Michael Rocke, Tita Rosenthal, Jon Snyder, Walter Stephens, Franco Tomasi, Jane Tylus, and Elissa Weaver. I have surely left out a few names for which I apologize in advance. Finally, thanks to Oscar and Toni, o meglio, per quest’ultimo— grazie infinite. Non è finito.

Introduction Tullia d’Aragona (1501/5–1556) Tullia d’Aragona used a variety of genres—lyric, spiritual, and occasional verse, prose dialogue, and epic romance—to establish herself as one of the most versatile, and prolific, of sixteenth-century Italian women of letters. Luminaries such as Bernardo Tasso, Benedetto Varchi, Girolamo Muzio, and Anton Francesco Doni extolled her as possessing “rare virtue,” and Jacopo Nardi even claimed in his 1536 translation of a Ciceronian oration that she was the “one and only heir of all Tullian eloquence,” punning on d’Aragona’s and Cicero’s shared name.1 Yet alongside d’Aragona’s persona as woman of letters thrived her reputation as a Roman courtesan. A whole other host of literati such as Pietro Aretino, Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio, and Agnolo Firenzuola spared no excess in their condemnation of d’Aragona as proud, presumptuous, and greedy.2 From d’Aragona’s initial appear1. As Anton Francesco Doni writes, “Many are the noble spirits and learned men who praise the fine manners and have written about the rare virtue of Tullia, thus my pen would do little to add to her fame, since the praise that she merits is much” (“Molti son gli spiriti nobili, e gli huomini dotti che lodano la creanza buona, e hanno scritto della virtù rara della Tullia, onde la penna mia sarebbe poca a darle fama, essendo molta la lode che la merita” [La libraria (Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1550), 43r]). Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. For Jacopo Nardi, see his letter to Giovanfrancesco della Stufa in which he writes that “perhaps you would say that with this useless effort of mine I have brought water to the sea dedicating an oration of Tully to Signora Tullia Aragona, whom everyone today would judge as the one true heir (just as in her name) of all Tullian eloquence” (“forse dirà ch’io habbia con questa mia inutile fatica portato l’acqua al mare dedicando una oratione di Tullio a la S. Tullia Aragona, la quale per se stessa hoggi diritiamente da ogni homo e giudicata unica et vera herede (così come del nome) di tutta la Tulliana eloquentia” [“Iacopo Nardi a Giovanfrancesco de la Stupha nobilissimo Fiorentino,” in Oratione di M. T. Cicerone a C. Cesare per la quale lo ringratia de l’havere perdonato a Marco Marcello: Nuovamente tradotta in lingua Toscana (Venice: Giovann’ Antonio de Nicolini da Sabio, 1537), section A]). 2. Pietro Aretino, Lettere libro primo, ed. Francesco Erspamer (Parma: Fondazione Pietro Bembo and Ugo Guanda Editore, 1995), 195; see also Ragionamento del Zoppino fatto frate, e Lodovico, puttaniere, dove contiensi la vita e genealogia di tutte le cortigiane di Roma, ed. Mario Cicognani (Milan: Longanesi, 1969), 45, a book that is variously attributed to either Aretino or Francisco Delicado. Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio wrote a novella in which he

1

2 Introduction ance on the public stage, her persona is doubled and ambiguous; she is both a courtesan and woman of letters, an object of vilification and admiration. In truth, d’Aragona walked a thin line between ignoring or eliding these representations and turning them to her own advantage. Her self-fashioning is an excellent example of the concept of negotiation employed by early modern women writers as she picks and chooses when to emphasize her role as a courtesan and when, admittedly more often, she instead orchestrates her figuration as an author.3 D’Aragona was one of the so-called honest courtesans, of which Veronica Franco constitutes the best-known exemplar.4 As Georgina Masson pointed out long ago, however, d’Aragona carved a niche for herself as the “intellectual courtesan,” or, as Domenico Zanrè rephrased it, perhaps with a touch of irony, the “courtesan of the academicians.”5 Numerous of her poetic interlocutors commented on her intellectual qualities, and Duke Cosimo I even exempted her from having to wear the yellow veil required of sex workers owing to her “rare knowledge of poetry and philosophy.”6

paints an unflattering portrait of d’Aragona (Gli ecatommiti, ovvero cento novelle [Florence: Borghi, 1834], 43–47). Finally, see Agnolo Firenzuola, Opere, ed. Adriano Serloni (Firenze: Sansoni, 1958), 383, 941. This list of the authors who vituperated d’Aragona is partial. 3. On the concept of negotiation among early modern European women writers, see Ann Rosalind Jones, The Currency of Eros: Women’s Love Lyric in Europe, 1540–1620 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), esp. 2–6. 4. There is a Hollywood film, for example, based on Franco’s life, entitled Dangerous Beauty (1998). For an excellent scholarly treatment, see Margaret F. Rosenthal, The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). 5. See Georgina Masson, “Tullia d’Aragona, the Intellectual Courtesan,” in her Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1976), 88–131, and Domenico Zanrè, “Courtesans and the Academicians,” in his Cultural Non-Conformity in Early Modern Florence (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004), 141–64. 6. See ASF, Magistrato supremo 4307, 69v–70r. Bernardo Tasso in a sonnet titled “Anima pura, di virtute ardente” published in his 1534 edition of the Amori referred to her “intelletto divino”; see his Rime, ed. Domenico Chiodo and Vercingetorige Martignone, 2 vols. (Turin: Res, 1995), 1:204. For other poems that refer to her intellectual abilities, see 51 and 94 in this edition. For fuller narration of the yellow veil incident, see Salvatore Bongi, “Il velo giallo di Tullia d’Aragona,” Rivista critica della letteratura italiana 3, no. 3 (1886): 85–95, and, more recently, Deana Basile, “Fasseli gratia per poetessa: Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici’s Role in the

Introduction 3 D’Aragona thus managed two careers—as a courtesan and as a writer—and there are traces of both in the archives and libraries of Italy. She emerged early in the history of printed publications by living women, second only to Vittoria Colonna, Roman noblewoman and friend of Michelangelo, whose unauthorized canzoniere was published in 1538, and a year before the Neapolitan noblewoman Laura Terracina, whose work appeared in print in 1548.7 Although the question of whether women chose to publish their work or circulate it in manuscript was fraught with a number of different considerations based on rank and social networks, participation in a court milieu, geographical location, as well as concerns regarding reputation, it is undoubtedly true that printing—whether by choice or through the reality or the fiction of someone else promoting their work—meant a much wider circle of readers and therefore a greater possibility of influencing other writers, male and female.8 D’Aragona’s Poems by Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her (Rime della signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei) represents the Florentine Literary Circle of Tullia d’Aragona,” in The Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, ed. Konrad Eisenbichler (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001), 135–47. 7. See Vittoria Colonna, Rime della divina Vittoria Colonna, marchesa di Pescara (Parma: [Antonio Viotti], 1538), and Laura Terracina, Rime dela Signora Laura Terracina (Venice: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1548). Although Colonna was more famous, one wonders if Terracina actually might have been the more popular and widely read poet as EDIT 16 (Censimento delle edizioni italiane del XVI secolo) now lists forty-one entries for her works again Colonna’s twenty-five (as of May 2012). Virginia Cox suggests that the publisher Giolito promoted both d’Aragona and Terracina as heirs to Colonna’s poetic mantle (Women’s Writing in Italy, 1400–1650 [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008], 80–81). Francesco Bausi has suggested that in 1547, after Colonna’s death, d’Aragona is being proposed (by her literary benefactors Muzio and Varchi) as Colonna’s “legitimate” successor (“ ‘Con agra zampogna’: Tullia d’Aragona a Firenze (1545–48),” Schede umanistiche 2, n.s. [1993]: 61–91, at 74). 8. On the difference between scribal publication and print publication, see the following works by Brian Richardson: “From Scribal Publication to Print Publication: Pietro Bembo’s Rime, 1529–1535,” Modern Language Review 95, no. 3 (2000): 684–695; Printing, Writers and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 49–57, 77–80, 101–4; “Print or Pen? Modes of Written Publication in Sixteenth-Century Italy,” Italian Studies 59 (2004): 39–64; and Manuscript Culture in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). For its relevance particularly to women authors, see Cox, Women’s Writing, xxvi–xxvii.

4 Introduction first example of the choral anthology in the Italian lyric tradition.9 The choral anthology differed from the lyric anthology, a genre that was to have an even wider diffusion in the sixteenth century, in its attribution to a single author, even though a number of different authors may have contributed to it; the lyric anthology comprised lyric poetry by many different authors and is usually catalogued under the editor’s name. D’Aragona’s canzoniere differs from other sonnet sequences, in that her text includes sonnets by a wide range of other authors, thus embodying and enacting the social nature of Petrarchism.10 She makes extensive use of the proposta/risposta (proposal/response) model of verse exchange in which she calls on others, and is herself called on, to exchange sonnets regarding a particular topic. Moreover—and this is d’Aragona’s true novelty—she is the first to publish the sonnets side by side, thus reinforcing their dialogic nature. This literary dialogue with contemporary men of letters helps to buttress her own reputation as an author. Yet the effect is reciprocal. Many of these poets are remembered today thanks to their association with Tullia d’Aragona.11 Until now, no modern edition or translation exists that replicates the order of d’Aragona’s original canzoniere in its entirety.12 9. For the use of the term “choral anthology,” see Victoria Kirkham, “Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati’s First Book of Poetry: A Renaissance Holograph Comes Out of Hiding,” Rinascimento 36 (1996): 351–91. 10. For an extensive discussion of how d’Aragona’s text figures in the development of the structure of canzonieri, see my “ ‘Di sangue illustre & pellegrino’: The Eclipse of the Body in the Lyric of Tullia d’Aragona,” in The Body in Early Modern Italy, ed. Julia L. Hairston and Walter Stephens (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), 158–75. 11. Ann Rosalind Jones gives fuller expression to the reciprocity of the proposta/risposta structure and of the mutual benefits afforded each of the poetic correspondents in her “Surprising Fame: Renaissance Gender Ideologies and Women’s Lyric,” in The Poetics of Gender, ed. Nancy K. Miller (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 74–95, “Enabling Sites and Gender Difference: Reading City Women with Men,” Women’s Studies 19, no. 2 (1991): 239–49, and Currency of Eros, 81–82 and 103–17. 12. The only available modern edition of d’Aragona’s poetry is the one that Enrico Celani put together in 1891: Le rime di Tullia d’Aragona, cortigiana del secolo XVI, ed. Enrico Celani (Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1968 [1891]). As Ann Jones first noted, however, it dismantles the structure and order of the sonnets as they appeared in the sixteenth-century editions; see Currency of Eros, 212n35. More recently, Elizabeth Pallitto has also published an edition, with facing-page translation, but it is partial in that it does not include the fourth and fifth sections of d’Aragona’s original edition; see Tullia d’ Aragona,

Introduction 5 A supplementary section to this edition also includes other poetic exchanges and a miscellany of recently discovered unpublished or virtually unknown sonnets, mostly from d’Aragona’s later years. These poems are important because they provide us with information about her ongoing literary activities and search for patrons in the years subsequent to her return to Rome in October 1548.13 I have also included variant manuscript versions of poems by d’Aragona as well as the few spiritual poems that she published after the appearance of her choral anthology. Finally, this volume furnishes complete transcriptions and translations of d’Aragona’s autograph letters to Benedetto Varchi, as well as a previously unknown autograph letter to Francesco de’ Pazzi, a family friend of the Strozzi.14 Details about just how closely d’Aragona socialized with various members of the Strozzi family and over how many years marks another novelty of this volume. The same year that d’Aragona published her Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her she also published a prose work entitled On the Infinity of Love (Dialogo della signora Tullia d’Aragona della infinità di amore).15 As the title indicates, the interlocutors— Tullia d’Aragona, Benedetto Varchi, and Lattanzio Benucci—discuss whether it is possible to love within limits. They are at d’Aragona’s home, presumably in Florence, and there are a number of other men

Sweet Fire: Tullia d’Aragona’s Poetry of Dialogue and Selected Prose, ed. and trans. Elizabeth A. Pallitto (New York: George Braziller, 2005). 13. See, for example, P. Renée Baernstein and Julia L. Hairston, “Tullia d’Aragona: Two New Sonnets,” MLN 123, no. 1 (2008): 151–59, for more background on two of these poems. 14. For discussion of d’Aragona’s letters, see Fiora A. Bassanese, “Selling the Self; or, The Epistolary Production of Renaissance Courtesans,” in Italian Women Writers from the Renaissance to the Present: Revising the Canon, ed. Maria Marotti (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), 69–82, and Maritere López, “The Courtesan’s Gift: Reciprocity and Friendship in the Letters of Camilla Pisana and Tullia d’Aragona,” in Discourses and Representations of Friendship in Early Modern Europe, 1500–1700, ed. Daniel T. Lochman, Maritere López, and Lorna Hutson (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 99–116. 15. For an excellent introduction to and translation of this dialogue, see Tullia d’ Aragona, Dialogue on the Infinity of Love, ed. and trans. Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997). The most widely available modern Italian edition of the dialogue is “Dialogo della signora Tullia D’Aragona della infinità di amore,” in Trattati d’amore del Cinquecento, ed. Giuseppe Zonta (Bari: Laterza, 1912), 185–248.

6 Introduction present, although these men never speak.16 Benucci himself only intervenes at the end of the discussion. The text represents a sustained and serious but also bantering and playful philosophical discussion between d’Aragona and Varchi that revises contemporary neo-Platonic tenets regarding the relation of the soul to the body.17 And indeed it is d’Aragona’s point of view that prevails, perhaps unsurprisingly, and emerges as innovative. Both these works—Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her and On the Infinity of Love—figure the author Tullia d’Aragona as an intellectual and, at the same time, a woman of the world, experienced in the ways of love. D’Aragona’s own references to herself as courtesan are never overt or strident (which contrasts with how Veronica Franco, for example, represents herself, and—perhaps for this reason—d’Aragona has had less appeal for twentieth-century sensibilities than Franco), yet they are present nevertheless and play an important role in d’Aragona’s management of her doubled public persona.18 In her last work, an epic poem entitled The Wretch, Otherwise Known as Guerrino (Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino), published posthumously in Venice in 1560 by Giovan Battista and Melchiorre Sessa, d’Aragona maintains this doubled representation of herself as courtesan and intellectual, but with a variation. In the preface to the text, where she speaks in her own voice, she compares her former, younger self to the woman she has become, noting that “I … 16. For a discussion of the salon culture of d’Aragona, see Julie D. Campbell, “Tullia d’Aragona, Sperone Speroni, and the Inscription of Salon Personae,” in her Literary Circles and Gender in Early Modern Europe: A Cross-Cultural Approach (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006), 21–49, and on the salon culture of sixteenth-century Italian women more generally, see Diana Robin, Publishing Women: Salons, the Presses, and the Counter-Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Italy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). 17. See Lisa Curtis-Wendlandt, “Conversing on Love: Text and Subtext in Tullia d’Aragona’s Dialogo della infinità d’amore,” Hypatia 19, no. 4 (2004): 75–96, and Joan Gibson, “The Logic of Chastity: Women, Sex, and the History of Philosophy in the Early Modern Period,” Hypatia 21, no. 4 (2006): 1–19. 18. Rinaldina Russell has pointed out two moments in d’Aragona’s dialogue where she makes reference to herself as well-versed in the ways of love; see her introduction to the dialogue (27) and the passages and notes on 68 and 74; the corresponding pages in Zonta’s edition are 201 and 207. For a similar reference in her verse, see sonnet 20.

Introduction 7 in my earlier years had more experience of the world than now with more mature consideration I would wish to have had.”19 Thus, she still presents herself as a woman with experience of the world, yet one who is now wiser and penitent. This change may be partially explained by the reformation of the Catholic Church and subsequent responses to it in Italy and Europe at large. The late 1540s and early 1550s were years of change and realignment that preceded more pronounced forms of suppression, as the Council of Trent’s dictates spread and were reinforced. However, more personal reasons may account for d’Aragona’s changing self-representation, namely, her age.20 Already in some of the sonnets published in 1547 (and because of their interlocutors, likely not composed earlier than 1546) she begins to make reference to her “changing locks” and to health problems.21 It is probable that she 19. “Io … ho ne’ primi miei anni avuta più notizia del mondo, che ora con miglior senno non vorrei aver avuta.” Translation by John McLucas, see page 47. 20. Although it is true that in the preface she claims that her age is “not excessively mature age, but youthful and fresh” (“non soverchiamente matura, ma giovenile e fresca”), throughout the proems to the canti of the poem she ages as a narrator before our eyes, making reference to her need for vigor or her weakened strength or even the changing color of her hair; see cantos 9.2, 10.1; 17.1, 19.2, and 21.1. 21. Consider d’Aragona’s request for exemption from the yellow veil to Duchess Eleonora: “Most illustrious and excellent Signora Duchess, Tullia Aragona, most humble servant of your illustrious Excellency, having taken refuge in Florence because of the recent transformations in Siena, and not behaving as the other women do, in truth hardly ever leaving her room, much less the house because she feels ill in both soul and body, beseeches Your Excellency, so that she will not be forced to leave, that she may deign to confer pardon by the most excellent and illustrious Duke, your consort, so that she may, if not make use of those few clothes left to her, as she seeks in her capitolo, at least not to be held to observe the yellow veil. And she, placing this among the many great obligations that she has with Your Excellency, will pray to God that he preserve you healthy and happy” (“Illustrissima et Eccellentissima Signora Duchessa, Tullia Aragona, humilissima servitrice di Vostra Eccellenza Illustrissima, essendo rifuggita a Firenze per l’ultima mutazione di Siena, e non faccendo i portamenti, che l’altre fanno, anzi non uscendo quasi mai d’ una camera, non che di casa per trovarsi male disposta così dell’animo come del corpo prega Vostra Eccellenza affine, che non sia costretta a partirsi, che si degni d’impetrarle tanto di grazia dall’Eccellentissimo e Illustrissimo Signor Duca, suo consorte, che ella possa, se non servirsi di quei pochi panni, che le sono rimasi per suo uso come supplica nel suo capitolo, almeno, che non sia tenuta alla osservanza del velo giallo. Et ella, ponendo questo con gli altri obrighi molti e grandissimi che ha con Sua Eccellenza pregerrà Dio, che la conservi sana, e felice” [ASF, Magistrato supremo 4307, I filza di suppliche e lettere, n. 1118 (n. interno 133); my emphasis]). Clearly, in this request to

8 Introduction had already begun the composition of her epic while in Florence, yet I doubt she completed it until sometime in the early 1550s.22 Although some scholars have questioned d’Aragona’s authorship of The Wretch, Otherwise Known as Guerrino, this edition presents several possible references to it (as well as to her dialogue) that I point out in the footnotes. Thus in all three of d’Aragona’s works, she has taken care to present herself as both courtesan and woman of letters. The aim behind this edition is thus not only to provide a complete and correctly organized corpus of poems by Tullia d’Aragona (along with several little known poetic exchanges between her and Benucci) and all extant letters to date but also to emphasize the layering of significance behind her own self-representations. In short, I hope to contextualize her as a woman who was active socially and culturally in the turbulent world of sixteenth-century Italy, whether it be Florence, Ferrara, Venice, or Rome.

Other Voice Whether Tullia d’Aragona deserves a seat at the feminist table has been a question of discussion in recent years. While Constance Jordan has said that d’Aragona “did not engage in overt protest,” Janet Smarr has theorized instead that a “broader feminist argument is also explicitly the duchess, d’Aragona’s self-representation may well have been part of a larger rhetorical strategy, yet there are also several sonnets in which she refers to aging; see 50 and 58. Finally, in something of a backhanded compliment, Niccolò Martelli, in his second letter book (in manuscript), makes reference to her age only to say that she is still lovely: “Grace and virtue, generous Lady, because they are characteristics and enrichments of the mind and share more with the divine than with the human, do not succumb to the violence of years. Given that you are still young and beautiful, rather very beautiful, for the shape of your delicate face has the same lineaments that the Angel first had and kept until the last hour […]” (“La gratia et la virtù, generosa signora, per esser doti et ricchezze del animo et partecipare più del divino che del humano, non sogghiacciono alla violenza degli anni. Dato che anchora et giovane et bella sete, anzi bella tanto, ch ’l disegno del viso delicato ha quelle medesime sembianze che prima d’Angelo s’havea, et haverà per insino a l’ultima hora […]” [BNCF, Magliabechiano VIII 1447, f. 118]). The letter is dated 6 March 1546 (thus 1547 because in Florentine dating, the year began on March 25). 22. For an argument that she had begun the Meschino in Florence, see Gloria Allaire, “Tullia d’Aragona’s Il Meschino as Key to a Reappraisal of Her Work,” Quaderni d’Italianistica 16, no. 1 (1995): 33–50. Allaire’s hypothesis is corroborated by sonnet 110.

Introduction 9 part of her agenda.”23 Smarr is referring to d’Aragona’s On the Infinity of Love, and indeed it seems that most scholars who characterize her as feminist are referring primarily—if not solely—to her dialogue.24 D’Aragona’s role as a courtesan may have shaped her contribution to the history of feminism and even limited the extent to which some scholars have allowed consideration of her participation in it.25 Yet although she dons both the mantle of the courtesan as well as the garland of the woman of letters, it is perhaps her persistent, might one say obsessive, search for fame as an intellectual and woman writer that provides her best credentials. Smarr has rightly emphasized that “Tullia repeatedly—in her volume of poetry as well as here [in her dialogue]—sought to position herself in the center of a circle of admiring intellectuals, whose praises legitimized her participation in their intellectual and literary exchanges.”26 Clearly d’Aragona’s primary objective—fame—could only have been garnered through a cultural elite that was largely masculine. Fame—from the Latin fama—is double-faced however, for notoriety can derive from high poetic praise as well as from dirtmongering gossip. This volume adds Tullia d’Aragona’s own voice to the sixteenth-century figuration of who she was—a courtesan and a woman of letters. For readers—both then and now—this text offers an “other voice” of a woman author from a different social sphere than the other preeminent women authors of the time—the noblewomen Vittoria Colonna and Veronica Gambara. Although the poetry of d’Aragona touches on different topics, the idiom in which all three 23. Constance Jordan, Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 173, and Janet L. Smarr, Joining the Conversation: Dialogues by Renaissance Women (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005), 107. 24. The other authors who discuss d’Aragona’s dialogue as contributing to feminist debate include Curtis-Wendlandt, “Conversing on Love” and Gibson, “The Logic of Chastity.” The characterization of the dialogue as feminist makes an interesting counterpoint to the idea that Varchi was the primary author of the dialogue, as suggested by Aurelio Andreoli in Intorno alla paternità di un dialogo del secolo decimosesto (Pavia: Marelli, 1904). 25. Sarah Gwyneth Ross, for example, excludes queens, nuns, and courtesans on the basis that they are not the “culturally normal learned woman” in her The Birth of Feminism: Woman as Intellect in Renaissance Italy and England (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 3. 26. Smarr, Joining the Conversation, 112.

10 Introduction wrote was remarkably similar—Petrarchist verse. Moreover, even though there were other courtesans who were writing and circulating their work before or at the same time as d’Aragona, she is nonetheless different from them too. Camilla Pisana, Imperia, and Francesca Baffa may have circulated their verse in manuscript or had a sonnet or two published, but the bulk of their production is lost to us.27 None of them, it would seem, produced the magnitude of literary texts that d’Aragona did. Moreover, they did not present themselves as authors nor did their readers perceive them that way, whereas d’Aragona ardently strove to fashion an identity as author for herself, a quest that was quite successful.

Biography Much of d’Aragona’s early biography is based on literary sources, primarily Girolamo Muzio’s pastoral eclogue Tirrhenia, which first appeared in d’Aragona’s choral anthology and then in a 1550 edition of his own Eclogues.28 Muzio (1496–1576)—courtier, linguist, arbiter on 27. Camilla Pisana mentions a book of hers (“el mio libro”) in a letter she write to Francesco Del Nero; see Angelo Romano, ed. Lettere di cortigiane del Rinascimento (Rome: Salerno, 1990), 34. Bandello claims that Imperia “was particularly fond of Italian poetry, wherein she had as teacher and stimulator our most genial friend Domenico Campana, called Strascino. She profited so much by his instruction that she composed and set to music, very agreeably, some sonnets and madrigals” (“Savoir-Vivre in a Courtesan’s Parlor,” in Morris Bishop, ed. and trans., A Renaissance Storybook [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971], 121–22) (“non mezzanamente si dilettava de le rime volgari, essendole stato in ciò essortatore e come maestro il nostro piacevolissimo messer Domenico Campana detto Strascino; e tanto già di profitto fatto ci aveva che ella non insoavemente componeva qualche sonetto o madrigale” [Le quattro parti de le novelle del Bandello, ed. Gustavo Balsamo-Crivelli, 4 vols. (Turin: UTET, 1911) 4:84]). Francesca Baffa is the only published author among the other courtesans that I have mentioned, although very little is known about her; indeed, it’s not known whether she was in fact a courtesan. Two of her sonnets appeared in Domenichi’s Rime di molti in 1545 (see Cassola’s 1544 madrigals). She also appears as an interlocutor in Giuseppe Betussi’s dialogue on love, which Giolito published seven times in the sixteenth century (the first edition was published in 1543). 28. Girolamo Muzio, Egloghe del Mutio iustinopolitano (Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1550), 25r–30v. Muzio also dedicated six other eclogues to d’Aragona in his volume; see 4r–24v. Celani included these in his edition of d’Aragona’s canzoniere; see 136–90. I did not include them in the present edition. For the Tirrhenia, see pages 153–181 of this edition. For

Introduction 11 questions of chivalry, and author of poetry and prose—was perhaps d’Aragona’s greatest advocate and champion. He claims responsibility for shepherding her dialogue to publication and wrote numerous poetic compositions to and about her. Muzio declared that there was no more fitting place for such a glorious birth as that of Tullia d’Aragona than Rome: “a less illustrious place would not be fitting/ for such a grand conception, and glorious birth/ than the honored, triumphant riverbanks/ of the lofty Tiber.”29 According to Muzio, d’Aragona’s mother, Giulia, had come to Rome from Ferrara, city of her birth.30 Recent discoveries have brought to light new elements regarding her identity. Up to now, d’Aragona’s mother has always been called Giulia Campana, as she was named in a floor tomb in the Church of S. Agostino placed there in 1549.31 Yet a Sienese notarial document from 17 January 1519 names Giulia as the daughter of the Ferrarese Orsino Pendaglia, presumably a member—either natural or legitimate—of the noble family of Ferrara, where the family palace Palazzo Pendaglia still stands.32 The same document also stipulates that Giulia Pendaglia was married to Africano Orlandini, a member of Sienese nobility, and that in the event of her husband’s death, the third part of a house that was being donated to him by another member of the Orlandini family would a modern edition of Muzio’s poems to d’Aragona, see Girolamo Muzio, Rime per Tullia d’Aragona, ed. and annot. Anna Maria Negri (Pavia: Croci, 1996). 29. “Et non si convenia men chiaro loco/ al gran concetto, e al glorioso parto,/ che l’honorate piagge triomphali/ de l’almo Tebro.” See 178 for the Italian and 179 for the translation. 30. As for her Ferrarese origins, Muzio refers in his Tirrhenia eclogue to “questa tra le sponde/ nata del Re de’ Fiumi” (“she, who had been born by the shores/ of the King of Rivers”); see 178 and 179. In addition, a document in the ASR calls both Tullia and her mother Ferrarese (Notai AC 4516, 65r). My sincerest thanks to James Nelson Novoa for apprising me of this document. 31. Campana’s surname was only recorded in a floor tomb that existed in the Church of S. Agostino before the Vanvitelli restoration of 1756–60; see Vincenzo Forcella, Iscrizioni delle chiese e d’altri edificii di Roma dal secolo 11 fino ai giorni nostri, 14 vols. (Rome: Tipografia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche, 1869–84), 5:47. 32. ASS, Notarile antecosimiano 1107, n. 1315. I thank Orsetta Baroncelli for the transcription of this document. Moreover, I am infinitely grateful to Philippa Jackson for sharing with me her various archival finds regarding d’Aragona, which include this document, among others, and her expertise regarding Siena more generally.

12 Introduction devolve to the “respectable girl Tullia, daughter of Costanzo of the Palmieri of Naples and daughter of Lady Giulia, wife of the aforesaid Africano” as her future dowry.33 One must assume thus that Giulia later married again into the Campani family, but further research is needed.34 Unfortunately, these documents came to light long after this volume had been completed, and so I look forward in the future to delving further into the identities of these individuals instrumental in Tullia d’Aragona’s adolescence. Giulia Pendaglia’s social status and respectable marriage make it difficult to paint her as the typical courtesan who then mandates that same destiny for her daughter, as the traditional narrative warrants. Although she clearly married well, something happened in the years after she set up the dowry for her daughter with the help of Enea Piccolomini.35 As is common with sex workers, she has simply been called Giulia Ferrarese in later documents, both historical and literary.36 One particularly amusing tale regarding a “Giulia Ferrarese”

33. “honeste puelle Tulie, filie Constantii de Palmeriis de Neapoli et filie dicte domine Iulie, uxoris dicti Africhani”; see Notarile antecosimiano 1107, n. 1315. Unfortunately, d’Aragona had to fight for many years to receive what had been legally donated to her, yet her petitions to various Sienese courts were ultimately successful, and in 1545 she was awarded a sum commensurate with the amount named in 1519, namely 600 florins. 34. There is, in fact, a Sienese noble Campani family and Lattanzio Benucci’s mother was named Girolama Campana. 35. See ASS, Notarile antecosimiano 696. I thank Philippa Jackson for informing me of the existence of this document and Orsetta Baroncelli for its transcription. 36. The instability of surnames in this period aside, sex workers (as indeed many lower-class workers) were known by their name followed by their geographical origin, thus Camilla Pisana, Angela Greca, or even the fictional Lozana Andalusa. The Roman census of 1527 already lists two Giulia Ferraresi; see Egmont Lee, ed. “Descriptio Urbis”: The Roman Census of 1527 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1985), 284–85; see also the 1549 tax on sex workers used to pay for the reparation of the S. Maria bridge, known today as the Ponte Rotto (ASR, camerale I, fabbriche, registro 1514, f. 13. I take this opportunity to correct what I said in my “Out of the Archive: Four Newly-Identified Figures in Tullia d’Aragona’s Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona et di diversi a lei (1547)” (MLN 118, no. 1 [2003]: 257–63) about putting the hypothesis to rest regarding whether Tullia’s mother was Giulia Ferrarese. In the documents that I consulted she is indeed often called that, without her surname, but there were many women called Giulia Ferrarese, and thus it will usually be difficult to tell when a given Giulia Ferrarese is Tullia d’Aragona’s mother or not.

Introduction 13 whom some scholars have assumed to be Tullia’s mother, is narrated by Lodovico Domenichi: Fu fatta la strada del Popolo in Roma, lastricata di tributi che le puttane pagavano, nella quale scontrando la Giulia Ferrarese una gentildonna, l’urtò un poco. All’hora la gentildonna alterata cominciò a dirle villania. Rispose la Giulia Madonna, perdonatemi, che io sò bene, che voi havete piu ragione in questa via, che non hò io. SFACCIATO.37 (The street named Popolo was made in Rome, paved with the taxes paid by whores, in which Giulia Ferrarese, encountering a noblewoman, bumped her a little. Then the noblewoman, angered, began to speak rudely to her. Madonna Giulia responded, pardon me, for I realize that you have more rights in this street than I do. CHEEKY). The year of d’Aragona’s birth is open to conjecture—but it was likely somewhere between 1501 and 1505. A sonnet by Ercole Bentivoglio that was published in Giolito’s 1545 lyric anthology and addressed to d’Aragona indicates that she was thirty-six at the time of its composition.38 If we consider that d’Aragona frequented Bentivoglio from her arrival in Ferrara in June 1537 through no later than circa 1541, then she would have been born between 1501 and 1505. Her father’s identity has been the subject of much debate. Muzio indicates that d’Aragona’s father was Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona (1474–1519), an illegitimate grandson of King Ferrante of Naples, also

37. See Lodovico Domenichi, Facetie, motti e burle di diversi signori e persone private (Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1562), 11v. 38. See Bentivoglio’s “Benché l’invida età col duro morso” in which he writes “you have the space of six winters/ And six lustra by now lived” (“ch’abbiate lo spazio di sei brume/ E di sei lustri omai vivendo corso” [Rime diverse di molti eccellentissimi autori (Giolito 1545), ed. Franco Tomasi and Paolo Zaja (Turin: RES, 2001), 180]).

14 Introduction known as Ferdinand I.39 D’Aragona’s wedding certificate in Siena’s state archives, however, identifies her father as Costanzo Palmieri d’Aragona.40 Enrico Celani suggested that perhaps Giulia married a familiar of the cardinal’s retinue for money, which would have provided a mask for the cardinal’s illicit activities.41 No evidence has been found that Giulia Pendaglia married Costanzo Palmieri d’Aragona, although in another Sienese document Tullia is called her “legitimate and natural daughter” suggesting that she was born in wedlock.42 According to Muzio, at some point at an early age, d’Aragona left Rome for Siena, although is not known for how long she and her mother resided there.43 We might presume that by 1523, she had returned to Rome. Philippe Verdelot, the French Duomo chapel master of Florence, visited Rome in 1523–24 to perform for Clement VII, recently elected Medici pope.44 During this sojourn Verdelot apparently composed two madrigals that refer to Tullia by name—“Non 39. “Now among the many who have issued from the illustrious blood/ was a grand shepherd, who adorned his locks/ and sacred brow with purple bands/ As love desired, one day wandering on the banks/ of the lovely Tiber his eyes/ fell upon the graceful vision, and new,/ of the beautiful IOLE (“Or fra molt’altri uscio del chiaro sangue/ Un gran pastor, che di purpuree bende/ Ornato il crine, e la sacrata fronte,/ Com’amor volle, un giorno per le rive/ Del vago Tebro errando, a gli occhi suoi/ Corse l’aspetto gratioso, e novo/ De la bella IOLE”). Iole is the pastoral name that Muzio gives to Giulia, d’Aragona’s mother. 40. See ASS, Notarile antecosimiano 2357, f. 287. 41. Celani, introduction to Le rime di Tullia d’Aragona, xxxi–xxxiii. 42. ASS, Notarile antecosimiano 696. Although the expression “legitimate and natural” seems contradictory, as “natural” is sometimes an adjective meaning “illegitimate,” it’s not: the birth was legitimate because it occurred in wedlock and it was natural in that she was Giulia’s biological daughter. 43. “She lived at a tender age near the rippling/ of the most beautiful spring that honors Tuscany.” (“visse in tenera etade presso a l’onde/ del più bel fonte, che Thoscana honori”); see sonnet 61. The Ragionamento del Zoppino fatto frate also corroborates this information; see 44–45. Some scholars have suggested that it was Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona’s trip to Germany in 1517 that prompted Giulia to depart from the Eternal City, although I suspect she left before then; see Guido Biagi, “Un’etera romana: Tullia d’Aragona,” Nuova antologia, 4.16, s. 3 (1886): 678. 44. See Alexandra Amati-Camperi, “A Fresh Look at the Life of Verdelot, Maestro di Cappella at the Duomo of Florence,” in Atti del VII centenario del Duomo di Firenze, ed. Timothy Verdon and Annalisa Innocenti (Florence: Edifir, 2001), 97; see also H. Colin Slim and Stefano La Via, “Philippe Verdelot,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Introduction 15 mai donna più bella” and “Ardenti miei sospiri”—and, in addition to mentioning Tullia, both compositions also make reference to Rome.45 Given that both Verdelot and d’Aragona were a part of the Florentine cultural milieu in Rome (the Strozzi were later patrons of Verdelot), it is likely that the two met him through her relationship with the influential Florentine aristocrat and banker Filippo Strozzi (1489–1538). We do not know exactly when d’Aragona began to frequent Filippo Strozzi, but it was plausibly during the early to mid-1520s. In a letter written from Rome on 30 June 1526, Filippo Strozzi confesses to Francesco Vettori “I will not deny that I gladly spend time with Tullia,” an affirmation that reveals not only a certain regularity of association but also that their relationship had been in place for some time.46 Recently uncovered documents reveal that their bond was indeed quite long lived, as I trace in due time, cut short only by Strozzi’s capture at the battle of Montemurlo in August 1537. On 30 January 1531 Tullia and her mother Giulia signed a three-year contract to rent a vineyard they owned in Rome near the Basilica of St John the Lateran to Jacopo from Cremona.47 He was to reap half of the harvest of the vineyard and was given permission to Musicians (London: Macmillan, 2001). I thank Philippe Canguilhem for first advising me of d’Aragona’s association with Verdelot. 45. See Alexandra Amati-Camperi, introduction to Philippe Verdelot, Madrigali a sei voci, ed. Alexandra Amati-Camperi (Pisa: ETS, 2003), xxx. “Non mai donna più bella” is found with its score in Philippe Verdelot, Madrigals for Four and Five Voices, ed. Jessie Ann Owens (New York: Garland, 1989), 75–83; the text of “Ardenti miei sospiri” is found in Madrigali a sei voci, 5; the score is on 15–22. Moreover, considering Filippo Strozzi’s close connection to Clement VII and Tullia d’Aragona’s association with Strozzi, documented from 1526 on, this hypothesis regarding the venue and dating of Verdelot’s madrigals seems plausible. For Filippo Strozzi’s close ties with Clement VII, see Melissa Bullard, Filippo Strozzi and the Medici: Favor and Finance in Sixteenth-Century Florence and Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980). For the musical patronage of both Filippo and his son Ruberto Strozzi, see Richard J. Agee, “Ruberto Strozzi and the Early Madrigal,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 36, no. 1 (1983): 1–17, and Richard J. Agee, “Filippo Strozzi and the Early Madrigal,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 38, no. 2 (1985): 227–37. 46. “Non negherò di non passare tempo volentieri con Tullia”; see Alessandro Bardi, “Filippo Strozzi (da nuovi documenti),” Archivio storico italiano 14 (1894): 3–78, at 46. 47. ASR, Notai AC 4516, ff. 65r–66v. I thank James Nelson Novoa who found this document and shared it with me.

16 Introduction dig in it for travertine, metal, or lead, or any marble figures or parts thereof. The contract, drafted at the women’s home, according to the notary, was witnessed by none other than Roberto Strozzi, Filippo’s second-born son.48 A second witness present was Paolo Emilio Orsini, a Roman nobleman who appears in other documents regarding d’Aragona.49 A letter of 25 November 1531 reveals that d’Aragona had plans to go to Venice the following spring together with Filippo Strozzi.50 Although it is assumed that d’Aragona spent a fair amount of time in Venice, no Venetian archival materials (that I am aware of) have surfaced to tell us exactly when or with whom. Literary documents place d’Aragona in Venice in the early 1530s in the company of writers such as Bernardo Tasso and Sperone Speroni.51 Bernardo Tasso, father of the better-known Torquato, addressed a number of sonnets to her. Speroni by contrast adopted her as an interlocutor in his Dialogo d’amore.52 Just as we do not know exactly when d’Aragona arrived in Venice, so too it is unknown when she departed.

48. In the archival material I consulted, his name appears as both Roberto and Ruberto; he is not to be confused however with Ruberto, son of Michele and father of Carlo Strozzi. 49. Paolo Emilio Orsini was a Roman nobleman of the Monterotondo branch of the Orsini family. During these same years, Orsini also signed a document declaring his intent to defend d’Aragona from any potential detractors; see note 109, in which I discuss this document more fully. 50. In a letter, Filippo Strozzi tells Zanobi Bracci that “I will not be in Florence so soon, for Tullia, if I accompany her to Venice this spring, has promised to come with me there [to Florence] and to stay the whole summer” (“Io non sarò costì [in Florence] così presto, ché la Tullia, se io vo seco in questa primavera a Vinetia, ne ha promisso venirsene poi meco costì et starsi tutta l’estate” [ Bardi, “Filippo Strozzi,” 46]). The original letter can be found in Carte strozziane, s. 1, 336, ff. 230–33. The comment regarding d’Aragona is on f. 231v. 51. On Bernardo Tasso and d’Aragona, see note 155. 52. For an English translation of Speroni’s dialogue, see Janet L. Smarr, “Love as Centaur: Rational Man, Animal Woman in Sperone Speroni’s Dialogue on Love,” in In Dialogue with the Other Voice in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Literary and Social Contexts for Women’s Writing, edited by Julie D. Campbell and Maria Galli Stampino, 195–264 (Toronto: Iter and the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2011). The Italian text may be found Sperone Speroni, “Dialogo di amore,” in Opere, 5 vols. (Venice: Domenico Occhi, 1740; rpt., Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 1989), 1:1–45.

Introduction 17 On 10 March 1535, Penelope d’Aragona was born.53 It is unclear whether she was born in Adria, a small town between the Adige and Po rivers in the Veneto, or in Venice. The confusion derives from the name itself: Adria is a small town in the Veneto in the province of Rovigo, but it is also the poetic name for Venice in much sixteenthcentury Italian poetry.54 Penelope’s parentage too is shrouded in uncertainty. Although the epitaph on her floor tomb in the Church of S. Agostino in Rome claimed that her mother was Giulia Campana and her sister was Tullia d’Aragona, Salvatore Bongi, d’Aragona’s most exhaustive and accurate biographer, hypothesized that she was, in reality, Tullia’s daughter, considering the twenty-five to thirty years that separate their births as well as Muzio’s suggestion that Tullia was Penelope’s guide, educator, and inseparable companion.55 In his eclogue on Penelope’s death, entitled with her pastoral name Argia, Muzio writes about Tullia that “by nature, sister, because of her love/ and her care she was to her mother and teacher” (“per natura sorella, per amore/ et per studio le fu madre e maestra”). In the same poem Muzio describes d’Aragona as treating Argia “with maternal affection” (“con materno affetto”). Several months after Penelope’s birth, however, d’Aragona is back in Rome, as attested by a previously unknown autograph letter of 21 July 1535 to Francesco de’ Pazzi.56 A secret informant of Isabella d’Este, marchesa of Mantua, recounts d’Aragona’s arrival in Ferrara in June 1537. Apollo, alias for Battista Stambellino, writes that è sorto in questa terra una gentil cortegiana di Roma, nominata la Signora Tullia la quale è venuta per stare qualche mese per quanto s’intende. Questa è molto gentile, discreta, accorta et di ottimi et divini costumi 53. For Penelope’s date of birth, see Forcella, Iscrizioni delle chiese, 5:47. 54. Bongi argues against Biagi’s claim (see “Un’etera,” 684) that Penelope was born in Venice by reasoning that since Muzio’s “Argia” eclogue uses the term “l’horribile Adria” in reference to Penelope d’Aragona’s birthplace, it would never have passed Venetian censorship (“Rime della signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei,” in Annali di Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 2 vols. [Rome: Presso i principali librai, 1890], 1: 150–199, at 162). 55. Bongi, “Rime della signora Tullia,” 161. 56. See letter 1.

18 Introduction dotata; sa cantare al libro ogni motetto et canzone, per rasone de canto figurato; ne li discorsi del suo parlare è unica, et tanto accomodatamente si porta che non c’è homo né donna in questa terra che la paregi, anchora che la Illustrissima Signora Marchesa di Pescara sia eccellentissima, la quale è qui, come sa Vostra Eccellenza. Mostra costei sapere de ogni cosa, et parla pur sieco di che materia te aggrada. Sempre ha piena la casa de virtuosi et sempre si puol visitarla, et è riccha de denari, zoie, colanne, anella et altre cose notabile, et in fine è bene accomodata di ogni cosa.57 (a noble courtesan from Rome has arrived in this land, named Signora Tullia, who has come to stay for a few months, as far as I know. She is extremely courteous, discreet, astute, and graced with excellent, sublime manners; she knows how to sing every motet or song from a partbook, that is to say polyphony; in her conversation she is unique and carries herself so gracefully that there is no man or woman in this land that equals her, even though the most Illustrious Signora Marchese of Pescara is most excellent, who is here, as Your Excellency knows. This one [Signora Tullia] seems to know everything and can speak with you about any material that you please. Her house is always full of virtuosi and one can always visit her, and she is rich with money, jewels, necklaces, rings, and other notable things, and in the end she is highly adorned with everything.58) 57. ASMn, Archivio Gonzaga 1251, ff. 191r–192v. This letter was published in the late nineteenth century; see Alessandro Luzio, “Un’avventura di Tullia d’Aragona,” Rivista storica mantovana 1, nos. 1–2 (1885): 179–82. Costantino Cipolla and Giancarlo Malacarne have more recently published a complete transcription of this letter, but they misread the name as “Talia” (see their El più soave et dolce et dilectevole et gratioso bochone: Amore e sesso al tempo dei Gonzaga [Milan: Angeli, 2006], 409–11)—curiously enough as that is a name that d’Aragona had also asked Muzio to use for her. A sonnet by Ercole Bentivoglio adds that d’Aragona had come to Ferrara from Rome; see his sonnet 101. 58. “Cantare al libro” meant that d’Aragona could both read and sing music. It was common in the sixteenth century to give each singer a partbook with their score so that they could all

Introduction 19 This letter makes an explicit comparison between Vittoria Colonna and Tullia d’Aragona, a comparison that was to be made again by others, once d’Aragona had established her literary reputation. While for a host of different reasons—status; livelihood; personal interests—the two women could not have been further apart, they were occasionally paired as paragons of literary excellence.59 Tullia d’Aragona likely remained in Ferrara longer than Isabella d’Este’s informant alleges.60 There, in 1537, d’Aragona begins the process of transformation that takes her from being a courtesan— albeit a witty, learned, intellectual one—to being a woman of letters, a process that gains speed and substance as she ages. It is probably during this period that she first met Girolamo Muzio, one of her most prolific promoters and the author of the pastoral eclogue that provides a mini-biography of her. It is also in Ferrara that she likely first met the poet Ercole Bentivoglio; he too wrote poems in her praise and was the first poet to refer unequivocally to her talent as a poet.61 Bongi indicates that she remained in Ferrara at least until 1541, when Muzio departed for Milan on a mission for Duke Ercole II of Ferrara.62 D’Aragona did, however, return to Rome after her stay in Ferrara, as Stambellino’s letter claims. Sometime after November 1540 (and likely before 25 March 1541) she sent three poems to the sing together; given that they are singing in a group, Stambellino mentions “canto figurato” which is polyphonic music. I thank Kathryn Bosi for this explanation. 59. See sonnet 111, likely by Benedetto Arrighi, in which the last line proposes to “make VITTORIA a moon and TULLIA a sun” (“far VITTORIA una Luna, et TULLIA un Sole”). See Bausi, “ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 74 and Cox, Women’s Writing, 80–82. 60. Apollo states that d’Aragona “has come to stay for a few months as far as I can tell” (“è venuta per stare qualche mese per quanto s’intende”). Later in the same letter, he recounts that d’Aragona claims that “once this season is over she wants to return towards Rome” (“passata questa stagione se ne vuol tornar verso Roma”) she intends to return to Rome. See Luzio, “Un’avventura,” 179–80, and Cipolla and Malacarne, El più soave, 409. 61. See his sonnet 101 in which he speaks of the “learned words that Euterp inspires in you” (“i dotti accenti che vi ispira Euterpe”). This sonnet was written just after d’Aragona’s arrival in Ferrara in June 1537; however, it is possible that Ippolito de’ Medici’s sonnet 97 in which he refers to her “sweet song” (“dolce canto”) may refer to her poetic abilities, as well as to her musical talents. He died in August 1535 and thus his sonnet likely predates those of Bentivoglio. 62. Bongi, “Rime della signora Tullia,” 172.

20 Introduction Florentine Accademia degli umidi (Academy of the Damp), and the dedicatory line of the manuscript copy states specifically in that they were from Rome.63 Two of the sonnets are addressed to Cosimo I and the third to Maria Salviati de’ Medici, his mother. D’Aragona next surfaces in Siena in a notarial document rendering official a negotiation whereby a Jewish man named Aaron, red haired and around thirty-six years old, agreed to accept as payment from d’Aragona the sum of thirty-five julians from an unnamed Spaniard who owed the money to her. The document was notarized on 14 April 1543 and witnessed by two Sienese noblemen, Antonio Marcello Sanzio and Orazio Pecci.64 Less than nine months later, on 8 January 1544, d’Aragona married in Siena Silvestro Guicciardi, a “Ferrarese gentleman,” although nothing else is known about the identity of this man.65 Muzio, however, on occasion of d’Aragona’s marriage, offered as a gift a Treatise on Marriage (Trattato di Matrimonio), whose dedication to her reads as extremely ambiguous and convoluted in its intentions.66 Several months later, however, on Pentecoste, d’Aragona was denounced for wearing a sbernia, a cloak of luxurious fabric or fur that was closed on the left shoulder, usually with a jeweled pin, in violation of Sienese sumptuary legislation.67 The accusation specified 63. See BNCF, Magliabechiano VII 195, ff. 75r–76r; see sonnets 116–18 in the present edition. The poems are not dated, however; I base my dating from the Umidi’s foundation to the birth of Francesco de’ Medici, as the manuscript in which they are found seems to be organized chronologically. It is, of course, possible that the poems were sent somewhat later even though they are addressed to the Umidi, since even as late as 1547, Pietro Aretino wrote to Varchi about what he called the “sect of the Damp” (“setta de gli Umidi”) (Benedetto Varchi, Lettere, 1535–1565, ed. Vanni Bramanti [Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2008], 132n). 64. ASS, Notarile antecosimiano 2357, f. 207. 65. ASS, Notarile antecosimiano 2357, f. 287. Firenzuola quipped that Tullia let her husband starve to death (Opere, 383). Emmanuel Rodocanachi published a partial inventory in which a “widow’s dress” (“veste da vedova”) appears (Cortigiane e buffoni di Roma, trans. Nino Della Casa [Milan: Pervinca, 1927], 49). Of course, this dress could have been used for other purposes. 66. See Girolamo Muzio, “Trattato di matrimonio alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona,” in his Operette morali (Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1550), 50–60. 67. Thanks to Luca Marcozzi for identifying the holiday of Pentecoste. For information on Sienese sumptuary legislation, see Maria Assunta Ceppari Ridolfi, “Un caso toscano:

Introduction 21 that she was in the company of Ottaviano Tondi, Orazio Pecci, and Gaspare, servant to Don Juan de Luna, the imperial commander of Charles V.68 In the deliberation of the judges who ruled on this denunciation, which was only issued in February of the following year, d’Aragona was exempted from the legislation because she had produced documentation proving that she was married and because she led a “vitam honestissimam” and was thus allowed to live wherever she so chose and wear whatever clothes she might like.69 Although during these years, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had sent representatives to rule Siena, republican political aggregations remained nonetheless that continually jockeyed for position and power. Ottaviano Tondi was an active member of the Noveschi faction, but he had to go into hiding for having killed a popular soldier of the Popolani faction and apparently died soon after. Tumults ensued when the Popolani revolted, at which point many Sienese Noveschi fled to Florence. Judging from her Sienese poetic correspondents, d’Aragona supported the Noveschi, and because of their waning political fortunes, d’Aragona also fled Siena for Florence in the winter of 1545–46 to seek refuge in the court of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici.70 D’Aragona actively participated in the cultural life of Florence, corresponding with poets and philosophers as well as maintaining a salon at her home.71 Many of those same figures appear in her choral Siena,” in Disciplinare il lusso: La legislazione suntuaria in Italia e in Europa tra medioevo ed età moderna, ed. Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli and Antonella Campanini (Rome: Carocci, 2003), 59–73. 68. ASS, Capitano di giustizia 75, f. 53; this document was published by Bongi, “Documenti senesi su Tullia d’Aragona,” Rivista critica della letteratura italiana IV, no. 6 (1887): 186–88, at 188. Ottaviano Tondi apparently died in tumults between the Noveschi and Popolani faction. D’Aragona wrote a sonnet of condolence to his brother (Emilio Tondi) that she included in her collection; see sonnet 26. This is the second time we encounter the nobleman Orazio Pecci, who was present at the notarization of the agreement with Aaron; see note 64. Don Juan de Luna (often Italianized to Giovanni di Luna) was the imperial commander at the time in Siena. 69. ASS, Gabella 758, ff. 12–14. It is interesting to note that in this same document she is repeatedly referred to as “nobilis,” that is, “well known,” but perhaps also “noble.” 70. See her sonnets 4 and 5 to Duke Cosimo. 71. This salon provides the backdrop for d’Aragona’s dialogue On the Infinity of Love; Benucci calls the salon a “universal and prestigious academy” because of all the “gentlemen, the host

22 Introduction anthology—Antonfrancesco Grazzini (otherwise known as Il Lasca), Simone Porzio, Ugolino Martelli, Lattanzio Benucci, and Alessandro Arrighi, among others. During her years in Florence, d’Aragona cultivated a relationship with the Florentine poet, historiographer, and linguist Benedetto Varchi (1503–65), although she had probably met him earlier in northern Italy. They shared a good number of acquaintances— members of the Strozzi family, for one, but also Jacopo Nardi, Francesco Maria Molza, and Francesco de’ Pazzi.72 Previously Varchi had been in Padua, where he was closely associated with Florentine republican exiles and often visited Pietro Bembo, who lived in a villa just outside of Padua during this period. But upon Cosimo I’s request, he had returned to Florence in 1543. Immediately upon his return, Varchi joined the recently reformed Florentine Academy and was elected as consul in 1545. In the fall of 1546 Duke Cosimo I commissioned Varchi to write the history of Florence from the expulsion of the Medici in 1527 through to the reinstatement of Medici power under Duke Alessandro, Cosimo’s cousin and immediate predecessor. Thus Varchi was very much at the center of Florentine cultural life, and d’Aragona appealed to him as her mentor early upon her arrival. It is thanks to him, in fact, that we have seven autograph letters of d’Aragona, and the first extant one to him makes clear that she was appealing to him as a literary guide and supporter, although the relationship was mutually beneficial. In later letters d’Aragona calls Varchi her “maestro” and her “Dante.”73

of literary experts in all the various fields, the aristocrats, the princes, and the cardinals who have flocked to her house in different periods of her life—and still do” (Dialogue, 108) (“tanti gentiluomini, tanti letterati di tutte le maniere, tanti signori, tanti prencipi e tanti cardinali, che alle case di lei in ogni tempo, come ad una universale ed onorata academia, sono concorsi e concorrono” [“Dialogo,” 241]). 72. See note 138 for more detail regarding his relations to the Strozzi. Salvatore Lo Re claims that it was Varchi and Francesco de’ Pazzi who worked to pacify the rocky relations between Filippo Strozzi and his son Piero in the aftermath of Duke Alessandro’s assassination (Politica e cultura nella Firenze cosimiana: Studi su Benedetto Varchi [Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2008], 161). 73. For d’Aragona’s first extant letter to Varchi, see letter 2 in this edition; in letter 9, she calls Varchi her “Dante.”

Introduction 23 Yet, once again, in the spring of 1547, d’Aragona was denounced for violating sumptuary legislation. In Florence, sex workers were required to wear a yellow veil or handkerchief to distinguish them from “proper women and [those] of an honest life” (“donne da bene e di honesta vita.”)74 Rather than seeking exemption as a married woman, as she had done in Siena, this time d’Aragona brandished other weapons. In a letter to Benedetto Varchi, d’Aragona recounts that Don Pietro di Toledo, cousin of Duchess Eleonora di Toledo, advised her to appeal directly to the duchess so that she might intercede on d’Aragona’s behalf with Duke Cosimo to seek dispensation from wearing the yellow veil.75 D’Aragona then sought Varchi’s help in preparing an appeal for the duchess and attached to her petition a collection of sonnets by various Italian poets praising her; she also included a capitolo, a longer narrative and often comic verse form in terza rima, written by Lattanzio Benucci in d’Aragona’s voice and addressed to Duke Cosimo, again requesting exemption from the yellow veil.76 Once more d’Aragona’s request was granted yet, unlike in Siena, this time she won exemption on the basis of her “rare knowledge of poetry and philosophy” in a decree issued 1 May 1547. The deliberation promulgated by Duke Cosimo’s authorities stipulates: Volendo l’Illustrissimo et Eccellentissimo Signor Duca di Firenze, e per Sua Eccellenza, i magnifici Signori Luogotenenti et Consiglieri, con special Dono ricognoscere la rara scienzia di Poesia et filosofia, che si ritrova 74. For the full text of the Florentine legislation, see Lorenzo Cantini, Legislazione toscana, 16 vols. (Florence: Stamp. Albizziana, 1800–1808), 1:322. 75. See letter 5 in the present volume. 76. For the text of the plea to Duchess Eleonora, see note 21. The manuscript with the twenty-two sonnets in praise of d’Aragona is found at BNCF, Magliabechiano VII 1185, ff. 308r–318v; for a more extensive discussion of this manuscript, see my “Di sangue illustre,” 172–75. Francesco Trucchi published a copy of the capitolo by Lattanzio Benucci; see Lattanzio Benucci, “All’eccellentissimo signor duca di Fiorenza: Su una prammatica sul vestir delle donne, fatta dal duca,” in Poesie italiane inedite di dugento autori dall’origine della lingua infino al secolo decimosettimo, ed. Francesco Trucchi, 4 vols. (Prato: Guasti, 1846–47), 3:378–83; the original is found at BNCF, Magliabechiano VII 779, ff. 152r–155v. As far as I can tell, the capitolo does not appear among the papers in the ASF, nor was it bound with the sonnets at the BNCF.

24 Introduction con piacer de’ pregiati ingegni la Dotta Tullia Aragona, che al presente habita in la città di Sua Eccellenza, et provedere, che così come ell’è intra l’altre Donne per tali scienzie riguardevole, la venga ancora in tra esse per particolare et nuovo privilegio, fatta essente da tutto quello a che ell’è obligata quanto al suo habito, vestire e portamenti per la legge sopra ciò fatta sotto di XIX d’Ottobre prossimo passato 1546.77 (The most illustrious and excellent Signor Duke of Florence, and on behalf of his Excellency, the magnificent deputies and advisors, wishing to recognize with a special gift the rare knowledge of Poetry and Philosophy, which one finds among the worthy talents of the learned Tullia Aragona, who presently lives in the city of His Excellency, and to take care, since she is among all other [women] notable for such disciplines, so that a particular and new privilege be accorded her, to be exempted from all obligation as regards her dress, clothes, and behavior by the law regarding them made on the 19th of last October 1546). Sometime later in the summer or early fall of 1547, the prestigious Venetian publisher Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari printed d’Aragona’s canzoniere entitled Poems by Tullia d’Aragona and by Others to Her.78 Internal evidence suggests that publication occurred subsequent to 5 July 1547, for two sonnets addressed to Duchess Eleonora refer to the death of Eleonora’s son Pietro on 10 June and 77. ASF, Magistrato supremo 4307, 69v–70r; this document was also published in Bongi, “Il velo giallo,” 90 and in his “Rime della signora Tullia,” 186. 78. Claudia Di Filippo Bareggi claims that Ludovico Dolce was the editor responsible for d’Aragona’s publication of Rime with Giolito, but she does not offer any sort of evidence to support this statement (Il mestiere di scrivere: Lavoro intellettuale e mercato librario a Venezia nel Cinquecento [Rome: Bulzoni, 1988], 99n). For information on how Gabriele Giolito was positioning himself in the book trade as a publisher of texts that participated in the querelle des femmes or were written by women, see Androniki Dialeti, “The Publisher Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, Female Readers, and the Debate about Women in SixteenthCentury Italy,” Renaissance and Reformation 28, no. 4 (2004): 5–32.

Introduction 25 to the birth of Garzia on 5 July 1547.79 In the same year Giolito de’ Ferrari also published d’Aragona’s prose dialogue On the Infinity of Love.80 D’Aragona announced her imminent departure from Florence for Rome in a letter to Varchi of 10 October 1548.81 The Rome to which d’Aragona was returning had changed considerably in the intervening years and was destined to change even more. During the 1540s, Pope Paul III had reorganized the Inquisition (1542) and had called a meeting of a council of the church in Trent (1545) in order to respond officially to the calls for reform. In 1549, Monsignor Giovanni Della Casa printed a first draft of the list of prohibited books, which however was not adopted. The first official Index librorum prohibitorum did not appear until 1559, under Paul IV. Soon after her reentry to Rome, d’Aragona appears in a document found in the state archive in Rome, drafted in 1549 and entitled the Tax on Courtesans.82 According to this tax, every sex worker in the city at the time was expected to pay 10 percent of her annual rent in order to help fund the repair of the S. Maria Bridge (this bridge is now commonly known to Romans as the Ponte Rotto—the Broken Bridge—after its final collapse in the flood of 1598).83 In the Tassa, which lists 501 prostitutes working in the city 79. See sonnets 10 and 11. 80. Although no one has ventured to suggest whether the Poems or the Infinity of Love appeared first, I tend to think that the dialogue appeared before the poetry for several reasons. First, it was dedicated to Cosimo, and it seems likely d’Aragona would have opted to dedicate her first published work to the duke, and then, having fulfilled that obligation, the second one to the duchess. Secondly, in a letter to Varchi dated 25 August 1546, d’Aragona writes to Varchi “talk sometimes with my dialogue” which—although ambiguous in its ultimate meaning—does still indicate that that the dialogue had already been drafted in large part by that time (that is, a full year before all of the poems). Finally, given that the Florentine authorities based her exemption from the yellow veil on the recognition of d’Aragona’s talent in the realms of poetry and philosophy, one would expect that some tangible sign of her philosophical abilities would have been present allowing them to do so; otherwise she could have merely been exempted as a poet. Barring the discovery of other evidence, however, this dating must remain conjectural. 81. See letter 9. 82. See ASR, Camerale I, Fabbriche, Registro 1514. D’Aragona appears on f. 5. 83. See Anna Esposito, “La città e i suoi abitanti,” in Roma del Rinascimento, ed. Antonio Pinelli (Rome: Laterza, 2001), 20.

26 Introduction in 1549, d’Aragona is listed as living near Palazzo Carpi in the Rione Campo Marzio, just around the corner from the same Monsignor Giovanni Della Casa.84 The document is important for it helps us contextualize d’Aragona’s economic situation. There were, for example, three or four sex workers paying rent of a hundred scudi per year (the infamous Isabella de Luna among them), and one Donna Madalenna Spagniola was even paying 150; 89 percent of the women were paying under forty scudi rent per year.85 Thus d’Aragona with her forty scudi per year figures among the eleven percent who were paying more, and so she must be considered to have occupied the mid- to upper range economically. Further evidence of d’Aragona’s more elevated status is that she and her mother Giulia Campana placed a marble floor tablet in the Church of S. Agostino to commemorate the death of her sister (or daughter) Penelope, who died on 1 February 1549.86 D’Aragona also continued to write poetry upon her return to Rome. Many—although not all—of the poems are addressed to clergymen. Two of these sonnets—previously unpublished—appear in the section of miscellaneous poems.87 She also published a few spiritual poems in a lyric anthology edited by Girolamo Ruscelli in 1553.88 It would seem plausible then that the bulk of her efforts during the years from late 1548 until early 1556 went into the composition of her

84. For a detailed transcription regarding d’Aragona’s exact residence, see my “Out of the Archive,” 262n11. 85. Isabella di Luna was a well-known Spanish prostitute who worked primarily in Rome and also appears in two tales by Matteo Bandello. For more information about her and for English translations of Bandello’s novelle, see Deanna Shemek, “From Insult to Injury: Bandello’s Tales of Isabella de Luna,” in her Ladies Errant: Wayward Women and Social Order in Early Modern Italy (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 158–90. 86. Unfortunately, the tablet was removed during the restoration of the church by Vanvitelli, but it was recorded by Forcella (Iscrizioni delle chiese, 5:47). For information on the restoration, see Virginia Anne Bonito, “The St Anne Altar in Sant’ Agostino in Rome: A New Discovery,” Burlington Magazine 122 (1980): 805–12, and Virginia Anne Bonito, “The Saint Anne Altar in Sant’Agostino: Restoration and Interpretation,” Burlington Magazine 124 (1982): 268–76. 87. See sonnets 132 and 133 addressed, respectively, to the cardinal of Urbino and Cardinal Del Monte. 88. See sonnet 134 and canzone 135.

Introduction 27 epic poem Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino, which was not published until 1560. The final historical document regarding Tullia D’Aragona is her last will and testament, dated 2 March 1556, which is held in the state archive in Rome.89 She was living in Trastevere, although she still claims S. Agostino as her parish church and also mentions that she is a member of the confraternity SS. Crocefisso, which was based at the church of S. Marcello in the current via del Corso.90 Although previous scholars have claimed that d’Aragona had become impoverished by the time of her death, it is important to note that figures such as Antonio Trivulzio, who was the bishop of Toulon, and Mario Frangipani, a Roman nobleman, are named as her executors. In her will she clarifies that she is “by the grace of God sound of mind and intellect although infirm of body” and desires to dispose of her goods so that “no argument, or scandal, would ensue after her death.”91 As is common for the period, d’Aragona arranges to give away her bed, various types of dresses and fabric, and money to various friends, acquaintances, poor orphan girls, repentant prostitutes (as required by law, which she states explicitly), her confraternity, and her parish church of S. Agostino, where her mother was buried, and where she too will be laid to rest.92 She also arranged to have masses recited yearly in the same church on St. Gregory’s day, 3 September, dedicated to her soul, and stipulated that at her funeral she did not want anyone other than the “friars of S. Agostino and those of the company of the 89. ASR, Notai AC 6298, n. 69. I thank Orsetta Baroncelli for the transcription of this document. A transcription of this document was published by Bongi, “Rime della signora Tullia,” 194-95. 90. This confraternity is characterized by Antonio Vannugli (“L’Arciconfraternità della SS Crocefisso e la sua capella in S. Marcello,” Ricerche per la storia religiosa di Roma 5 [1984]: 429–43) as being frequented by “members of the richest and most powerful families of the Roman aristocracy.” It also numbers many artists among its members. Unfortunately, although the list of male members of the confraternity from the years 1550 on is extant, the corresponding book of female members is not. 91. “sana per gratia de dio di mente et intelletto benché inferma del corpo”; “accio che doppo morte mia non ne nasca ad alcuno lite, o scandalo”; see ASR, Not. AC, vol. 6298, n. 69. 92. Although her will stipulates that she was living in Trastevere close to the time of her death, she clearly still considered S. Agostino to be her home church, which may be an indication that she had only recently moved to Trastevere, perhaps upon falling ill.

28 Introduction Crucifix of which I am a member and that I be buried at 24 hours (sunset) without ceremonies, simply.”93 She left all her other goods to her universal heir, Celio, who was a minor in the care of Pietro Ciocca, the steward of Cardinal Cornaro.94 In another document that was drafted after d’Aragona’s death to set up the guardianship of Celio, the child is referred to as a puerum infantem and care is taken for eius infantia. In the registration of the tutelage under Orazio Marchianni, a Pistoiese clergyman, by the notary Vergilio Grandinelli, Celio is specifically referred to as d’Aragona’s son.95 The child’s father, age, and subsequent life remains a mystery, although d’Aragona took care in her will to provide money from the sale of her possessions so that he might be nourished and also “learn letters and other abilities.”96 Tullia d’Aragona died sometime between 3 March and 15 April 1556, somewhere between fiftyone and fifty-five years of age.

93. ASR, Not. AC, vol. 6298, n. 69. My thanks to Elizabeth and Thomas Cohen for identifying 24 hours as sunset in the Roman context. 94. The Venetian Alvise Corner (which is Cornelii in Latin and Cornèr in Venetian; it is Italianized to Cornaro) lived from 1517 to 1584; for information on his life, see Paolo Frasson, “Alvise Corner,” in DBI 29 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1983), 146–49. Interestingly, Duchess Eleonora’s cousin Don Pedro (the recipient of sonnet 14), who was in Rome for the conclave that elected Pope Julius III, wrote to Cosimo I to have him intercede with Cardinal Ridolfi in order to allow Cardinal Cornaro, whom Don Pedro believed to be a strong supporter of Cosimo within the Curia, to purchase an ancient bust of Scipio; see Carlos José Hernando Sánchez, “Naples and Florence in Charles V’s Italy: Family, Court, and Government in the Toledo-Medici Alliance,” in Spain in Italy: Politics, Society, and Religion, 1500–1700, ed. Thomas James Dandelet and John A. Marino (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 135–80, at 172. Very little is known about Pietro Cioccha, as his name appears in the archival material. Bongi notes the similarity of name with a poet who appears in Dolce’s 1545 verse anthology named Pier Antonio Chiocca; see “Rime della signora Tullia,” 193n. The recent edition by Franco Tomasi and Paolo Zaja offers several other hypotheses related to the identity of this poet; see Rime diverse, 421. 95. ASC, Credenzone 13, I serie, tomo 6, f. 196, refers to Celio as her son. Also see ASR, Notai AC 6298, 79r where Celio is named as her son. 96. Given that Celio is referred to as a “puerum infantem” who is still in his “infantia” and had yet to begin studying “letters” would lead me to conclude that he must have been at least under six or seven years of age. He could however been much younger and she was organizing for his future.

Introduction 29

Tullia d’Aragona as Courtesan To put it bluntly, a courtesan was a sex worker, although her trajectory may be distinguished by the significant investment she made in her education, for she would spend years preparing for her career.97 The sixteenth-century Italian courtesan was expected to be well versed in the classics of the Italian vernacular tradition, although she would likely have studied Latin and its classics as well. She was usually also an accomplished musician and singer. She danced and was expected to entertain through her witty, if not learned, conversation. Thus culture was the initial hook (obviously followed by other less ethereal pleasures) through which the courtesan established her position alongside men of power and means and sought to garner favor and funds enough to live comfortably for as long as she was able.98 Rome and Venice were the European cities most associated with courtesans, who were featured as a “must-see” on the itinerary of any well-heeled or educated sixteenth-century traveler.99 Yet the culture of courtesans developed first and most famously in Rome, that “terra da donne” (“women’s territory”; “land for women”), according to Zoppino, because demographically the city was enormously skewed in favor of men due to the presence of the papal court and 97. For a brief but cogent reflection on the use of terminology related to courtesans and sex workers, see Elizabeth S. Cohen, “Back Talk: Two Prostitutes’ Voices from Rome c. 1600,” Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 2 (2007): 95–126, esp. 97–99. 98. The literature on the Italian Renaissance courtesan is vast. To begin, see in English Georgina Masson’s still rich Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1976) and Lynn Lawner’s richly illustrated Lives of the Courtesans (New York: Rizzoli, 1989), along with many of the essays in The Courtesan’s Arts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, ed. Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); specifically for Rome, and more broadly in relation to sex workers, see Tessa Storey’s Carnal Commerce in Counter-Reformation Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) and Elizabeth S. Cohen’s “No Longer Virgins: Self-Presentation by Young Women in Late Renaissance Rome,” in Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance, ed. Marilyn Migiel and Juliana Schiesari (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), 169–91, Cohen’s “ ‘Courtesans’ and ‘Whores’: Words and Behavior in Early Modern Rome,” in “Women in the Renaissance: An Interdisciplinary Forum, special issue, Women’s Studies 19, no. 1 (1991), 201–08, her “Seen and Known: Prostitutes in the Cityscape of Late-Sixteenth-Century Rome,” Renaissance Studies 12, no. 3 (1998): 392–409, as well as “Back Talk.” 99. See the travel journals of both Michel de Montaigne and Thomas Coryat, for example.

30 Introduction the dictates regarding the sex of the domestic help of prelates.100 Tullia d’Aragona and her mother were even characterized offhandedly in a notarial document as “followers of the Roman curia” (“romanam curiam sequentes”).101 Another commonplace about courtesans, in fact, is that their profession was generally handed down from mother to daughter. It has been suggested that Penelope, Tullia’s much younger sister or daughter, would have likely pursued the same career path if she had lived, thus helping to provide an income for her aging sister or mother, as the case may have been.102 My research has led me to conclude that Filippo Strozzi served as d’Aragona’s principal patron and client from their first documented association in 1526 to Strozzi’s death by suicide in 1538. Given that it is likely that Philippe Verdelot composed his madrigals for d’Aragona during his visit to Rome in 1523–24 to perform for Clement VII, recently elected Medici pope, and considering Filippo Strozzi’s close ties to Clement VII, it may have been precisely in this environment that d’Aragona first came to know Strozzi, as by 1526 their relationship had become habitual.103 As I outline, d’Aragona and Strozzi were together in a number of different cities in the peninsula over approximately a twelve-year period. Strozzi, however, was clearly not d’Aragona’s only benefactor. As the court records analyzed by Elizabeth and Thomas Cohen have shown, sex workers—whether high class or not—were constantly subjected to the wrath of unhappy clients, corrupt police, and often even colleagues, as the environment was highly competitive and the stakes were potentially quite high.104 In a pamphlet containing two pasquinades—one that specifically addresses d’Aragona and another that concerns courtesans in general—Rome’s notorious talking statue Pasquino chastises Tullia d’Aragona for having departed Rome 100. Dialogo dello Zoppino de la vita e genealogia di tutte le cortigiane di Roma, ed. Gino Lanfranchi (Milan: L’editrice del libro raro, 1922), 45. As regards the need for prelates to hire men, see Laurie Nussdorfer, “Men in Baroque Rome,” forthcoming in I Tatti Studies. 101. ASR, Notai AC 4516, 65r. 102. Bongi, “Rime della signora Tullia,” 191; Biagi, “Un’etera,” 709. 103. See note 45 for information on Verdelot’s association with the Strozzi. 104. Thomas V. Cohen and Elizabeth S. Cohen, Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome: Trials before the Papal Magistrates (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Introduction 31 suddenly, without even so much as a quick goodbye.105 The anonymous author of the lamento entitled “Pasquino alli inamorati della S. Tulia” hypothesizes the various reasons why d’Aragona might have left Rome—financial difficulties; the jealousy of others; pregnancy; no place to live; and so forth—and offers his solutions for how he might have helped her. His imaginary list of why d’Aragona might have fled the city not only provides useful testimony of the various difficulties that the sex workers who serviced the papal court might have encountered when clients left town but also reiterates some specifics as regards d’Aragona. Insomma io moro, e mi si creppa il core, pensando a questa tua empia partita, tal ch’uom di marmo sembro per dolore. Ma più mi duol, che tu ti sei fugita, grida la gente tutta per paura, et altri dicon che tu sei fallita. Così ogniun qualche nuova sciagura, van racontando per infamia darti pensa mo tu come il mio cor s’indura.

50

55

(The fact is that I’m dying and my heart’s breaking, thinking about your cruel departure, so that I seem like a man of marble because of the grief. But it pains me even more that you ran off, 105. This text exists in a single copy at the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma in a pamphlet entitled Passione d’amor de mastro Pasquino per la partita della signora Tulia: Et Martello grande delle povere cortigiane di Roma, con la allegrezza delle Bolognese; the call number is BB 11° 25663. Although the title of the pamphlet had initially induced scholars to assume that both pasquinades were written on the occasion of the departure in 1529 of Pope Clement VII for Bologna in order to coronate Charles V as holy roman emperor, Abdelkader Salza instead dated them to 1532 on the basis of vv. 10–15 in the second text regarding the prostitutes of Rome; he also republished both texts; see “I lamenti di Pasquino,” in Scritti varii di erudizione e di critica in onore di Rodolfo Renier (Turin: Bocca, 1912), 795–826. More recently, Valerio Marucci has republished the capitolo in Pasquinate del Cinque e Seicento (Rome: Salerno, 1988), 97–104. For a discussion of the text about d’Aragona, see my “Mastro Pasquino’s Lament to Tullia d’Aragona,” in Early Modern Rome (1341–1667), ed. Portia Prebys (Ferrara: Edisai, 2011), 357–64.

32 Introduction all the people say, out of fear, and others say that you went bankrupt. And since each one goes talking about some new disaster to slander you, so just think now how my heart grows hard). Pasquino suggests that d’Aragona’s fear is related to the “poisonous bite” of certain “tongues.” Bongi initially related the sudden departure of d’Aragona from Rome as recounted in the pasquinade to an episode narrated in a novella by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinzio in his Hecatommithi regarding a young Roman named Saulo, who loved a certain unworthy woman named Nana. In Giraldi Cinzio’s words, “this woman has people say that she’s from the Aragona house” (“[q]uesta di casa Arragona si fa chiamare”).106 In this novella, Nana plays with the sentiments of a young Roman who truly loves her, but, because of her mother’s conniving, she finds that she must spend a week with a filthy, uncouth German named Gianni who has offered to pay 100 scudi a night.107 After just one night, which Giraldi Cinzio recounts in lurid detail, Nana goes to her mother to say that she absolutely cannot spend another night with this Gianni and after much wrangling concocts a story about having her period to get rid of him, which does not play out as she thought it might because he is “like a pig, used to being all the time in filth” (“a guisa di porco, avvezzo di starsi di continuo nella lordura”).108 She does, however, finally succeed in getting rid of him, but once word gets around Rome that she had spent a night with the filthy German, Saulo’s love suddenly turns to contempt because she had acted out of greed and without honor. As much as she tries, Nana is unable to change Saulo’s mind and, finding 106. See Giraldi Cinzio, Gli ecatommiti, 43; see also Bongi, “Rime della signora Tullia,” 1: 154–61 and 2: 472 for a supposed trip to Bologna. In the Ragionamento del Zoppino, d’Aragona’s noble origins are also called into question (45). Bongi also suggested that this young Roman nobleman might indeed be Paolo Emilio Orsini who signed the defense challenge for d’Aragona and served as witness in her vineyard rental; see page 16. 107. One hundred scudi a night was an astronomical sum. An appropriate term of comparison would be the rental fees mentioned in the Tax on Courtesans discussed on pages 25–26. 108. Giraldi Cinzio, Gli ecatommiti, 45.

Introduction 33 that her bevy of young beaux has disappeared, she is forced to leave Rome. The events narrated by Giraldi Cinzio, if they occurred at all, suggest the extent of the competition and conflict to which courtesans—even intellectual ones—were subject. This environment is also behind the challenge in defense of d’Aragona signed in Rome by a number of Roman and Florentine noblemen, who declared their willingness to fight for her honor “according to the order of the tournaments of ancient glorious cavaliers.”109 Moreover, it may well have been precisely this situation that Francesco Vettori had in mind when he warned Filippo Strozzi, in a letter of 14 February 1532, not to become involved in such trifling matters, for he had other more important business that required his attention: Io non sono per ammonire Filippo Strozzi ancora, che se le ammonittioni ricorregghino non havete haver per male essere ammonito, ma ho inteso di non so che cartelli e di sfide andate a torno, che mi hanno dato fa­ stidio pensando che un par’ vostro huomo di 43 anni voglia combattere per una femmina, et benché io creda saresti così atto all’arme come siate alle lettere ed a ogni altra cosa dove ponete la fantasia, non vorrei di presente vi mettessi a questo pericolo di voler combattere per causa tanto leggiera: et vi ricordo che degli uomini come voi ne nascono pochi per secolo, et questo non dico per adulare.110

109. “secondo l’ordine de torniamenti deli antigui e gloriosi cavalieri.” For this document, see BNCF, Rinuccini 19, Cartello di sfida. Most of the documents in the folder are dated from 1533–34, but the one regarding d’Aragona carries no date or place. One of the signatories— Paolo Emilio Orsini—also appears as a witness in the document regarding the rental of d’Aragona’s vineyard near S. Giovanni, which occurred in 1531. Biagi published a complete transcription of this document; see “Un’etera,” 683–84. Thus the defense must have been drafted in Rome before 14 February 1532, the date of Vettori’s letter, given Strozzi’s letter in response in which he seemingly refers to it. 110. BNCF, Palatino 454, 5v. This letter is reprinted in its entirety in Luigi Alberto Ferrai, Lorenzino de’ Medici e la società cortigiana del Cinquecento, con le rime e le lettere di Lorenzino e un’ appendice di documenti (Milan: Hoepli, 1891), 449–54; the passage cited is on 454.

34 Introduction (I am not going to warn Filippo Strozzi anymore, for if the warnings put things right, then you shouldn’t mind being warned, but I heard about some kind of notices and challenges circulating, and I was distressed to think that one of your stature, a man forty-three years old, might choose to fight over some female, and even though I think that you are just as talented in arms as in letters and in anything that you put your mind to, I would not want you at present to put yourself in such danger by fighting for such a trivial cause. Let me remind you that only a few men like you are born each century, and I am not saying this to flatter you). Strozzi’s response not only allays Vettori’s fears but spells out more clearly the nature of his relationship with d’Aragona, or at least how he chooses to represent it. Sopra le cose mie mi dispiacerebbe avessi voi prestato fede a certe baie, disfide e abbattimenti seguiti infra amici di qua amicabilmente, che sebbene non voglio mi mettiate infra i prudenti, desidero ancora non essere da voi per stolto in tutto, come infatto meriterei quando per Tullia o altra donna venissi a simili meriti. Ella è femmina non bella come dite, ma di spirito e ingegno, se io non m’inganno, ben dotata. Senza qualche pratica di donne non saprei vivere; onde ho più volentieri praticato seco che con altra e aiutatola in certe sue necessità, acciocché ella non perissi oppressa per forza e a torto nel tempo dell’amicizia mia con mio dispiacere e carico; ma per le debite e piane vie sempre e non altrimenti, che quelle cose che non ho fatte in gioventù, non pensate facessi nell’età matura.111

111. For the full text of the letter, see Giovan Battista Niccolini, Filippo Strozzi: Tragedia, corredata d’una vita di Filippo Strozzi e di documenti inediti, ed. Pietro Bigazzi (Florence: Le Monnier, 1847), 185–86. I imagine that Roberto Strozzi’s presence at the rental of her vineyard is a case in point of the help that Strozzi claimed to give her.

Introduction 35 (As regards my own affairs I would be sorry if you were to believe certain jokes, challenges, and duels taken up among friends here amicably, for although I don’t want you to consider me among the prudent, I still wish not to be considered completely foolish by you, as in fact I would deserve when for Tullia or for any other woman I were to rise to such distinction. She is a woman not beautiful, as you say, but with spirit and intellect, and if I don’t deceive myself, quite talented. I would not know how to live without some sort of familiarity with women; and thus I have consorted more gladly with her than with another and helped her in certain needs of hers, so that she should not perish oppressed by force and wrongfully during the time of her friendship with me by my dismay and my charge; but always through the proper and simple channels and not otherwise, for those things that I didn’t do in my youth, don’t think that I would do them in my maturity). It is interesting to note that while Vettori refers to d’Aragona with the pejorative “femmina,” Strozzi in his response describes her with the more noble term of “donna.” By November 1531 he had made plans to leave Rome for Venice and eventually Florence in the company of this woman of “spirit and intellect.” Filippo Strozzi wrote in a letter to Zanobi Bracci that he planned to accompany d’Aragona to Venice in the spring of 1532 in exchange for her agreement to go with him to Florence the following summer: “I will not be in Florence so soon, for Tullia, if I accompany her to Venice this spring, has promised to come with me there [to Florence] and to stay the whole summer.”112 Thus it is hard to conclude, as the pasquinade publicizes, that d’Aragona necessarily left Rome in a rush and out of shame, if indeed these events are at all connected.113 Reality, of course, does not always make good narrative. 112. Cited in Bardi, “Filippo Strozzi,” 46n. 113. According to Abdelkader Salza, Tullia d’Aragona would have abandoned Rome in late 1532 because he dates the two pasquinades regarding Roman courtesans to the same year, that is, to after the departure of Clement VII for Bologna in November 1532. He bases his

36 Introduction D’Aragona’s presence in Venice has been related, in part, to her presence as an interlocutor in Sperone Speroni’s Dialogue on Love, which was set in that city. Speroni, the Paduan humanist and university professor, tells us that he composed the dialogue in 1528 but that he did not add the names of the protagonists until later.114 The text did, however, circulate widely in manuscript before its publication in 1542. In a 1536 letter to Speroni, Pietro Aretino recounts that Niccolò Grassi recited Speroni’s dialogue out loud at Aretino’s house in Venice, praising it in a lengthy comparison to the Pantheon. About d’Aragona, however, he laments that she “earned a fortune, which she will always be able to spend without ever decreasing it, and her licentiousness, because of such an honor, may well be envied by the most modest and the most fortunate.”115 D’Aragona also appears in another Venetian text, the infamous Pricelist of the Whores of Venice (Tariffa delle puttane di Venegia), published in August 1535: Hor de’ casi di Tullia d’Aragona a la qual mezzo palmo di budello lava pisciando il Fonte d’Helicona. Vol diece scudi a torlo ne l’anello e cinque in potta e questa lasciarete per la maggior puttana di bordello.116 argument on a reference to cold weather in the second capitolo that coincides better with Clement VII’s date of departure from Rome in November 1532. Thus revising Salza’s dating, and Marucci who followed him, on the basis of the letter of Filippo Strozzi to Zanobi Bracci, the pasquinade regarding Tullia should perhaps be dated to earlier in 1532. 114. See Sperone Speroni, Apologia dei dialoghi, in Opere, 1:272. 115. “la Tullia ha guadagnato un tesoro che per sempre spenderlo mai non iscemarà, e l’impudicizia sua, per sì fatto onore, può meritamente essere invidiata e da le più pudiche e da le più fortunate” (Lettere, 195). 116. See Tariffa delle puttane di Venegia, accompagné d’un catalogue des principales courtisanes de Venise, tiré des archives vénitiennes (XVIe siècle) et traduit pour la première fois en français, ed. Guillaume Apollinaire (Paris: Bibliothèque de curieux, 1911), 54; for the date of publication, see 4. For comment on and another translation of the same poem, see Patrizia Bettella, “Dishonoring Courtesans in Early Modern Italy: The poesia puttanesca of Anton Francesco Grazzini, Niccolò Franco, and Maffio Venier,” in In Dialogue with the

Introduction 37 (Gentleman: Now about the case of Tullia d’Aragona whose half a palm of intestine the Spring of Helicon washes when pissing. She wants ten scudi to take it in the ring [anus] and five in the cunt and this you will leave for the greatest whore of the brothel).117 The reference to sodomy will also appear in subsequent verses regarding d’Aragona.118 It is not entirely clear whether this was considered a particular specialty of hers or simply another way to vituperate her. The flurry of rumors and vitriol concerning courtesans is well documented and abundant and constitutes a genre in its own right.119 Courtesans were attacked because they were threatening. Their particular blend of sex and money could also lead to the third element of that triumvirate—power. Courtesans had access to circles of power—especially in Rome—that other women did not, or at least not to the same degree. Knowledge is power, and access to certain types of information thus yielded power, according to how it was used. Consider Vettori’s words of warning to Filippo Strozzi: Other Voice in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Literary and Social Contexts for Women’s Writing, ed. Julie D. Campbell and Maria Galli Stampino (Toronto: Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2011), 289–312. 117. The “Spring of Helicon” is called the Hippocrene and is found near Mount Helicon; it was thought to provide poetic inspiration. Thus this less-than-flattering reference from August 1535 also figures as another one of the earlier references to d’Aragona’s identity as a woman of letters. 118. See BNCF, Magliabechiano II IV 233, f. 86. 119. See among the more recent English language articles Deanna Shemek, “ ‘Mi mostrano a dito tutti quanti’: Disease, Deixis, and Disfiguration in the Lamento di una cortigiana ferrarese,” in Medusa’s Gaze. Essays on Gender, Literature, and Aesthetics in the Italian Renaissance: In Honor of Robert J. Rodini, ed. Paul A. Ferrara, Eugino Giusti, and Jane Tylus (Lafayette, IN: Bordighera, 2004), 49–64, Courtney Quaintance, “Defaming the Courtesan: Satire and Invective in Sixteenth-Century Italy,” in The Courtesan’s Arts, 199-208, and Paola Ugolini, “The Satirist’s Purgatory: Il purgatorio delle cortegiane and the Writer’s Discontent,” Italian Studies 64, no. 1 (2009): 1–19, although a number of the texts I have already mentioned have sections devoted to this topic, such as Rosenthal, The Honest Courtesan, chap. 1, and Storey, Carnal Commerce, chaps. 1 and 2.

38 Introduction Il Reverendo Arcivescovo mi disse pur’ ché io l’hebbi scritta, che il Papa [Clement VII] desiderava sapere l’oppinion mia, o di qualch’un’altro circa il governo, et che voleva tale opinione scritta: scrissi ma breve che, in sostantia il medesimo che scrivo a voi: però potete fare senza mostrare questa lettera a nostro Signore che non lo infastidire co’ questa mia lunga intemerata; et perché mi scrivete con la Tullia accanto non vorrei la leggessi similmente con essa a canto, perché amandola voi come femmina che ha spirito, perché per bellezza non lo merita, non vorrei mi potesse nuocere con qualcuno di quelli ch’io nomino.120 (The Reverend Archbishop said to me, provided that I wrote it, that the Pope [Clement VII] wanted to know my opinion, and of some others, regarding the government and that he wanted such an opinion in writing. I wrote but briefly and in substance the same thing that I wrote to you; however, please do not show this letter to our Lord so that you do not bother him with this long tirade of mine; and although you write to me with Tullia by your side, I would not want you similarly to read with her by your side, since you love her as a woman of spirit, because her beauty does not merit it, as I would not want her to be able to damage me with one of those that I name). As his earlier letter makes clear, Filippo Strozzi valued her for both her roles—as courtesan and as intellect, or, in his words, as a woman of “spirito e ingegno” (spirit and intellect). One fact that is often lost or ignored when considering Strozzi, perhaps because of his wealth or political activities, is that he was extremely learned: he knew both Latin and Greek, he was a musician, and he wrote poetry in the vernacular. Indeed two of his sonnets to d’Aragona appear in her

120. Ferrai, Lorenzino de’ Medici, 454.

Introduction 39 canzoniere.121 As I have shown, d’Aragona and Strozzi were known to be together on a number of occasions in various cities in the peninsula—Rome, Venice, possibly Florence, and, finally, Ferrara. A less flattering portrayal of d’Aragona’s arrival in Ferrara in the summer of 1537 than the letter to Isabella d’Este recounts is provided in a letter of the Medicean spy Bernardino Duretti, who was writing to the Medici in Florence regarding the movements of the Florentine prorepublican exiles. Filippo Strozzi had been designated as the senior leader of the fuoriusciti—a position that although reluctantly at first, he had accepted over time, under pressure from his son Piero. Duretti writes that the imperial ambassador Don Lope de Soria opined that “Filippo is in Ferrara with his whore” and that Strozzi had “his signora Tullia come to Ferrara and he’s there in Ferrara with her enjoying himself and paying little attention to Florentine matters.”122 Within a month, Strozzi had departed from Ferrara to lead the antiMedicean republican exiles in the Battle of Montemurlo, where he was captured.123 July 1537 was likely the last time d’Aragona and Strozzi were together, for in August Strozzi was imprisoned in the Fortezza da Basso in Florence. Thus 1537 marks a watershed for her: her reputation as a poet was burgeoning, as a sonnet by Ercole Bentivoglio demonstrates, at the same time that her single most important client was captured and imprisoned (Strozzi was dead within eighteen months, committing suicide in December 1538). Although evidence suggests that d’Aragona was writing poetry in the mid-1530s, it is fair to say that with Strozzi’s demise, Tullia d’Aragona began revising her image from that of courtesan, albeit an “intellectual” one, to that of woman of letters. 121. See sonnets 103 and 104; for other sonnets by Strozzi, see Ferrai, Lorenzino de’ Medici, 414–15; for information about his musical patronage, see Agee, “Filippo Strozzi.” 122. “Filippo si sta a Ferrara con la sua puttana”; “facto venir in Ferrara la sua sig.ra Tullia et con quella si sta in Ferrara a darsi piacer, curandosi poco delle cose di Firenze.” For the entire text of the letter, see ASF, Mediceo del principato, filza 3093, ff. 24r–27v. The part of the letter relative to d’Aragona is 25v, cited in Paolo Simoncelli, Fuoriuscitismo repubblicano fiorentino, 1530–1554, vol. 1,1530–37 (Milan: Angeli, 2006), 318. 123. It is interesting to note that Bernardo Tasso—Tullia’s earlier companion—was asked by Strozzi family members to negotiate a deal with Charles V to have Filippo Strozzi released from his imprisonment in the Fortezza da Basso; for his letters to Strozzi’s sons, see Niccolini, Filippo Strozzi, 265–77, 280–81, 282–86, and 289–92.

40 Introduction

Tullia d’Aragona as Woman of Letters Clearly one of the most fertile environments for the production of poetry in sixteenth-century Italy was in relation to music. Renaissance motets and madrigals often found their stimuli in the songs of poets or vice versa.124 Indeed in the courts and salons of Renaissance Italy, poetry was often sung aloud, and the choruses of muses were conflated with those of courtesans. D’Aragona has characteristically been remembered as an excellent musician and a singer, and the inventory of her goods included a lute, a broken harpsichord, and numerous “music books.”125 When might we date the earliest references to d’Aragona as a poet? Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici’s sonnet to d’Aragona, “Anima bella, che nel bel tuo lume,” mentions her “sweet song.”126 This may refer to her singing abilities or to her poetic abilities, as “song” was often a synonym for poetry, or to both. The poem was composed at least by August 1535, as Cardinal Ippolito died by poisoning that month.127 The same month the Pricelist of Venetian Whores was published, in which d’Aragona figures alongside the spring of Mount Helicon, the Hippocrene spring, which inspires poetry in those who drink from it, although one could make the argument that Mount Helicon indicates the arts more generally.128 The surest evidence of d’Aragona’s poetic abilities is found in Ercole Bentivoglio’s sonnet “Poi che lasciando i sette colli, e l’acque,” which refers to “i dotti accenti che vi ispira Euterpe” (“the learned verses/words that Euterpe inspires in you”); Euterpe was the muse of lyric poetry.129 Given d’Aragona likely first crossed Bentivoglio’s path during her sojourn in Ferrara in the late

124. See page 15 regarding the madrigals Philippe Verdelot composed for d’Aragona. 125. See Rodocanachi, Cortigiane, 44–53, who published a part of this inventory but misread the date of its compilation, which was after d’Aragona’s death on 13 April 1556. For the original, see ASR, Notai AC, 6298, ff. 79r–80v. I thank Orietta Verdi for helping me locate this inventory. 126. See sonnet 97 in the present edition. 127. On Ippolito de’ Medici, see the note for sonnet 97. 128. See Tariffa delle puttane di Venegia, 54. 129. See sonnet 101 in the present edition.

Introduction 41 1530s, we may surmise that her identity as a poet was established by then or during those years. It was also probably in Ferrara that d’Aragona met her most fervent and prolific poetic correspondent, Girolamo Muzio.130 At the time, Muzio was serving as a courtier for Ercole II d’Este, the duke of Ferrara, but he grew to be an extremely popular and productive author of poetry and prose. Muzio dedicated a great deal of verse to d’Aragona—mostly sonnets and eclogues—only a small fraction of which is included in her canzoniere.131 Nonetheless, Muzio authored the largest number of poems about d’Aragona in her Rime and composed the biographical eclogue entitled Tirrhenia that comprises the fourth section of her choral anthology. Muzio also played a significant role in promoting the publication of d’Aragona’s work. He penned the preface to her dialogue On the Infinity of Love, in which he claims to have published the work without her prior knowledge or consent and to have changed the name of the female interlocutor from Sabina to Tullia because he “considered it wrong that a dialogue should have one fictitious name amongst two real ones.”132 Besides Girolamo Muzio, certainly one of the most important intellectual figures with whom d’Aragona was in contact was Benedetto Varchi.133 Varchi had been involved politically in the second republic 130. Paolo Giaxich indicates that they met in Ferrara (Vita di Girolamo Muzio giustino­ politano [Trieste: Papsch, 1847], 22–24). 131. See note 28. 132. “non parendo a me che bene stesse in un dialogo un nome finto tra due veri” (“Dialogo,” 246). For the English, see Dialogue on the Infinity of Love, 52. 133. The importance of Varchi in Florentine political culture in particular and Italian literary culture more generally has been a topic of discussion among several scholars recently; see Lo Re, Politica e cultura and also his La crisi della libertà fiorentina: Alle origini della formazione politica e intellettuale di Benedetto Varchi e Piero Vettori (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2006), Vanni Bramanti, ed., Benedetto Varchi (1503–1565) (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2007), along with Annalisa Andreoni’s “La Lezzione seconda sulla grammatica di Benedetto Varchi,” Nuova rivista di letteratura italiana 6, nos. 1–2 (2003): 137–68, her “ ‘Sangue perfetto che poi non si beve … ’: Le lezioni di Benedetto Varchi sul canto XXV del Purgatorio,” Rinascimento 44 (2004): 139–233, her “Alla ricerca di una poetica post-bembiana: Il Dante “lucreziano” di Benedetto Varchi,” Nuova rivista di letteratura italiana 7, nos. 1–2 (2004): 179–231, and her “Benedetto Varchi all’Accademia degli infiammati, frammenti inediti e appunti sui manoscritti,” Studi rinascimentali 3 (2005): 29–44.

42 Introduction of Florence (1527–30) and had voluntarily fled the city in 1530, upon Cosimo’s rise to power. The fact that Cosimo had negotiated Varchi’s return in 1543 and also commissioned him to write a history of Florence has generally been interpreted both as a seemingly conciliatory gesture on the part of the Medici regime as well as an attempt to keep closer control over his former enemies.134 Cosimo applied this same strategy when he transformed the Accademia degli umidi (Academy of the Damp) into the Florentine Academy by purging some previously recalcitrant members, such as Antonfrancesco Grazzini, and favoring allies, such as Giovan Battista Gelli and Pierfrancesco Giambullari.135 Involving Varchi was interpreted as a shrewd gesture on Cosimo’s part because it gave the Florentine Academy greater status and a veneer of cultural autonomy, launching Florence onto the larger Italian cultural stage. Varchi was a promoter of Pietro Bembo’s linguistic theories regarding the supremacy of the archaic Tuscan of Petrarch and Boccaccio as the preferred pan-Italian literary language, a language learned through study and practice (and not inherited by

134. See Mary Alexandra Watt, “The Reception of Dante in the Time of Cosimo I,” in The Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, ed. Konrad Eisenbichler (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001), 122n6. 135. There are varying versions of this transformation; in primis, see Michel Plaisance, “Une première affirmation de la politique culturelle de Côme Ier: La transformation de l’Académie des ‘Humidi’ en Académie Florentine (1540–1542),” in Les écrivains et le pouvoir en Italie a l’époque de la Renaissance, vol. 1, ed. André Rochon (Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1973), 361–438, and Michel Plaisance, “Culture et politique à Florence de 1542 à 1551: Lasca et les Humidi aux prises avec l’Académie florentine,” in Les ècrivains et le pouvoir en Italie à l’epoque de la Renaissance, vol. 2, ed. André Rochon (Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1974), 149–242, both of which now appear in Michel Plaisance, L’accademia e il suo principe: Cultura e politica a Firenze al tempo di Cosimo I e di Francesco de’ Medici (Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2004), 29–122 and 123–234, respectively. More recently, see Domenico Zanrè, Cultural Non-Conformity in Early Modern Florence (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004), 7–56, and Inge Werner, “The Heritage of the Umidi: Performative Poetry in the Early Accademia Fiorentina,” Igitur Archive, 2008, igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/let/20111114-200551/The%20Heritage%20of%20the%20Umidi.%20Performative%20Poetry%20 in%20the%20Early%20Accademia%20Fiorentina.pdf. Finally, Lisa Kaborycha promises some interesting new correctives regarding Cosimo’s relations to earlier Umidi members in a paper presented at the RSA 2012 Annual Conference entitled “From the Accademia degli Humidi to the Accademia Fiorentina (1540–47): Inside Cosimo I’s ‘Cultural Revolution.’ ”

Introduction 43 birth in Tuscany, or even in Florence, for that matter).136 By the early 1530s, Bembo’s position had become rather widely accepted throughout Italy, but Florence (perhaps precisely because of the stature of its earlier literary giants) had a vociferous group of intellectuals who promoted modern Florentine instead of archaic Tuscan as the premier literary language. Some of these advocates—namely Giambullari and Gelli—came into direct conflict with Varchi over these and other issues, and some scholars have placed them at the center of an attack against Varchi that landed him in jail for rape.137 What it clear, at any rate, is that the Florentine Academy—which Duke Cosimo I had knowingly filled with men of diverse political and intellectual persuasions—served as one of the battlegrounds for these debates. Although we do not know when d’Aragona and Varchi first met, it was likely well before her arrival in Florence in the winter of 1545–46. Varchi had tutored several of Filippo Strozzi’s children in the late 1530s as well as one of his grandchildren in the early 1540s, and both d’Aragona and Varchi were in close connection with Filippo Strozzi and his sons Piero and Ruberto in the aftermath of the assassination of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici in January 1537.138 By the time d’Aragona arrived in Florence, around nine years later, Varchi’s reputation had soared and he had become the premier cultural authority of the city, even though support for him was not universal. In this respect, d’Aragona may be seen as an ally of Varchi in his cultural battles, not only in her support of him as evidenced in her poetry and 136. For the linguistic transformation effected by Bembo, see Cox, Women’s Writing, 53– 56. For Varchi’s own opinion regarding the need to study to attain an appropriate level of linguistic competency, see his “Orazione nel pigliare il consolato dell’Accademia Fiorentina l’anno 1545” (“Oration upon assuming the consulship of the Florentine Academy in 1545”), cited in Zanrè, Cultural Non-Conformity, 123. 137. See Plaisance, L’accademia, 18 and 141–42. 138. This is the same Roberto Strozzi who had stood as witness when d’Aragona rented her vineyard in Rome; see pages 15–16. For documentation regarding Varchi tutoring Roberto Strozzi, see Agee, “Ruberto Strozzi,” 1–2, and two contemporary biographies of Varchi, by Giambattista Busini and, according to Salvatore Lo Re, Baccio Valori, that claim that Varchi tutored both Roberto and Piero in Rome for a year and again later along with other of Strozzi’s sons in Venice; see the new editions of the biographies by Salvatore Lo Re in his excellent Politica e cultura, 103, 122–23. It is a pity nonetheless that Lo Re only makes passing reference to d’Aragona.

44 Introduction prose but even in her choice of poetic language, which put into practice Bembo’s principles promoted by Varchi. Moreover, Domenico Zanrè has suggested that d’Aragona’s literary salon in Florence served as an alternative locus of cultural production to the Florentine Academy, and it was frequented largely by allies of Varchi.139 I hesitate to define the nature of d’Aragona’s relationship with Varchi, which, compared to those she maintained with Strozzi and Muzio, was clearly much shorter lived. At present we do not have any record that they maintained ties after d’Aragona left Florence. Assuming that the relationship ended at that point, their association would have lasted just under three years, from her arrival in Florence during the winter of 1545–46 until her departure in October 1548. Varchi spent time in the city and the countryside with d’Aragona and knew her family; she sought his aid in promoting her literary work, and he complied. The two exchanged letters and poems, and d’Aragona sent him sonnets for correction. Although the poetic idiom they adopted utilized a terminology and characterization of love in a Ficinian guise, to call their relationship “love” or them “lovers” does not represent its nature appropriately. Whether d’Aragona and Varchi were lovers or friends or merely writers with mutual literary interests who each made use of the other’s visibility in order to advance their own agenda remains an open question. Moreover, the forms and conventions of authorship in the early modern period, particularly among poets, further confounds the boundaries regarding d’Aragona and Varchi’s collaboration. D’Aragona sent several sonnets to Varchi for stylistic correction (at least nine are mentioned in her letters to him).140 Although much has been made about d’Aragona’s dependence on Varchi in composing her verses, Varchi was bombarded with numerous re139. See Bausi, “ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 64–65, who prints a sonnet from manuscript that recalls the “league” that d’Aragona, Varchi, and Ugolino Martelli formed against the Aramei, an epithet for Giambullari and Gelli; see also Zanrè, Cultural Non-Conformity, 141–49. Recall also Benucci’s comment in the dialogue itself where d’Aragona’s home is called an “academy.” See note 71. For sonnets by d’Aragona in support of Varchi under attack, see 21, 23, and 43. 140. See letters 2, 4;, 7, and 8. In letter 5, she requests the plea (“suplica”) and in letter 6 the letter (“pistola”).

Introduction 45 quests from writers, especially poets, from all over the peninsula to read and comment on their lexicon and style and to correct them according to his linguistic parameters. Poets such as Luigi Alamanni, Antonfrancesco Grazzini, and Annibale Caro sent drafts of their work to Varchi for revision (whereas Bembo secretly tried to obtain one of Varchi’s academy lectures).141 Moreover d’Aragona was not the only female poet that Varchi mentored. Virginia Cox has noted that as early as 1541, he contributed a prefatory sonnet in praise of Laudomia Forteguerri to Alessandro Piccolomini’s lecture on her poetry. Cox also records that Varchi exchanged sonnets or correspondence with other women authors, including Laura Pieri, Gaspara Stampa, and Chiara Matraini.142 Victoria Kirkham has also written about Varchi’s support of the poet Laura Battiferra.143 Thus rather than characterizing d’Aragona’s requests as those of an obsequious, calculating courtesan, which is the way she is 141. Perhaps the best known of these requests is Benvenuto Cellini’s who sent Varchi the manuscript of his autobiography (Vita) for him to read and correct. As for poets, see the letter of 3 November 1541 from Luigi Alamanni to Varchi: “I am sending you a sonnet of mine about Verino which one might call grissuto or grifuto, that is silly, and unworthy of speaking of such a great man of letters and to come into your hands; and I say this in order to express my opinion without pretense, and yet I still wanted to send it to you and to ask you please to write me with your opinion and to correct it, if you love me” (“Io vi mando una mio sonetto sopra ’l Verino, il quale veramente si può chiamare grissuto o grifuto, cioè schiocco, et indegno a parlar di quel sì gran literato, et di venire nelle vostre mani; et questo il dico, per dirne il parer mio senza fintione; pur lo vi ho voluto mandare, et pregarvi, che di gratia me ne scriviate il vostro parere, et corregggetelo, se mi amate” [ASF, Carte strozziane, prima serie, 132, 54v]). Or Antonfrancesco Grazzini to Varchi in May 1542: “I am sending you two sonnets of mine, whose subject you will easily understand, if by you they are corrected and rectified, if they can be corrected and rectified, and I give you full license to take away and add as you like, and even to tear them up, if that seems better” (“Due miei sonetti vi mando, il soggetto de’ quali agevolmente intenderete, acciocché da voi corretti e gastigati sieno, se correggere e gastigarsi possono, dandovi piena licenzia di levare e porre come vi piace, e di stracciargli ancora, se vi paresse il meglio” [Marco Biffi and Raffaella Setti, “Varchi consulente linguistico,” in Benedetto Varchi (1503–1565), 48]). For Caro, see Biffi and Setti, “Varchi consulente,” 50n75. For Bembo, see Pietro Bembo, Lettere, ed. Ernesto Travi, 4 vols. (Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1987–93), 3:629. 142. See Cox, Women’s Writing, 107, 308. 143. See Kirkham’s introduction to Battiferra degli Ammannati, Laura Battiferra.

46 Introduction represented by some scholars (from Biagi to Celani to, most recently, Francesco Bausi), we ought to interpret d’Aragona’s efforts as of a piece with those of the community of poets, writers, courtiers, and men of the church who were continually circulating their work among themselves before consigning it (or occasionally not) to print. During the sixteenth century, only three poems appeared in collections published subsequent to her choral anthology of 1547.144 Of these, one—“Signor, che con pietate alta e consiglio”—had been included in her canzoniere; the other two—“Sacro pastor, che la tua greggia umile” and “Signor nel cui divino alto valore”—appeared in Girolamo Ruscelli’s 1553 lyrical anthology entitled Sixth Book of Poems By Different Excellent Authors, Newly Gathered, and Printed (Sesto libro delle rime di diversi eccellenti autori, nuovamente raccolte, et mandate in luce).145 Enrico Celani, in his 1891 edition of d’Aragona’s poems, added poems found in a manuscript at the Vatican Library, which internal evidence suggests were probably composed upon d’Aragona’s return to Rome.146 Moreover, Renée Baernstein recently discovered two autograph sonnets in the Colonna family archive in Subiaco.147 Another two sonnets, dated 1552 from Rome, were found in a manuscript in Siena and appear in the section in this edition that is devoted to miscellaneous verse. All of these poems were likely written

144. María Luisa Cerrón Puga attributes two sonnets and a canzone listed under the name Giulia d’Aragona in the Libro quarto delle rime di diversi (1551) to Tullia d’Aragona (“Le voci delle donne e la voce al femminile: Vie del petrarchismo in Italia e in Spagna,” in “L’una et l’altra chiave”: Figure e momenti del petrarchismo femminile europeo, ed. Tatiana Crivelli, Giovanni Nicoli, and Mara Santi [Rome: Salerno, 2005], 108). I have not, however. included these poems in the collection. 145. Sonnet 5 in this volume, but it appeared in the Libro primo delle rime spirituali of 1550 without the dedication to Duke Cosimo. 146. Celani misidentifies the manuscript as BAV, Ottoboniano latino 1595, when in fact it is 1591; see sonnets 136 and 137. 147. See Baernstein and Hairston, “Two New Sonnets.” Natalia Costa Zalessow correctly notes that the two sonnets in question were originally published in a wedding pamphlet in 1932; see Francesco Tomassetti, “Documenti dell’Archivio Colonna,” in Nozze di donna Sveva Vittoria Colonna con don Alfonso Falcò Principe Pio: 31 dicember 1932 (Rome: Castaldi, 1932), and Natalia Costa-Zalessow, “Sonetti “inediti” di Tullia d’Aragona? Variazioni sul recente interesse per le Rime negli Stati Uniti,” Esperienze letterarie 34, no. 1 (2009): 97–102.

Introduction 47 after d’Aragona’s return to Rome in 1548 and thus are important in testifying to her ongoing literary activities and ambitions.148 In 1560 in Venice, four years after d’Aragona’s death, Giovanni Battista and Melchiorre Sessa published her Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino. This thirty-six-canto epic poem, transposed into octaves from an earlier prose version by the fifteenth-century Tuscan author Andrea da Barberino, recounts the adventures of its hero Guerrino, who, although of noble blood, was captured by pirates. Although noble, Guerrino was captured by pirates as an infant and sold into slavery. His famous adventures in search of his parents take him to various parts of Europe, Turkey, Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, and even purgatory. Echoing Celani’s doubts regarding d’Aragona’s authorship of the Meschino, expressed just over 120 years ago, some scholars have questioned d’Aragona’s literary maternity on the grounds of style incongruities or the lack of contemporary references to the text. Yet references are present already in d’Aragona’s canzoniere, as I point out in the footnotes. In my introduction to the Meschino, forthcoming in this same series in the exquisite translation of John McLucas, I plan to discuss at length the matter of d’Aragona’s authorship of that poem as well as other texts of hers, which came to be questioned in the revisionist history of women’s writing that gained speed in the nineteenth century.149 148. The republication of d’Aragona’s earlier works provides testimony as well for d’Aragona’s continued viability on the print market. Her Rime reappeared in 1549 and again in 1560, four years after her death; her dialogue was republished in 1552. 149. D’Aragona’s authorship of the Meschino was first questioned by Celani; see the introduction to his edition, iii–lxiii, especially lvi–lxii. Many of his concerns have been echoed by others, and this is not the venue to list them. More recently, however, and in English, Rinaldina Russell moves from questioning d’Aragona’s authorship to ignoring entirely the existence of Il Meschino; see her “Tullia d’Aragona,” in Italian Women Writers, ed. Rinaldina Russell (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994), 26–34, and her “Tullia d’Aragona,” in vol. 1 of the Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, ed. Paul Grendler (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999), 84–85. Virginia Cox has also noted several elements that cause her to doubt the authenticity of d’Aragona’s authorship of the poem; see her “Fiction, 1560–1650,” in A History of Women’s Writing in Italy, ed. Letizia Panizza and Sharon Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 52–64, and, especially, Women’s Writing, 312n167. As regards instead d’Aragona’s authorship of the dialogue On the Infinity of Love, Zonta tends towards a hypothesis of collaborative authorship while still attributing the first draft to d’Aragona; see Zonta’s edition of the dialogue, 360–62. Umberto Pirotti echoes Zonta’s

48 Introduction

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her D’Aragona’s canzoniere is perhaps best described by the term “choral anthology” because it contains both sonnets and other forms of verse by d’Aragona as well as poems addressed to her by other poets. Bembo had institutionalized the practice of including poems by others in one’s own canzoniere in his 1535 volume of poems, yet he did not publish the sonnets side by side. Instead he added them as an appendix and merely referred to his own compositions with which they were in dialogue by giving the first verse (all of the sonnets he included were proposte). D’Aragona—or whoever might have edited the Rime—included these sonnets in the body of her sequence, publishing the poetic correspondence as the “proposal” (proposta) and following it with the “response” (risposta). The result is a chorality of voices, in which she appears on both sides of the dialogue, as do several of the poets who are hosted in her canzoniere.150 This chorality emblematizes the social nature of Petrarchism, a phenomenon of sixteenth-century Italian literature that owes to Bembo, who suggested that the poetic language and verse forms of Petrarch were the proper poetic idioms.151 Of course, the choice of a language, or style, carried with it a set of topics, or content. At least iniposition but also contradicts himself by saying that Varchi might have written the dialogue; see Bendetto Varchi e la cultura del suo tempo (Firenze: Olschki, 1971), 44n, 45. Francesco Bausi casts doubt on all of d’Aragona’s literary achievements; see his “ ‘Con agra zampogna,” 71–74. Cox, Women’s Writing, 311n158 makes objections on the basis of the advanced use of dialectic usually available only to those with a university education; I include responses to some of these arguments that I refer to in the footnotes. 150. Ann Rosalind Jones has suggested that the structure of the proposta/risposta (proposal/ response), especially when the responder adopts the same rhymes of the proposal sonnet, exemplifies an echo technique that highlights the poet’s virtuosity. See her “New Songs for the Swallow: Ovid’s Philomela in Tullia d’Aragona and Gaspara Stampa,” in Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance, ed. Marilyn Migiel and Juliana Schiesari (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), 266–67. 151. These remarks on Petrarchism are not intended to be a complete description of the phenomenon but rather an extremely brief background for the purposes of understanding d’Aragona’s text. For a fuller description of Petrarchism, see Cox, Women’s Writing, 55–57, and, in Italian, Klaus Hempfer, “Per una definizione del Petrarchismo,” in Dynamique d’une expansion culturelle: Pétrarque en Europe XIV–XX siècle, ed. Pierre Blanc (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001), 23–53.

Introduction 49 tially, the discourse of love was the primary topic of Petrarchism—love for a beloved as well as love for God; the emphasis was on the capacity of love to ennoble the lover, a concept at the heart of neo-Platonism. Yet sixteenth-century Petrarchist lyric encompassed a series of other topics besides love, such as praise of political leaders or noblemen or noblewomen or commentary on current political events. Moreover, as poetry—most often in sonnet form—became more popular and was diffused more widely with the publication of the lyrical anthology series, Petrarchism grew to include an extremely large range of practitioners.152 As Castiglione had pointed out, it was important for all noblemen and noblewomen to write verse, as it rendered them better able to judge the verse of others.153 As such, the offer and receipt of poetry in the sixteenth century functioned much like the exchange of photos between friends and acquaintances today and served to create bonds of shared interests and experience among those involved in the exchange. The structure of d’Aragona’s canzoniere consists of five sections: 1) her sonnets addressed to others; 2) her proposta sonnets to others followed in each instance by a response from the recipient; 3) the sonnets of other poets addressed to her followed each time by her response; 4) an eclogue, or pastoral dialogue, in Italian by Girolamo Muzio that outlines her literary career and biography; 5) fifty-five sonnets, all by other poets, written in d’Aragona’s praise. Thus the movement in this text is from d’Aragona’s complete “presence” in the first section to her complete “absence” in the last, where she is, however, the sole topic of conversation. In addition to a complete edition and translation of the Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her, the present volume also includes a section of miscellaneous poems either published after 1547 or found in manuscript. I have only included poems written by d’Aragona or poetic exchanges in which 152. The Giolito in Venice began publishing anthologies of lyric poetry in 1545 that were enormously successful, so successful that other publishers began to publish their own by 1550. As a result, between 1545 and 1560 nine different anthologies were published, many in multiple editions. Online access to these and other poetic anthologies from sixteenthcentury Italy may be found at rasta.unipv.it, a site sustained by the University of Pavia. 153. See Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, ed. Daniel Javitch, trans. Charles Singleton (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002), 52.

50 Introduction she was one of the participants.154 Thus I have not included the numerous poems written about her or to her that were not part of an explicit poetic exchange, such as those by Bernardo Tasso, Claudio Tolomei, or, most significantly, Girolamo Muzio, to mention only a few.155 In d’Aragona’s canzoniere, or choral anthology, the titles she uses to address her interlocutors indicate the varying levels of familiarity she maintained with her dedicatees and poetic correspondents. Her titles proceed from the highest levels of respect in the conventional formalities reserved for Medici family members to titles such as “signor” or “messer” for some recipients to simple first and last names to last names only. In the hierarchy of address, the reader should note that in d’Aragona’s canzoniere a simple last name functions as a signal of familiarity in that she reserves it for very few figures; the sole figures that she addresses by last name only are Francesco Maria Molza, Benedetto Varchi, Girolamo Muzio, Antonfrancesco Grazzini (whom she also refers to by his pastoral appellative, “il Lasca”), and Simone Porzio. It is, of course, possible that she is signaling the fame of these 154. There are a handful of sonnets that were originally included in d’Aragona’s manuscript presentation to Duchess Eleonora that d’Aragona—or someone for her—excluded from her canzoniere. Although I had initially announced that the expurgated sonnets would be included in this edition, they no longer fit the criteria that I have adopted, and I intend to publish them instead in my monograph on d’Aragona. For some discussion of sonnets that were revised from the manuscript to the published edition, see my “ ‘Di sangue illustre,” 172–75. 155. The relationship and possible poetic correspondence between Tullia d’Aragona and Bernardo Tasso requires further study. Although Edward Williamson states that the idea that there was such a relationship is wholly based on Speroni’s Dialogue on Love, which, as already noted, was originally conceived without the identities of Tasso and d’Aragona, if Speroni is to be believed. It is nonetheless true that at least one sonnet by Tasso mentions Tullia by name and that moreover, subsequently, Tasso printed a revised version that eliminated her name from the verse; one thus wonders if there was not an attempt to rewrite their past history and whether, for this reason, traces of it today are hard to find; for the sonnet in question (“Anima pura, virtude ardente”), see Tasso, Rime, 1:204, and Edward Williamson, Bernardo Tasso (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1951), 12 and 45. For the sonnet by Claudio Tolomei, see his “Quando la TULLIA mia, che vien dal cielo,” in Libro quarto delle rime di diversi eccellentissimi autori nella lingua volgare nuovamente raccolte (Bologna: Anselmo Giaccarello, 1551), 217. For those by Girolamo Muzio, see the Rime per Tullia d’Argona, edited by Anna Maria Negri. Other poets include Sforza Attendolo da Cotignola, who published a sonnet titled “Alla Signora Tullia” in his Rime ([Ravenna: Francesco Tebaldini, 1583], 18). Salza republished it in “Lamenti di Pasquino,” 808–9.

Introduction 51 individuals, that is, she does not need to use their first names because they are so well known; however, this is not her tactic with other even more famous figures, and therefore it would seem that she instead is attempting to signal their habitual, frequent contact. It is important to note for d’Aragona’s self-fashioning that all these men are literati. Another element of novelty in d’Aragona’s choral anthology is that the fifth and last section in which she gathers poems in her praise figures as a proto-tempio, since the tempio genre—in which various poets offer verses with the intention of praising a particular figure—was not officially inaugurated until 1554 with the collection in praise of Giovanna d’Aragona, Tullia d’Aragona’s fifth section entitled “Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona” figures as a sort of self-constructed tempio, a “tempio of her own,” so to speak.156 Luigi Cassola had concluded his 1544 volume of madrigals, also published by Giolito, with a section of six poems in his own praise. And in 1548, Laura Terracina included a section of poems in her praise, yet there were only fourteen in all and the section appeared after the index of first lines.157 In comparison, Tullia d’Aragona’s section of poems in her praise contains fifty-five poems by fourteen different men. D’Aragona dedicated her Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her to Eleonora di Toledo, the duchess of Florence, and her prose dialogue On the Infinity of Love to Cosimo de’ Medici, the duke of Florence and Eleonora’s consort.158 These dedications share a number of thematic elements. They both adopt the humility topos to point out the eminence of the dedicatee in comparison to the baseness of the works being presented. Both texts are proffered in order to demonstrate d’Aragona’s servitude and her obligations to the 156. See Del tempio alla divina signora donna Giovanna d’Aragona, ed. Girolamo Ruscelli (Venice: Plinio Pietrasanta, 1554). Sonnet 132 is addressed to the same recipient and may have been written for inclusion in Ruscelli’s collection. For a definition of the term “tempio,” see Amedeo Quondam, Petrarchismo mediato (Roma: Bulzoni, 1974), 233; see also Monica Bianco, “Il ‘Tempio’ a Geronima Colonna D’Aragona, ovvero la conferma di un archetipo,” in “I più vaghi e i più soavi fiori”: Studi sulle antologie di lirica del Cinquecento, ed. Monica Bianco and Elena Strada (Alessandria: dell’Orso, 2001), 147–81. See l. 11 of sonnet 57 in which Grazzini writes of “erecting altars and temples” in d’Aragona’s name. 157. See Luigi Cassola, Madrigali del magnifico signor cavallier Luigi Cassola piacentino (Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1544), and Terracina, Rime. 158. See note 80 on the dating of these two texts.

52 Introduction dedicatee (and in the case of the Rime, to the couple). Both dedications ascribe particular importance to literature and attribute to its merit the author’s motivation for overcoming her humility. In particular, the dedication of the Poems singles out the special excellence of poetry, while the dedication of the Infinity links that dialogue to Cosimo because it is written in a vernacular “so favorably viewed and promoted” by him.159 Thus in both dedications d’Aragona avoids appearing to be presumptuous or inappropriately seeking fame in making her compositions public by stressing her great sense of obligation and gratitude to the duke and duchess of Florence. At the same time, however, d’Aragona invokes the modesty topos in the dedication of the poems by claiming that they were written “more to while away spare time [otio], or to avoid appearing discourteous to those who had addressed theirs to me, than out of a belief in the need to acquire fame or fortune in the eyes of others.” This statement is clearly at odds with many of the sonnets in her sequence.160 D’Aragona repeatedly expresses the desire for fame in her sonnets, leading one to conclude that it was indeed an overriding concern of hers. Consider one example among many: “I too/ labor incessantly to draw nearer the heavens/ and to leave the fame of my name on earth.”161 This preoccupation was evidently recognized by other writers who frequented her; in a dialogue written by Sperone Speroni that features d’Aragona as one of the interlocutors, he has her character proclaim, “And if I should die of love, it would seem to me small harm to lose ten or twenty years of my life to please one who makes my glory eternal with his verses.”162 Indeed d’Aragona’s search for fame accords with her self-fashioning as a woman of letters, a woman who possesses a “rare knowledge of poetry and philosophy.”163 159. D’Aragona, Dialogue, 54; “Dialogo,” 248. 160. The difference between the dedication and the actual text recurs with d’Aragona’s Meschino and has been fodder for those who claim that others wrote the dedication. 161. See sonnet 28. Other examples include, but are not limited to, sonnets 3, 6, 7, 15, and 133. 162. See Smarr, “Love as Centaur,” 212; for the Italian, see Speroni, Opere, 1: 9. 163. See the exemption on pages 23–24. For d’Aragona’s conscious construction of her image as a woman writer, see Zanrè, Cultural Non-Conformity in Early Modern Florence, 141–64, and my “Di sangue illustre.”

Introduction 53

Letters The letters in this edition—nine in total and all autographs—range from a recently discovered letter to Francesco de’ Pazzi in July 1535 to the letter to Benedetto Varchi in which she announces her departure from Florence to Rome in October 1548. I am hopeful that there are still other letters of d’Aragona in the archives of Italy that will eventually surface in the years to come.164 The ones we do possess are personal, not familiar; they are not necessarily literary artifacts but help us to reconstruct her life and her relations with Varchi and others. These letters are also relevant to the discussion regarding collaborative authorship in the early modern period, and I have annotated the passages that bear on that discussion.

Publishing History and Influence of Text Since Publication Poems by Signora Tullia d’Aragona and by Others to Her was published twice during d’Aragona’s lifetime, in 1547 (the first edition) and in 1549 (a corrected version), by the same Venetian publisher, Gabriele de’ Giolito. In 1560, Giolito published his final edition of her Poems, although it was little more than a reprint of the 1547 version and did not adopt the changes introduced in the 1549 edition. In 1693 Antonio Bulifon published an edition in Naples, and in 1726, Luisa Bergalli included fourteen sonnets of d’Aragona in her important edition of women poets.165 In 1891 Enrico Celani published an edition of d’Aragona’s sequence that completely dismantled the order of the original edition, an order that is restored in the present volume. The structure of Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others to Her influenced subsequent correspondence-oriented sonnet sequences, both by male and female poets. Although Bembo was the first to include correspondence sonnets in his canzoniere, they 164. While in Milan, Muzio mentions receiving three letters in one day from d’Aragona; see Girolamo Muzio, Lettere, ed. Anna Maria Negri (Alessandria: dell’Orso, 2000), 323. 165. Note that Bulifon’s edition did not contain the last two sonnets of d’Aragona’s original edition. For Bergalli, see Luisa Bergalli, ed. Componimenti poetici delle più illustri rimatrici d’ogni secolo, 2 vols. (Venice: Antonio Mora, 1726), 1:110–19; the biography on d’Aragona is at 1:268. In the Index of First Lines in Italian, I have note which poems Bergalli published.

54 Introduction are not published side by side as they are in d’Aragona’s choral anthology. Laura Terracina’s canzoniere, published in 1548, includes a large number of correspondence sonnets, but her text does not place the responses (risposte) beside the proposal sonnets (proposte) either. Numerous subsequent authors published their correspondence verse with proposals followed by responses: Girolamo Muzio in 1550, Benedetto Varchi in 1557, and Laura Battiferra and Bernardo Cappello in 1560, to name just a few.166 This plurality of voices characterizes Petrarchism, the most significant phenomenon of literary socialization of sixteenth-century Italy, and it is not surprising that it originated with a courtesan who used her social position to craft a new identity for herself as a writer.

166. See Muzio, Rime, Benedetto Varchi, De’ sonetti di M. Benedetto Varchi colle risposte, e proposte di diversi. Part 2 (Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1557), Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati, Il primo libro dell’opere toscane di madonna Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati: Alla illustrissima ed eccellentissima signora la signora duchessa di Fiorenza e di Siena (Florence: Giunti, 1560), and Bernardo Cappello, Rime di m. Bernardo Cappello (Venice: Domenico e Giovanni Battista Guerra, 1560).

Editorial Norms and Note on Translation For the most part, the poems of this edition derive from a single printed or manuscript source. For the Rime della signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei, I have adopted the 1549 edition by Giolito, as it presents a few variants in lexicon and represents the last edition published before d’Aragona died. All other poems and letters are taken from their unique printed or manuscript source, which are listed in the notes. The transcription follows the original as closely as possible, including capitalization. All Latinisms were maintained, such as “satierò,” “hor,” and “Philli.” I did not combine articulated prepositions (thus “A l’anime amorose, e a i gentil cori”). No space was inserted in apocope; examples: “ch’io”; “ch’in”; “ch’il”; “Co’l”; “ch’a”; “com’a”; “ten’vieni.” “C’havria” and “C’hora” were left as is. Some changes have been made, however, to assist the modern reader: • • • • •

abbreviations have been expanded; the ampersand (&) has been replaced with “e”; the letter “u” has been differentiated from “v”; the letter “j” has been changed to “i”; the double “i” such as in “solitarii,” “allorii,” and “varii” has been changed to a single “i”; • the following accents have been added: piu > più; ne > né; puo > può; si > sì; perche > perché; virtu > virtù; gia > già; cio > ciò; la > là (as preposition); accioche > accioché; se > sé; di > dì (for the noun); vesti > vestì; che > ché; da > dà (for the verb); die > diè (for diede) and for future verb forms such as farà, sarà, tacerò, and vedrà; • accents have been eliminated for the prepositions “a” and “o” and in aìta > aita; • apostrophes have been added in the following instances: be > be’; u > u’; se > se’ (for the verb) i > i’ (for the pronoun); ne > ne’ (for the articulated preposition); de > de’ (for the 55

56 Editorial Norms and Note on Translation plural articulated preposition not followed by an article); que > que’ (for the plural); and • in aphaeresis a space was inserted: e’l >e ’l; e’n > e ’n; che’l > che ’l; che’n > che ’n; S’io’l > S’io ’l Punctuation follows the original as much as possible. Interventions were made only to clarify the sense or to account for errors. In this translation I have attempted to render the Petrarchist verse of sixteenth-century Italy into an English that will not seem fluent or effortless to the twenty-first-century reader. This was a conscious choice that originally derived from my own sense of what the sixteenth-century Italian reader’s experience of reading Petrarchist poetry must have been. I assume that even the historical Italian reader would have found the syntax to be highly wrought and the overall reading experience slightly difficult and, at times, ponderous. The current reader will find within many examples of hyperbaton (an inversion of the normal order of words, especially for the sake of emphasis, as in the sentence, “this I must see”) or hysteron proteron, a kind of hyperbaton in which the rational order of events is inverted, which were in the original and I have maintained. For the same reasons of recreating a marginally taxing reading experience, I have occasionally preferred archaic words such as “gentle” (meaning “noble” or “having the qualities associated with noble birth”) or “O” and have translated the adjective “raro” of the Petrarchist lexicon with its less frequently used English cognate “rare” in the sense of “exceptional” and “most excellent.” Also, Italian gives the readers clues as to the subject or the antecedent because of grammatical gender, which in English would remain ambiguous, so occasionally—but rarely—I have repeated in the translation a noun that is not rendered explicit to the same degree in Italian. Yet although my translation was dictated more by personal conviction regarding the desire to replicate for the contemporary Anglophone reader an experience more similar to that of the sixteenth-century Italian reader, I have since then been comforted in my choices by Lawrence Venuti’s theories regarding the differences

Editorial Norms and Note on Translation 57 between domesticating and foreignizing translation.167 Venuti charges that British and American publishers, in turn, have reaped the financial benefits of successfully imposing English-language cultural values on a vast foreign readership, while producing cultures in the United Kingdom and the United States that are aggressively monolingual, unreceptive to foreign literatures, accustomed to fluent translations that invisibly inscribe foreign texts with British and American values and provide readers with the narcissistic experience of recognizing their own culture in a cultural other. The prevalence of fluent domestication has supported these developments because of its economic value: enforced by editors, publishers and reviewers, fluency results in translations that are eminently readable and therefore consumable on the book market, assisting in their commodification and insuring the neglect of foreign texts and English-language translation strategies that are more resistant to easy readability. Although Venuti’s allegations focus more on recent fiction, and largely prose, I do find his terminology useful for the type of translation that I am attempting. I might add that much of Petrarchist verse, especially of the correspondence sort, played with concepts of intellectual virtuosity in a way that often led to convoluted grammatical practice. This was especially true when one poet attempted to use the same rhyme words of the proposal sonnet. Finally, I hope that those who wish to teach this verse in either comparative or Italianist classrooms will appreciate my attempts to follow the original text as closely as possible syntactically and even in the excessive adoption of English cognates.

167. See Lawrence Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2008), 12. I thank Mary Wardle for suggesting his work.

Abbreviations Archivio storico Capitolino

ASC

Archivio di stato di Firenze

ASF

Archivio di stato di Mantova

ASMn

Archivio di stato di Roma

ASR

Archivio di stato di Siena

ASS

Luisa Bergalli, Componimenti poetici delle più illustri rimatrici d’ogni secolo

B

Biblioteca apostolica vaticana

BAV

Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati di Siena

BCSI

Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze

BNCF

Biblioteca nazione centrale di Roma

BNCR

Tullia d’Aragona, Le rime di Tullia d’Aragona, cortigiana del secolo XVI Dizionario biografico degli italiani

C DBI

Girolamo Muzio, Rime diverse del Mutio iustinopolitano Medici Archive Project (www.medici.org)

M MAP

Archivio Colonna

AC

Francesco Petrarch, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta



Rvf

Benedetto Varchi, De’ sonetti di M. Benedetto Varchi, part 1

V

Benedetto Varchi, De’ sonetti di M. Benedetto Varchi colle risposte, e proposte di diversi, part 2

V2

59

RIME DELLA SIGNORA TULLIA DI ARAGONA; ET DI DIVERSI A LEI CON PRIVILEGIO IN VINEGIA APPRESSO GABRIEL GIOLITO DE FERRARI MDXLVII POEMS BY SIGNORA TULLIA DI ARAGONA, AND BY OTHERS TO HER WITH PRIVILEGE IN VENICE BY GABRIEL GIOLITO DE FERRARI MDXLVII

62 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

ALLA ILLUSTRISSIMA

ET ECCELLENTISSIMA SIGNORA LA SIGNORA DONNA LEONORA DI TOLLEDO DUCHESSA DI FIRENZE PADRONA SUA OSSERVANDISSIMA TULLIA DI ARAGONA Io so bene Nobilissima e virtuosissima Signora Duchessa, che quanto la bassezza della condition mia è men degna della altezza di quella di Vostra Eccellenza tanto la rozezza de’ componimenti miei è minore dello ingegno, et giudicio suo: et per questa cagione sono stata in dubbio gran tempo se io dovessi indirizzare a così grande, et honorato nome quanto è quello di Vostra Eccellenza così picciola et così ignobile fatica, come è quella de’ Sonetti composti da me più tosto per fuggir l’otio molte volte, o per non parere scortese a quelli, che i loro mi haveano indrizzati, che per credenza di doverne acquistar fama o pregio alcuno appresso le genti. Ma disiderando io di mostrare in qualche modo qualche parte della devotissima servitù mia verso Vostra Eccellenza per gli oblighi che le ho molti, et grandissimi sì a lei, et sì a quella dello invitto et gloriosissimo consorte suo, presi ardimento, et mi risolsi finalmente di non mancare a me medesima, ricordandomi che i componimenti di tutti gli scrittori hanno in tutte le lingue, et massimamente quegli de’ Poeti havuto sempre cotal gratia, et preminenza, che niuno quantunque grande, non solo non gli ha rifiutati mai, ma sempre tenuti carissimi. Perché io anchor che (come ho detto) conosca benissimo così l’altezza dello stato suo, come la bassezza della condition mia; presento humilmente con devotissimo cuore queste mie poche basse et picciole fatiche alle moltissime, grandissime et altissime virtù di lei, pregandola con tutto l’animo non al dono voglia né a chi dona, ma a sé medesima riguardare.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 63

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS

AND EXCELLENT SIGNORA SIGNORA DONNA LEONORA OF TOLEDO DUCHESS OF FLORENCE HER MOST DISTINGUISHED RULER 1 TULLIA DI ARAGONA I am well aware, most Noble and Virtuous Lady Duchess, how both the baseness of my condition is unworthy of Your Excellency’s greatness and how the roughness of my compositions is less than your genius and judgment. For this reason, at length I doubted whether I should have addressed to such a grand and honorable name as that of Your Excellency such a small and lowly labor, as the sonnets composed by myself more to while away spare time, or to avoid appearing discourteous to those who had addressed theirs to me, than out of a belief in the need to acquire fame or fortune in the eyes of others. Yet desirous of demonstrating in some way some part of my most devoted servitude to Your Excellency, for the many obligations I feel towards you, and to your invincible and most glorious consort, I mustered the courage and finally resolved not to fail myself,2 recalling that the 1. Eleonora di Toledo, duchess of Florence (1522–62), was the daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo, who served as viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples for Charles V, and of Maria Osorio Pimental. Born in Spain, Eleonora moved at a young age to Naples and grew up in the Neapolitan court; nevertheless Spanish remained her first language and she supposedly had difficulty with Italian. Eleonora di Toledo married Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1539, and their marriage was long lived and fruitful, producing eight children. Eleonora was widely regarded as a helpful mediator for those seeking favors or pardons, as d’Aragona’s own story testifies, for when she sought exemption from Florentine sumptuary legislation, she appealed to the duchess. For information on Eleonora di Toledo, see Vanna Arrighi, “Eleonora de Toledo,” in DBI 42 (Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 1993), 437–41, and Konrad Eisenbichler, ed., The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence and Siena (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004). Note the profusion and repetition in the titles with which d’Aragona addresses Eleonora di Toledo. 2. The expression “non mancare a me medesim[o]” also appears in Varchi’s dedication of his comedy La suocera (The Mother-in-Law) to Duke Cosimo, supposedly composed in 1546, according to Plaisance, L’accademia, 169n115. Plaisance notes that the manuscript copy of the play carries the specification “From the church in S. Gavino, the eve of All Saints’

64 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona compositions of all writers in all languages have always, and especially those of Poets, had such grace and preeminence that no one, however great, has not only never refused them, but always held them as very dear. Thus even though I am still (as I said) fully aware of the grandeur of your state, as of the baseness of my own condition, I humbly present with a most devoted heart these fewsmall, lowly labors to the very many, greatest, and highest of your virtues, beseeching you with all my being that you may regard neither the gift nor the giver, but yourself.3

1. ALLO ECCELLENTE SIGNOR DUCA DI FIRENZE Se gli antichi pastor di rose, e fiori4 sparsero i tempii, e vaporar gli altari d’incenso a Pan, sol perché dolci, e cari havea fatto alle nimphe i loro amori, quai fior degg’io, Signor, quai deggio odori sparger al nome vostro, che sian pari a i merti vostri, e tante, e così rari, ch’ognihor spargete in me gratie, e favori? Nessun per certo tempio, altare, o dono trovar si può di così gran valore, Day, the year 1546” (“Dalla pieve…1546”) and the date is thus 31 October 1546; see BNCF, Magliabechiano VII 340. 3. In this dedication, d’Aragona makes effective use of the humility topos as she disavows a desire for fame at the same time that she claims a desire to repay her obligations to the duchess. Note that d’Aragona specifically valorizes the genre of poetry in this dedication, just as she does later in her preface to the Meschino, where she writes that “verse is much more delightful than prose, is much pleasanter to read, makes a much more effective impression on our spirits, and leaves a much happier trace in our memory than prose” (translation by John McLucas) (“molto più diletta, molto più vagamente si legge, molto più efficacemente fa impressione ne gli animi nostri, e molto più lietamente ci lascia la forma sua nella memoria, che le prose non fanno” [“Tullia d’Aragona ai lettori,” in Il Meschino, n.p.]). 4. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 65 ch’a vostra alta bontà sia pregio eguale. Sia dunque il petto vostro, u’ tutte sono le virtù, tempio; altare il saggio core, vittima l’alma mia, se tanto vale.

1. TO THE EXCELLENT LORD DUKE OF FLORENCE 5 If the ancient shepherds with roses, and flowers6 5. Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–74) was the son of the condottiere Giovanni delle Bande Nere and Maria Salviati de’ Medici and thus a legitimate heir of a cadet branch of the Medici family. Cosimo had assumed the leadership of the city in January 1537 after the assassination of Alessandro de’ Medici by his cousin (and Cosimo’s cousin) Lorenzo, also known as Lorenzino, but his hold on power was threatened by a diverse group of Florentine exiles who favored either a return to a republican form of government or an oligarchy. Just six months after Cosimo assumed power, these exiles, known as fuoriusciti, united behind Filippo Strozzi and his son Piero and attempted to march on Florence, but they were met by Cosimo and his troops and routed at the Battle of Montemurlo in August 1537. Strozzi was imprisoned in the Fortezza da Bassso in Florence, which was under the jurisdiction of Alessandro Vitelli at the time. Only in December 1538, when Cosimo had regained control of the Fortezza (and thus of one of its most illustrious prisoners) did Filippo Strozzi commit suicide. Given d’Aragona’s longstanding relationship with Strozzi, from at least 1526 to 1537, it is no surprise that after having appealed to Cosimo’s mercy (albeit through Eleonora) to seek exemption from Florentine sumptuary legislation and to live freely within his dominions, she thanked him profusely in literary terms. She dedicated her dialogue On the Infinity of Love to him, gave him pride of place by opening her canzoniere with a set of seven poems to him that regale him as a supreme leader, or in her words, a “new Tuscan Numa.” She did not stop there however: d’Aragona completes her poetic and political accolades by adding a series of poems, after those dedicated to Cosimo I, that are dedicated to Cosimo’s family members: to his consort Eleonora, his mother, Maria Salviati de’ Medici, and Eleonora’s brother and nephew. Over time Cosimo I dispelled any hopes of a return to a republican form of government in Florence, and he resorted to culture as an effective strategy to obtain his ends, such as, for example, recalling Benedetto Varchi, another republican sympathizer, to Florence in 1543 and commissioning him in 1546 to write a historiography of Medici rule from its reinstatement in 1530. Cosimo was an avid promoter of the Tuscan language and was actively involved in remaking the literary Accademia degli umidi (Academy of the Damp) into its subsequent incarnation as the Florentine Academy. See Elena Fasano Guarini, “Cosimo I de’ Medici,” in DBI 30 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1984), 30–48, Plaisance, L’accademia, and Eisenbichler, ed. The Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I. 6. An earlier variant of this sonnet is found in a manuscript of poems addressed to the Accademia degli umidi; see BNCF, Magliabechiano II IV 1 (formely Magliabechiano

66 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona strewed the temples, and perfumed the altars with incense to Pan,7 only because sweet, and dear he had made their loves seem to the nymphs, which flowers must I, My Lord, which scents must I strew to your name that will be equal to your merits, so many and so rare,8 so that at every turn you bestow on me mercy and favors? Surely no temple, altar, or gift may be found of such great value that is of equal worth to your great goodness. Thus may your breast, where all virtues reside, be the temple, the altar your wise heart, the victim my soul, if it merits as much.

2.

Signor, pregio, e honor di questa etade,9 cui tutte le virtù compagne fersi, che con tante bell’opre, e sì diversi effetti gite al ciel per mille strade; quai sien, che possan mai tante, e sì rade doti vostre cantar prose, né versi? In voi solo (et son parca) può vedersi giunta a sommo valor somma bontade. Voi saggio, voi clemente, voi cortese; onde nel primo fior de’ più verd’anni vi fu dato da Dio sì grande impero, per ristorar tutti gli andati danni, et con potere eguale al bel pensiero por sempiterno fine a tante offese.

VII 195). Since the sonnet is quite different, I have included it in the section devoted to miscellaneous poems; see sonnet 117. 7. Pan is a Greek god of shepherds and flocks, for whose fertility he was responsible. 8. The use of the adjective “raro” in Petrarchist poetic diction suggests not its most common meaning in English but rather the less frequent “remarkable,” “unique,” or “excellent.” 9. ABBA ABBA CDE DEC.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 67

2.

Lord, pride and honor of this age, whom all virtues accompany, who, with so many good works, and such diverse effects, follow a thousand paths to the heavens, which prose or verse might ever be able to sing of your talents, among the many and so rare? In you alone (and I am being chary) can be seen the greatest goodness joined with the greatest excellence. You wise, you merciful, you benevolent, so that at the first flowering of your youth such a great empire was bestowed upon you by God, in order to restore past injuries and with might equal to the high idea to put an everlasting end to such wrongs.10

3.

Signor, d’ogni valor più d’altro adorno;11 duce fra tutti i Duci altero, e solo: COSMO, di cui da l’uno a l’altro Polo et donde parte, e donde torna il giorno non vede pari il Sol girando intorno, me, che quanto più so v’honoro, e colo, prendete in grado, e scemate il gran duolo de l’altrui ingiusto oltraggio, e indegno scorno. Né vi dispiaccia, che ’l mio oscuro, e vile cantar cerchi talhor d’acquistar fama a voi più ch’altro chiaro, e più gentile; non guardate, Signor, quanto lo stile vi toglie (ohimè) ma quel che darvi brama il cor, ch’a vostra altezza inchina humile.

10. It is significant that d’Aragona makes a comment on the wrongs suffered by the Medici, as she had long been associated with Filippo Strozzi as well as with other Florentine exiles such as Jacopo Nardi. 11. ABBA ABBA CDC CDC.

68 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona 3.

Lord, with every excellence more than any other adorned, leader among all leaders, proud, and unique, COSMO, whom from one pole to the next, and from whom the day departs and returns, the Sun rotating sees no one comparable, since I, as much as I know how, honor and revere you, welcome me, and lessen the great sorrow of the unjust offenses of others, and the unmerited scorn. Nor may it displease you, that my obscure, and modest, song seeks on occasion to acquire fame for you, more illustrious than any other, and more noble. Do not consider, my Lord, how much my style diminishes you (alas) but what my heart, which bows humbly to Your Highness, yearns to give you.

4.

Nuovo Numa Thoscan, che le chiar’onde12 del tuo bel fiume inalzi a quegli honori, c’hebbe già il Tebro, e le stelle migliori girano tutte al gran valor seconde; le tue virtuti a null’altre seconde, alto suggetto a i più famosi cori, da l’Arbia, ond’hoggi ogni bell’alma è fuori, mi trasser d’Arno a le felici sponde. Et al primo disio nuovo disire m’accende ogn’hor la tua bontà natia, tal che miglior non spero, o bramo albergo. Così potessi un dì farmi sentire cortese no, ma grata con la mia zampogna, ch’a te sol, bench’indegna, ergo.

12. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 69 4.

New Tuscan Numa,13 whom the clear waves14 of your illustrious river raise to those honors that the Tiber15 once had, and the best stars all rotate seconding your great merit; your virtues, second to none,16 sublime subject of the most famous choirs, from the Arbia,17 which every good soul has left, pulled me to the happy shores of the Arno.18 And since my first desire a new desire your innate goodness constantly ignites in me, such that I do not hope for, nor desire a better refuge. Thus I might one day make myself heard not courteous, no, but grateful with my bagpipe,19 which to you alone, I, although unworthy, raise.

13. D’Aragona compares Cosimo to Numa Pompilius, the legendary second king of Rome, after Romulus. Numa Pompilius was also the subject of a biography drafted by Ugolino Martelli, a friend and poetic correspondent of d’Aragona (see sonnets 20 and 59–60); for an interpretation of Martelli’s biography of the Roman king as a metaphor for debates within the Florentine Academy, see Salvatore Lo Re, “La vita di Numa Pompilio di Ugolino Martelli: Tensioni e consenso nell’Accademia fiorentina (1542–1545),” Bruniana e Campanelliana 10, no. 1 (2004): 59–71. 14. For brief comments on this poem, see Jones, Currency of Eros, 105. This sonnet was republished in B 110. 15. The Tiber River flows through Rome. 16. With “seconding” as a verb and “second” as an adjective, I have attempted to replicate the rima equivoca (same word with different grammatical functions) of ll. 4–5. 17. The Arbia River flows through Siena and, thus, in classic Petrarchan and Petrarchist fashion, stands metonymically for the city itself. D’Aragona is referring here to the political uprisings in Siena, which led her to leave left the city and take refuge in Florence. Later Cosimo I waged war on Siena and finally overtook the city and its environs in 1555. 18. The Arno is the name of the river that runs through Florence, which again symbolizes the city itself. 19. The bagpipe—a musical instrument made of reed pipes—is traditionally associated with shepherds, i.e. pastoral poets.

70 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

5.

Signor, che con pietate alta, e consiglio20 (onde tanto più ch’altro al mondo vali) venisti a medicar gl’antichi mali del fiorito per te purpureo giglio; io, che scampata da crudele artiglio provo gli acerbi, e ingiuriosi strali quanto sian di fortuna aspri, e mortali, a te rifuggo in sì grave periglio; et solo chieggio humil, che come l’alma secura vive homai ne la tua corte da la vicina, e minacciata morte, così la tua mercè di ben m’apporte tanto, che l’altra mia povera salma libera venga per le ricche porte.

5.

Lord, with great compassion, and judgment21 (for which you are worth much more than any other) you came to remedy the ancient ills of the purple lily22 that flourished through you. I, having just escaped from cruel talons, feel how sharp, unjust, and bitter are the arrows of fortune, and lethal; in such grave danger, I take refuge in you. And, humbly, I only ask that as my soul lives safely now in your court after a near and menacing death, so may your merciful generosity grant 20. ABBA ABBA CDD DCD. 21. This sonnet was republished in Libro primo delle rime spirituali, parte nuovamente raccolte da più autori, parte non più date in luce (Venice: Segno della Speranza, 1550), 40r, under d’Aragona’s name (“di Madonna Tullia d’Aragona”) but without the dedication to Cosimo I. That a poem of secular praise could be so easily incorporated into a volume of religious poetry clearly exemplifies the aggregate nature and resilience of Petrarchism. 22. A traditional symbol of Florence.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 71 as much, that my other poor body, may enter freely through the rich gates.

6.

Dive, che dal bel monte d’Helicona23 discendete sovente a far soggiorno fra queste rive; onde è che d’ogn’intorno il gran nome Thoscan più altero suona, d’eterni fior tessete una corona a lui, che di virtù fa ’l mondo adorno, sceso col fortunato Capricorno, per cui l’antico vitio n’abbandona. Et per me lodi, e per me gratia a lui rendete, o Dive, che lingua mortale verso immortal virtù s’affanna indarno; quest’è valor, quest’è suggetto tale, che solo è da voi sole, e non d’altrui, così dicea la Tullia in riva d’Arno.

6.

Goddesses, who from beautiful Mount Helicon24 often descend for a sojourn on these shores, so that everywhere the great Tuscan name resounds more proudly, weave a crown of eternal flowers for him, who with virtue the world adorns descended with the fortunate Capricorn,25

23. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE. 24. Mt. Helicon, in Greece, is traditionally considered to be home to the Muses. 25. Cosimo had adopted Capricorn as part of his personal iconography, for he had assumed power on January 9, 1537; see Kurt W. Forster, “Metaphors of Rule: Political Ideology and History in the Portraits of Cosimo I de’ Medici,” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 15, no. 1 (1971), 85, 91.

72 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona so that the ancient vice abandons the world.26 And render praises and thanks for me to him, o Goddesses, for a mortal tongue towards immortal virtue strains in vain. This is the excellence, this is a subject such that it is only worthy of you alone, and not of others, so spoke Tullia on the banks of the Arno.27

7.

Né vostro impero, anchor che bello, e raro,28 né d’argento, e di gemme ampia ricchezza, che men da chi più sa si brama, e prezza, vi fanno al mondo sì famoso e chiaro, quanto l’haver, Signor, pregiato, e caro la ben nata, e gentil anima avezza con severa pietate, e dolce asprezza perdonar, e punir c’hoggi è sì raro. Queste vi fanno tal lunge, e dappresso, ch’al grido sol del vostro nome altero l’alma s’inchina, e come può vi honora. Et s’al caldo desio sia mai concesso stile al suggetto egual, ritrarne spero fama immortal dopo la morte anchora.

7.

Neither your empire, though magnificent and rare,29 nor ample riches of silver and gems, which by those who know are less desired, and appreciated, render you to the world so famous and illustrious 26. It is not clear whether d’Aragona is referring to pride, traditionally the first vice, or more generically to the vice that abandoned Florence after Cosimo became duke. 27. Ann Jones comments “Tullia eternalizes herself by speaking from the third-person perspective of a posthumous biographer” (Currency of Eros, 106). 28. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 29. This sonnet was republished in B 110.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 73 as much as having, Lord, appreciated and held dear the well-born and noble soul accustomed with harsh compassion and sweet severity, to forgive and to punish, which today is so rare. These qualities30 make you so far, and so near, that at just the sound of your lofty name my soul bows and, as much as it can, honors you. And if to my burning desire is ever conceded a style equal to its subject, I hope to render31 fame immortal even after death.

8. ALLA ILLUSTRISSIMA SIGNORA DU= CHESSA DI FIRENZE Non così d’acqua colmo in mar discende,32 né di tante dorate arene vago si mostra al suo paese il ricco Tago, donde ’l nome real di voi si prende, come del valor vostro a noi si stende di mille opre divine alto ampio lago: et quante (benché in dir nulla m’appago) bellezze scorge in voi chi dritto intende. Quest’è l’arena d’oro, e queste l’onde di beltade e virtù, che ’l bello e santo animo, e volto vostro a l’Arno infonde. Non più la Spagna homai gioisca tanto, che s’ella ha ’l Tago con l’aurate sponde, LEONORA havrem noi con maggior vanto.

30. Cosimo is credited with the positive qualities of “harsh compassion” and “sweet severity.” D’Aragona is thus using adjectives to describe oppositional qualities that tend toward the mean and thus figure as the classical principle of moderation. 31. D’Aragona puns here with her choice of verb “ritrarre,” which means both “to obtain” and “to depict”; her “style” depicts or draws her fame, much as the words create a poem. 32. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.

74 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

8. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LADY DU= CHESS OF FLORENCE 33 Neither overflowing with water as it runs to the sea, nor desirous of [so] many golden sands, does the rich Tago34 present herself to her city, from which you take your noble name. Likewise your excellence to us is extended like a deep, wide lake of thousands of divine works so many (though I content myself to say nothing) beauties may one who understands correctly discern in you. This is a shore of gold, and these the waves of beauty and virtue, which the beautiful and sacred spirit, and your visage into the Arno infuse. May Spain no longer rejoice so much, for if she has the Tago with its golden banks LEONORA we have with greater vaunt. 9.

O qual vi debb’io dire, o Donna o Diva,35 poi che tanta beltà, tanto valore riluce in voi, che ’l vostro almo splendore abbaglia qual fu mai fiamma più viva? Mi dice un bel pensier, che di voi scriva, et renda gratie, e qual si deve honore; ma dove s’erge l’animoso core, non giunge penna, o voce humana arriva. So ch’ogni alto favor da voi mi viene, come la luce al dì da quella stella, che surge in Oriente innanzi al Sole. Ma poi che pur al fin mal si conviene a tanta altezza l’humil mia favella, v’appaghi il core in vece di parole. 33. For information on Eleonora, see the note to the dedication on page 63. 34. The Tago River flows through Toledo, Spain, Duchess Eleonora’s city of origin. Here, as elsewhere, d’Aragona personifies the river, a common feature of Petrarchist poetry. 35. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 75

9.

O what am I to call you—Grand Dame or Goddess— since such beauty, such excellence shines in you that your brilliance irradiates a flame bright beyond compare? An admirable idea tells me that I should write about you,36 and render thanks, and the honor that is your due; yet there where a brave heart ascends, neither pen, nor human voice can reach. I know that all high favors come to me from you, just as that light to the day from that star, which rises in the East before the sun. But since to its goal and to such greatness my humble speech is unsuited, let my heart rather than my words gratify you.

10. Donna reale, a cui i santi disiri37 gratia già fece la bontà superna di me, c’hor fatto son chiara lucerna sopra i celesti, ardenti, alti zaphiri; poi che fuor di sospetto, e di martiri godo del ben, che ne l’alme s’interna, deh non turbate la mia pace eterna col pianto vostro, e coi vostri sospiri. Qui mi viv’io, dove ’l pensier non erra; dove luogo non ha terreno affetto; et co i piè calco gli stellanti chiostri. Et se qua su giungesser gli occhi vostri, vedendo fatto me novo angeletto, qui bramareste, e non vedermi in terra.

36. See Petrarch, Rvf 194.5: “Però mi dice il cor ch’io in carte scriva.” 37. ABBA ABBA CDE EDC.

76 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

10. O regal Lady, to whose saintly desires the supernal goodness already showed mercy on me, now that I am made into a bright torch,38 above the high, burning, celestial sapphires, so that beyond suspicion, and suffering I enjoy the goodness that has penetrated inside souls.39 Pray, do not disturb my eternal peace with your tears, and with your sighs. Here I live, where thoughts do not wander, where earthly affection has no place and with my feet I tread upon the starry cloisters. And if up here your eyes were to reach, seeing me turned into a new little angel, here you would long to see me, and not on earth. 11. S’a l’alto Creator de gli Elementi40 sete, Donna Real, cotanto cara, che de la stirpe vostra altera, e rara volle ornare i suoi chiostri eterno ardenti. Et s’hor per acquetar vostri lamenti, vi rende il cambio di quell’alma chiara, che di voi nata tutto ’l ciel rischiara, a Dio lode cantando in dolci accenti. Ragion è ben, che con eterni honori vi cantin tutti gli spirti più rari, com’honorata in terra, e in ciel gradita. Arno, alzi l’acque al ciel, le rive infiori;

38. The sonnet is written in the voice of Duchess Eleonora’s deceased child Pietro, who died on 10 June 1547. 39. The reflexive verb “internarsi” is found in Dante’s Paradiso and alludes philosophically to the tripling of the hierarchies of angels. There is, however, another use that means to “penetrate deep inside,” which is, I believe, what d’Aragona intends here. 40. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 77 suonino i tempi, e fumino gli altari; che ’l nuovo parto a festeggiar n’invita.

11. If to the High Creator of the Elements41 you are, Regal Lady, so dear that through your family line lofty, and exceptional he wanted to adorn his eternally burning cloisters, and if now to quiet your lamentations, he renders unto you an exchange for that illustrious soul,42 which born unto you illuminates the entire sky, singing praise to God with sweet tones, it is right, that with eternal honors all the most exceptional spirits sing to you, as honored on the earth and welcomed in the heavens. Arno, may you raise your waters to the sky, let your banks blossom, may the temples resound, and the altars smoke; for the new birth invites us to celebration. 12. ALLA ILLUSTRISSIMA SIGNORA MARIA SALVIATI DE MEDICI Anima bella, che dal padre eterno43 creata prima in ciel nuda, e immortale, hor vestita di vel caduco, e frale, mostri qua giuso il gran valore interno; da gli alti chiostri in questo basso inferno, u’ sì n’aggrava il rio peso mortale, scendesti a torne noia, e a darne l’ale al sommo bello, al sommo ben superno. 41. This poem is written to celebrate the birth of Garzia on 5 July 1547. Given that choral anthology was published in the same year, this must have been one of the last poems written to be included. 42. The exchange refers to the death of Pietro on 10 June 1547 in exchange for the birth, less than a month later, of Garzia on 5 July. 43. ABBA ABBA CDE CED.

78 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona Chiunque te pur una volta mira sente sgombrar da l’alma ogni vil voglia, et arder tutta di celeste amore. Dunque ver me col divin raggio spira del disiato tuo santo favore, ch’io voli al ciel con la terrena spoglia.

12. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIGNORA MARIA SALVIATI DE MEDICI 44 Beautiful soul, who by the eternal father were first created in the heavens naked, and immortal, now dressed with an ephemeral veil,45 and fragile, you reveal here below your great inner worth.46 From the high cloisters to this lowly inferno, where we are so oppressed by our cruel mortal burden, 44. Maria Salviati de’ Medici (1499–1543), daughter of Lucrezia de’ Medici and Jacopo Salviati, was Duke Cosimo’s mother. Her mother was the eldest daughter of Lorenzo il Magnifico de’ Medici and thus, through his mother, Cosimo possessed a direct bloodline to the main branch of the family. Cosimo was the only child of Maria Salviati and Giovanni delle Bande Nere. Giovanni died in 1526, several days after a leg amputation, when Cosimo was seven years old. Maria Salviati maneuvered adroitly on numerous fronts to further Cosimo’s interests and apparently exerted a good deal of influence over him. She was extremely religious, and upon her death in 1543, Cosimo organized a state funeral for her. This sonnet was based on a variant that was originally addressed to the Accademia degli umidi and that was written when Maria Salviati was still alive; this manuscript version may be found in the BNCF, Magliabechiano II IV 1 (formerly Magliabechiano VII 195), f. 76r. See sonnet 119 for the original and translation. D’Aragona was likely still in Siena at the time of Maria Salviati de’ Medici’s death. For information on Maria Salviati de’ Medici, see Guarini, “Cosimo I de’ Medici,” Natalie Tomas, “Commemorating a Mortal Goddess: Maria Salviati de’ Medici and the Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I,” in Practices of Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Megan Cassidy-Welch and Peter Sherlock (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), 261–78, and specifically on the portraits of Maria Salviati, see Gabrielle Langdon, “Bloodlines: Portraits of Maria Salviati de’ Medici by Bronzino and Pontormo,” in her Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), 23–57. This sonnet was republished in B 111. 45. The veil is the body that represents the external covering of the soul while it is on the earth. 46. This poem may have been written on the occasion of the death of Maria Salviati de’ Medici on 12 December 1543.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 79 you descended to take away the sorrow, and to give wing to the utmost beauty, to the utmost supreme good. Whoever looks upon you even once feels an emptying from the soul of every base desire,47 and a burning all over of celestial love. Therefore breathe upon me with the divine light of your coveted, sacred favor, so that I may rise to the Heavens in my earthly shroud.48

13. AL SIGNOR DON LUIGI DI TOLLEDO Spirto gentil, che dal natio terreno49 la chiarezza del sangue, e dal ciel chiara anima havesti, e a cui d’ogni più rara virtù colmar le sante Muse il seno; poi che ’l cor vostro è d’alto valor pieno, et real cortesia da voi s’impara, non mi sia, prego, vostra mente avara di ciò, ch’altrui donando non vien meno. Voi sete quel, c’havete ambe le chiavi di quegli eccelsi, e gloriosi Cori, che fan più ch’anchor mai felice l’Arno; hor volgetele a me così soavi, ch’entro raccolta mai non esca fuori: et prego humil non sia’l mio prego indarno.

47. D’Aragona here echoes Veronica Gambara’s sonnet to Pietro Bembo “A l’ardente desio ch’ognor m’accende” where she employs the phrase “ogni vil voglia” (Rime, ed. Alan Bullock [Florence: Olschki, 1995], 95). 48. The term “spoglia” suggests clothing and recalls a covering, the veil of l. 3. 49. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

80 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

13. TO LORD DON LUIGI OF TOLEDO 50 Noble spirit, who from your native land, the prestige of your blood, and from the heavens a noble soul have inherited, and whose breast of every rarest virtue the saintly Muses have filled, since your heart is full of the greatest courage, and royal courtesy from you one learns, I beg you that your mind not be stingy to me of that which is not diminished by donating to others.51 You are the one who has both keys to those excellent and glorious hearts52 that render happier than ever the Arno; now turn them for me, so that once inside I will never leave: and humbly I pray you that my prayer will not be in vain.53 14. AL SIGNOR DON PEDRO DI TOLLEDO Ben si richiede al vostro almo splendore54 del chiaro sangue, e a la virtù eccellente, 50. Don Luigi of Toledo (Luis de Álvarez de Toledo) was Duchess Eleonora’s brother, and the youngest son of Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples from 1532 to 1553 for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Luis de Toledo received a humanist education in Naples and a doctorate in law; although his father persistently pursued a cardinalate for his son, after his death in 1553, Luis abandoned an ecclesiastical career and married. He received favors from both the duke and from the duchess Eleonora and was frequently in Florence, where he maintained a household. For more information about Luis and about relations between the houses of Toledo and Medici, see Sánchez, “Naples and Florence,” 135–80. As anecdotal evidence of d’Aragona’s time spent in Spanish company, Lodovico Domenichi recounts an event that took place in her home in Rome (Facetie, motti e burle di diversi signori e persone private [Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1562], 175v–176r). 51. The poet may be referring to grace or love. 52. D’Aragona may be echoing Dante’s Inferno 13.58–59: “Io sono colui che tenni ambo le chiavi/del cor di Federigo.” Dante is referring to Pier della Vigna; here the reference is to the hearts of the duke and the duchess. 53. I have attempted to replicate d’Aragona’s repetition of “prego” as both verb and noun in l. 14. 54. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 81 che si canti, Signore, eternamente ne’ gioghi di Parnaso il vostro honore. Ond’è ch’a dir di voi dentr’al mio core s’accende ogn’hor un vivo foco ardente: ma come a l’alta impresa non si sente l’anima ugual si spenge il novo ardore. Non s’assicura nel profondo seno di vostre glorie entrar mia navicella sotto la scorta del mio cieco ingegno. Solchi ’l gran mar di vostre lodi a pieno più felice alma, a cui più chiara stella porga favore in più securo legno.

14. TO LORD DON PEDRO OF TOLEDO 55 It is most fitting, Sir, because of the splendor of your illustrious lineage and your excellent virtue 55. Don Pedro of Toledo was likely Duchess Eleonora’s cousin, who had first accompanied her to Florence in June 1539 on the occasion of her wedding to Duke Cosimo, although he is frequently confused with Eleonora’s father, Pedro de Toledo, viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples. Bongi had identified him instead as Eleonora’s nephew, saying that he was the son of Luis de Toledo, her brother (“Rime della signora Tullia,” 180). Chiara Franceschini has identified him (although not in relation to d’Aragona) as either Eleonora’s cousin or uncle, citing earlier work by Carlos José Hernando Sánchez, but she also notes that in Eleonora de Toledo’s will, Don Pietro is identified as her uncle (“Los scholares son cosa de sua excelentia, como lo es toda la Compañia: Eleonora di Toledo and the Jesuits,” in The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo, 184). More recently, Sánchez has claimed that he was a cousin and offers a wealth of other material about him; see his “Naples and Florence” 146, 151. On 5 November 1544, Niccolò Martelli addresses a letter to Don Pietro di Toledo, congratulating him on his acceptance into the Florentine Academy the previous day (Il primo libro delle lettere di Nicolo Martelli [Florence: A instanza dell’auttore, 1546], 54v). A new transcription of this text by Barnaba Lucchesi is available online at nuovorinascimento.org (nuovorinascimento. org/cinquecento/martelli.pdf; see 71). (Michel Plaisance, who has done extensive work on the Florentine Academy and its transformation from the Academy of the Damp, confuses the “Don Pietro di Tolledo” elected to the Florentine Academy with the viceroy). In 1546 Pedro arranged a competition for which Duchess Eleonora commissioned Benedetto Varchi to translate into the vernacular two books of Seneca’s De beneficiis. This is the same Don Pietro who offered advice to d’Aragona on the strategy to take in order to gain exemption from Florentine sumptuary legislation of October 1546, as she discusses in her letter to Varchi; see letter 5.

82 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona that one should sing forevermore your honor on the peaks of Parnassus. Thus within my heart a burning desire to speak of you is constantly ignited: yet as my soul does not feel able to rise to such a glorious feat, my new ardor is extinguished. My little bark cannot sail confidently into the deep seas of your glories with my blind genius as its pilot. May a happier soul, to which a brighter star offers protection in a safer boat, plow the great sea of your praises.

15. A MONSIGNOR CARDINAL BEMBO Bembo, io che fino a qui da grave sonno56 oppressa vissi, anzi dormii la vita, hor da la luce vostra alma infinita o sol d’ogni saper maestro, e donno, desta apro gli occhi, sì ch’aperti ponno scorger la strada di virtù smarrita: ond’io lasciato ove ’l pensier m’invita de la parte miglior per voi m’indonno; et quanto posso il più mi sforzo anch’io scaldarmi al lume di sì chiaro foco per lasciar del mio nome eterno segno. Et, o non pur da voi si prenda a sdegno mio folle ardir, che se ’l sapere è poco, non è poco, Signor, l’alto disio.

56. ABBA ABBA CDE EDC.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 83

15. TO MONSIGNOR CARDINAL BEMBO 57 Bembo, I who up to this moment have lived oppressed by a heavy slumber, rather I have slept through life, now, roused by your lofty, infinite light,58 o sole lord and master of all knowledge,59 I open my eyes, so that open they may discern the path of virtue I had lost; thus I, having left where my thoughts call me, master the best part for you.60 And as much as possible I too strive to warm myself in the light of such an illustrious fire to leave of my name an everlasting record. 57. The Venetian Pietro Bembo (1470–1547) was Italy’s foremost cultural authority in the first half of the sixteenth century. Bembo’s training began as a humanist (both Latin and Greek) but he soon—by 1501—became associated with philologically correct editions of trecento classics and with vernacular production devoted to the topic of love. For the Venetian Aldine Press, Bembo assembled an edition of Petrarch’s Rime sparse in 1501 and Dante’s Commedia in 1502. In 1505, his Asolani, a prose dialogue in the vernacular responsible for popularizing neo-Platonic theories of love derived from the Florentine Marsilio Ficino, was published, also by Aldo Manuzio’s Venetian press. In 1525, Bembo published his Prose della volgar lingua, a manifesto on the proper Italian literary language as well as a compendium of proper terms. According to Virginia Cox, this text did much to open the path of literary production to women both because it “provided clear linguistic standards that made literary Italian teachable and learnable” and because “Bembo’s advocation of a poetic practice based on the close imitation of a single, and readily available, vernacular author, made ‘high’ literature genuinely accessible to the non-Latin-literate” as most women were (Women’s Writing, 57). Thus it is no surprise that after the political series (sonnets 1–14) d’Aragona addresses her proemial literary sonnet to Bembo. Cox also notes that here d’Aragona is echoing a sonnet by Veronica Gambara titled “A l’andate desio ch’ ognor m’accende” (Women’s Writing, 295n6). For the sonnet by Gambara, see her Rime, 95–96. This sonnet by d’Aragona was republished in B 111. In her preface to the Meschino, d’Aragona makes reference to “il mio Bembo,” suggesting that they knew each other personally, as likely she did all those to whom she dedicated sonnets. 58. See Petrarch, Rvf, 185 (“l’alma luce altera”). I am less inclined now to suggest, as I have elsewhere, that this poem might have been composed after Bembo’s death in January 1547. There are, however, sonnets in the sequence that date to later in the year, such as those from after June and July 1547; see sonnets 10 and 11. 59. See Dante, Inferno, 33. 28. 60. I was unable to replicate the inclusive rhyme of l. 4 and l. 8.

84 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona And o let not you too scorn my foolish audacity, for if my knowledge is small, not so small, Sir, is my sublime desire.

16. AL SIGNOR RIDOLFO BAGLIONI Signore, in cui valore, e cortesia,61 giostrano insieme ogn’hor tanto egualmente, che discerner non puote humana mente di qual di lor più la vittoria sia; mia fredda Musa a voi già non s’invia per celebrar vostra virtute ardente; ma perché in voi nomar conosce, e sente62 sorger nel vostro honor la gloria mia.63 Ben porta nel mio core un caldo affetto64 il vivo lume vostro, ch’è sì chiaro che risplender si vede in ogni parte. Ma prenda voi per degno alto suggetto chi al quieto Apollo è tanto caro quanto voi sete al bellicoso Marte.

61. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 62. In the 1547 and 1560 editions the line is rendered “ma perch’ in voi”; I have preferred the variant from the 1549 edition because otherwise the line is hypermetrical. 63. In the 1560 edition, “sorger” is “scorger.” 64. Celani changes “affetto” to “effetto.”

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 85

16. TO LORD RIDOLFO BAGLIONI 65 My Lord, whose excellence and courtesy joust together always in such equal measure, that the human mind is not able to discern to which of them the victory belongs more, my cold Muse has not yet set out to celebrate your ardent virtue because in naming you she recognizes and hears, rising together with your honor, my own glory.66 Warm affection easily carries in my heart your brilliant light, which is so bright that one sees it shining everywhere. But may you be taken as a proper noble subject by whoever holds quiet Apollo as dear as you hold bellicose Mars.67 17. AL SIGNOR FRANCESCO CRASSO La nobil valorosa antica gente,68 che di nuovo i fratelli ancisi vede, 65. Rodolfo Baglioni (1518–54), nobleman from Perugia, served as a military leader, largely for Cosimo I. He fought for Cosimo against the Florentine exiles, led by Filippo Strozzi, at the Battle of Montemurlo in 1537 and was present, as attested by Vasari’s fresco in Palazzo Vecchio, when Cosimo was declared duke. Baglioni again fought a Strozzi, in this instance Piero, Filippo’s eldest, who had managed to escape unscathed from Montemurlo and led the French forces at the Battle of Serravalle in June 1544. Interestingly enough, after the publication of d’Aragona’s Poems, Baglioni was assumed to be responsible for an attack against Benedetto Varchi, as Varchi had insinuated in the funeral oration he gave for Stefano Colonna in 1548 that Malatesta Baglioni, Rodolfo’s father, was a traitor. See Plaisance, L’accademia, 197; the aggression is mentioned in the biography of Varchi by Baccio Valori, which Lo Re incudes in his Politica e cultura (126–27); for information on Baglioni, see Luisa Bertoni Argentini, “Rodolfo Baglioni,” in DBI 5 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1963), 246–47. 66. These lines are a bit obscure, but it would seem that they function hyperbolically, that is, d’Aragona’s glory increases merely by mentioning Baglioni’s name, without her even composing a poem. 67. Apollo is the god of music and poetry, whereas Mars is the god of war. The poet hints at the arms vs. letters debate; see Petrarch, Rvf, 187, and Castiglione’s account in The Book of the Courtier, 53–55. 68. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

86 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona et in acerbo essilio a pianger riede, signore, a te s’inchina humilemente. Et potendo vendetta arditamente gridar de’ morti, e piaghe, e mille prede, mercé sola, e pietate a te richiede di comune voler pietosamente. O sanator de le ferite nostre, mira la velenosa e cruda rabbia, che ’l sangue giusto ingiustamente fugge. Così tosto averrà, ch’in te si mostre com’a gran torto tanti danni hor habbia la gente, cui pietate e doglia strugge.

17. TO LORD FRANCESCO CRASSO 69 The noble, courageous ancient people, who again see their brothers slain,70 and return in bitter exile to weep,

69. Francesco Crasso (1500–1566), whose surname is variously spelled Crassi, Grasso, and Grassi, was born outside of Pavia and held numerous political administrative posts in Milan as well as in several other cities across Italy, including Genova, Cremona, and also Siena, the last being where he likely met Tullia d’Aragona. Crasso was called to work in Siena twice, the first time in 1541 by Monsignor Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, according to the eighteenth-century historian Giovanni Antonio Pecci, who appointed him capitano di giustizia (captain of justice). Crasso later returned to Siena in the same capacity for Charles V but clashed with the governing Dieci over his arguments in favor of the Noveschi, the political elite with which d’Aragona sympathized. Pecci also tells us that in 1546 Girolamo Muzio visited Crasso at his house in Siena while acting as secretary for Ferrante Gonzaga; d’Aragona had probably already left Siena by that time. Finally, Pecci claims that on 10 June 1547 Crasso left for Florence, where he stopped to wait and see what political developments would take place in Siena. D’Aragona was living in Florence at the time. He died in Rome on 1 September 1565. See Franca Petrucci, “Francesco Grassi (Grasso, Crassi, Crasso),” in DBI 58 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2002), 611– 14, Hairston, “Out of the Archive,” and Giovanni Antonio Pecci, Memorie storico-critiche della città di Siena, 4 vols. (Siena: Agostino Bindi, 1755–60) 3:125–26, 167–70, 186–87. This sonnet was republished in B 112. 70. D’Aragona is likely referring to the Noveschi political faction; her sonnet 26 to Emilio Tondi also refers to the death of his brother.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 87 Sir, to you71 bow humbly. And although they might cry out vendetta ardently for the deaths, and the grief, and the thousands of spoils, only mercy, and pity do they seek from you of common accord compassionately. O healer of our wounds, behold the poisonous, raw anger that just blood unjustly escapes. So soon will it be that through you will be shown how now in great error so many injuries have the people, whom pain and sorrow torture.

18. AL MOLZA Poscia (oimè) che spento ha l’avara morte72 l’alma gentil, ch’in sua più verde etade a gran passi salia l’erte contrade, che menan dritto a la superna corte: chi fia che leggi così crude, e torte, spirti amici d’honor, e di bontade, non pianga meco ogn’hor, ch’a le più rade virtù diè sempre il ciel vite più corte? Molza, ben pianger dei poi ch’al camino, ove ti sprona un disusato ardire, perduta hai meco la più fida scorta. Io per me dopo sì fero destino non voglio altro, non deggio che morire, se morir deve, e puote chi è già morta.

71. Note the use of the informal form of address (“tu”) in this sonnet. 72. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. The 1547 and 1560 editions of the Rime have “l’empia morte.”

88 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

18. TO MOLZA 73 After (alas) cruel death extinguished the gentle soul, who in a greener age with great strides had climbed the steep paths that lead directly to the supernal court, who will there be that such cruel laws, and unjust, among spirits friendly to honor and goodness, do not continue to weep with me, for to the rarest74 virtues the heavens always give shorter lives? Molza, well you should cry later since along the path, on which you are driven by an unusual ardor, you have lost, along with me, your most trusted guide.75 I, for my part, after such a fierce destiny 73. Francesco Maria Molza (1489–1544) was born in Modena and studied in Bologna and Rome. Although he returned to Modena, married, and had four children, in 1517 he left for Rome where he lived until 1543 (except for a three-year period in Bologna from 1523 to 1525 and occasional diplomatic or secretarial journeys). Molza had an extensive knowledge of classical languages—Latin, Greek, and Hebrew—and was well known for his Latin poetry as well as for his comic verses in the vernacular, in the style of Francesco Berni (1497/8–1535). Besides writing paradoxical encomia in verse and lyric poetry, Molza also wrote novellas, seven of which are extant. Molza was secretary to Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici and through his court as well as through various Roman and northern Italian academies Molza came into contact with numerous literati such as Pietro Bembo, Annibale Caro, Claudio Tolomei, Giulio Camillo, and Luca Contile. For the last five years of his life, Molza suffered from the French disease (syphilis) and eventually died of it, a fact that was widely known; his death occurred on 28 February 1544. For more information on Molza, see Franco Pignatti, “Francesco Maria Molza,” in DBI 75 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2011), 451–61, Pierantonio Serassi, “La vita di Francesco Maria Molza,” in Delle poesie volgari e latine di Francesco Maria Molza corrette, illustrate ed accresciute colla vita dell´autore scritta da Pierantonio Serassi, ed. Pierantonio Serassi (Bergamo: Pietro Lancellotti, 1747–54), i–xc, and Guido Rebecchini, “Un altro Lorenzo”: Ippolito de’ Medici tra Firenze e Roma (1511–1535) (Venice: Marsilio, 2010), 192–95. Molza is addressed by his last name only, which in d’Aragona’s canzoniere functions as a signal of closeness. For further discussion of d’Aragona’s hierarchy of address, see the introduction. For Molza’s poems in praise of d’Aragona, see sonnets 99 and 100. 74. “Rare” in the sense of “infrequent” and thus “excellent.” See page 66n8. 75. I suspect that d’Aragona is referring to Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici. He was a patron of Molza and, it would seem, also of d’Aragona, who also refers to him here as a guide. Ippolito de’ Medici dedicated verse to d’Aragona (see sonnets 97–98), and I expect that d’Aragona also composed poems in praise of him, yet it is not surprising that they either are not included in

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 89 desire nothing more, I have only to die. if die one must, or can, who is already dead.

19. AL SIGNOR COLONNELLO LUCA ANTONIO Poi che rea sorte ingiustamente preme76 voi, ch’alto albergo sete di valore, sento spirto gentil un tal dolore, che con voi l’alma mia ne giace insieme. L’anima mia ne giace, e ’l petto geme di non poter mostrar nel viso il core a voi, cui bramo con perpetuo honore piacer servendo infino a l’hore estreme. Il disio d’hora in hora a voi mi porta: quindi rispetto honesto mi ritiene: et disvoler conviemmi quel ch’io voglio. In sì dubbioso stato mi conforta, che ben v’è noto quel che si conviene. Et questo fa minore il mio cordoglio. 19. TO LORD COLONEL LUCA ANTONIO 77 Since evil fortune unjustly afflicts her canzoniere or, alternately, appear but without their dedications, given the erasure to which the Medici family subjected Ippolito; see Rebecchini, “Un altro Lorenzo,” 198. 76. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 77. Colonel Lucantonio (the Italianized form of his name is Lucantonio Cuppano) was from the de Cuppis family of the Umbrian town of Montefalco and from a very young age served as a page Cosimo’s father Giovanni delle Bande Nere). He transcribed a pharmacological text titled Experimenti that was written by Caterina Sforza, Giovanni’s mother. Colonel Lucantonio was a loyal servant to Cosimo and commanded forces for him both in Pisa and Portoferraio, among other Tuscan towns. More to the point, Colonel Lucantonio was also a member of the Florentine Academy. The most extensive biography of Lucantonio Cuppano was written by one of his descendants, see Carlo Coppi da Gorzano, “Il conte Lucantonio Coppi detto Cuppano, ultimo condottiero delle Bande nere e dimenticato governatore generale di Piombino (1507–1557),” Rivista araldica 3 (1960): 87–105. For his membership in the Florentine Academy, see Plaisance, L’accademia, 227; Plaisance cites the membership rolls found in BNCF, Magliabechiano IX 91, 4v–6v.

90 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona you, who are the lofty refuge of valor, noble spirit, I feel such pain that my soul lies down together with you.78 My soul lies, and my breast heaves because my face cannot reveal my heart to you, whom I long with perpetual honor to please by serving until the final hours.79 Desire again and again brings me to you then respect for honor holds me back– and it is better that I not desire what I long for. In such a state of doubt I am comforted that you are well aware of what is proper and this lessens my suffering.

20. A MESSER UGOLINO MARTELLI Mentre ch’al suon de i dotti ornati versi80 fate d’Arno suonar l’ampie contrade, cantando insieme a più ch’ad una etade con le virtù, ch’a voi sì amiche fersi, a me, caro MARTEL, son tanto adversi i fati, ch’ogni ben dal cor mi cade; et per occulte, solitarie strade vo lagrimando il dì, che gli occhi apersi. Tal che del pianto mio, del mio languire languisce, e piagne ogni sterpo, e ogni sasso, et le fiere, e gli augelli in ogni parte. Voi, mentre afflige me l’empio martire, deh consolate lo mio spirto lasso con vostre eterne, e honorate carte.

78. The verb “giacere” (“to lie down”) contributes to the subtext of sexuality in this sonnet. Note as well the heaving breast and her comments in the first tercet (ll. 9–11). 79. This expression means “until the end.” 80. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 91

20. TO MESSER UGOLINO MARTELLI 81 While with the sound of your learned, ornate verses you make the wide banks of the Arno resound, singing together through more than one age with the virtues, which to you are so friendly, to me, dear MARTEL, so adverse are the fates that all goodness from my heart falls; and through secluded, solitary streets I go, bewailing the day that I opened my eyes. So much that of my crying, of my languishing, every twig and every rock languishes and weeps and the beasts and the birds everywhere. You, while ungodly suffering afflicts me, ah, console my feeble spirit with your eternal, and honored pages. 81. Perhaps best remembered for his portrait by Agnolo Bronzino as the young Florentine nobleman dressed in black with book in hand, Ugolino Martelli (1519–92) was a man of letters and later a clergyman, rising to the position of bishop for the diocese of Glandèves in France. Early on it seems he was a pupil of Benedetto Varchi; he later went to study in Padua (where Varchi had also gone after the assassination of Alessandro de’ Medici in 1537). Martelli was active during the early days of the Accademia degli infiammati (Academy of the Inflamed) and corresponded with numerous men of letters such as Pietro Bembo, Pietro Aretino, Francesco Maria Molza, Benvenuto Cellini, and Annibale Caro. Martelli returned to Florence in 1542 and was immediately asked to participate in the Florentine Academy; after two years, he also acted as consul and gave numerous lectures and lessons in the Church of S. Maria Novella, which was the official headquarters of the Academy. Martelli, author of poetry and prose, much of which remains unpublished, was active in Florentine cultural life until his departure from Florence in February 1548 due to his inability to procure a stable position in Cosimo’s dominions. He entered briefly into the service of Cardinal Niccolò Ridolfi in Rome before finally departing for France, where he served in the retinue of Bishop Lorenzo Strozzi, one of Filippo Strozzi’s youngest sons. Because of Martelli’s service to the anti-Medicean Strozzi, his relations with Varchi as well as with others in Florence apparently soured. The sole Florentine (and former republican) with whom he remained in contact was Piero Vettori. For information on Martelli, see Vanni Bramanti, “Ritratto di Ugolino Martelli (1519–1592),” Schede umanistiche 2 (1999) and “Ugolino Martelli” in DBI 71 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2008), 64–67; see, particularly as regards his relationship with Varchi, Lo Re, Politica e cultura, 32–34, 211–14, 300–318. In a letter to Varchi, d’Aragona notes Ugolino Martelli coming to visit her in the countryside outside Florence and staying for a few days; see her letter 2.

92 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

21. AL VARCHI VARCHI, da cui giamai non si scompagna82 il choro de le Muse, e ch’a l’affanno, com’a la gioia, a l’util com’al danno, sempre havete virtù fida compagna: qual monte, o valle, o riviera, o campagna non sarà a voi più che dorato scanno? Se come fumo innanzi a lei sen vanno gli humani affetti, ond’altri più si lagna, o perché errar a me così non lice con voi pe’ i boschi, come ho ’l core acceso de l’honorate vostre fide scorte? C’havendo ogni pensiero al cielo inteso vivendo viverei vita felice, et morta sperarei vincer la morte. 21. TO VARCHI 83 VARCHI, from whom never parts the chorus of Muses, and who in sorrow 82. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE. 83. Benedetto Varchi (1503–65) was perhaps the best known of d’Aragona’s literary correspondents. Poet of various types of verse in Italian and Latin, linguist, literary critic, and historiographer, Varchi was trained as lawyer before devoting himself to letters. His political sympathies were republican, although his exile from Florence in 1537, upon the assassination of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici, was voluntary. From then until his reentry in 1543, Varchi moved between Bologna, Ferrara, Rome, Venice, and Padua, where he collaborated with the Accademia degli infiammati. During this period, he associated with the sons of Filippo Strozzi, both Ruberto and Piero, and it was likely through this connection that Varchi and d’Aragona first met, although their literary collaboration did not really flourish until her move to Florence in the winter of 1545–46. They exchanged numerous poetic compositions, and she included him as her most opinionated interlocutor in the dialogue On the Infinity of Love. Varchi, moreover, was responsible for preserving almost all of the extant autograph letters of d’Aragona that we now possess. Recently there has been something of an explosion of research on Varchi; see particularly Lo Re, La crisi della libertà, Lo Re, Politica e cultura, Bramanti, ed. Benedetto Varchi, and the numerous articles by Andreoni. Note the form of address, that is, no title; it is familiar but also respectful and indicates his level of notoriety, and note as well the use of “voi.” For other sonnets between d’Aragona and Varchi, see sonnets 44–46, 89–93, and 138–139.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 93 as in joy, in gain as in loss, always has virtue as your faithful companion, which mountain, or valley, or shore, or field will not be more than a golden stool to you?84 If just as smoke before it [virtue], human affection disappears, for which others lament even more, o why is it not licit for me to wander with you through forests, as my heart so burns for your honorable, trustworthy guidance? Since all my thoughts are turned towards the heavens, by living I would lead a happy life, and dead I would hope to defeat death.

22. VARCHI, il cui raro, e immortal valore85 ogni anima gentil subito invoglia, deh perché non poss’io com’ho la voglia del vostro alto saver colmarmi il core? Che con tal guida so ch’uscirei fore de le man di fortuna che mi spoglia d’ogni usato conforto: e ogni mia doglia cangerei in dolce canto, e ’n miglior hore. Ahi lassa, io veggio ben che la mia sorte contrasta a così honesto, e bel desire, sol perché manch’io sotto l’aspre some. Ma s’a me pur così convien finire la penna vostra, al men levi il mio nome fuor de gli artigli d’importuna morte.

84. The expression “dorato scanno” appears in Bembo, Prose e rime, ed. Carlo Dionisotti (Turin: UTET, 1960), 55.47–8: “Più che dorato scanno,/ può la stanchezza un bel cespo levarme.” Bembo may be recalling the “glorious stool” of Dante, Paradiso, 32.28: “E come quinci il glorioso scanno/ della dona del Cielo.” 85. ABBA ABBA CDE DEC.

94 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

22. VARCHI, whose rare, everlasting excellence immediately attracts all noble souls, pray, why can I not as I so desire fill my heart with your high knowledge? For with such a guide I know I would escape the hand of fortune that strips me of all my usual comforts; and I would turn my every sorrow into a sweet song, and a happier time. Oh alas, I see clearly that my destiny contrasts with such an honorable, fine desire only because I fail under such a heavy yoke. But even though it is best for me to end thus, may your quill at least draw my name out of the claws of an untimely death. 23. Dopo importuna pioggia86. s’allegrano i pastor, quando ’l sereno ciel si discopre lor di stelle pieno. Et dopo ’l corso de l’instabil Luna ne l’apparir del Sole gioisce ogni animal che brama il giorno, et l’alto Dio lodar ben spesso suole dopo l’aspra fortuna spaventato nocchier al porto intorno. E ’l Varchi è al suo ritorno seren, sol, porto; e chi ha d’honor disio, si rallegra, gioisce, e loda Dio.

86. aBBCdEDcEeFF.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 95

23. After an inopportune rain87 shepherds cheer when the serene sky reveals itself to them full of stars. And after the orbit of the unstable moon, at the sun’s appearance, every animal who longs for daytime rejoices, and almighty God very often is praised after a bitter storm88 by the frightened oarsman near the port.89 And it is Varchi upon his return serenity, sun, refuge;90 and whoever desires honor delights, rejoices, and praises God. 24. AL MUTIO Voi, c’havete fortuna sì nimica,91 com’animo valor e cortesia, qual benigno destino hoggi v’invia a riveder la vostra fiamma antica? Mutio gentile, una alma così amica è soave valore a l’alma mia. Ben duolmi de la dura, e alpestra via con tanta non di voi degna fatica. Visse gran tempo l’honorato amore 87. This madrigal may refer to Varchi’s return after his imprisonment for rape, as it clearly implies a context in which Varchi, like the figures who escape some sort of vicissitude, rejoices at danger’s end. This context is rendered even clearer by reading only the septenary verses—ll. 1, 5, 8, and 10. For more about the rape charges, see Plaisance, L’accademia, 18 and 141–42. 88. For the use of fortuna as “storm,” see Dante, Purgatorio, 32.116 and Petrarch, Rvf, 272. 89. The topos of life as a boat out in a stormy sea guided by an oarsman who attempts to return to port is extremely common in Italian poetry; see Petrarch, Rvf, 80, 235, and 272, Bembo, “Ben ho da maledir l’empio signore,” Vittoria Colonna, “Mentre la nave mia, lungi dal porto,” and Gaspara Stampa, “La mia vita è un mar: L’acqua è ’l mio pianto.” 90. Here d’Aragona recalls in one line three terms used previously in each of the tercets— “sereno” (l. 2), “sole” (l. 5), and “porto” (l. 9). 91. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

96 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona ch’al Po già per me v’arse. Et non cred’io che sia sì chiara fiamma in tutto spenta. Et se nel volto altrui si legge il core, spero ch’in riva d’Arno il nome mio alto sonar anchor per voi si senta.

24. TO MUTIO 92 You, who has such hostile fortune, as your character has courage and courtesy, what benign fate today sends you 92. Girolamo Muzio (1496–1572) was a poet, courtier, linguist, epistolary correspondent, antireligious reformer, as well as prose writer on issues related to chivalry and dueling. He was without doubt d’Aragona’s greatest promoter and wrote a wide variety of poems dedicated to her and also mentioned her in his letters. They first met in 1537 in Ferrara where Muzio was in the court of Ercole II d’Este, but they remained in contact for a number of years. It seems that they were involved romantically, although only for a few years. Muzio remained attached to d’Aragona and dedicated a treatise on matrimony to her on occasion of her marriage in 1543 as well as verse to her, including the biographical eclogue that comprises the fourth section of her choral anthology. He was also apparently responsible for shepherding her dialogue On the Infinity of Love into print. Later, in 1549, Muzio wrote an eclogue entitled “Argia” on the death of Penelope, d’Aragona’s sister or daughter, which occurred in 1549. It is curious that there is only a single sonnet in d’Aragona’s entire canzoniere addressed to Muzio. Muzio was an important cultural figure in sixteenth-century Italy who weighed in on a variety of different issues and deserves greater attention that he has received by recent scholarship. For information on his life, the most extensive source remains Giaxich, Vita; a small selection of his texts include Operette morali, Il duello, Vergeriane, Egloghe, and Operette morali, all published by Gabriele Giolito in 1550, and then, the following year, his Rime diverse, Le mentite ochiniane, and Le risposte cavalleresche del Mutio iustinopolitano, again by the Venetian printer Gabriel Giolito. In 1571, Muzio published Il gentiluomo and Lettere cattoliche. In 1582—posthumously—his Battaglie in difesa dell’italica lingua was published. There are recent editions of his letters, such as Anna Maria Negri’s; for his poetry, see Negri’s edition of the Rime, which, however, has been criticized on philological grounds. On his posthumous linguistic work Battaglie in difesa dell’italica lingua, see the edition by Rossana Sodano (Turin: Res, 1994). For information on Muzio and his involvement with d’Aragona, see Francesco Bausi, “Un’egloga inedita (e sconosciuta) di Girolamo Muzio,” Studi di filologia italiana 47 (1989): 211–54, and Luciana Borsetto, “L’egloga in sciolti nella prima metà del Cinquecento: Appunti sul liber di Girolamo Muzio,” Chronique italiennes 3, no. 1 (2003), chroniquesitaliennes.univ-paris3.fr/ PDF/Web3/L_Borsetto.pdf. This sonnet was republished in B 113.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 97 to see again your ancient flame?93 Gentle Muzio, a soul so amiable is a soothing balm for my soul. I was greatly pained by your difficult, arduous path with such toil unworthy of you. For long lived the honorable love that already by the Po burned in you for me.94 Nor do I believe that such a bright flame has been completely extinguished. And if one can read another’s heart by his face, I hope that on the banks of the Arno my name still resounds so loudly that by you it may be heard.

25. AL PREDICATOR OCHINO BERNARDO, ben potea bastarvi haverne95 co’l dolce dir, ch’a voi natura infonde, qui dove ’l Re de’ fiumi ha più chiare onde, acceso i cuori a le sante opre eterne. Che se pur sono in voi pure l’interne voglie, e la vita al vestir corrisponde, non huom di frale carne, e d’ossa immonde, ma sete un voi de le schiere superne. Hor le finte apparenze, e ’l ballo, e ’l suono 93. This poem was likely written after October 1546, and more plausibly after April 1547, when Muzio was sent to Siena and Florence on behalf of Ferrante Gonzaga, leader of the imperial army, to negotiate with the Sienese Popolari and with Duke Cosimo on the matter of reinstating a group of imperial troops in Siena. See Giaxich, Vita, 38–39. His letters make clear his movements between Milan, Florence, and Siena. The longest sojourn that he had in Florence, when he was often in contact with Duke Cosimo, was from late April or early May 1547 through 23 September 1547. For his letters recounting his negotiations regarding Siena, see Girolamo Muzio, Lettere di Girolamo Muzio Giustinopolitano conservate nell’Archivio Governativo di Parma, ed. Amadio Ronchini (Parma: R. Deputazione di storia patria, 1864), 3–97. See also Borsetto, “L’egloga,” 9n36. See note 6 to sonnet 61 by Muzio on the Vergilian expression adopted by Dante of the “ancient flame.” Although separated in this collection, sonnets 24 and 61 are in close relation to one another. 94. D’Aragona here refers to her meeting or spending time with him when they were both in Ferrara from 1537 on. 95. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.

98 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona chiesti dal tempo, e da l’antica usanza a che così da voi vietati sono? Non fora santità, fora arroganza torre il libero arbitrio, il maggior dono, che Dio ne diè ne la primiera stanza.

25. TO THE PREACHER OCHINO 96 BERNARDO, it would have easily sufficed for you to have, 96. Bernardo Ochino (1487–1564) was a Franciscan friar and later a Capuchin monk who was well known throughout Italy for his excellent sermons. He was active in Catholic reformist groups and was personally acquainted with Vittoria Colonna, who intervened on his behalf and on behalf of the Capuchins a number of times. In 1536 Ochino preached in Naples, where he met the Spanish theologian Juan de Valdés, whose influence marked a turning point in Ochino’s thinking. In 1537 Ochino preached in Ferrara, and it is likely to this event that d’Aragona refers in sonnet 25 in setting the poem in Ferrara (“here where the King of Rivers”). As we know from Battista Stambellino’s letter to Isabella d’Este, Vittoria Colonna was in Ferrara at the same time, and one scholar has even fantasized that Vittoria Colonna and Tullia d’Aragona actually met in Ferrara, although this seems highly unlikely. Two years earlier, in March 1535, Ochino had preached in S. Lorenzo in Damaso in Rome, and Vittoria Colonna’s presence was noted there by two different chroniclers. See Roland H. Bainton, Bernardino Ochino: Esule e riformatore senese del Cinquecento, 1487–1563, trans. Elio Gianturco (Florence: Sansoni, 1940), 33. D’Aragona was also in Rome at the time, although no record exists of her presence at his sermons. She may, however, have known him from many years earlier in Siena. Upon receiving summons to Rome from Paul III regarding questions of faith (and thus possible charges of heresy), Ochino opted instead to flee Italy and escaped to Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1542. For information on Ochino, see Carl Benrath, Bernardino Ochino of Siena: A Contribution towards the History of the Reformation (London: James Nisbet, 1876), and Bainton, Bernardino Ochino. For information on Ochino’s relationship with Vittoria Colonna, see Abigail Brundin, Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008). The use of his first name, considered in relation to the other forms of address she used in her sonnets, would lead us to believe that perhaps she knew him personally; it may also be due, however, to the fact that he is a friar; I thank Renée Baernstein for the latter point, also supported by the title of address: “To The Preacher Ochino.” The ideas expressed in the sonnet also set her apart from those reformers, usually know as spirituali, who followed Ochino’s preachings closely in the late 1530s and early 1540s until his flight to Switzerland in 1542. That d’Aragona did not align herself with these groups, even though she was producing spiritual verse, is of a piece with the image she projects of herself later in her life as a reformed woman but well within the Catholic orthodoxy, similar, although less fervent and aggressive, compared to Muzio’s own trajectory.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 99 with your sweet speech, which nature has infused into you, here where the King of Rivers has its more celebrated waters,97 ignited all hearts to eternal, sacred works. For if your own inner desires are pure, and your life corresponds to your dress,98 not a man of frail flesh, and bones impure, but rather you are one of the supernal orders. Now false appearances, and dancing, and music-making, required by the times, and by ancient customs, why are they condemned by you so? Not sanctity, but arrogance would take away free will, the greatest gift that God gave in the first place.99

26. A MESSER EMILIO TONDI Siena dolente i suoi migliori invita100 a lagrimar intorno al suo gran TONDI, al cui valor ben furo i ciel secondi, poscia invidiaro l’honorata vita. Marte il pianger di lei co’l pianto aita, morto ’l campion, cui fur gli altri secondi; io prego i miei sospir caldi, e profondi ch’a sfogar sì gran duol porgano aita. So che non pon recar miei tristi accenti a voi, Messer EMILIO, alcun conforto, che fra tanti dolori il primo è ’l vostro. Ma ’l duol si tempri; il suo mortale è morto; vive ’l suo nome eterno fra le genti; l’alma triompha nel superno chiostro. 97. D’Aragona is referring to the Po River that passes through Ferrara, at the time the most illustrious city on its route. 98. In other words, he behaves as a friar—or any other man of the church—should. 99. See Dante, Paradiso, 5.19–24. Free will was an extremely important topic in Christian theology and also constituted one of the biggest topics of debate within the reform movement. 100. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

100 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

26. TO MESSER EMILIO TONDI 101 Siena, grieving, her best invites to weep for her great TONDI, to whose courage even the skies were second, since they envied his distinguished life. Mars aids her102 weeping with his own tears, dead is the champion, to whom all others were second. I pray that my sighs, ardent and profound, to relieve such great pain might offer aid. I know that my sad words cannot deliver to you, Messer EMILIO, any comfort, for among the grief of so many, yours is first. But may your pain be tempered; his earthly body is dead; his name lives eternal among the people; his soul triumphs in the supernal cloister. 27. A TIBERIO NARI Se veston sol d’eterna gloria il manto103 quei, che l’honor più che la vita amaro, perché volete voi, gentil mio NARO, render men bella con acerbo pianto quella lode immortale, e chiara tanto, di cui mai non sarà chi giunga al paro 101. This sonnet of eulogy over the death of Ottaviano Tondi, who was the brother of Emilio; see Bongi, “Rime della signora Tullia,” 177. Both were active in the Monte dei Nove, one of the three political divisions in the government of the republic of Siena, and the one with which d’Aragona seemed to be associated. In February 1546 the popolani rose against the noveschi, and many citizens from both factions died. It is likely that either these tumults or the period of tension leading up to them provoked d’Aragona’s departure from Siena for Florence. Ottaviano died in the February uprisings or soon thereafter, as he had been declared a rebel; see Pecci, Memorie storico-critiche, 3:151. Emilio Tondi, however, also took refuge in Florence, where many of the other exiled Sienese from the Nove faction took refuge, but was eventually elected to go and plead the Nove’s case before the imperial powers; see Pecci, Memorie storico-critiche, 3:165. Emilio Tondi is addressed as “Messer,” as Ugolino Martelli is. 102. “Her” refers to Siena, the city personified. 103. ABBA ABBA CDE ECD.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 101 del valoroso vostro fratel caro, che morendo portò di morte ’l vanto? Scacciate ’l duol; rasserenate il volto; et le unite da lui nemiche spoglie sacrate a lui, che già triompha in cielo. Et da questo mortal caduco velo più che mai vivo, o mai libero, e sciolto, par ch’a seguirlo ogni bell’alma invoglie.

27. TO TIBERIO NARI 104 If only those who loved their honor more than their life wear the mantle of eternal glory, why do you want, my noble NARO, to render less beautiful with your bitter tears that praise immortal, and so illustrious which never anyone shall equal 104. Tiberio Nari was member of the aristocratic Roman family whose palace still stands today in piazza di Campo Marzio, 3 or 5. The family held a marquisate in Mompeo in the Sabina, as well as in other towns north of Rome. He married Antonia Cardelli, the daughter of the Roman Giulio Cardelli, on 21 September 1539 and played an active role in the civic affairs of Rome. Nari was elected conservator of the Roman government in 1549 and was later commended for his contributions to the agricultural policy of the city. He rented vast tracts of land south of the city from the Tre Fontane towards Decima to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Although I have not been able to find his date of birth, he was likely a near contemporary of d’Aragona. He had at least one son, Lucio Marzio Nari, who appears as his only heir in his will that was registered on 23 June 1553. Nari was still alive in December 1554 when he rented another piece of land, but had likely died by 1556—the year of d’Aragona’s death—as his son then appears as the renter. For information on Nari, see Pietro Romano [Pietro Fornari], Campomarzio (IV rione) 2 vols. (Rome: Tipografia Agostiniana, 1939) 2:64, Giuseppe and Francesco Tomassetti, Via Laurentina, Ostiense, vol. 5 of La campagna romana antica, mediovale e moderna. Edizione redatta sulla base degli appunti lasciati da Giuseppe e Francesco Tomassetti, 6 vols., ed. Luisa Chiumenti and Fernando Bilancia (Rome: Banco di Roma, 1977) 158, 470, 490, François-Charles, Uginet, ed. Le palais Farnèse à travers le document financiers (1535–1612). Vol. 3 of Le palais Farnèse (Rome: Ecole francaise de Rome, 1980), 1, and Luigi Pompili Olivieri, Il senato romano nelle sette epoche di svariato governo da Romolo fino a noi colla serie cronologica-ragionata dei senatori dall’anno 1143 fino al 1870 (Rome: Tipografia editrice romana, 1886). Note also that d’Aragona refers to him without a title, just giving a simple first and last name, which indicates a certain level of familiarity.

102 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona of your dear, courageous brother, who, dying, carried the boast of death?105 Drive away your pain; regain your countenance and consecrate to him, who already triumphs in the heavens, the spoils he gathered of the enemy. And from this fleeting, mortal veil more alive than ever, or rather freer, and loosened, it seems that to follow him every good soul yearns.

28. A PIERO MANELLI Poi che mi diè natura a voi simile106 forma, e materia; o fosse il gran Fattore; non pensate ch’anchor disio d’honore mi desse, e bei pensier, MANEL gentile? Dunque credete me cotanto vile, ch’io non osi mostrar cantando fore, quel che dentro n’ancide altero ardore, se bene a voi non ho pari lo stile? Non lo crediate, no, PIERO, ch’anch’io fatico ognihor per appressarmi al cielo, et lasciar del mio nome in terra fama. Non contenda rea sorte il bel disio, che pria che l’alma dal corporeo velo si scioglia, satierò forse mia brama.

105. Thus these sonnets form a pair, both comforting the dedicatees about the loss of their brother. Although I am unaware of the circumstances of his death, Nari’s brother had died by 4 November 1542, which is when Cardinal Antonio Pucci wrote a letter to Duke Cosimo regarding Tiberio Nari coming to see him to discuss the burial site of his brother; see MAP 3717, doc id 23856. 106. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 103

28. TO PIERO MANELLI 107 Since nature gave me similar to you,108 a form, and matter, or perhaps it was the great Maker, do you not think that even the desire for honor was given me,109 and beautiful thoughts, noble MANELLI? Do you think then that I am so lowly that I dare not show, by singing out, that lofty ardor which slays inside just because my style is not equal to yours? Do not think as much, no, PIERO, for I too labor incessantly to draw nearer the heavens 107. Piero Manelli, also spelled Mannelli, was likely a member of the Florentine banking family, identified by Bongi as Piero di Lionardo di Niccolò Mannelli, born on 4 August 1522 (“Rime della signora Tullia,” 182). “Piero” is a common name in the Mannelli family, but he was likely the one who eventually left Florence and was living in Lyon, where he was working for the bank of another Florentine family, the Salviati. Pierre Hurtubise characterizes Piero Mannelli as a “banker of the Salviati in Lyon” and as a friend of Cardinal Giovanni Salviati (Une famille-témoin: Les Salviati [Vatican City: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1985], 341, 346). Mannelli was also in contact with Bernardo Salviati, mentioned in letter 1 in this volume, who later became a cardinal and was the brother of Cardinal Giovanni; see Pierre Hurtubise, Tous le chemins mènent à Rome: Arts de vivre et de réussir à la cour pontificale au XVIe siècle (Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, 2009), 234–35n25. In the sixteenthcentury editions, the sonnet to Mannelli was the last one to be prefaced by a dedication. For this reason, Celani assumed that all subsequent poems in the first section were addressed to him and that they chronicle her ferocious love for him. This is at odds with the poems themselves. This sonnet—in which d’Aragona uses “voi”—clearly reads as a sort of poetic challenge on the part of d’Aragona. Moreover, there is an oscillation between the use of “voi” and “tu” in the following sonnets that make it unlikely that they were addressed to Mannelli, for if they were, one might expect a progression from the “voi” to the “tu,” but not a movement back and forth as we see here. Finally, in sonnet 36 d’Aragona clearly addresses another figure—Lilia. For further discussion regarding Celani’s editorial practices regarding this sonnet and subsequent ones, see Ann Rosalind Jones, “Bad Press: Modern Editors versus Early Modern Poets (Tullia d’Aragona, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco),” in Strong Voices, Weak History: Early Women Writers and Canons in England, France, and Italy, ed. Pamela Joseph Benson and Victoria Kirkham (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005), 292–95. 108. For comment on this sonnet, see Jones, Currency of Eros, 111–12. 109. I used the passive form here to avoid choosing between “it” (nature) or “he” (the great Maker) as the subject of the verb “to give,” which in Italian is not necessary as the subject is implicit in the verb form and remains ambiguous.

104 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona and to leave the fame of my name on earth. Let not wicked destiny contend with my fine desire, for before my soul from its corporeal veil frees itself, I will perhaps satisfy my yearning.

29. Amore un tempo in così lento foco110 arse mia vita; e sì colmo di doglia struggeasi ’l cor, che quale altro si voglia martir fora ver lei dolcezza, e gioco. Poscia sdegno, e pietate a poco a poco spenser la fiamma, ond’io più ch’altra soglia libera da sì lunga, e fera voglia giva lieta cantando in ciascun loco. Ma ’l ciel né satio anchor (lassa) né stanco de danni miei, perché sempre sospiri, mi riconduce a la mia antica sorte. Et con sì acuto spron mi punge il fianco, ch’io temo sotto i primi empii martiri cader, e per men mal bramar la morte. 29. Love once with such a slow fire111 scorched my life, and overflowing with such sorrow my heart was racked, that whatever other torment might ensue would seem sweetness and games. Then disdain, and pity, little by little extinguished the flame, so that I, more than other women, used to being free from such long, fierce desire, roamed happily singing everywhere. But the heavens, not yet tiring (alas) nor weary 110. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 111. As noted, it is unlikely that poems 29 (“Amore un tempo in così lento foco”) through 35 (“Ov’è (misera me) quell’aureo crine,”) are intended for Piero Manelli, as their themes are vastly different. They are, however, without dedicatees. This poem was republished in B 115.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 105 of my injuries, so that I may always be sighing, lead me back to my ancient destiny, and with sharp pangs prick me such that I fear that under the first cruel torments I shall fall, and, as a lesser evil, long for death.

30. Qual vaga Philomena, che fuggita112 è da la odiata gabbia, e in superba vista sen’va tra gli arboscelli, e l’herba, tornata in libertate, e in lieta vita; er’io da gli amorosi lacci uscita schernendo ogni martire, e pena acerba de l’incredibil duol, ch’in sé riserba qual ha per troppo amar l’alma smarrita. Ben havev’io ritolte (ahi Stella fera) dal tempio di Ciprigna le mie spoglie, et di lor pregio me n’andava altera; quand’a me Amor—le tue ritrose voglie muterò—disse, e femmi prigioniera di tua virtù, per rinovar mie doglie.

112. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.

106 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

30. Just as the beautiful Philomena,113 who having escaped from her hated cage, and in supreme view, goes out among the saplings and grass, returned to freedom, and to a happy life, so was I, from the amorous snares freed, mocking all pain, and bitter suffering of the incredible agony it reserves for whoever by loving too much has lost her soul. Indeed I had taken back (alas, cruel Star)114 my spoils from the temple of the Cyprian goddess115 and of their worth I went proudly, when Love said to me, “I shall change

113. Philomena refers to the story of Philomela and Procne of Greek myth, the best-known version of which is perhaps Ovid’s in book 6 of the Metamorphoses. Procne marries Tereus and they have a son that they name Itys. After several years Procne asks to see her sister Philomela and Tereus goes to collect her from her father, yet immediately upon seeing her, he lusts uncontrollably for her. Once he lands on his own shores, Tereus rapes Philomela, and because she berates him for what he has done, he then cuts out her tongue and rapes her again. When he returns, he makes a great show of sorrow and tells Procne that her sister has died. Philomela, no longer able to speak, weaves a tapestry of her misfortunes and has it delivered to her sister in the palace who, immediately on seeing it, understands everything. She has her sister brought to the palace, kills her own and Tereus’s child and feeds him to his father. When, during the meal, Tereus asks for his son Itys to be brought to him, Procne tells him that he is already present, and to make matters clearer, Philomela throws Itys’s head into Tereus’s face. He draws a sword to kill both sisters but Philomela is turned into a nightingale and Procne into a swallow and they fly away, one to the woods and the other to the rooftop. The substitution of “Philomena” for “Philomela” is quite common, as it appears in both Chrétien de Troyes and the Ovide moralisé. For commentary on this sonnet, see Ann Rosalind Jones, “New Songs,” 272–74, and Currency of Eros, 115–17. In the 1547 edition of the Rime at the BNCR, a sixteenth-century hand wrote and then crossed out “Alla S. Philomena Nini” before this poem. Although I was not able to find this member of the family, the Nini were a noble Sienese family. See also poem 116. 114. See Petrarch, Rvf, 174: “Fera stella (se ’l cielo à forza in noi).” See also Pietri Bembo’s “La mia fatal nemica è bella et cruda,” 35 in Rime, ed. Andrea Donnini (Rome: Salerno, 2008), 86–88. 115. The Cyprian goddess is an epithet for Venus, known in Greek as Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 107 your secret desires,” and he made me prisoner of your virtue,116 to renew my torments.

31. Felice speme, ch’a tant’alta impresa117 ergi la mente mia, ch’adhor adhora dietro al santo pensier, che la innamora, sen’ vola al ciel per contemplare intesa. De’ bei disir in gentil foco accesa miro ivi lui, ch’ogni bell’alma honora. Et quel ch’è dentro, e quanto appar di fora, versa in me gioia senz’alcuna offesa. Dolce, che mi feristi, aurato strale, dolce, ch’inacerbir mai non potranno quante amarezze dar puote aspra sorte. Pro mi sia grande ogni più grave danno; che del mio ardir per haver merto eguale più degno guiderdon non è che morte. 31. Joyous hope, who to such a noble endeavor118 elevate my mind, which forever following that saintly thought that makes it fall in love, rises to the skies intent on contemplation. Ignited by those beauteous desires into a gentle fire, there I admire him, whom every fair soul honors. And that which is inside, and all that appears outside, pours joy into me without any offense.

116. Note the use of the informal “tu” form in this sonnet. 117. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE. 118. Celani noted that Crescimbeni included this sonnet in his Comentarj intorno alla sua istoria della volgar poesia, 5 vols. (Rome: Antonio de’ Rossi alla Piazza di Ceri, 1702–11), 3:250.

108 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona O sweetly,119 did you injure me, golden arrow, [so] sweetly, that not even all the bitterness which a cruel destiny can give will ever be able to turn harsh. May every gravest danger be a great boon for me, for to have equal merit for my ardor there is no more worthy recompense than death.120

32. S’io ’l feci unqua, che mai non giunga a riva121 l’interno duol, che ’l cuor lasso sostiene: s’io ’l feci, che perduta ogni mia spene in guerra eterna de vostr’occhi viva; s’io ’l feci, ch’ogni dì resti più priva de la gratia, onde nasce ogni mio bene; s’io ’l feci, che di tante e cotai pene non m’apporti alcun mai tranquilla oliva; s’io ’l feci, ch’in voi manchi ogni pietade; et cresca doglia in me, pianto, e martire distruggendomi pur come far soglio. Ma s’io no’l feci, il duro vostro orgoglio in amor si converta; e lunga etade sia dolce il frutto del mio bel disire.

119. The repetition of “dolce” at the beginning of verses 9 and 10 suggests that perhaps this sonnet was intended for Ludovico Dolce, who, according to Claudia Di Filippo Bareggi, was the editor of d’Aragona’s canzoniere; see her Il mestiere di scrivere, 99n33. In the translation, I have opted for the less daring solution, however, that “dolce” is merely an adverb; the other possibility is that “dolce” is an adjective, in which case the line would read “O sweet golden arrow which injured me.” 120. The Italian “guiderdone” is a term and a concept originally derived from Provençal, particularly from courtly love lyric, and that was developed extensively in the Italian Sicilian school and the poetry of Dante and his cohorts. It refers to the recompense that the lover expects from the beloved for the service that he has rendered her—or, in this case, that she has rendered him. Another term used to express a similar concept and that derives from the same poetic tradition is “mercede”; see sonnets 45 and 46. 121. ABBA ABBA CDE ECD.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 109

32. If ever I did it, may my inner pain122 which my weary heart bears, never reach the shore; if ever I did it, having lost my every hope, may I live in eternal war in your eyes; if ever I did, may I be every day more and more deprived of the grace, from which all of my good is born; if ever I did, may no one ever bring me for so much and such pain a peaceful olive [branch]; if ever I did, may all pity in you be lacking, and may pain grow in me, and suffering and agony destroying me as I usually do. But if I did not, may your hard pride into love turn; and for a long season may the fruit of my fine desire be sweet. 33. Se ben pietosa madre unico figlio123 perde talhora, e nuovo alto dolore le preme il tristo e sospiroso core, spera conforto almen, spera consiglio; se scaltro Capitano in gran periglio, mostrando alteramente il suo valore, resta vinto, e prigion, spera uscir fuore quando che sia con baldanzoso ciglio: s’in tempestoso mar giunto si duole spaventato Nocchier, già presso a morte, ha speme anchor di rivedersi in porto. Ma io, s’avvien che perda il mio bel Sole, o per mia colpa, o per malvagia sorte, non spero haver, né voglio alcun conforto.

122. See Petrarch, Rvf, 206: “S’ i’ ’l dissi mai, ch’i’ vegna in odio a quella.” 123. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

110 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

33. If a devoted mother her only child124 should by chance lose, and a new, sharper pain press upon her sad, grieving heart, she hopes at least for comfort, she hopes for counsel. If a courageous Captain in great danger, proudly proving his mettle, is overcome, and imprisoned, he hopes to gain escape in a moment of daring whenever that may be. If in a raging sea a Helmsman fears that he might be near death, he still hopes to see port again. But I, if it should happen that I lose my beauteous Sun, either through my own fault, or through adverse fortune, do not hope to have, nor do I desire any comfort. 34. Se forse per pietà del mio languire125 al suon del tristo pianto in questo loco ten’ vieni a me, che tutta fiamma, e foco, ardomi, e struggo colma di disire, vago augellino, e meco il mio martire126 ch’in pena volge ogni passato gioco, piangi cantando in suon dolente, e roco, veggendomi del duol quasi perire; pregoti per l’ardor, che sì m’addoglia ne voli in quella amena, e cruda valle, ov’è chi sol può darmi, e morte, e vita. Et cantando gli dì, che cangi voglia volgendo a Roma ’l viso, e a lei le spalle, se vuol l’alma trovar col corpo unita. 124. For comment on this sonnet, see Jones, Currency of Eros, 113–14. 125. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 126. Although the editions of 1547 and 1549 have “angellino” the intention was clearly “augellino,” as it is corrected in the 1560 edition.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 111

34. If perhaps out of pity for my suffering127 at the sound of sorrowful weeping in this place you come to me, for all aflame I am and burning, and I am consumed with desire, wandering128 little bird, and with me my anguish, which every past pleasure turns into pain, you weep, singing a woeful and hoarse note, seeing me almost perish for the pain. I beg you for the sake of the passion that pains me so, fly to that pleasant and cruel valley, where is he alone who can give me life or death. And in song tell him to change his mind and turn his face towards Rome, and his back to it,129 if he wants to see his soul joined with his body. 35. Ov’è (misera me) quell’aureo crine,130 di cui fe rete per pigliarmi Amore? Ov’è (lassa) il bel viso, onde l’ardore nasce, che mena la mia vita al fine? Ove son quelle luci alte, e divine, in cui dolce si vive, e insieme more? Ov’è la bianca man, che lo mio core stringendo punse con acute spine? Ove suonan l’angeliche parole, ch’in un momento mi dan morte, e vita? U’ i cari sguardi? u’ le maniere belle? 127. Although the intended recipient is unknown, this sonnet was clearly written while d’Aragona was in Rome, as evidenced by l. 13. 128. The adjective “vago” can mean both “wandering” as well as “lovely,” “winsome,” or “charming.” 129. The antecedent is the “pleasant and cruel valley” of l. 10, but there is an implied ambiguity regarding the pronoun “lei” which could also refer to “her,” another woman, even though there is no “her” that has been referred to. 130. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

112 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona Ove luce hora il vivo almo mio Sole, con cui dolce destin mi venne in sorte quanto mai piovve da benigne stelle?

35. Where are (poor me) those golden locks131 with which Love made a web to ensnare me? Where is (alas) that beautiful face, from which my ardor springs, that leads my life to its goal? Where are those lights, bright and divine in which one lives so sweetly, and at the same time dies? Where is that alabaster hand, which gripping my heart pierced it with sharp thorns? Where are the angelic words resounding, which in a single moment give me death, and life? Where is that loving gaze? Those warm ways? Where does my bright, lofty Sun shine now, with whom as sweet a destiny became my fate as ever rained from benevolent stars? 36. Se materna pietate affligge il core,132 onde cercando in questa parte, e in quella il caro figlio tuo, LILIA mia bella, piangi, e cresci piangendo il tuo dolore; a te, ch’animal sei di ragion fore, et non intendi (oimè) quanto rubella sia stata ad ambe noi sorte empia, e fella, togliendo a te ’l tuo figlio, a me ’l mio Amore; che far (lassa) degg’io? Qual degno pianto verseran gli occhi miei dal cor mai sempre? Che conosco il tuo male, e ’l mio gran danno. 131. This sonnet offers a classic Petrarchan blazon of the body parts of her beloved, albeit a masculine beloved. 132. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 113 Chi di Psichi potrà con alto canto cantar l’altere lodi? O con quai tempre temprar quel, che mi dà sua morte, affanno?

36. If maternal piety afflicts your heart133 so that, searching here and there for your dear son, my darling LILIA,134 you cry and by crying increase your pain; to you, an animal without reason, who does not understand (alas) how thieving has been to us both cruel and fell fortune,135 taking from you your son, from me my Love. What (alas) am I to do? What fitting lament will my eyes pour forth from my heart? For I know your pain, and my great ruin. Of Psyche who will be able with high song136 to sing the lofty praises? And with what timbre 133. This sonnet, addressed to one of d’Aragona’s pets, uses the death of a newborn pup or kitten to talk about the death of her love. She is clearly not referring to the metaphorical death of their love, but she specifically mentions his death in l. 14. I cannot help but think about Filippo Strozzi’s death in 1538 and how it caused her “gran danno” (“great ruin”), which again may have a material connotation. This poem is the last sonnet of the first section devoted to compositions authored by d’Aragona alone. For comment on it, see Jones, Currency of Eros, 114–15. 134. The 1547 and 1560 editions give “Lilla.” We do not have any record of what sort of pet this might—a dog, cat, or bird. As such this sonnet seems to be situated with the Roman tradition of elegies dedicated to dead pets that belonged to the beloved. 135. I intend the English adjective “fell,” meaning “of terrible evil or ferocity” or “deadly.” 136. It is not clear whether this refers to Psyche (the figure from Greek mythology, and whose name has either been hypercorrected or is simply the fruit of a typographical error) or instead to Psichi, the name of Lilla’s/Lilia’s pup. Apuleius, in books 4–6 of The Golden Ass, recounts the tale of Psyche. It could be that she is alluding to him, because she has lost her protector, just as Psyche lost Cupid for a while. She could also be identifying herself with Psyche, for she too was subject to numerous figures who attacked her out of envy. The reference could be to the trials that Psyche had to undergo or to the fact that d’Aragona now will have to face life without her beloved the way that Psyche had to face life without Love.

114 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona temper that agony, which his death gives me?137

37. Alma del vero bel chiara sembianza,138 a cui non può far schermo né riparo così gentile, e christallina stanza, che non mostri di fuor l’altero, e raro splendor, che sol ne dà ferma speranza del ben, ch’unqua non fura il tempo avaro; deh fa se morta m’hai, ch’in te rinuovi acciò di doppia morte il viver pruovi. 37. Soul, of true beauty the clear semblance,139 to which so noble and crystalline a residence cannot make a screen nor shelter such that it would not show outwardly the lofty and rare splendor, which by itself gives us steady hope of that goodness, which time can never steal; pray, make it so that if you have killed me, that in you I may be renewed so that in double death I may experience living. 38. Ben mi credea fuggendo il mio bel Sole140 scemar (misera me) l’ardente foco 137. Not the death of Psichi/e but of her “Amore” of l. 8. 138. ABABABCC. 139. This composition is a strambotto, an isolated octave lyric, and Crescimbeni included it as an example of a single stanza of an octave in his first edition of the Istoria della volgar poesia (Roma: per il Chracas, 1689), 45. 140. The poem is a sestina, which is comprised of six stanzas of six lines with an interlocking rhyme scheme made of the same six words followed by a envoi of three lines in which all of the six words are used, three within and three at the end of the verse: ABCDEF; FAEBDC; CFDABE; ECBFAD; DEACFB; BDFECA; BDF.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 115 con cercar chiari rivi, e starne a l’ombra ne i più fronzuti, e solitari boschi; ma quanto più lontan luce il suo raggio 5 tanto più d’hor in hor cresce ’l mio vampo. Chi crederebbe mai che questo vampo crescesse quanto è più lontan dal Sole; et pur il provo, che quel divin raggio quant’è più lunge più raddoppia il foco. 10 Né mi giova habitar fontane, o boschi, ch’al mio mal nulla val fresco, onda, od ombra. Ma non cercherò più fresco, onda, od ombra, che ’l mio così cocente, e fero vampo non ponno ammorzar punto fonti, o boschi: 15 ma ben seguirò sempre il mio bel Sole, poscia che nuova Salamandra in foco vivo lieta, mercé del divo raggio. Deh perché non m’alluma il vivo raggio ovunqu’io vado, o per Sole, o per ombra, 20 che lieta soffrirei sì dolce il foco, et contenta morrei del suo gran vampo. Ma non spero giamai (lassa) che ’l Sole scopra giorno sì chiaro in questi boschi. Ond’havrò sempre in odio i monti, e i boschi, 25 che m’ascondon la luce di quel raggio, che splende, e scalda più de l’altro Sole. Biasmi chi vuole, e fugga i raggi a l’ombra, ch’io per me cerco sempre, e lodo il vampo, che m’arde, e strugge in sì possente foco. 30 Quanto dunque mi fora grato il foco, ingrati i monti, e le fontane, e i boschi, u’ non veggo il mio Sole, e sento il vampo s’io potessi appressar l’amato raggio, et del mio stesso corpo a lui far ombra, 35 et quando parte, e quando torna il Sole. Prima fia oscuro il Sole, e freddo il foco, né faranno ombra in nessun tempo i boschi, che del bel raggio in me non arda il vampo.

116 Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona

38 . I truly believed that by escaping my beautiful Sun141 I would lessen (poor me) the burning fire by searching for limpid streams, and resting in the shade in the leafiest and most solitary forests; but the further away his ray shines 5 the more hour by hour my ardor grows. Who would ever have believed that this ardor would grow in relation to its distance from the Sun? And yet I feel it, that the further away that divine ray is, the more the fire intensifies. 10 Nor does it help me to inhabit fountains, or forests, for nothing helps what ails me, neither cool, nor water, nor shade. Yet I shall no longer seek the cool, water, or shade for my ardor, so sweltering and cruel, cannot be the least bit dampened by fountains, or forests. 15 Yet I shall always follow my beautiful Sun so that then a new Salamander in the fire142 I live happily, thanks to the divine ray. Alas, why does the burning ray not illuminate me wherever I go, either in the sun, or the shade? 20 Happily I would suffer that sweet fire, and content I would die by his great ardor. But I no longer hope (alas) that the Sun 141. In order to maintain the structure of the sestina, I have not altered the words that I chose to use for the translation—“sun” (“sole”), “fire” (“foco”), “shade” (“ombra”), “forests” (“boschi”), “ray” (“raggio”), and—the most difficult choice—“ardor” (“vampo”), which I was tempted to alternate with “flame.” I have also attempted, when possible, to keep the rhyme words at the end of each line. The sestina figures as a poetic tour de force and thus it is not surprising that d’Aragona chose to conclude the first section of her sequence, that is, the one comprised of poems solely by her, with it. There is a variant version of this sestina that is found at BAV, Ottoboniano latino 1591, 118v–119v; given that from l. 15 on, it differs from the version that was published, I have included it in this edition; see poem 120. 142. On account of Pliny’s description in his Natural History, legend recounted that the salamander had the ability to live in fire; hence its use as an image in love lyric. Gaspara Stampa later makes the same use of this image in her “Amor m’ha fatto tal ch’io vivo in foco,” in The Complete Poems: The 1554 Edition of the Rime, A Bilingual Edition, trans. Jane Tylus and ed. Troy Tower and Jane Tylus (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 208.

Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona 117 might discover such a clear day in these forests. Thus I shall always hate the mountains, and the forests 25 that hide from me the light of that ray that shines, and warms more than the other Sun.143 Blame who you will, and may you flee from the light to the shade, but I myself shall always seek and praise the ardor that burns and consumes me in such a powerful fire. 30 Thus inasmuch as I would be pleased by the fire, the mountains, and the fountains, and the forests, where I do not see my Sun, and feel his ardor, displease me If only I were able to draw nigh to my beloved ray and with my own body make shade for him 35 both when the Sun leaves, and when it returns. The Sun will go dark and cold the fire, nor will the forests ever again make shade, before the ardor will cease to burn within me for my beautiful ray.

143. The ray of love thus warms more than the sun.

SONETTI DELLA SIGNORA TULLIA, CON LE RISPOSTE SONNETS BY SIGNORA TULLIA, WITH RESPONSES 1

1. The next two sections of d’Aragona’s collection follow the proposal/response (proposta/ risposta) model whereby one poet addresses another and then the addressee responds. Largely because of these two sections (the first in which Tullia initiates the poetic correspondence and the second in which others write to her) her canzoniere has been defined a choral anthology. See my “Out of the Archive.” For the reader’s ease, I have included the addressee’s name in each dedication; they did not appear in the original publication, however, and so their names appear in brackets. I have respected the use of d’Aragona’s first name, although all her dedicatees were addressed by their last names in the dedicatory line.

120 Sonetti della Signora Tullia

39. LA TULLIA [A PORZIO] PORTIO gentile, a cui l’alma natura2 e i sacri studi han posto dentro ’l core virtù, ch’esser vi fa primo cultore di lei, cui ’l cieco mondo hoggi non cura: poi che rendete a feconda coltura sue alpestre piagge, onde d’eterno honore semi spargete, e d’immortal valore cogliete frutti, che ’l tempo non fura: piacciavi, prego, che vostra alta mente a l’humil pianta mia volga il pensiero, s’ella forse non n’è del tutto indegna. Che di quel, che per me poter non spero, col favor vostro a la futura gente di maraviglia anchor si farà degna. 39. TULLIA 3 [TO PORZIO] Gentle PORZIO,4 to whom bountiful nature and sacred studies have placed in your heart virtue, which makes you the highest authority of that, about which the blind world today does not care;5 2. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE. 3. Note the use of her first name only. 4. Simone Porzio (1496–1554) was a Neapolitan physician and natural philosopher who lectured at the University of Pisa from 1546 to 1552. He also knew Duke Cosimo personally and was elected as a “father” of the Florentine Academy after the purging of August 1547 (see Plaisance, L’accademia, 228). Giovan Battista Gelli, in fact, translated many of Porzio’s works—from a treatise on eye color to the motions of the soul to explorations of volcanoes— from the Latin into the vernacular. For a succinct appraisal of Porzio’s philosophical import, see Charles B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner, and Eckhard Kessler, The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 519–21; for more extensive and recent commentary, see Eva Del Soldato, Simone Porzio: Un aristotelico tra natura e grazia (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2010). 5. The feminine pronoun “lei” at the beginning of l. 4, which has no gender in English (“that”), possibly refers to philosophy instead of virtue, as it should according to its grammatical antecedent. It would make more sense considering the addressee and the rest of the poem, and it possibly refers to Petrarch’s “La gola e ’l sonno et l’oziose piume”; see Rvf, 7. I thank Virginia Cox for this interpretation.

Sonnets by Signora Tullia 121 since you reap from its mountainous heights6 fruitful cultivation, so that you sow seeds of eternal honor and of immortal valor, gather the fruits, which time cannot pilfer. May it please you that your high mind turn its attention to my humble plant,7 if perchance it is not entirely unworthy. For that which by myself I cannot hope to attain, with your favor for future generations will still be worthy of wonder. 40. IL PORTIO [A TULLIA] Hor qual penna d’ingegno m’assecura8 di poter appressarmi al gran valore di quella, che di pregio alto e d’honore ornarmi con sue rime ha tanta cura? La debil pianta mia da sé non dura, et se prende crescendo alcun vigore, nudrita è dal fecondo vostro humore che tal frutto non vien d’altra coltura. Ma se di quella vostra le semente sempre mi trovo al petto, né più spero sentir d’essa già mai cosa più degna, scorgete adunque col giudicio intero che tutte l’altre voglie in me son spente, et vive quel ch’amor di voi m’insegna. 6. The possessive pronoun “its” refers to the “lei” of l. 4, possibly philosophy, which is not however mentioned in the sonnet. 7. The term “pianta” (“plant”) has a vast, illustrious poetic tradition. I was tempted to use the term “tree,” as one of its meanings pertains to a bloodline or family lineage. In a subsequent poem, however, d’Aragona uses the plant metaphor and its offshoots, and thus I thought it was better to maintain the term here. For some of its rich history, see Petrarch, Rvf, 64 and 318, Dante, Paradiso, 9.127 (“La tua città, che di colui è pianta”), Gambara, Rime e lettere di Veronica Gambara raccolte da Felice Rizzardi (Brescia: Giammaria Rizzardi, 1759), 40 (“Dico di voi, o de l’altera pianta,/ felice ramo del ben nato lauro”), and Stampa, The Complete Poems, 302 (“Io per me son quasi un terreno asciutto,/ sono una pianta abbandonata e vile”). 8. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

122 Sonetti della Signora Tullia

40. PORZIO [TO TULLIA] Now which clever quill assures me that I may approach the excellence of her who, of such high worth and honor, takes such care to adorn me with her verses? My frail plant will not last on its own, and if by growing it gathers any vigor, it is nourished by your fecund humor,9 for such a fruit does not come from any other cultivation. Yet if always I come face to face with the seeds of your plant, nor do I hope any longer to ever hear something worthier about it, recognize therefore with full judgment that all other desires in me have been extinguished, and alive [are] those which my love for you teaches me. 41. LA TULLIA [A MUZIO] Fiamma gentil, che da gli interni lumi10 con dolce folgorar in me discendi, mio intenso affetto lietamente prendi, come è usanza a’ tuoi santi costumi. Poi che con l’alta tua luce m’allumi, et sì soavemente il cor m’accendi, ch’ardendo lieto vive, e lo difendi, che forza di vil foco nol consumi, et con la lingua fai che ’l rozzo ingegno caldo dal caldo tuo cerchi inalzarsi per cantar tue virtuti in mille parti, io spero anchor a l’età tarda farsi noto, che fosti tal, che stil più degno uopo era, e che mi fu gloria l’amarti. 9. I have preserved the cognate term, although the meaning refers to the original sense of moisture, which remains, in English, with the theory of the four humors. In this instance, however, the metaphor refers more to the liquid or juice of a plant. 10. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

Sonnets by Signora Tullia 123

41. TULLIA [TO MUZIO] Gentle flame, which from inner lights11 into me descends with sweet brilliance, joyfully accept my intense devotion, as is befitting your saintly ways. Since with your bright light you illuminate me, and so gently kindle my heart, which burning lives joyfully, so too you defend it, so that the strength of the ignoble fire12 does not consume it, and through your words you make my rough intellect, warmed by your warmth, seek to rise to sing your virtues on a thousand shores, I hope even at an advanced age to make it known, that you were such, that a worthier style was wanted, and that loving you gave me glory. 42. IL MUTIO [A TULLIA] Quai d’eloquenza fien sì chiari fiumi13 luce, che d’alto ardor mio core incendi, ch’aguagli tua virtù? Se là ’ve splendi a superno desio l’anime impiumi? Come dinanzi a Borea nebbie, e fumi, così di là, dove tu i raggi stendi, fugge ogni vil pensier, sì ch’a noi rendi la vita in terra de i celesti numi. Et poi ch’a me non son tuoi lumi scarsi di quel splendor, che da l’eterno regno in te disceso tu fra noi comparti, di quel c’ho dentro e fuor non può mostrarsi,

11. This sonnet was republished in B 114. For commentary, see Martha Feldman, “The Courtesan’s Voice: Petrarchan Lovers, Pop Philosophy, and Oral Traditions,” in The Courtesan’s Arts, 110–11. 12. The fire is described as “vile” because it is terrestrial. 13. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

124 Sonetti della Signora Tullia faranno al mondo manifesto segno l’amarti, il celebrarti, e l’honorarti.

42. MUZIO 14 [TO TULLIA] Which among such illustrious rivers of eloquence might make light, which with lofty ardor may inflame my heart, and equal your virtue? If there where you shine you feather the souls to supernal desire?15 Just as fog and smoke before the north wind,16 so there, where you extend your rays every base thought flees, so that you render our life on earth that of celestial deities. And since to me your lights are not sparing of that splendor, which from the eternal kingdom has descended into you, [and] you distribute among us, that which I hold within and without cannot show, will offer to the world the manifest sign, that I love you, celebrate you, and honor you. 43. LA TULLIA [A VARCHI] Quel, che ’l mondo d’Invidia empie, e di duolo;17 quel, che sol di virtute è ricco, e adorno, quel, che col suo splendor un lieto giorno chiaro ne mostra a l’uno e a l’altro Polo, quel sete, VARCHI, voi: quel voi che solo fate col valor vostro oltraggio, e scorno a i più lontan, non ch’ai vicin d’intorno; ond’io v’ammiro, riverisco, e colo. Et di voi canterei mentre ch’io vivo, s’al gran suggetto il mio debile stile 14. For information on Girolamo Muzio, see sonnet 24. 15. For feathering souls, see page 194n39. 16. The northern lights. 17. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. In V2 199 at l. 3 “lieto” is “nuovo”; at l. 4, “ne” is “sì in”; at l. 11 “di gran spatio al meno” is “di lontano almeno”; and at l. 12, “fosse” is “fusse”.

Sonnets by Signora Tullia 125 giunger potesse di gran spatio al meno.18 O pur non fosse a voi noioso, e schivo, questo mio dire scemo, e troppo humile: che per voi renderassi altero, e pieno.

43. TULLIA [TO VARCHI] That, which fills the world with Envy, and pain;19 that, which with virtue alone is rich, and adorned, that, which with its splendor one happy day clearly reveals one Pole to the other,20 that you are, VARCHI:21 you alone who through your excellence render insult, and scorn22 to those furthest away, as well as to those close by; thus I admire, revere, and venerate you. And I would sing about you as long as I live, if only such a grand subject my weak style were at least able to reach such a great distance. Or rather if they were not to you bothersome, and disagreeable, these inadequate words of mine, and too humble, which for you I would render lofty, and full.

18. Celani altered “al meno” to “almeno.” 19. This exchange was republished by Benedetto Varchi in his De’ sonetti, part 1 (Florence: Torrentino, 1557), 199. This sonnet may be d’Aragona’s attempt to support Varchi in the face of the many criticisms and attacks that he was subjected to at the hands of some of his detractors in the Florentine Academy. See the introduction, pages 42–43, and see Zanrè, Cultural Non-Conformity, 141–49. For comment on this exchange, see Jones, Currency of Eros, 107–9. 20. In other words, Varchi’s brilliance is so bright that it illuminates the entire world at the same time, from one pole to the other. 21. For information on Varchi, see the introduction and sonnet 21. 22. The expression “oltraggio e scorno” does not derive from the Petrarchan canon but comes instead from Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (7.8) and is later used by Chiara Matraini and Veronica Franco. In other words, Varchi’s own excellence provokes a response of “insult and scorn” from his detractors who are motivated largely by “Envy.”

126 Sonetti della Signora Tullia

44. IL VARCHI [A TULLIA] Se da i bassi pensier talhor m’involo,23 et me medesmo in me stesso ritorno; s’al ciel, lasciato ogni terren soggiorno, sopra l’ali d’amor poggiando volo; quest’è sol don di voi, TULLIA, al cui solo lume mi specchio, e quanto posso adorno là ’ve sempre con voi lieto soggiorno, da santo, e bel disio levato a volo. Et se quel, che entro ’l cor ragiono, e scrivo del vostro alto valor, Donna gentile, c’havete quanto può bramarsi a pieno, ridir potessi, o beato, anzi Divo me, per me proprio tutto oscuro, e vile se non quant’ho da voi pregio, e sereno. 44. VARCHI [TO TULLIA] If from base thoughts occasionally I flee and me myself into myself return24 if to the skies, having left every earthly sojourn, resting on the wings of love, I fly; this is only a gift from you, TULLIA, in whose sole light I see myself, and as much as I can, I adorn myself there where always with you I sojourn happily, lifted aloft by a saintly, and beautiful desire.25 And if that, which inside my heart I speak, and write, of your great excellence, gentle Lady, of which you have as much as one could [ever] desire, I were able to recount, o blessed me, indeed Divine,

23. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 24. Varchi is echoing Petrarch’s “di me medesimo meco mi vergogno” (l. 11 of his proemial sonnet). 25. In V2 “santo” is “dolce,” and therefore instead of a “saintly desire,” his desire is “sweet.”

Sonnets by Signora Tullia 127 [although] myself completely obscure, and base, if not for that serene excellence which I have from you.26

45. LA TULLIA [A VARCHI] Se ’l ciel sempre sereno e verdi i prati27 sieno al bel gregge tuo, dolce pastore, vero d’Arcadia, e di Toscana honore, più chiaro fra i più chiari e più pregiati; se tanto in tuo favor girino i fati, che mai tor non ti possa il dato core Philli, né tu a lei tuo santo amore, onde vi gridi ogni huom saggi, e beati, dinne, caro DAMON, s’alma sì vile, et sì cruda esser può, ch’essendo amata renda in vece d’amor tormenti e morte?28 Ch’io temo (lassa) se ’l tuo dotto stile non mi leva il dubbiar, d’esser pagata di tal mercede, sì dura è mia sorte. 45. TULLIA [TO VARCHI] If only the sky were always serene and the fields green29 for your beautiful flock, o sweet shepherd, truly the honor of Arcadia,30 and of Tuscany, 26. In V2 199, the last tercet reads “You were to feel, o just as your divine light/ inflames me, I would indeed become from obscure, and timid/ perhaps dear to another, to myself certainly serene” (“Senteste, o come il vostro raggio divo/ m’incende, ben sarei d’oscuro, e vile/ forse Altrui caro, a me certo sereno”). 27. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Varchi republished this exchange in V2 201. 28. The question mark is found in V2. 29. This exchange was also republished in V2 201 and in B 114. Tucked in between this and the earlier exchange were two other correspondence sonnets between d’Aragona and Varchi (“VARCHI mostrivi Amore ogni mio affetto” and his response “TULLIA se come ’l bel, così il perfetto”), which were republished by Bausi, “Con agra zampogna,” 84, and appear in this volume in the miscellaneous poems; see sonnets 138–39. 30. Arcadia is an isolated, mountainous region of Greece that acquired special significance after Vergil situated his eclogues there. It became the idealized pastoral home of the god Pan

128 Sonetti della Signora Tullia most eminent among the most eminent and most worthy; if only so much in your favor were the fates to turn,31 that Philli32 may never be able to take from you her heart [once bestowed], nor you your saintly love from her, so that every man may proclaim you wise and blessed, say, dear DAMON,33 if a soul can be so base and so cruel, that being loved it renders, instead of love, torment and death? For I fear (alas) if your learned style and other shepherds. 31. Although in the previous sonnet exchange d’Aragona and Varchi used the formal “voi,” in this exchange they employ the informal “tu”. 32. Manacorda identified d’Aragona as Philli but added that most of the pastoral poems devoted to the love between Damone and Filli are more properly described as a “dream of the poetic mind”—in other words, not factual; see Guido Manacorda, Benedetto Varchi: L’uomo, il poeta, il critico (Pisa: Fratelli Nistri, 1903), 87–88. Pirotti, however, notes that the exchange does not unequivocably equate Philli with d’Aragona. Moreover, given that Varchi had claimed that the sonnets were a work of his youth, written on hills below Fiesole during the rule of Duke Alessandro, Pirotti said that Philli could not be d’Aragona because she and Varchi did not spend time with one another until 1546 (Benedetto Varchi, 203– 4). Lo Re instead suggests that Philli is a metaphor for the city of Florence (La crisi della libertà, 186–87). I would tend to agree with Manacorda in that poetically there does seem significant evidence for identifying Philli with d’Aragona, yet the narrative that the poems recount clearly need not refer to reality. Philli is referred to in the third person, but this may merely be part of the playful aspect of the pastoral genre, which allows for double identities or masks. It is entirely possibly, however, that Philli is both a metaphor for a sentiment that may have been for a woman or also for a city, as Lo Re suggests, yet one need not cancel out the other. In this sense, Manacorda’s reference to a poetic dream seems appropriate. For a series of Varchi’s pastoral poems about Filli and Damone, see Giolito’s 1548 second book of Rime di diversi, which is available online at rasta.unipv.it. The sonnets were later reprinted, in a different order, in Varchi’s Componimenti pastorali (Bologna: Giovanni Battista e Cesare Salvietti, 1577), n.p. I was only able to consult the 1577 edition; the first edition appeared the previous year. One element that would favor the interpretation of d’Aragona as Filli is that near the end in Varchi’s 1577 publication, appear the lines “If of your old and so dear Filli/ you remember still, to whom above the Mugnone River, so sweetly you sang, wise Damone/ Whom perhaps today you do not sound out so softly” (“Se dell’antica tua sì cara Filli/ sovvienti ancor, cui già sopra il Mugnone,/ dolce cantasti sì, saggio Damone,/ che non forse hoggi sì soave squilli”). The verses in the cycle also mention two turtledoves of Filli’s that Damon keeps; Varchi had given two turtledoves to d’Aragona, although they died on the way to the countryside; see letter 2 in this edition. 33. Damon is Varchi’s pastoral appellative.

Sonnets by Signora Tullia 129 does not dispel my doubts, I will be paid with such recompense,34 so harsh is my fortune.

46. IL VARCHI [A TULLIA] Nimpha, di cui per boschi, o fonti, o prati35 non vide mai più bella alcun pastore; ver di Diana, e de le Muse honore,36 cui più inchinano sempre i più pregiati:37 così siano a DAMON men feri i fati, né gli renda mai Philli il dato core; et ella arda per lui di santo amore più ch’altri fosser mai lieti, e beati: com’alma esser non può sì cruda, e vile, la quale essendo veramente amata non ami un cor gentil già presso a morte. Dunque s’a dotto no, ma fido stile credi, Ama, e non dubbiar, che ben pagata sarà d’alta mercé tua dolce sorte. 46. VARCHI [TO TULLIA] Nymph, whom in the forests, fountains, or fields38 no shepherd has ever seen more beautiful; true honor of Diana and the Muses,39 34. For information on the idea of “mercede” in the courtly love and subsequent poetic tradition, see page 108n120. 35. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Not only does Varchi respond with the same rhyme scheme in this sonnet, but he also uses the exact same words in rhyme. 36. The variant in V2 is “O delle grazie, o delle Muse honore.” 37. The variant in V2 is “Più cara sempre a’ più cari, e pregiati.” 38. In his response, Varchi has adopted the exact same rhyme words in the same order of d’Aragona’s proposal sonnet. 39. Diana is a Roman goddess of the forest, nature, and chastity and was considered a protector of women; she was associated with the Greek goddess Artemis. She had a temple on the Aventine, and her most famous cult was in Ariccia, on Lake Nemi in the Alban hills. The Muses, usually nine, were goddesses of all intellectual pursuits, and each presided over a particular art: Calliope, epic poetry; Clio, history; Euterpe, flute-playing (and lyric

130 Sonetti della Signora Tullia to whom bow ever more often the most worthy: may the fates be less cruel with DAMON, nor may Philli ever give back to him his heart once bestowed and may she burn for him with saintly love40 more than others who have ever been happy, and blessed: just as a soul cannot be so harsh or base, that being truly loved, it may not love a gentle heart41 already close to death. Therefore, if not in a learned, but trusted style you believe: Love,42 and do not doubt, for well-rewarded with lofty recompense43 will be your sweet fortune.

47. LA TULLIA [A UGOLINO MARTELLI] Più volte, UGOLIN mio, mossi il pensiero44 per risonar con la zampogna mia vostra rara virtute, e cortesia, poggiando al ciel col bel suggetto altero. Ma (lassa) in van m’affanno (o destin fero) che roco è ’l suono, e la mia sorte ria, sì dietro a i miei dolor tutta m’invia, che levarmi da terra unqua non spero. Cantino altri di voi tanti pastori, che pascon le lor gregge a l’Arno intorno, a cui le Muse, a cui fortuna è amica; io, s’unqua al mio felice stato torno,

poetry, which accompanied the flute); Melpomene, tragedy; Terpsichore, dancing and song; Erato, the lyre and erotic lyric poetry; Polyhymnia, hymns to the gods and, later, pantomine; Urania, astronomy; and Thalia, comedy and bucolic poetry. Thalia is also the name of one of the Graces, see page 132n50. 40. In V2, “santo” (“saintly”) is replaced with “saldo” (“solid, sound, or sturdy”). 41. For the cor gentil, see page 218n124. 42. This is an imperative, thus “you must love.” 43. “Mercé” derives from “mercede,” meaning “compensation; prize; award.” See page 108n120. 44. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

Sonnets by Signora Tullia 131 non pur non tacerò miei santi ardori, ma voi sarete mia maggior fatica.

47. TULLIA [TO UGOLINO MARTELLI] 45 Many times, my dear UGOLINO, have I thought to resound with my bagpipe46 your rare virtue and courtesy ascending to the skies with such a lofty subject. But (alas) in vain I struggle (o cruel destiny) for rasping is the sound, and my fortune grim, so fully does it send me in pursuit of my sorrows, that to rise from the ground I hope no longer. May they sing of you the many other shepherds47 who graze their flocks near the Arno, to whom the Muses and fortune are friendly; I, if ever to my happy state shall return, not only will I not silence my saintly passion, but you will be my greatest undertaking. 48. UGOLINO MARTELLI [A TULLIA] Se bella voi così le Gratie fero,48 che pari al mondo non fu mai, né sia; et se le Muse con pietà natia49 il dolcissimo latte anchor vi diero; qual piena voce, e qual giudicio intero, il valor giunto a somma leggiadria, et scorgere, e cantar sì ben potria, ch’al men di lunge ne apparisce il vero? 45. For information on Ugolino Martelli, see sonnet 20. This sonnet was republished in B 115. 46. Both the bag and reed pipe are the traditional instruments of the shepherds. 47. Note the continuation of the pastoral metaphor that figures poets as shepherds. For an extended use of this metaphor, see Muzio’s “Tirhennia.” 48. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE. 49. See Petrarch, “Col governo di sua pietà natia,” (Rvf, 206.40).

132 Sonetti della Signora Tullia Questi, che vostri sono, alteri honori, et fanno altrui veracemente adorno, scemar non può fortuna aspra, e nimica. Et questa spero che di giorno in giorno haverete con doti assai maggiori di fosca, e trista homai lieta e aprica.

48. UGOLINO MARTELLI [TO TULLIA] If so lovely the Graces50 made you, whose equal in the world has never been, nor will be,51 and if the Muses with innate compassion their sweetest milk still gave you, what full voice, and thorough judgment might discern and sing so well your excellence joined together with the utmost elegance so that the truth of it appears even from afar? These lofty honors, which are yours, and which make others truly adorned, cannot be diminished by bitter, cruel fortune. And I hope that day by day with even greater gifts you will have fortune once dark and sad [turn] now joyful and limpid.

50. The Graces, personifications of grace and beauty, were usually three in number and were attendants of Venus and the Muses. They are generally said to be three sisters named Euphrosyne, Thalia, and Aglaea and were represented as naked often holding hands. 51. The subjunctive masks in the Italian the future meaning.

SONETTI DI DIVERSI ALLA S[IGNORA] TULLIA, CON LE RISPOSTE DI LEI SONNETS BY OTHERS TO SIGNORA TULLIA, WITH HER RESPONSES

134 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia

49. LATTANTIO DE’ BENUCCI [A TULLIA] Deh, non volgete altrove il dotto stile,52 altera donna, ch’a voi stessa, poi che scorge il mondo esser accolto in voi quant’ha del pellegrino, e del gentile. Appo questo suggetto incolto, e vile, divien qual più pregiato hoggi è tra noi: et col splendor de’ vivi raggi suoi chiaro si mostra ognihor da Battro a Thile. Voi dunque di voi sola alzare il nome dovete, poi ch’a sì pregiato segno giunger non puote il più purgato inchiostro. Quindi vedrassi apertamente come non è di lode altri di voi più degno; né stil, che giunga al dolce cantar vostro.

52. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 135

49. LATTANZIO BENUCCI 53 [TO TULLIA] Pray do not direct your learned style,54 lofty Lady, anywhere but to yourself, for the world perceives that gathered in you is all that it has of extraordinary and gentle.55 53. Lattanzio Benucci (1521–98) was born in Siena to nobleman Mariano Benucci and Girolama Campana. Although a student of law at the University of Siena, Benucci from early on wrote poetry in various meters—an interest he may have acquired from his mother who also wrote verse. Upon completing his studies at a very early age, he received a lectureship in the same university. Benucci’s familiy militated in favor of the Nove faction, and in 1543 he was forced to abandon Siena for Colle. The following year he was sent as an ambassador for the Sienese Noveschi to Duke Cosimo, who hosted him in the family palace in via Larga. Although Benucci and d’Aragona had probably already met in Siena before 1543, by late 1545 or early 1546 they began to spend time with one another in Florence. D’Aragona includes Benucci, in fact, as an interlocutor in her dialogue On the Infinity of Love. They may well have continued their relationship later in Rome, as his first position there—once he had abandoned Florence and hopes of returning to Siena—was in the service of Cardinal Antonio Trivulzio, one of the executors of Tullia d’Aragona’s will. In the late 1540s Benucci went to Rome, in part because his mother was there in the service of several Roman families, and he served in various capacities as a courtier for families such as the Farnese, Cervini, and Carafa, eventually traveling through Italy and Europe. While in Naples (from 1562 until 1565) he was active in reformist circles surrounding Giulia Gonzaga. Upon Alfonso Carafa’s death in 1565, Benucci returned to Siena and married Dorotea Tancredi in 1567. In 1569 he began to work in Florence as a magistrate for the Mercanzia, a post he held until his death in August 1598. In his later years Benucci was extremely devout and participated in a number of confraternities. Much of his earlier vernacular comedies as well as his numerous juridical works and expositions on scripture are lost. Two public commemorations of his death were held, one in the Church of S. Stefano and the other in the court of the Mercanzia. The two orations, both of which are published (and are included in the BAV manuscript of his works), are significant sources of his biography; see BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, ff.371r–386r. 54. Both this sonnet and the following appear in a manuscript at the BAV, as noted by Ballistreri, although in reverse order, that is d’Aragona’s sonnet is the proposal and Benucci’s the response; see BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, 315r, and Gianni Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica di Tullia d’Aragona,” Il Mamiani: Annali del Liceoginnasio statale Terenzio Mamiani 3 (1968): 3–15. A significant variant between the published version and the manuscript is the adjective used to describe d’Aragona’s style in the first line of the sonnet: in the published version, it is “learned” (“dotto”), but in Benucci’s manuscript, it is “vago” or “beautiful,” “lovely,” yet also “errant.” For other examples of the variants between manuscript and printed versions of sonnets to or by d’Aragona, see Hairston, “Di sangue illustre”, especially 172–75. 55. The adjectives in this line have multiple meanings: “pellegrino” means singular or exotic, but also wandering or foreign; “gentile” can mean kind but also noble. Cfr. sonnet 55, l. 4.

136 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia Then this uncouth, lowly subject becomes the most excellent thing among us: and with the splendor of its bright rays brilliantly it will always shine from Bactria to Thule.56 You alone therefore must elevate your own name, since to such an excellent mark not even the purest ink can reach. Thus one will plainly see how there is no one else more worthy of praise than you, nor style, which may equal your sweet song.

50. LA TULLIA [A LATTANZIO BENUCCI] Io, ch’ a ragion tengo me stessa a vile,57 né scorgo parte in me, che non m’annoi, bramando tormi a morte, e viver poi ne le carte d’un qualche a voi simile, cercando vo per questo lieto Aprile d’ingegni mille, non pur uno o doi suggetti degni de i più alti Heroi, et d’inchiostro al mio tutto dissimile. Però dovunque avien, che mai si nome alteramente alcuno, indi m’ingegno trar rime, onde s’eterni il nome nostro. Et spero anchor, se ’l mio cangiar di chiome non rende pigro questo ardito ingegno, d’Helicona salire al sacro chiostro.

56. Bactria was an ancient territory in Central Asia. Thule was defined by the Greek explorer Pythaes as being a six-day sail from Britain and represents, according to the Greeks, the northernmost part of the world; “from Bactria to Thule” is a common expression that means “to the four corners of the earth.” See Petrarch, Rvf, 146.10, and Stampa, The Complete Poems, 89.11, 242.1, and 268.11. 57. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 137

50. TULLIA [TO LATTANZIO BENUCCI] I, who rightly consider myself lowly,58 nor do I discern any part of me, that doesn’t distress me yearning to escape death, and to live then in the pages of someone similar to you; I go searching this happy April for a thousand strategies,59 not merely one or two subjects worthy of Heroes most grand, and for an ink completely dissimilar to my own.60 Yet wherever it may happen, that loftily61 someone is mentioned, there I strive to draw out rhymes,62 so that our name be rendered eternal.63 And I still hope, if the changing of my locks64 does not make laggard this my bold design,65 to climb to the sacred cloister of Helicon.66

58. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, 315r. In the manuscript version, d’Aragona’s sonnet appears first and Benucci’s responds to hers. A common characteristic of the proposal/response (proposta/risposta) model is that the response uses the same term or terms in response. In this instance, the “vile” of Benucci is used by d’Aragona in her incipit. 59. D’Aragona puns here with “ingegni” to suggest “strategies” but also “genuises” or “intellects.” 60. Is this an implicit recognition of the stylistic difference between the epideictic Petrarchist verse that she has written up to that point with that required of the epic Meschino that she was just beginning to compose? Note also the second tercet in which she recognizes the time required to write such a lengthy text. 61. Note Benucci’s earlier “altera Donna” that she recalls with the adverb “loftily” or “proudly.” 62. In the Italian, the phrase “tormi a morte” precedes “trar[re] rime.” 63. Here d’Aragona recognizes that both parties in the poetic exchange gain immortality, whereas she usually calls attention to her own search for fame. 64. Another reference to her aging. 65. Note the use of rima equivoca (deployment of the same word but with a different grammatical function), which I was unable to replicate, of “ingegno” as verb in l. 10 and as noun in v. 13. 66. The cloister of Mount Helicon was a sanctuary where the Muses often resided; it functions as a site of poetic inspiration.

138 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia

51. IL MUTIO [A TULLIA] Donna, il cui gratioso, e altero aspetto,67 e ’l parlar pien d’angelica armonia scorgon qual alma presso a lor s’invia a contemplare il ben de l’intelletto, deh così amor non mai m’ingombri ’l petto d’humil disir, né mai di gelosia gustiate ’l tosco: e sempre intenta68 sia a l’interna beltade il vostro affetto; date, vi prego, a me vera novella de l’alma mia, che del mio core uscita voi seguendo è venuta a farsi bella. Che se da voi la misera è sbandita, ella senza voi stando, e io senz’ella, non ritrovo al mio scampo alcuna aita. 51. MUZIO 69 [TO TULLIA] Lady, whose graceful and lofty appearance, and whose words full of angelic harmony, discern which soul that is sent to them70 to contemplate the goodness of intellect, ah, may love not burden my breast with lowly desire, nor may you71 ever taste the poison of jealousy, and may your affection be attentive always to your inner beauty. 67. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 68. I have not corrected to “intento.” 69. For information on Girolamo Muzio, see sonnet 24 as well as the introduction. 70. This exchange of sonnets regarding the spiritual journey of a soul in love makes use of neo-Platonic love theory, which was prevalent in the philosophy and much literature of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy. Bembo in the Asolani and Castiglione in The Book of the Courtier popularized Ficino’s theories and d’Aragona also participated in this debate not only through some of her poems, particularly those to Muzio, but also with her dialogue On the Infinity of Love. For further description, see note 60 in Tirrhenia and those to sonnets 65 and 69. Here the plural verb “scorgon” specifies that it is the appearance and words of the lady that perceive Muzio’s soul. 71. Note the use of the “voi.”

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 139 Give me, I beseech you, true news of my soul, for it has left my heart to follow you, and gone to make itself beautiful. For if my wretched soul is exiled by you, it being without you, and I without it, I will not find any aid for my deliverance.

52. LA TULLIA [A MUZIO] Spirto gentil, che vero, e raro oggetto72 se’ di quel bel, che più l’alma disia; et di cui brama ognihor la mente mia essere al tuo cantar caro suggetto; se di pari n’andasse in me l’effetto con le tue lode, honor render potria mia penna a te: ma poi mia sorte ria m’ha sì bramato honor tutto interdetto. Sol dirò, che seguendo la sua stella l’anima tua da te fece partita venendo in me com’in sua propria cella. Et la mia, c’hora è teco insieme unita, ten’può far chiara fede, come quella, che con la tua si mosse a cangiar vita. 52. TULLIA [TO MUZIO] Gentle spirit, what a true, rare object73 you are of that beauty, which a soul most desires, and for which my mind always yearns: to be a cherished subject of your song, if I were able to equal your effect, through my praises to you, honor to you my pen would be able to render, but then my cruel fate has completely forbidden to me this honor I so yearned for. I shall only say that to follow your star 72. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 73. This sonnet was republished in B 116.

140 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia your soul took its leave from you and came into me as if into its own cell. And mine, which is now together with yours united, can offer clear testimony to you of this, as one that together with yours moved to change its life.

53. ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI [A TULLIA] S’un medesimo stral duo petti aprio;74 s’arse duo cor d’amor un foco santo; se nascendo ’l piacer morì cotanto martir, che l’uno e l’altro già sentio: donna, e s’in somma nudrì ambo un disio, ond’è ch’in me del dir vostro altrettanto non rivolgete sì, ch’io mi dia vanto d’esser d’huom fatto un immortale Dio? Forse sì come sempre hebbi nimica la stella a i miei disir, così avien hora ch’io non goda, e non sorti una tal brama. O pur ch’ad alma sì saggia, e pudica, parlar di me basso suggetto fora: come che sia il bel vostro a sé mi chiama. 53. ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI 75 [TO TULLIA] If the same arrow opened two breasts, if two hearts were scorched by a holy fire of love, if, once born, pleasure killed such torment, which both the one and the other had already felt, Lady, and if after all both nourished one desire, why is it that you do not address your words likewise to me, so that I might boast 74. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 75. Alessandro Arrighi was a Florentine poet who also spent time in France, in Lyon. He was elected as a member of the Florentine Academy on 20 June 1544, according a letter published by Niccolò Martelli (Il primo libro, 46v). He may be mentioned by d’Aragona in letter 2. For his poems in praise of d’Aragona, see sonnets 107–9.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 141 of being a man turned into an immortal God? Perhaps just as I have always had the stars as enemy to my desires, thus it now happens that I may neither enjoy, nor attain such a longing. Or rather that for a soul so wise, and chaste, speaking of me would be too base a subject: however it may be, your beauty calls me to itself.

54. LA TULLIA [AD ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI] Spirto gentil, s’al giusto voler mio76 non è cortese il cielo, e amico tanto, ch’io possa con la ragion lodarvi quanto me fate, e io far voi spero, e disio, dolgomi del mio fato acerbo, e rio, che ciò mi niega rivolgendo in pianto il mio già lieto, e dilettoso canto, per cui fan gli occhi miei sì largo rio. Ma se fortuna mai si mostra amica a le mie voglie, non dubito anchora poter cantarvi tal qual mio cor brama, et far sentir per questa piaggia aprica quant’è ’l valor, ch’in voi mio core honora: piacciavi s’hor lo riverisce, e ama. 54. TULLIA [TO ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI] Gentle spirit, if to my just desires the skies are not so courteous, or so friendly, that I may with reason praise you as much as you praise me, and as I hope and desire to do for you, I bewail my bitter, cruel fate, for it denies that to me, turning into tears my once joyous, delightful song,

76. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

142 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia so that my eyes make such a wide stream.77 Yet if fortune should ever prove herself a friend to my desires, I no longer doubt that I would be able to sing for you that which my heart yearns and to sound out on this airy hilltop78 how great is the excellence that my heart honors in you: may it please you if now it reveres and loves it.79

55. NICOLO MARTELLI [A TULLIA] Se ’l mondo diede alhor la gloria a ARPINO 80 d’eloquenza immortale alta, e profonda, la vostra al nome egual gli vien seconda, TULLIA, di sangue illustre e pellegrino; il cui spirto reale, almo e divino sovra l’uso mortal di gratie abonda, in guisa tal, che l’honorata sponda de l’Arbia insino al ciel tocca il confino. E ’l bel chiaro Arno, ora di voi s’honora, l’antico fuor trahendo humido crine forma con l’acque in suon cotai parole; qual luce è questa o beltà senza fine, che col sommo valor le rive infiora al gel come d’April nel mezzo il Sole?

77. D’Aragona plays with the two different meanings of the word “rio” in rhyme, in l. 5. as an adjective (“cruel, harsh”) and in l. 8 as noun (“brook, stream”). 78. The “piaggia” of the original can refer to three different geographical locations—a slope, a beach, or the countryside. D’Aragona’s adjective “aprica” leads me to opt for “hill” as an elevated place in the countryside. 79. The Italian is unambiguous: “My heart reveres and loves your excellence.” 80. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 143

55. NICCOLO’ MARTELLI 81 [TO TULLIA] If the world gave then glory to ARPINO 82 for an eloquence immortal, lofty, and profound, yours, equal in name, came to it second.83 81. Niccolò Martelli (1498–1555) was a member of a wealthy Florentine mercantile family and cousin of the better known Lodovico and Ugolino Martelli, both of whom were also poetic correspondents of d’Aragona (see sonnets 20, 47, 48, 59, and 60 for her exchanges with Ugolino Martelli and 113 for Lodovico Martelli’s sonnet in praise of d’Aragona). Together with Giovanni Mazzuoli, Antonfrancesco Grazzini, and Simone della Volta (see sonnet 114), Niccolò was one of the founders of the Accademia degli umidi and remained very active after its transformation into the Florentine Academy, also serving as consul. Martelli’s literary activities were, according to his letters, encouraged by Pietro Aretino, whom he met in Rome in the early 1520s. Throughout the 1530s Martelli wrote in various poetic meters—stanze, sonnets, terze rime (much of which poetic production was undertaken in relation to the Medici). Although he wrote throughout his lifetime, very little was published while he was living, and most of what he wrote remains to this day in manuscript. In 1546 Anton Francesco Doni published Martelli’s First Book of Letters in Florence; his second letter book remains in an autograph manuscript at the BNCF; see Magliabechiano VIII 1447. For information about him and his extant literary production, see Elisabetta Stumpo, “Niccolò Martelli,” in DBI 71 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana 2008), 61–64; for his involvement with the Accademia degli umidi and the Florentine Academy, see Plaisance, L’accademia, 54–56, 70–72, 90–93, 136–40, and 175–76; for a new transcription of his first book of letters, see the version edited by Barnaba Lucchesi at nuovorinasicmento.org/ cinquecento/martelli.pdf. 82. Arpino (near Frosinone, in the Latium) is the birthplace of Cicero whose full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero. Martelli makes his comparison more explicit in his letter to d’Aragona in his second book of letters: “About public and private eloquence I shall not speak. For if then there was a Tullius of Arpinum, today in the world there is a Tullia d’Aragona, whom one can truly call second in honor, to whom lofty Poetry and noble Philosophy make a celestial composition, which is diffused through your pen. The pages rejoice with marvel at being inscribed by such a learned hand, and, in sum, not only do you supersede both Sappho and Corinna and the others who found fame, but with the courtesy of your high nobility you worthily pass beyond whomever one boasts about or prizes today” (“Della eloquenza in privato e in pubblico non parlo; perchè se alhora fu un TULLIO d’Arpino, hoggi è nel mondo una TULLIA D’ARAGONA, che veramente si può ben dire honor secondo, a cui l’alma Poesia et la nobil Filosofia fanno un componimento celeste, che diffuso pel mezzo della penna vostra, con meraviglia si rallegrano le carte a esser vergate da così dotta mano; e in somma, non pure avanzate et Saffo et Corinna et l’altre ch’ebber fama, ma con la cortesia dell’alta Nobiltà vostra degnamente trapassate di lodi qual più si vanti o pregi nel secol nostro” [BNCF, Magliabechiano VIII 1447, 119r]). 83. Tullia is equal to Cicero in name (Marcus Tullius Cicero) and second to him in eloquence.

144 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia TULLIA of illustrious and exceptional84 blood, whose regal and divine spirit abounds in graces beyond human wont, in such a way that the honored bank of the Arbia85 touches the edge of the sky.86 And the beautiful, limpid Arno,87 by you now is honored, plucking up its venerable, humid crest, forms into sounds with its waters these words: “what light is this or beauty without end,88 which with sublime excellence adorns the banks with flowers during the frost just as the sun does in the middle of April?”89

56. LA TULLIA [A NICCOLÒ MARTELLI] Ben fu felice vostro alto destino,90 poi che vena vi die’ tanto feconda, che ’l santo Apollo il vostro dir seconda più ch’ei non fece al suo diletto Lino. Il choro de le Muse a capo chino lieto v’honora, e ’l bel crin vi circonda di vaghi fiori, e d’odorata fronda: perché ragion è ben s’a voi m’inchino. Il cantar vostro l’anime innamora; 84. “Pellegrino” denotes several meanings that are difficult to reproduce in English— exceptional but also foreign and wandering; hence a pilgrim wanders in search of something holy. Cfr. sonnet 49, l. 4. 85. The Arbia is a river that flows near Siena and thus metonymically stands for that city. 86. In Niccolò Martelli’s second book of letters the manuscript version of this exchange has “tocca il cosmo” (BNCF, Magliabechiano VIII 1447, f. 120r). 87. Martelli is referring to d’Aragona’s arrival in Florence after the uprisings of February 1546 in Siena. 88. The original is ambiguous and could also mean “what light is this, o beauty without end.” 89. Scholars have used this sonnet to date d’Aragona’s arrival in Florence during the winter of 1545–46. Niccolò Martelli refers to her arrival “al gel” (“during the frost”), and he dates the letter that accompanies his sonnet 6 March 1546; see BNCF, Magliabechiano VIII 1447, f. 119v. It is likely that she departed Siena in February 1546, after the uprisings that resulted in the deaths of several Noveschi. See Pecci, Memorie storico-critiche, vol 3, 149–57. 90. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 145 et le fa da sé stesse pellegrine che celeste virtù può, ciò che vuole. E ’n voi mirando gratie sì divine chi ha più gentil spirto più v’honora. Altri d’invidia si lamenta e dole.

56. TULLIA [TO NICCOLÒ MARTELLI] So felicitous was your grand destiny,91 since it gave you talent so fecund, that holy Apollo your words seconds92 more than he did for his beloved Linus.93 A chorus of Muses with bowed heads happily honors you, and encircles your locks with beautiful flowers, and fragrant leaves,94 for it is meet that I bow to you. Your song causes souls to fall in love and makes them of their own accord exceptional, for celestial virtue can do as it wills.95 And by seeing such divine graces in you, whoever has a gentler spirit honors you all the more. Others full of envy lament and grieve.

91. In her response sonnet, d’Aragona employs the exact same words in rhyme as Martelli uses in his proposal sonnet. This sonnet was republished in B 116. 92. D’Aragona is playing with “fecund” and “second,” which in sixteenth-century Italian print look very similar: the “s” is represented by “∫” and the “f ” by “ƒ.” I intend “second” as a verb, “to support or endorse,” and choose it to underscore her play with language, particularly because of its important position at the end of the verse. 93. Linus was the son of Apollo and a Muse and was extremely talented musically. A lament for a dead hero is called a Linus song. Martelli may be referring to the sonnets d’Aragona wrote in honor of two fallen men—Tondi and Naro. 94. D’Aragona bestows a poetic crown on Martelli. 95. See Dante, Inferno, 5.22–24.

146 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia

57. IL LASCA [A TULLIA] Se ’l vostro alto valor, Donna gentile,96 esser lodato pur dovesse in parte, uopo sarebbe al fin vergar le carte col vostro altero, e glorioso stile. Dunque voi sola a voi stessa simile, a cui s’inchina la natura, e l’arte, fate di voi cantando in ogni parte TULLIA, TULLIA suonar da Gange a Thile. Sì vedrem poi di gioia e maraviglia, et di gloria, e d’honore il mondo pieno, drizzare al vostro nome altari, e tempi. Cosa che mai con l’ardenti sue ciglia non vide il Sol rotando il ciel sereno, o ne gli antichi, o ne’ moderni tempi. 57. LASCA 97 [TO TULLIA] If your sublime excellence, Gentle Lady,98 were to be praised only in part, it would be necessary to inscribe the pages with your high and mighty style. Thus you, alone to your own self similar, 96. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 97. Antonfrancesco Grazzini (1504–84), often known by his Umidi Academy name, Il Lasca, was a Florentine author of burlesque poetry, comedies, novelle, and poetic commentaries. He was among the founding members of the Accademia degli umidi that was later transformed into the Florentine Academy but was expelled from the latter in the reform of 1546 (not enacted until 1547). Grazzini was readmitted to the Florentine Academy in 1566 and eventually helped establish the cenacle that turned into the Accademia della crusca (Academy of Bran), the foremost linguistic arbiter in Italy. Although Grazzini had been recognized as a writer since at least 1537, the exchange with d’Aragona represents the first appearance in print of his works. For information on Grazzini, see Franco Pignatti, “Antonfrancesco Grazzini (detto il Lasca),” in DBI 59 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2002), 33–40, Michel Plaisance, Antonfrancesco Grazzini dit Lasca (1505–1584): Ecrire dans la Florence des Médicis (Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2005), and, in English, Zanrè, Cultural Non-Conformity, 1–85, esp. 59–85. 98. For comment on this exchange, see Jones, Currency of Eros, 109–11.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 147 to whom Nature bows, and Art, by singing about yourself in every land, make “TULLIA, TULLIA” resound from the Ganges to Thile.99 Thus we will then see of joy and wonder and of glory and honor the world full, erecting altars and temples in your name.100 Something which never has the Sun with its ardent lashes serenely rotating across the sky seen either in ancient, or modern times.

58. LA TULLIA [AL LASCA] Io, che fin qui quasi alga ingrata, e vile101 Sprezzava in me così l’interna parte, come u’ di fuor, che tosto invecchia, e parte da noi ben spesso nel più bello Aprile, hoggi, LASCA gentil, non pur a vile non mi tengo (mercé de le tue carte) ma movo anchor la penna ad honorarte, fatta in tutto a me stessa dissimile. Et come pianta, che suggendo piglia novo licor da l’humido terreno, manda fuor frutti, e fior, benché s’attempi, tal’io potrei, sì nuovo mi bisbiglia pensier nel cor di non venir mai meno, dar forse anchor di me non bassi essempi.

99. More commonly known as Thule, an island off the northern coast of Scotland. See the other expression “from Bactria to Thule” in sonnet 49 by Lattanzio Benucci; the expression is also in Petrarch, Rvf, 146. See page 136n56. 100. See Benedetto Arrrighi’s sonnet 110, l. 9. See the introduction for a discussion of the tempio genre. 101. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

148 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia

58. TULLIA [TO LASCA] I, who up to now as an unpleasant, lowly alga,102 disdained in myself both the inner part and the outer one, which soon ages and departs103 from us very often during an April most beautiful, today, gentle LASCA, no longer unworthy do I consider myself (thanks to your pages)104 yet to honor you I move my pen, made completely dissimilar to myself.105 And just as a plant, which by sucking draws new liquor from the humid terrain, bears fruit, and flowers, even though it ages, likewise could I, for so a new thought whispers in my heart that I should never fall short,106 give still of myself perhaps not low examples. 59. UGOLINO MARTELLI [A TULLIA] Se lodando di voi quel che palese107 di fuor si mostra a le più strane genti, 102. “Alga” is a hapax in d’Aragona’s corpus, yet it is found in Bembo’s “Alma cortese, che dal mondo errante” (poem 102, l. 194, in Rime) and “Era Madonna al cerchio di sua vita” (poem 172, l. 9, Rime), in Vittoria Colonna, “Veggio d’alga e di fango omai sì carca,” in Rime, ed. Alan Bullock (Rome: Laterza, 1982), 116, and in Giovanni Della Casa’s “Già lessi, e or conosco in me, sì come” in Lirici europei del Cinquecento: Ripensando la poesia di Petrarca, eds. Gian Mario Anselmi, Keir Elam, Giorgio Forni, and Davide Monda (Milan: BUR, 2004), 407. It is obviously related to the pianta in l. 9. 103. I have tried to maintained d’Aragona’s rima equivoca (use of the same word with different grammatical functions) between “parte” as noun and as verb in ll. 2–3. 104. Note also that although he writes to her using the formal “voi,” she replies with the informal “tu.” 105. Her line echoes and contrasts with his “Dunque voi sola a voi stessa simile” (l. 5). She is unlike her pen or herself because according to her modesty topos, she has no skill at all and thus is not up to praising him, but his pages have emboldened her to try. 106. The expression implies a dawning hope or awareness that she need never be deficient. It is interesting to note the similarity of this expression (“non venire mai meno”) with the expression she uses in her dedication “non mancare a me medesima.” 107. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 149 rare bellezze, e disusati accenti, degne parole a ciò mi son contese, com’esser vi potrà larga e cortese la lingua a dir, che non tema o paventi di tante ascoste in voi virtuti ardenti, TULLIA, ch’amor divino al cor v’accese? Bontà, senno,valor, e cortesia, con l’altre mille insieme in voi cosparte, rozzamente contar forse potria; ma come rara et eccellente sia ciascuna d’esse in voi con mille carte, Mantova e Smirna a dir non basteria.

59. UGOLINO MARTELLI 108 [TO TULLIA] If to praise you for that which is clearly visible to the most disparate peoples, your rare beauties and uncommon phrases, words worthy enough have fought within me; how might language be generous and courteous, to you, in saying that it may neither be afraid of, nor fear the many ardent virtues hidden in you, TULLIA, that divine love kindled in your heart? Goodness, wisdom, courage, and courtesy, together with a thousand other virtues scattered in you, crudely I could perhaps recount, but just how rare and excellent each one of them is in you, a thousand pages would not suffice Mantua and Smyrna to say.109

108. For information on Ugolino Martelli, see sonnet 20. 109. The birthplaces of the two most famous epic poets, Vergil, who was born in Mantua, and Homer, who was born in Smyrna. Thus she has so many virtues that not even an epic poet—one who writes very long poems—would succeed in recounting them.

150 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia

60. LA TULLIA [A UGOLINO MARTELLI] Ben sono in me d’ogni virtute accese110 le voglie tutte, e gli spirti alto intenti; ma ’l poter, e l’oprar sì freddi, spenti, ch’io mi veggo haver l’hore indarno spese. Onde non lodi no; ma gravi offese mi son le rime vostre: e però tenti vostr’alto stil fra tante, e sì eccellenti mille di lui cantar più degne imprese. Ben può celar il ver finta bugia: a qualche tempo, o ’n qualche loco, o parte: ma non sì ch’ei non vinca, e ’n sella stia. Dunque per più secura, e corta via rivolgete, UGOLIN, tanta vostra arte, ch’in altrui molto, in me poco saria. 60. TULLIA [TO UGOLINO MARTELLI] All my desires for virtue are indeed111 kindled in me, and my spirits with lofty intentions, but my ability and labor so cold and spent, that I realize I have spent the hours in vain. So that not praise, no, but grave affront for me are your verses;112 among the many and so excellent thousand others attempt to sing worthier deeds challenging topics more worthy of it. Easily can the false lie hide the truth for awhile, or someplace, or in part, but not such that it may not win, and stay in the saddle.113 Therefore, on a safer, shorter route 110. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 111. For commentary on this exchange, see Ann Jones, “Bad Press,” 289–91. Jones also notes that d’Aragona—in a gesture of poetic virtuosity—responds with the same rhymes as Martelli (though not with the same words, as in Varchi’s response to her in sonnet 46). 112. Because she is unable to produce verses of equal merit. 113. “It” as the subject of this line refers to the truth in l. 9.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia 151 you should devote so much of your art, UGOLINO, which would be much for others, little for me.114

114. This line—the last of the correspondence section—is a bit opaque: she is either saying what Ugolino Martelli might want to hear, that is, by virtue of the classic modesty topos, that he should use his art for a topic worthier than her or that his art is not enough to describe her. The implication is still that she is not worthy however there is an edge to this poem with its mention of truth and falsehood that is not as evident in her other poems.”

LA TIRRHENIA DEL MUTIO ALLA SIGNORA TULLIA

TIRRHENIA

BY MUZIO TO SIGNORA TULLIA

154 Tirrhenia

ALLA VALOROSA SIGNORA TULLIA D’ARAGONA IL MUTIO IUSTI= NOPOLITANO

Cosa propria di amante è, Nobilissima Signora mia, disiderare di esser sempre, e interamente unito con la persona amata; e di qui è, che oltra il disiderio, il quale io ho, che la anima mia sia con la vostra indissolubilmente congiunta, bramo anchora che i nomi nostri insieme siano eternamente letti; e che insieme vivano chiari, e immortali. E per tanto oltra le molte altre rime, alle quali lo amor vostro mi è stato Helicona,1 e voi stata mi sete Musa favorevole, mi è nuovamente venuta fatta una nuova compositione peraventura più affettuosa, che artificiosa, nella quale ingegnato mi sono di fare un disegno di voi più particolare che altro, il quale infino ad hora io habbia visto che sia stato fatto da altrui. Et se io non ho così dotta mano, che di voi possa fare un vero ritratto,2 penso di havervi almeno ombreggiata in maniera, che sì come dalle ombre delle bellezze superiori gli animi nostri di grado in grado al disio della vera beltà sono tirati, così da questa ombra da me fatta di voi i più gentili spiriti potranno salire alla consideratione di quel vero, che è in voi. Hor quale che ella si sia, tale la vi mando; né altro vi dirò, se non che se una altra figura poteste vedere con gli occhi corporali, la quale io porto già gran tempo nell’animo, e di quella farne comparatione con voi stessa, sono securo che voi medesima non sapreste discernere se in voi, o in me sia più vera la imagine di quella forma ab eterno conceputa nella mente di Dio, alla cui simiglianza vi fabricò natura, quando “ella volse mostrar qua giù quanto là su potea.”3

1. Mount Helicon, , where the fountain of poetic inspiration is found. 2. The most obvious allusion of the literary work as a “portrait” is to Castiglione’s description of his Book of the Courtier as a portrait (ritratto) of the court of Urbino.

Tirrhenia 155

TO THE WORTHY SIGNORA TULLIA D’ARAGONA MUZIO GIUSTINOPOLITANO It is precisely the nature of the lover, my most noble Lady, to desire to be always and wholly united with the beloved. And from this it stems that beyond the desire, which I have, that my soul may be indissolubly joined with yours, I also long that our names together may be read for eternity, and that together they may live illustriously and immortally. For this reason, beyond my many other verses, to which your love has been to me Helicon,1 and you have been a favorable Muse, a new composition has come to me, perhaps more affectionate than artful, in which I have devised to make a drawing of you more specific (particolare) than any thing else I have seen done by others. And if I do not have such a learned hand, as to be capable of drawing a true portrait of you,2 I think that I have at least sketched a shadow of you in such a way that just as from the shadows of superior beauties our souls are slowly pulled towards the desire for true beauty, so from this shadow I have made of you, the most gentle spirits can rise to the contemplation (consideratione) of that truth, which is in you. Now whatever it may be, such as it is I send it to you, nor shall I say any more, if not that were you able to see with your bodily eyes another figure, which I have long been carrying in my soul, and were you to make a comparison of it with yourself, I am certain that you yourself would not be able to discern whether in you or in me may be the truest image of that form conceived ab eterno in the mind of God, in whose similarity nature fabricated you, when she wanted “to show down here what she is capable of up above.”3

3. Muzio is quoting Petrarch, Rvf, 159.4. My translation. Nature is personified as feminine due to its grammatical gender.

156 Tirrhenia

TIRRHENIA

EGLOGA 4 DEL MUTIO INTERLOCUTORI DAMETA, ET TIRSE. L’HERBOSO Prato, i verdeggianti Allori, l’aura soave, e ’l bel rivo corrente m’invitan seco a far lieto soggiorno, et ragionar del mio soave foco. Muse, Muse, mentr’io di lei favello, avolgetemi alcun di questi rami intorno al crine; e non mi siate avare del favor vostro; i’ canto il vostro honore. Et tu, TITIRO mio,5 mentr’io ricorro quel che mi detta Amor,6 le mie parole va ricogliendo, e ’n quel surgente tronco le ripon di tua man; col tronco insieme surgeranno il suo nome, e i nostri amori. TIRSE: Dunque havrò da lodar la mia fortuna, che qui a quest’hora ha volto il mio camino; che, se brami, DAMETA,7 che ’l suo nome per le piante si legga, non ti dee noiar che TIRSE,8 tuo fedele amico, l’oda suonar anchor per la tua lingua.

5

10

15

4. An eclogue is a pastoral poem, often in dialogue. Pastoral poetry originated with the Greek idylls of Theocritus, who wrote poems representing the life of Sicilian shepherds. Vergil’s Latin Eclogues, also known as the Bucolics, imitate Theocritus’s idylls, although he moved the setting from Sicily to Arcadia, a mountaneous region of Greece. The conventions of pastoral poetry are that shepherds in rural settings discuss nostalgically the supposedly simple, free life in the countryside, a place far from the corrupting influences of the city and civilization. Often these discussions are allegorized critiques of the urban life supposedly left behind. Muzio dedicated seven eclogues in Italian to d’Aragona, and Tirrhenia is but one example. All seven were published in the first book of his eclogues under the title “Le amorose;”

Tirrhenia 157

TIRRHENIA ECLOGUE 4 BY MUZIO

INTERLOCUTORS DAMETA, and TIRSE The GRASSY field, and green laurel trees, the light breeze, and pleasant, running stream invite me for a joyful visit and to speak of my delightful fire. Muses, Muses, while I speak of her, wrap some of these sprigs around my crown, and do not be stingy with your favor: I sing your glory. And you, my TITIRO,5 while I recall that which Love dictates to me,6 gather together my words, and on that rising trunk place them with your own hands. Together with the trunk will rise her name, and our loves. TIRSE: Thus I will have to praise my fortune which turned my path here at this time; for if you desire, DAMETA,7 that her name be read on the plants, you must not be annoyed that TIRSE,8 your faithful friend, still wishes to hear it resounding in your words.

5

10

15

see his Egloghe, 4r–30v. Tirrhenia is the last of the seven and appears on 25r–30v; in his edition of d’Aragona’s Rime, Celani republished all seven (see 136–90). For critical commentary on Muzio’s eclogues, see Bausi, “Un’egloga,” 211–54, and Luciana Borsetto, “L’egloga.” 5. Tityrus is a shepherd first introduced in Vergil’s Eclogues. I have left the Italian forms of the names, but they are all present in Vergil’s original bucolics. 6. See Dante, Purgatorio, 24.49–57, in which Dante as a leader of the dolce stil novo (sweet, new style) poetic school is defined as one who notes and writes down what love dictates to him. 7. In Latin, the name is Damoetas. 8. The name in Vergil is Thyrsis.

158 Tirrhenia DAMETA: Tu se’ qui TIRSE? Anzi a me è caro assai che tu ci sia, che con la tua zampogna9 porger potrai soccorso a le mie note. TIRSE: Ciò ch’a te piace. Ma saper disio qual sia quella beata a cui tu intendi d’acquistar lode con tue eterne rime.

20

25

DAMETA: Anzi sarian beate le mie rime se parreggiasser le sue eterne lode: di TIRRHENIA 10 cantar è ’l mio pensiero. TIRSE: Di TIRRHENIA? Ho più volte in queste selve il bel nome sentito; ma di lei non ho particolare altra contezza. DAMETA: Gran danno: a lei, ch’un sì gentile spirto non le sia in tempo alcun stato soggetto:11 a te, che del suo chiaro e vivo lume anchor non t’hai sentita l’alma accesa.

30

35

TIRSE: Nova querela, udir ch’altri si doglia, ch’altri non arda del medesimo foco.

9. The pipe was the traditional instrument associated with shepherds. 10. Tirrhenia, which in Latin refers to Etruria (roughly modern-day southern Tuscany and northeast Latium), is the pastoral name of Tullia d’Aragona and emphasizes her Tuscan upbringing. Muzio also makes reference to her background in sonnet 61, ll. 12–13. In a letter to Antonio Mezzabarba, Muzio recounts that “I had once celebrated Signora Tullia with the name Tirrhenia and one day, when I was with her talking about those studies she has found and finds so delightful, we started to speak of the Muses, of their names and their virtues. Since we were on this topic for quite a while, she, gathering her thoughts, almost as if taken by some new idea, and after being quiet for a bit, started to speak again and said to me, ‘It’s been quite a few days that I have an idea in my head, which, now that it is relevant, I want to tell you too. You have long sung of me with the name Tirrhenia, and I would like for you

Tirrhenia 159 DAMETA: Are you here, TIRSE? Indeed it is very dear to me that you are here, with your pipe,9 that you’ll be able to render aid to my notes. TIRSE: As you wish. But I would like to know who is the blessed one for whom you intend to secure praise with your eternal verses.

20

25

DAMETA: Indeed my verses would be blessed if they were to equal her eternal praise: to sing of TIRRHENIA 10 is my intent. TIRSE: Of TIRRHENIA? Several times in these forests have I heard this lovely name, but of her I have no particular knowledge. DAMETA: What a pity! For her, that such a noble spirit has never been her subject;11 for you, who by her bright, clear light have still not felt your soul kindled.

30

35

TIRSE: A novel complaint—to hear one lament that another does not burn with the same fire.

to change names for me and call me Thalia, but do it in such a way that it’s apparent that Tirrhenia and Thalia are the same thing. Now you figure out how to do it’ ” (“Io haveva per un tempo celebrata la signora Tullia sotto nome di Tirrhenia, et un giorno, con lei essendo et ragionando di quegli studij, de’ quali ella si è cotanto dilettata et diletta tuttavia, entrammo a parlare delle Muse, de’ loro nomi et delle loro virtù; sopra il quale ragionamento poi che noi alquanto stati fummo, ella, in se stessa raccogliendosi, quasi da nuovo pensiero soprapresa, poi che così fu stata alquanto, il parlar ripigliando, mi disse: ‘Già sono più giorni che io ho un mio concetto nell’animo, il quale, poi che hora mi viene in proposito, io il ti voglio pur dire. Tu mi hai lungamente cantata con nome di Tirrhenia, et io vorrei che tu mi mutassi nome et appellassimi Thalia, ma che lo facessi in guisa che si conoscesse che Tirrehenia et Thalia sono una cosa istessa; pensavi hora tu del modo’ ” [Muzio, Lettere, 321]). The egloga “Thalia” appears in Muzio’s Egloghe, 14r–19r, and in Celani’s edition of the Rime, 155–64. 11. This has a double meaning both as her vassal but also as a subject or topic of her writing.

160 Tirrhenia DAMETA: Da diverse cagion diversi effetti nascon, mio TIRSE: e altramente s’ama cosa pura mortale, e altri disiri son quei, che movon da cose divine. Come, perché dal Sole il lume prenda una copia infinita d’animanti, non perciò il suo splendore ad alcuno è scemo: così qual huom si sente l’alma piena de’ diletti de l’alma, non si sente scemar il ben perch’altri anchor ne goda. Anzi gode quel cor, ch’oggetto eterno ha in sé scolpito, ché per molti cori cresca la gloria del superno raggio. Et di quel, ch’io ti dico, chiara luce di TIRRHENIA ne porge il divo lume.

40

45

50

TIRSE: Bramo di quel, che di saperne il come. DAMETA: TIRSE, non ha veduto il secol nostro pastor ch’io creda alcun, che d’alcun pregio 55 habbia colto ghirlanda in Helicona, che s’ha lei vista, e se gli accenti suoi ha ne l’alma raccolti, tale ardore non habbia conceputo, che ’l suo ingegno n’ha poi fuor dimostrati ardenti lampi. 60 Né tra color giamai si vide, o udio, che ne nascesse invidia, o gelosia.12 Anzi di lodar lei fa ogniuno a gara: et ne l’udir di lei ciascun si gode de le sue laudi: e l’un l’altro n’invita 65 a dir del bel suggetto, e ’n lei n’aviene quel, ch’avien de le cose rare, e nove; et ch’averria, se sopra l’Orizonte cominciasse a scoprirsi un nuovo Sole a gli occhi nostri: che com’altri scorto 70

Tirrhenia 161 DAMETA: From different causes are born different effects, my TIRSE. One loves differently a pure, mortal thing, and other desires are those which proceed from divine things. Just as light takes from the Sun an infinite abundance of living beings, not for this reason does its splendor to anyone seem slight, just as any man who feels his soul full of the pleasures of the soul does not feel its goodness lessening because others enjoy it also. Indeed that heart, which has an eternal object sculpted in itself, takes pleasure, so that for many hearts the glory of the supernal ray may grow. And of that illustrious light—of which I speak— TIRRHENIA proffers the divine torch.

40

45

50

TIRSE: I both yearn for it, and to know how. DAMETA: TIRSE, our century has not seen any shepherd, that I know of, who has gathered a garland of any merit on Mount Helicon, who were he to see her, and collect her words in his soul, has not conceived such ardor, that his genius would not then display ardent flashes of lightning. Nor has one ever seen or heard that envy or jealousy was born among them.12 Indeed to praise her they all compete; and in hearing about her each one takes pleasure in her praises; and one invites the other to speak of such a wonderful subject, and in her arises that which occurs with things that are rare and new, and that would occur, if above the Horizon a new Sun were to be revealed to our eyes; just as when one were

55

60

65

70

12. “Them” (“coloro”) refers to the shepherds, or rather poets, who competed to sing Tirrhenia’s praises.

162 Tirrhenia prima l’havesse, così immantenente si volgerebbe a dimostrarlo altrui. Et ciò n’avien però ch’al suo focile non s’accende altro che gentil disire. TIRSE: Nuovo ben; nuove gratie; e santi amori. Ma bram’io ben da te, se non t’annoia, DAMETA mio, che tu mi scopri anchora que’ pastori honorati, che pur dianzi hai detto, c’han per lei cantato, e arso.13

75

DAMETA: Et questo, TIRSE, anchor farò di grado 80 né penso ch’altri altra più chiara fede possa altrui far del suo valor soprano,14 che con sì gloriosi testimoni. Dirò di loro; e dirò con tal legge, che senza servar legge, di quel prima, 85 ch’a la mia mente pria farà ritorno, m’udirai favellar.15 Né creder dei, ch’io sia per ricordargli tutti a pieno; che lungo fora: e poi non m’assicuro di tutti haver memoria, o conoscenza. 90 TIRSE: Com’a te agrada: io ad ascoltare intendo. DAMETA: Fra i primi che cantaro in riva al Tebro de la bella TIRRHENIA fu un pastore d’antico sangue, e di gente Latina; et nel cui nome suona la sua gente:16 et del cui canto anchor, e del cui suono suonan le triomphali, e altere sponde:17

95

13. I have maintained the hysteron proteron. 14. Note the use of “altri,” “altra,” and “altrui” in ll. 81–82. 15. In other words, Dameta is saying that he is not going to list them in any particular order but just as they occur to him.

Tirrhenia 163 to catch a glimpse of it first, then he would turn immediately to show it to someone else. Nor does it happen that from her flint is anything other than gentle desire ignited. TIRSE: A new goodness, new graces, and saintly loves. But what I really crave from you, if you don’t mind, my DAMETA, is that you still reveal to me those honorable shepherds, of whom you just spoke, who sang for her, and burned. 13

75

DAMETA: And this, TIRSE, I will still do gladly, nor do I think that one can offer clearer testimony to others of her supreme worth14 than through such glorious witnesses. I will speak of them, and will do so with such a method that, without maintaining any method, first you will hear me speak of he who first comes to mind of that one who to my mind comes first.15 Nor should you think that I shall remember them all well, for it would be too long, and besides I am not sure that I have memory of them all, or knowledge.

80

85

90

TIRSE: As you wish: I intend to listen to you. DAMETA: Among the first who sang on the banks of the Tiber of the beautiful TIRRHENIA was a shepherd of ancient blood, and of the Latin people; and in whose name resounds his people;16 95 and in whose song and sound still sound the triumphant, and lofty shores.17

16. Latino Giovenale Manetti. For information about him, see sonnet 112. 17. I have attempted to replicate Muzio’s repeated use of “suono” (noun) and “suonan” (verb) in ll. 95–97.

164 Tirrhenia arse colui per lei lunga stagione; et anchor dolcemente ne sospira. Et per lei sospirò quel chiaro spirto, che morendo lasciò dubbiosi i boschi tra le Muse di Latio, e di Thoscana quali al suo dir sian state più benigne. Dico di quel, che per li sette colli abbandonò le piagge di Panara.18 Et un’altro di patria a lui vicino per li paschi del Po nel bel suggetto affaticò sovente le sue canne.19 TIRINTO dico: a costui ’l nostro Rheno20 diè ’l patrio albergo: e poi (come ’l ciel volse) fu costretto a lasciare i dolci gioghi, et pascer le sue gregge per le valli, che ’l fiume, che detto ho, parte, e abbraccia. Che dirò del pastor, che l’Arbia honora?21 Di quel dotto pastore, i cui vestigi van seguitando, e pastorelli, e nimphe, non altramente che lasciva greggia la lanuta sua guida? Ei le sue rime del bel nome ch’io canto ha fatte adorne. TIRSE: Tu di’ (s’io non m’inganno) di colui, ch’un tempo parlar feo le nostre Muse con quelle leggi, e con quelle misure, che già servò ’l Permesso, il Mencio, e ’l Tebro.22

100

105

110

115

120

18. The Panaro is a tributary to the Po that flows near Modena. Therefore the reference is likely to Francesco Maria Molza and, as such, indicates that the eclogue was composed after February 1544 when Molza died; for information on Molza, see sonnet 18. 19. This likely refers to Ercole Bentivoglio; for information about him, see sonnet 101. Bausi too indicates Bentivoglio; see “Un’egloga,” 232n1. 20. The Italian Rhine would be the Po River. For verse 109, etc. see Varchi’s De’ sonetti or Componimenti pastorali. Tirinto may refer to Bentivoglio.

Tirrhenia 165 He burned for her for a long time and still sweetly sighs. And for her sighed that illustrious spirit, who dying left the forests uncertain, between the Muses of Latium and Tuscany, which of them, according to him, had been more benevolent. I speak of him who for the seven hills abandoned the banks of the Panara.18 And another from a town close to him throughout the fields of the Po often labored his reeds for [our] beautiful subject.19 I speak of TIRINTO: to him our Rhine20 gave a fatherly home: and then (as the skies willed) he was forced to leave the sweet summits to graze his flocks in the valleys, which the river, as I said, divides and embraces. What shall I say of the shepherd who honors the Arbia?21 Of that learned shepherd in whose footsteps young shepherds and nymphs follow, no differently than a wanton flock its woolly guide? He adorned his verses with the beautiful name of which I sing.

100

105

110

115

TIRSE: You speak (if I don’t err) of him who 120 once made our Muses speak with those laws, and with those meters, already served by the Permessus, the Mincio, and the Tiber.22 21. The Arbia River flows near Siena. 22. The Permessus River in Boeotia was sacred to Apollo and the Muses. The Mincio is a river of northern Italy that begins at Lake Garda and runs south to Mantua and at Governolo flows into the Po; see Dante, Inferno 20.70–78, for the geography regarding the Mincio. The Tiber naturally refers to Rome. These three rivers represent the classical world—the Greek gods and Muses, Vergil from Mantua, and Horace or Ovid from Rome. Thus a poet from Siena who attempted to make Italian verse follow classical models would seem to refer to Claudio Tolomei (1492 ca.–1556), who in 1539 had published Versi et regole della nuova poesia toscana (Verses and Rules of the New Tuscan Poetry). In the Libro quarto delle rime, published in 1551, Tolomei contributed a sonnet about Tullia; see “Quando la Tullia mia che

166 Tirrhenia DAMETA: Di’ pur, che dir di lui mia lingua intese. Et di lei cantò anchor un’altro Thosco;23 un giovin pastor, ch’in riva d’Arno, mentre ch’a lui spargeano il novo fiore le molli guance, con sì dolci note tenne le Nimphe, i Satiri, e i Silvani, de le donne cantando i pregi eterni, che ne parlano anchor per questi poggi le quercie, e gli olmi: e se da morte acerba non era tolto, a lui nel secol nostro si convenia l’honor de i primi allori. Né ci mancano anchor tra queste rive di quei che van segnando il chiaro nome in piante, e ’n sassi. Et sopra gli altri s’ode risonar BATTO, BATTO, che per l’erte del sacro monte sale a sì gran varchi, che fatica è notar le sue pedate.24 Ei d’hor in hor a lei volgendo gli occhi prende virtute a gli alti, e bei suggetti. Per lei fatt’ancho ha risonare i boschi colui, che sceso da gli alpestri gioghi, onde discendon l’acque a i lieti paschi de’ pastori d’Insubria,25 in su le sponde del Re de’ fiumi fe’ ’l suo nome chiaro, cantando a l’ombra d’un gentil Ginebro.26 Fu cantata costei da l’aurea cetra27 d’un ben dotto pastore, a cui Parnaso concedette non sol tener le nimphe al dolce suon de le palustri canne,

125

130

135

140

145

150

vien dal cielo” on 217. Bausi also suggests the reference is to Tolomei; see his “Un’egloga,” 229n2. 23. Lodovico Martelli, identified by Bongi, “Rime della signora Tullia,” 157, and corroborated by Bausi, “Un’egloga,” 229. 24. Muzio hints at the identity of this poet in l. 139 with the term “varchi”: Benedetto Varchi. For information about him see the introduction and sonnet 21. See also Bausi, “Un’egloga,” 230n2.

Tirrhenia 167 DAMETA: Go on and say it, for my words intend to speak of him. And of her another Tuscan sings,23 125 a young shepherd, who on the banks of the Arno, while a new flowering spread on his soft cheeks, with such sweet notes held the Nymphs, Satyrs, and Sylvans, singing eternal praises of women, 130 that on these hills the oaks and elms still talk about it; and if he had not been taken by bitter death, our century would have awarded to him the honor of the highest laurels. Nor do we miss on these banks 135 those who record the illustrious famous name on the plants, and rocks. And above all others one hears resounding BATTO—BATTO, who climbs the slope of the sacred mount to such high passes that it is difficult to find his footprints.24 140 From time to time turning his gaze to her he carries virtue to the loftiest and most beautiful subjects. For her he made the forests resound, he, who descended from the Alpine peaks from which the waters flow down to the happy pastures 145 25 of the shepherds of Insubria, on the banks of the King of Rivers, he made famous her name, singing in the shade of a gentle Juniper.26 She was sung by the golden cithara27 of a very learned shepherd, to whom Parnassus 150 granted not only to hold the nymphs by the sweet sound of his marshy reed-pipes,

25. Insubria is the land inhabited by the Insubres in the fifth century BCE and refers to Milan and surrounding territory. 26. Ginebro or Ginepro or Juniper was the senhal of Ginevra Malatesta, the dedicatee of Bernardo Tasso’s first book of poems; I have maintained the capital letter that is present in the original. Tasso and d’Aragona also kept company together; for information about him, see the introduction. 27. An ancient stringed instrument similar to the lyre.

168 Tirrhenia ma gli mostrò i secreti di natura, et render la salute a i membri infermi.28 TIRSE: Forse di lui voi dir, che già discese dal chiaro sangue di quel gran Bifolco, che fuggendo l’incendio, e la ruina de la sua patria, penetrando i seni de l’aspra Illiria, e di Liburni, e d’Istri non lunge d’Adria29 pose la sua mandra? DAMETA: Di lui dir volli; e dir ti voglio anchora che ’l ricordar de gli Istri a la mia mente tornato ha MOPSO, MOPSO, in cui contende il favor de le Muse, e lo intelletto del terminar le sanguinose liti de’ più audaci pastor.30 Hor quanto, e dove ei sia per TIRRHENIA arso; e quant’egli arda; et quanto habbia per lei cantato, e canti fan chiara fede il Po, il Tesino,31 e l’Arno, che mille piante han di sue rime impresse.32 Ma dove lascio (lasso)33 il buono IOLA,34 IOLA, che co’l dotto, e nuovo suono de’ ben temprati calami, a pastori solea far corto, e agevole il sentiero di gire al fonte, che fa i nomi eterni. Questi venuto da gli aperti campi,

155

160

165

170

175

28. I have been unable to identify this poet, but several possibilities come to mind, based on those with whom d’Aragona is assumed to have associated. One would be the medic poet Girolamo Fracastoro, whom both Biagi and Celani claim that d’Aragona knew, although no documentary evidence that I know of exists. The other figure who comes to mind is Simone Porzio, who exchanged sonnets with d’Aragona and was also a physician; for more information about him, see sonnet 39 and Del Soldato, Simone Porzio, 88–89, who notes that Porzio lectured in Pisa in 1545–46 on bodily pain. 29. Although there is a small Italian town in the Veneto named Adria, it is more commonly used in Italian poetic language to refer to Venice, which is located on the Adriatic Sea. See page 17.

Tirrhenia 169 but also showed him the secrets of nature, and rendered health to infirm members.28 TIRSE: Perhaps you wish to talk about him, who hailed from the illustrious line of that great Herdsman, who, to escape the fire and the ruins of his homeland, penetrated into the heart of the harsh Illyria, among the Liburnians and the Istrians, and settled his herd not far from Adria?29 DAMETA: Of him I wish to speak and want to tell you still that recalling the Istrians brings to my mind MOPSO. MOPSO in whom the favor of the Muses vies with the knowledge of how to end the bloody battles of the most audacious shepherds.30 How much, and where he has burned for TIRRHENIA; and how he may burn and how he has sung for her and sings, the Po, the Tesino,31 and the Arno bear witness for a thousand plants have been imprinted with his verses.32 But where am I leaving (alas)33 the good IOLA,34 IOLA, who, with his learned and new sound of fine-tempered quills, for shepherds often made a short and easy path to the spring that renders names eternal. This one came from the open fields

155

160

165

170

175

30. Mopso is Muzio himself, author of “Tirhennia.” For information on Muzio, see the introduction and sonnet 24. The reference here is to his knowledge of chivalry, on which he was considered an authority, as he published several books on the subject. 31. The Tesino is a river in the Marche, near Ascoli Piceno. 32. Indeed Muzio devoted more compositions to d’Aragona than any other contemporary author, publishing numerous sonnets, eclogues, a prose treatise, and references to her in his letters. 33. Muzio makes a play here on the words “lascio” and “lasso.” 34. Iola is likely Giulio Camillo Delminio. In book 4 (“Le lugubri”) of Muzio’s Egloghe there is a poem commemorating the death of Giulio Camillo in which his pastoral name is given as Iola (see 87r–90v). For information on Camillo, see sonnet 94.

170 Tirrhenia che bagna l’uno, e l’altro Tagliamento,35 se di gloria colmò, d’invidia altrui. Ei col vivace lume del suo ingegno solea in TIRRHENIA, come Aquila in Sole, gli occhi affissare, e da’ suoi chiari raggi formar lo stile, e le parole, e ’l canto. Morte pose silentio a le sue note.36 Invida morte a lei rapisti anchora, e al mondo insieme, un’altra chiara luce d’un gran pastor, che nato in queste piagge fu cultor nel giardin de’ pomi d’oro. Poi trapassando a le ricche pasture et a gli horti di Celio, e d’Aventino37 si trovò non pur d’hedere, e di mirti, ma di purpurei fior cinte le tempie.38 Fior di gloria mortal com’è caduco. Ne sospirano anchor i sette colli del caso acerbo:39 e VIRBIO ne’ sospiri suona d’intorno, VIRBIO, almo pastore et poeta, e materia de’ Poeti. Viverà in mille versi il pastor sacro, e ’l pregio di TIRRHENIA ne’ suoi versi. Non patisce la gloria di costui ch’altri d’altro Pastor, d’altro Poeta faccia memoria; e a te bastar ben puote d’haver sentito come tali, e tanti et Poeti, e Pastori i loro ingegni habbian stancati intorno al raro oggetto.

35. The Tagliamento is a river in northeastern Italy, in the region of Friuli. 36. Giulio Camillo Delminio died in 1544. 37. Thus to Rome.

180

185

190

195

200

Tirrhenia 171 that dampen the one and the other Tagliamento,35 if with glory he filled one, with envy the other. He with the bright light of his genius used to fix his eyes on TIRRHENIA, Like an Eagle on the Sun, and from her brilliant rays mold his style, and words, and song. Death brought silence to his notes.36 Envious death, you seized again from her, And also from the world, another bright light of a great shepherd, who born in these lands was a worshipper in the garden of golden apples. Then moving on to the rich pastures and to the gardens of the Caelian and the Aventine37 he found his temples crowned no longer with ivy or myrtle but with purple flowers.38 How fleeting is the flower of earthly glory. The seven hills still sigh about the bitter case:39 and VIRBIO in the sighs sounds all around. VIRBIO lofty shepherd and poet, and subject for poets. The sacred shepherd in a thousand verses will live on, and the excellence of TIRRHENIA in his verses. His glory does not permit that of another shepherd, of another poet one make mention and for you it should indeed suffice to have heard how such great and so many poets and shepherds have tired their genius over such a rare object.

180

185

190

195

200

38. This “shepherd” therefore became an ecclesiastic. These lines refer to Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici; for information about him, see sonnet 97. Ippolito’s pastoral name was Virbio (Virbius in Latin), as it was the new name given to the Hippolytus when Asclepius brought him back to life, a meaning derived from etymology, that is, “vir” (“man”) and “bis” (“twice”), or he who has been a man twice, or resurrected, as Hippolytus had. 39. Muzio’s choice of words “caso” is not incidental, for it can mean “fate” but also “incident”; the aftermath of Ippolito’s death by poisoning was significant.

172 Tirrhenia TIRSE: Come sollecita Ape per li prati 205 suol la novella state errando intorno di fior in fior gustare il dolce suco; o come innamorata pastorella di vari fiori al suo diletto amante trecciar si vede una ghirlanda fresca; 210 così visto ho, DAMETA, la tua lingua andar cogliendo il fior de’ chiari spirti, onde composto è ’l mel di quelle lode, che rese ha ’l mondo a la tua cara amata; et coronarla d’immortal corona.40 215 DAMETA: Ma non men gloriosa è la corona, ch’ella tesse a sé stessa: ch’oltra quelle rime, che d’ella col favor suo ispira a chi del suo amor arde, che da lei non men provengon che da l’altre Muse 220 le rime, e i versi de gli altri poeti, ella suol d’hor in hor con le sue rime destare i boschi intorno: e adhor adhora, co i più rari pastor cantando a prova41 tiene intenti al suo dir Fauni, e Napee. 225 42 Già sono impressi in più ch’in una pianta gli alti suo amori: e la virtù d’amore quanto sia grande, e come sia infinita si legge da lei scritta in nuove scorze;43 et suggetti altri, che felicemente 230 44 viveran co’l suo nome chiari, e eterni. 40. I have maintained the repetition of the original verse. 41. Here Muzio appeals to the classical sense of song or singing as poetry. He is referring to the proposta/risposta genre that functions as a sort of dueling in verse. 42. Muzio is making a pun on “imprimere” as a reference to printing. 43. Here Muzio is making another pun: the scene is pastoral and therefore the poems are appearing on the bark of the trees; the word “scorza” however can also refer to animal skins and thus vellum, one of the original materials on which writing was inscribed. These lines are a reference to d’Aragona’s dialogue On the Infinity of Love and serve to suggest that the dialogue appeared before the Rime, a point that had never been established.

Tirrhenia 173 TIRSE: Just as a solicitous Bee often flies over the fields in early summer wandering from one flower to the next to taste the sweet liquor; or as one sees a young shepherdess in love braiding together a fresh garland of various flowers for her beloved, so I have seen, DAMETA, your words gather the flower of illustrious spirits from which the honey of those praises is composed which the world has rendered to your dear beloved and crowned her with an immortal crown. 40

205

210

215

DAMETA: But no less glorious is the crown that she wove for herself, for besides those verses, which she inspires about herself by her own graciousness in those who burn with love for her, no fewer verses derive from her than from the other Muses 220 the rhymes and verses of other poets. Often with her verses now and then she rouses the forests and often dueling with the most illustrious shepherds in song41 she keeps Fauns and Nymphs glued to her words. 225 Already on more than one plant are imprinted her high loves;42 and the virtue of love, how grand it is, and how it is infinite, can be read, written by her, on new bark43 and other subjects, illustrious and eternal, 230 44 which will live happily with her name.

44. Ll. 230–31 are important in that they indicate that she was working on “other subjects” (“suggetti altri”) that “will live” (“vivran”—note the future tense). Given that Muzio’s eclogue was published with her Rime and he had just mentioned her prose dialogue, might one interpret these lines as referring to her epic poem Il Meschino, which she had just begun but which was not yet completed? His rather vague reference to it might also serve as an indication that she had started working on it but was not very far along. For a more specific reference, see sonnet 110.

174 Tirrhenia TIRSE: Ragion è adunque che sì altero spirto cantato sia da gli spirti più chiari. DAMETA: TIRSE, non vo’ lasciare anchor di dirti, che se di lei scorgessi il divo aspetto, et le dolci maniere, e i bei sembianti: s’udissi il suon de l’alte sue parole, et le sentenze de’ profondi detti, potresti dir, non quel, che di Medusa si favoleggia, che sua fera vista altrui mutava in insensibil pietra, ma c’ha virtute a l’insensibil pietre d’ispirar sentimento, e intelletto. O s’udissi talhor quando accompagna la voce al suon de la soave cetra; o quando assisa tra Nimphe, e Pastori move tra lor la lingua a dolci note; s’udissi, dico, come in nuovi accenti, et come in soavissimi sospiri l’aria intorno addolcisce: e i vaghi augelli tra le frondi si stiano intenti, e muti45 et come i colli, e gli alberi, e le grotte mandin cantando al ciel novelle voci, so che non chiederiano i tuoi disiri altre Muse, altro Apollo, o altro Helicona. TIRSE: Gratie son queste così belle, e rare, ch’in lei racconti, che fan dubbio altrui se sia da dir ch’essa sia rara, o sola. Ma perché spesso avien ne’ nostri cori che da l’un bel disio l’altro risorge; poi che m’hai di TIRRHENIA il gran valore fatto sì aperto, anchor saper disio qual sia di lei la stirpe, e ’1 patrio suolo. Salvo se del parlar già non se’ stanco.

235

240

245

250

255

260

45. Whereas in Petrarch’s “Vago augelletto,” in Rvf, 353, the poet invites the nightingale to commiserate him in song; here instead Tirrhenia’s beautiful voice has silenced the birds.

Tirrhenia 175 TIRSE: For good reason therefore is such a lofty spirit sung by spirits most illustrious. DAMETA: TIRSE, I don’t want to leave off telling you that if you were to see the divine aspect and the sweet manners, and the lovely appearance, if you were to hear the sound of her lofty words, and the wisdom of her profound judgements you would say, not that which is rumored of Medusa, that her savage stare changed others into senseless stones, but that she has inspired virtue, sentiment, and reason in senseless stones. Or if you were on occasion to hear when she accompanies her voice with the sound of the melodious cithara; or when seated among Nymphs and Shepherds she moves her voice among them to [such] dulcet notes; if you were to hear, I tell you, how with new words and the most delicate sighs the air all around is sweetened; and wandering, little birds sit among the boughs, intent, and silent,45 just as the hills, and trees, and caverns send new voices singing to the heavens, I know that your desires would not seek other Muses, another Apollo, or another Helicon. TIRSE: These graces are so beautiful, and rare, that you describe in her, that they make one doubt whether one should say that she is rare, or unique. But since it often happens in our hearts that from one fine desire another arises, since you have unfolded the excellence of TIRRHENIA so openly, I still wish to know what her ancestry is, and her fatherland, unless you are tired of speaking.

235

240

245

250

255

260

176 Tirrhenia DAMETA: Di ragionar di lei satio, né stanco 265 esser non posso io mai. Poi vitio fora non sodisfare a sì giusti disiri. Hor porgi orecchie al chiaro nascimento. In quelle parti, ove si corca il Sole, si stende un’honorato ampio paese, 270 lo qual da l’Oceano, e dal mar nostro è cinto d’ognintorno, se non quanto lunga costa di gioghi s’attraversa; et questi son chiamati i Pirenei.46 Da questi monti un gran fiume discende, 275 il qual porta tributo al sale interno, et IBERO è ’l suo nome.47 Hor quanto serra il giogo, e l’acque dolci, e l’acque salse, vien nomato ARAGON. In quel paese già surse una honorata e chiara stirpe, 280 ch’ in tutti que’ confin co’l suo vincastro diede legge a pastori, e a bifolci; et questa dal paese il nome tolse; poi co’l girar del ciel volgendo gli anni passò l’alto legnaggio a i nostri liti, 285 a gli Italici liti: e s’alcun nome ci fu mai chiaro, o altero, sopra gli altri questo gran tempo risonar s’udio. Che donde di là in Adria il fiume Aterno,48 et di qua passa il Liri al gran Tirrheno,49 290 quanto circonda ’l mar, fin là ’ve frange l’horribil Scilla50 i legni a i duri scogli,

46. The Pyrenees is the moutain range in northeastern Spain and southwestern France that provides a geographical border between the two countries. 47. In Italian “ibero” is an adjective that refers to the entire peninsula of Spain (from the Latin Hibernia). The river that Muzio is referring to is the Ebro, which runs through Aragon and is known for its salinity. 48. The Aterno River flows from Amatrice southwest past Aquila and northeast past Popoli before finally emptying into the Adriatic Sea near Pescara in Abruzzo. It marks the northeastern border of the lands that were controlled by the Aragona family.

Tirrhenia 177 DAMETA: Never can I be satiated, nor tired 265 of speaking about her. Besides it would be an error not to satisfy such just desires. Now lend your ears to her high birth. In those lands where the Sun reclines there lies an honorable, vast land 270 which by the Ocean and our sea is surrounded on every side, if not for a long chain of peaks one crosses, and these are called the Pyrenees. 46 Down from these mountains flows a great river 275 which carries salt as tribute to the interior, and IBERO is its name.47 Now all that encompasses the peaks and the fresh waters, and the salty, is called ARAGON. In that land an honorable, illustrious family once rose, 280 which within its boundaries with its rod ruled shepherds and herdsmen. And this family took its name from that land; then with the rotation of the skies and the passing of years the illustrious family came to our shores, 285 to the Italian shores. And if there were any name ever more famous, or lofty, above all others, this name one heard resound for a long time. For from there the river Aterno into the Adriatic,48 and here the Liri passes to the great Tyrrhenian,49 290 for as far as the sea reaches, up to there where the horrible Scylla50 demolishes ships on the rocky cliffs, 49. The Liri River flows from Cappadocia east of Rome and flows south until it empies into the Tyrhennian Sea at Minturno. It marks the boundary between Latium and Campania as well as the northwestern boundary of the Aragona kingdom. This verse also serves to situate the poet, who says “here,” which means that he is located on the western side of the peninsula, near the Tyrrhenian. 50. The story of the monster Scylla, who lived in a cave on the eastern coast of Sicily near the straits of Messina, the closest point between Sicily and the mainland of Italy. Along with the dangerours whirlpool of Charybdis nearby, Scylla represented a menace for those sailors who passed by, as did Odysseus in book 12 of Homer’s Odyssey.

178 Tirrhenia et quanto ara Peloro,51 e Lilibeo,52 solea già tutto a la famosa verga del generoso sangue esser soggetto. 295 Or fra molt’altri uscio del chiaro sangue un gran pastor, che di purpuree bende53 ornato il crine, e la sacrata fronte, com’amor volle, un giorno per le rive del vago Tebro errando, a gli occhi suoi 300 corse l’aspetto gratioso, e novo de la bella IOLE.54 Questa tra le sponde nata del Re de’ fiumi, ove si parte l’acqua del suo gran fiume in molti fiumi, havea cangiato ’l Po co i sette poggi;55 305 et di questa ’l pastor, ch’io ragiono, caldo di dolce amor, fe’ ’1 grande acquisto di lei, c’hor m’arde il cor d’eterno amore.56 TIRSE: Già non si convenia men chiaro seme per dare al mondo pianta sì gentile.57 DAMETA: Et non si convenia men chiaro loco al gran concetto, e al glorioso parto che l’honorate piaggie triomphali de l’almo Tebro,58 il quale andar si vede non men superbo che tra le sue arene sia germogliata pianta sì felice, che di solenne alcuno altro triompho.

310

315

51. Peloro was the name of the peninsula at the northeasternmost point of Sicily, close to Messina. Legend has it that its name derived from the pilot who steered the ship carrying Hannibal away from Italy whom Hannibal had killed because he feared betrayal; upon realizing that Pelorus had been loyal, Hannibal gave him a magnificient funeral and named the promontory after him. It is now called Cape Faro. 52. Lilybaeum, near Marsala, represents the westernmost point of Sicily. Sicily was thus included in the territories of the Aragon. 53. Purple is a color associated with kings, emperors, and, in this case, cardinals. These lines are one of the most important sources for the idea that Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona was the father of Tullia d’Aragona. For further discussion, see the introduction.

Tirrhenia 179 and as far as Pelorus51 plows, and Lilybaeum,52 they are already all subject to the famous staff of magnanimous blood. 295 Now among the many who have issued from the illustrious blood a great shepherd, who adorned his locks and sacred brow with purple bands;53 as love desired, one day wandering on the banks of the lovely Tiber his eyes 300 fell upon the graceful vision, and new, of the beautiful IOLE.54 She, who had been born by the shores of the King of Rivers, from which the water runs from one great river into many rivers, had exchanged the Po for the seven hills.55 305 And the shepherd of whom I speak, ardent with sweet love, grandly took possession of her, so that now my heart burns with eternal love.56 TIRSE: Indeed a less illustrious seed would not be fitting to give the world such a gentle plant.57 DAMETA: And a less illustrious place would not be fitting for such a grand conception, and glorious birth than the honored, triumphant riverbanks of the lofty Tiber,58 which one sees going no less proud for among its sands blossomed such an auspicious plant, which splendidly triumphed above any other.

310

315

54. Iole is thus the pastoral name for d’Aragona’s mother, Giulia Pendaglia Orlandini Campana. 55. In other words, although originally from Ferrara, Giulia Pendalgia had moved to Rome. For more on her, see the introduction. 56. Muzio is referring to Tullia d’Aragona’s conception, without which he would not have been able to love her, since she would not have existed. 57. The shepherd repeats d’Aragona’s illustrious paternity. Here, as elsewhere, I have translated “gentile” as “gentle” in its archaic sense of “noble.” 58. These verses are the primary source of the claim that d’Aragona was born in Rome.

180 Tirrhenia TIRSE: Dunque felice il luogo, e ’l seme, e ’l ventre, onde frutto sì eletto al mondo nacque: et più felice59 a cui dal cielo è dato 320 gli occhi affissar nel lume de’ begli occhi; a i dolci accenti haver l’orecchie intente et haver de gli occhi, e de l’orecchie aperte le parti a l’alma; e haver l’alma rivolta a la beltà del doppio eterno oggetto60 325 da salir sopra ’l cielo: et sopra ogni altro felicissima lei, che ’l gran legnaggio, et l’alto honor del bel nido natio vinto ha col pregio del valore interno. Ma mentre habbiam la lingua, e ’l cor rivoti 330 al tuo bel Sole, è già ’l celeste Sole presso che giunto a l’ultimo orizzonte. Perché buon sia che diam luogo a la sera. DAMETA: Vanne felice. Io Pria che ’l vago piede rivolga altrove questa bella pianta sacrare intendo a lei, cui ’l petto ho sacro, con la memoria de l’amato nome.

335

59. I do not repeat the adjective “fortunate” (“felice”), which also appears in ll. 316, 318, and 320 of the Italian.

Tirrhenia 181 TIRSE: Auspicious therefore the place, and the seed, and the womb, from which such an elect fruit was born. And more fortunate59 is he who by the heavens is granted 320 to gaze upon the light of her beautiful eyes, and to lend his ears to her sweet tones, and to have his eyes and his ears opened to her soul; and to have his soul directed toward the beauty of the double eternal object60 325 in order to rise above the heavens. And above all others she [is] the happiest, for her grand ancestry and the high honor of her beautiful, native home have been won by virtue of her inner worth. Yet while we have our tongues and hearts turned towards 330 your beautiful Sun, the celestial Sun has already almost reached the last horizon. Thus it is right that we allow the evening to begin. DAMETA: Go along happily. Before I direct my wandering foot elsewhere, I intend to consecrate 335 this beautiful plant to her whose heart I hold sacred, with the memory of her beloved name.

60. In Ficianian neo-Platonism, the lover is a mirror of the beloved and vice versa. According to Ficino, “The lover engraves the figure of the beloved on his own soul. And so the soul of the lover becomes a mirror in which the image of the beloved is reflected. For that reason, when the beloved recognizes himself in the lover, he is forced to love him” (Commentary on Plato’s “Symposium on Love,” trans. Sears Jayne [Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, 1985], 57). Given that the topic is socratic love, the last pronoun is masculine. Neo-Platonic love, however, also contemplates an honest love between a male and a female. This mirroring process creates the “double eternal object” of l. 325.

SONETTI DI DIVERSI ALLA SIGNORA TULLIA D’ARAGONA SONNETS BY OTHERS TO SIGNORA TULLIA D’ARAGONA 1

1. Again for the reader’s convenience, I have added in square brackets the name of the author, although the original edition did not include them. They were only included with the first appearance of the author’s name. In adding the author’s name, I preferred the Italian rather than the Latinate form of his name; thus Muzio rather than Mutio, for example.

184 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

61. DEL MUTIO Amor nel cor mi siede, e vuol ch’io dica2 di qual esca racceso a l’alma mia sia ’l novo ardor, qual il suggetto sia, ch’è de l’animo mio dolce fatica. Alma gentil d’alti pensieri amica, lumi amorosi, angelica harmonia fan ch’ogni mio disir lieto s’invia per le vestigia de la fiamma antica. Colei, ch’io canto, nacque in su le sponde del chiaro fiume, che d’eterni allori ben mille volte ornò le verdi chiome; visse in tenera etade presso a l’onde del più bel fonte, che Thoscana honori; la sua stirpe è Aragon: TULLIA il suo nome. 61. BY MUZIO 3 Love takes seat in my heart, and wants me to say4 by which spark might a new ardor have rekindled my soul, and what might be its subject,5 which is the sweet labor of my mind. Gentle soul, friend of noble thoughts, amorous lights, [and] angelic harmony, make my every desire happily follow the footprints of my ancient flame.6 2. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 3. For information on Muzio, see sonnet 24. For much more extensive commentary on Muzio’s use of the poetic tradition, see Anna Maria Negri’s edition of Muzio’s Rime. 4. Later republished in M 27v. 5. As noted in the notes to Tirrhenia, “suggetto” recalls both meanings of “subject” as “topic” and “follower.” 6. This line recalls a line in Vergil’s Aeneid that Dante incorporated into his Comedy. In the Aeneid, Dido says, “I know too well the signs of the old flame” (“agnosco veteris vestigia flammae”), which Dante changes to “I recognize the tokens of the ancient flame” (“Conosco i segni de l’antica fiamma”), the line his protagonist utters when sees Beatrice in purgatory. See Vergil, Aeneid, 4.23 and Dante, Purgatorio, 30.48. These are all moments when the speaker recognizes the effects of love on him- or herself.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 185 She, of whom I sing, was born on the shores of the illustrious river, which with eternal laurel more than a thousand times adorned its green tresses.7 She lived at a tender age near the rippling waters of the most beautiful spring that honors Tuscany;8 her house is Aragon: TULLIA her name.

62. [DEL MUZIO] Donna, che sete in terra il primo oggetto9 a l’anime amorose, e a i gentil cori; et i cui gloriosi e alteri honori sono al mio stile altissimo suggetto; in voi stessa si volga il chiaro aspetto de l’alma vostra, in cui de gli alti chori risplende il bel; e ’n tutti i vostri ardori fiammeggiar si vedrà celeste affetto. Vedrete in voi mirando l’alma mia, ch’in voi sempre si specchia, e si fa bella, per infiammarvi in me del vostro lume. E ’l farà sì (per quel, che mi favella nel petto Amor) se rio mortal costume dietro a bassi pensier non vi disvia. 62. [BY MUZIO] Lady, you10 who are on earth the first object11 7. According to this verse, the custom of the laurel garland being placed more than a thousand times on the head of a poet could have only occurred in ancient Rome, and thus d’Aragona was born in Rome. Muzio makes the same claim in “Tirrhenia,” ll. 311–17. The Tiber is personified here as crowning itself with the laurels of all its poets. 8. Bongi identified this fountain as the Fontebranda in Siena (“Rime della signora Tullia,” 155–56). 9. ABBA ABBA CDE DEC. 10. Muzio uses the formal “voi” here. See Petrarch, Rvf, 312.10–11, 351.7–8, and 360.103–4, all cited by Negri. 11. Republished in M 35r.

186 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona of amorous souls, and gentle hearts, and whose glorious and lofty honors are the most noble subject of my style; may the clear aspect of your soul turn towards you yourself, in whom the beauty of the high choruses shines, and in all your ardor one will see sparkling, heavenly affect. You will see my soul by looking at yourself, for in you it always mirrors itself, and renders itself beautiful, to enkindle you within me by your own light.12 And it will do so (according to what Love murmurs in my heart) if base, earthly habits do not wander after lowly thoughts.

63. [DEL MUZIO] Anima bella, che da gli alti chiostri13 fosti mandata in questo cieco inferno a consumar nel suggetto ampio, et eterno, i più famosi, e più purgati inchiostri; mentre s’affannan gli intelletti nostri a contemplar il tuo valore interno, con la voce e con gli occhi al ben superno gl’inalzi, e d’ire al ciel la via ne mostri. Quinci è che quale ha in terra alma più rara, infiammata dal Sol, ch’in te riluce, più lieta a te rivolge ogni pensero. Et io, poi che tua fiamma in me traluce, forse più ch’in altrui soave, e chiara, ne porto ’l cor d’eterna gloria altero.

12. See the note to Tirrhenia at l. 325. 13. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 187

63. [BY MUZIO] Beautiful soul, which from the high cloisters14 was sent into this blind inferno to exhaust in a vast subject, and eternal, the most famous and purest pens,15 while our intellect toils to contemplate your inner worth, with your voice and eyes uplifted to the supernal goodness, you enlighten it,16 and show the way to heaven. Hence whoever on earth has an excellent soul, ignited by the Sun that glows in you, more joyously turns its every thought to you. And I, since your flame shines through me, perhaps more than in others gentle, and bright, proudly carry it in my heart with eternal glory. 64. [DEL MUZIO] Quando ’l raggio del bel, ch’ in voi risplende,17 per l’orecchie, e per gli occhi al mio mortale trapassa, o Donna, un chiaro ardor m’assale, che d’eterno disio tutto m’incende. L’anima allhor, che ’l novo affetto intende mover d’alta cagione, ogni mortale piacer schernendo, e al ciel battendo l’ale, verso l’amato lume il camin prende, et com’Aquila al Sol drizzando gli occhi, al foco vostro s’erge a la salita, dove al fin pace le promette amore. Deh siate larga a lei del bel splendore; 14. Republished in M 32r. 15. The original would have required “inks” rather than “pens” of the translation; Muzio is saying that these writers are being “exhausted” by d’Aragona providing (i.e., being) their topic. 16. The direct object is “our intellect.” 17. ABBA ABBA CDE EDC.

188 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona et porgete al suo volo pronta aita, acciò che inferma, e cieca non trabocchi.

64. [BY MUZIO] When that ray of beauty, which shines in you,18 pierces the ears and eyes of my mortal part, o Lady, a pure ardor assails me, that I am all inflamed with unending desire. Then my soul, which understands the new affection as moving from a noble cause, scorning all mortal pleasures, and to the skies beating its wings, alights on the path towards the beloved light. And just as an Eagle turns its eyes to the Sun, to your fire my soul ascends along the path, where in the end love promises peace to it. Pray, be generous to it with your beauteous splendor and offer ready help for its flight so that, infirm and blind, it does not plummet. 65. [DEL MUZIO] Mentre le fiamme più che ’l Sol lucenti,19 ond’amor m’arde, e già gran tempo m’arse, vaghi occhi miei, non vi si mostran scarse, mandate nel mio core i raggi ardenti; orecchi miei, mentre bramosi, e intenti notate ’l suon, che di su in terra apparse, et ne van le sue voci a l’aura sparse, inviate a la mente i sacri accenti; anima mia, mentr’in mortale oggetto scorgi ch’eterno è quel che dentro avampa, allarga il seno al sempiterno zelo; et vi rimembri che sì chiara lampa, 18. Republished in M 31v. 19. ABBA ABBA CDE DFE. This sonnet is thus “deformed” because the rhyme scheme is upset by l. 13. Muzio later corrected it to “spirto sì eletto.”

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 189 sì soave tenor, spirto sì chiaro sono a voi scala da salire al cielo.

65. [BY MUZIO] As flames brighter than the Sun,20 by which my love burns me and has long burned me now, o beautiful eyes of mine,21 do not be stingy, send her ardent rays into my heart; ears of mine, as desirous and intent you note the sound, which appeared upon the earth, and while her voice is dispersed to the breeze,22 send her sacred words to my mind; o my soul, as you realize that what burns inside a mortal object is eternal, open my heart to that everlasting fervor; and remember that such a bright light, such delicate demeanor, such an illustrious spirit are for you a ladder with which to ascend to the heavens.23 66. [DEL MUZIO] Amor ad hor ad hor battendo l’ale24 dal grave incarco leva il mio pensero, et nel conduce per erto sentero a gir in parte, ov’ huom per sé non sale; 20. Republished in M 30v. 21. Muzio is speaking to his own eyes. 22. This is an allusion to Petrarch’s “a l’aura sparsi” (Rvf 90). 23. Muzio here is referring to the Platonic theory, later reelaborated and Christianized by Ficino, of the ladder of love (scala dell’amore). Plato—through his female teacher Diotima— describes the ascent to truth and knowledge through successive phases of love whereby the lover moves from the physical to the spiritual, from the individual to the collective. The journey does, however, all begin with the physical love of a single beloved. See Plato, “Symposium,” in The Collected Dialogues of Plato Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 561–63. See also Marsilio Ficino, Commentary, 136–39. 24. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

190 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona et quivi ne l’oggetto alto, e immortale, gli dimostra l’essempio vivo, e vero, onde discese il vostro spirto altero a dover informar cosa mortale. L’anima accesa a l’eterna vaghezza, tutta s’accende a far novo disegno del bel, ch’entro dipinge il divo aspetto. Ma come poi si muove il basso ingegno, donna mia, per salire a tanta altezza, cade lo stile, e manca lo ’ntelletto.

66. [BY MUZIO] Love, always beating his wings,25 lifts my thoughts from my heavy burden and leads them up the steep path to go to a place, where one does not ascend on one’s own; and here in the sublime, immortal object, shows them the true, living example, from which your lofty spirit descended to inform mortal things. My soul, kindled by eternal desire,26 becomes inspired whole to make a new design of beauty, that paints within the divine aspect. But then as my lower intelligence moves, my Lady, to ascend to such a height, my style falters, and my intellect falls short. 67. [DEL MUZIO] Superbo Po, ch’a la tua manca riva27 tutto lieto ti volgi d’hora in hora, 25. Republished in M 32v. 26. Note that the Italian “vaghezza” also means “beauty” or “grace” as well as “desire” (and even “vagueness,” although that is not implied here). I opted for “desire” in order to differentiate the word from the “bel” of l. 11. 27. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 191 per mirar lei, che le tue piagge infiora, et ti fa in mezzo l’onde fiamma viva; che fa la nostra? Ho da dir Donna, o Diva lei, che del bel ciel l’alme innamora? O fosse lunga a lei la mia dimora. Pensa ella almen ch’io di lei pensi, o scriva? Deh com’io dico ognihor, foss’io con lei, così fosse talhora il suo pensiero, hor che dee far di me privo il meschino; o vedesse ella aperti i dolori miei; ch’io so che di pietà quel spirto altero porteria gli occhi molli, e ’l viso chino.

67. [BY MUZIO] Lofty Po, who to your left shore28 happily turn all of a sudden to gaze upon her, who adorns your banks,29 and creates for you in the midst of your waves a lively flame. What does our Lady do? Shall I call her Grand Dame or Goddess, who makes souls fall in love with the skies? If only my stay with her were long. Does she at least think that I think or write about her? Alas, as I always say, if I were with her, so her thoughts would occasionally be with me, now that the wretch (Meschino) has to deprive them of me;30 28. Republished in M 28v. 29. See Petrarch, Rvf, 173: “Ivi è quel nostro vivo, e dolce sole, Che adorna e ’nfiora la tua riva manca.” 30. There are two possibilities here: either Muzio is referring to d’Aragona’s epic poem the Meschino or he is saying that the wretch (the “wretch” would be his Duke Ercole II d’Este) has deprived d’Aragona’s thoughts of Muzio by having sent him away on a mission. Calling one’s patron “meschino” (which the Vocabolario della crusca defines as “noun that denotes an excess of poverty and, as a result, every sort of unhappiness and misery” [“nome, che denota eccesso di povertà, e per conseguenza d’ogni sorte d’infelicità, e miseria. Lat. mendicus, miser, infoelix”]) does seem seems a bit odd; it is true, however, that by 1547, when the sonnet was published, Muzio had left the retinue of the Estense and was serving Ferrante Gonzaga. Yet d’Aragona could still think about Muzio even if he were away. She

192 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona if only she were to see revealed my grief, for I know that [instead] to pity her lofty spirit would make her eyes moist, and her head bowed.

68. [DEL MUZIO] Hor di là se ne vien questa dolce ora,31 ov’è colei, che col suo divo aspetto, mette dentr’al mio cor l’ardente affetto, ond’anchor la sua vista mi ristora. O se così potesse a ciascun’hora essere a lei presente il mio imperfetto, come sempre la scorge il mio intelletto; i’ sare’ pur d’ogni tormento fora. Che se dal mover di quest’aura io sento per sua virtù conforto a i miei martiri, ben dovrei seco sempre esser contento. Battete l’ale, o vaghi miei sospiri: et colà andando, onde si parte il vento, a lei portate i miei caldi disiri. 68. [BY MUZIO] Now from there comes this sweet breeze,32 where she is, who with her divine semblance places in my heart an ardent affection so that the sight of her again restores me. Oh, if my imperfect state33 were forever able to be before her, as my intellect always perceives her, I would be without any kind of torment. For if, from the movement of this breeze, I feel cannot however think about him if her mind is occupied with other things. If it is a reference to the Meschino, it also indicates that she had already commenced work on it in Ferrara. 31. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 32. Republished in M 30r. 33. His sensorial perception, as opposed to his mental, that is, his intelletto.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 193 because of its virtue comfort for my suffering34 I should always be content with it. Flutter your wings, o beautiful sighs of mine, and go there, whence the wind departs, carry to her my fervent desires.

69. [DEL MUZIO] Lasso, ond’avien che qui non fa ritorno35 il chiaro dì, sì come altrove sole? Non ci risplende il lume di quel Sole, che solo suole a gli occhi tuoi far giorno. In questo altrui sì placido soggiorno, perché son le campagne ignude, e sole? Non ci spira il favor de le parole, che fanno a sé fiorir le piagge intorno. Poi ch’a te chiuse sono ambe le porte de gli occhi, e de l’orecchie, anima mia, ond’esser può che più letitia speri? Pensa, misero, a te, chi ti conforte; che me al mio bene ad hor ad hor n’invia il santo amor con l’ale de i pensieri. 69. [BY MUZIO] Alas, why is it that here the clear day36 does not return, as does elsewhere the sun? Here does not shine the light of that Sun, which usually makes day only for your eyes. In this—for others—so placid sojourn, why is the countryside bare, and lonesome?37 34. The Italian “martiri” evokes the Christian sense of martyrdom, but in the sixteenth century it also had a frequent poetic meaning that is closer to the translation. 35. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 36. Republished in M 30r. 37. Note the identical rhyme of ll. 2–3 and the rima equivoca between “sole” as noun and “sole” as adjective (l. 6) as well as the playful “solo suole” of l. 4. Also note the lowercase

194 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona Here does not waft the favor of her words, which make the hills flower by themselves. Since to you38 are closed both the doors to my eyes and ears, o my soul, how can you hope for greater happiness? Think of yourself, o wretched one, who might comfort you? For saintly love with wings of thought39 always sends me to my beloved.

70. [DEL MUZIO] O se tra queste ombrose, e fresche rive,40 c’hor cercan solitari i passi miei, meco ne fosse, e con amor con lei, di cui ’l cor sempre parla, e la man scrive; ella a seder qui presso a l’acque vive si porria in grembo a l’herba; io in grembo a lei, et dai boschi trarriano i semidei al sacro aspetto, e le silvestre Dive. Io lei mirando a dir del suo valore snoderei la mia lingua; e alcun di loro segneria per li tronchi il chiaro nome. Ella gioiosa e humile in tanto honore,41 forse di vari fior’, forse d’alloro, tesseria una ghirlanda a le mie chiome.

“s” for the sun as star and the uppercase “S” for the metaphorical reference to the beloved. 38. Muzio is addressing his soul. 39. The 1547 and 1560 editions have “envia” whereas the 1549 version has “invia,” which is the standard form. The “wings of thought” (“ale de i pensieri”) is a classic Platonic reference to the wings of the intellect and of the soul that fly to the heavens thanks to an honest, spiritualizing love. For an excellent discussion of this metaphor in Petrarch, see Luca Marcozzi, Petrarca platonico: studi sull’immaginario filosofico del canzoniere (Rome: Aracne, 2011), 43–72. 40. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 41. Republished with minor variants in M 34v.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 195

70. [BY MUZIO] O if only along these shaded and cool shores,42 that my solitary steps now seek, were she with me; and love with her, of whom my heart always speaks, and my hand writes. She, seated here close to the running waters, would place herself in the lap of grasses, and I in her lap. And from the forests the semi-gods and the woodland Goddesses would be drawn to the sacred sight. Gazing at her, I would untie my tongue to speak of her excellence, and some of them would write on tree trunks her illustrious name.43 She, joyful and humbled by so much honor, perhaps with varied flowers, perhaps with laurel, would weave a garland for my locks. 71. [DEL MUZIO] Spirto gentile, in cui sì chiaramente44 et ne la mortal parte e ne la eterna fiammeggia il Sol de la bontà superna, ch’altro non è fra noi lume sì ardente; mentre io con gli occhi e con l’orecchie intente raccolgo il doppio bel, che mi governa, sì vivo foco in me da voi s’interna che tutta illuminar l’alma si sente; poi non capendo in me l’immensa fiamma convien ch’in alcun modo esca di fore, mostrando i raggi de la vostra luce. Così da voi ne vien lo mio splendore, 42. Republished in M 34v. The poet implies that he wrote the sonnet in the absence of his beloved, and so it represents his fantasy of what would occur if only she were with him. 43. The act of writing the beloved’s name on trees more commonly involves writing the names of both lovers, such as with Angelica and Medoro in Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (19. 36), a gesture that enjoyed a prolific artistic tradition. Here, instead, the woodland gods write Tullia’s “illustrious name.” 44. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

196 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona ch’ogni mio bel disio da voi s’infiamma, come ’l lume de’ lumi in voi traluce.

71. [BY MUZIO] Gentle spirit, whom so clearly45 the Sun of supernal goodness inflames, both the mortal part and the eternal so that no other light burns so brightly among us; while I with my eyes and my ears intent collect the double beauty, which governs me, such a live flame from you penetrates into me, that my soul feels all illuminated. Thus unable to contain the immense flame within, it is better that in some way it come forth, revealing the rays of your light. Thus from you comes my splendor, for every beautiful desire of mine through you is inflamed, just as the light of lights shines through you. 72. [DEL MUZIO] Fiamma, che chiaramente il mio cor ardi;46 aura, che dolcemente mi ristori; spirto, ch’alteramente m’innamori co ’l valor, con la voce, e con gli sguardi; quante volte adivien ch’in voi riguardi, ch’io v’ascolti, e ch’io pensi i vostri honori, tante mi sforzo a i sempiterni chori; ma ’l mio mortal fa poi che ’l gir ritardi. O beata alma angelica harmonia, o vivo lume, che de gli alti chiostri mostrate essempio a l’anime terrene, poi ch’a i sensi e nel cor m’havete mostri 45. Republished in M 28r. 46. ABBA ABBA CDE DEC.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 197 la bellezza e ’l piacer del sommo bene, aiutatemi anchor a l’alta via.

72. [BY MUZIO] Flame, you who ignite my heart so brightly,47 breeze, you who sweetly restore me, spirit, you who nobly cause me to fall in love with your excellence, with your voice, and with your glances; as often as I gaze upon you, as I listen to you, and as I consider your distinction, just as often I strive for the everlasting choruses, but my mortal part causes the circle to slow. O blessed, lofty, angelic harmony, o shimmering light, you who from the high cloisters offer an example to earthly souls, since you have shown to my senses and my heart the beauty and pleasure of the utmost good, help me still further to the high road. 73. [DEL MUZIO] Spirto felice, in cui sì rare, e tante48 gratie, e virtuti il Ciel largo comparte, che non so se si trovi in altra parte che d’andar teco a paro alma si vante; s’a me facesser le sorelle sante del bramato lor don così gran parte, ch’io fossi degno di ritrarre in carte de la tua chiara effigie il bel sembiante, so ch’io fare’ un disegno sì perfetto, che saria specchio a la futura gente di quanto ben di su tra noi discende. Ma (lasso) a tanto honor non mi consente 47. Republished in M 34r. 48. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

198 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona il sacro choro: e da sé il mio intelletto sopra i fuochi celesti non ascende.

73. [BY MUZIO] Happy spirit, on whom such rare and so many49 graces and virtues the generous Sky has bestowed, that I doubt if one might find anywhere a soul that might boast to equal you, if the sacred sisters were to make for me a large enough portion of their coveted gift,50 that I might be worthy of depicting on pages a beautiful likeness of your worthy image,51 I know I would make such a perfect drawing, that it would be a mirror to future people of how much goodness from above descends among us. But (alas) the sacred chorus does not afford me such honor, and by itself my intellect does not ascend among the celestial fires. 74. [DEL MUZIO] Donna, se mai vedeste in verde prato52 surger felicemente un aureo fiore, cui porge nutrimento dolce humore, et vivace calor dal ciel gli è dato, non altramente lieto e consolato fiorir si vede un’amoroso core; perché ’l suo sole è ’l gratioso ardore, et la fonte è ’l suo favor del viso amato. Et come quel, se manca la rugiada, 49. Republished in M 32v. 50. The sisters in question are the Muses, who provide both inspiration and talent to artists of all sorts. 51. For other references to the metaphor of writing as a form of figurative depiction, see pages 154n2 and 210n100. 52. ABBA ABBA CDC EDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 199 perduto il bel de le purpuree fronde convien ch’in breve spatio a terra cada; così se rio voler o caso indegno i suoi disiri altrui fura, e nasconde, seccasi il fior d’ogni felice ingegno.

74. [BY MUZIO] O Lady, if ever in a green field you were to see53 happily sprouting a golden flower, to which sweet fluid offers nourishment, and vivid heat from the sky is given to it, no differently content and consoled does one see an amorous heart blossom; for its sun is the gracious ardor for the beloved’s visage and the source is its favor with it. And just as with that [flower], if dew is scarce, having lost the beauty of its purple fronds, it needs must fall shortly to the ground, so if out of evil desire or unjust circumstances, another steals the beloved’s desires, and conceals [them], the flower of every fertile genius withers. 75. [DEL MUZIO] Il valor vostro, Donna, il cor m’incende,54 lega ogni mio disir; m’impiaga il petto; et l’alma del suo mal sente diletto dal ben ch’ella in voi vede, ode, e intende. M’infiamma il divo raggio, onde risplende il chiaro vostro angelico intelletto; da i novi accenti è avinto ogni mio affetto; et da begli occhi il colpo al cor discende. E non ha Amore in tutta la sua corte (m’oda chi vuol) sì graziosi sguardi, 53. Republished in M 33r. 54. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

200 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona sì chiara voce, o sì vivace lume: perch’io pur prego lui, ch’ognihor più forte con tal foco, in tai lacci, e con tai dardi mi trafigga, m’annodi, e mi consume.

75. [BY MUZIO] Your excellence, Lady, ignites my heart,55 it entwines my every desire, it pains my breast, and my soul feels the delight of its own pain from the goodness that it sees, hears, and understands in you.56 The divine ray inflames me, so that your clear angelic intellect shines; by your new words my every affection is ensnared; and from your beautiful eyes the blow descends to the heart. And in all his court Love does not have (hear me whoever so desires) such graceful glances, such a clear voice, or such a vivid light, so that I even beseech him that ever more strongly with such fire, such knots, and such arrows may he pierce me, tether me, and consume me. 76. [DEL MUZIO] O novo essempio de l’eterna luce,57 alma gentile, ond’ogni alma più rara, mirando la beltà ch’in te riluce, del vero amore i veri effetti impara. Se del lume, ch’in te dal ciel traluce a l’alma mia, non sarai punto avara, spero col raggio di sì altera duce farmi fiamma di fama al mondo chiara. Te canteran mie rime in ogni parte; et diran quei, c’havran più vivo ingegno, 55. Republished in M 28r. 56. The antecedent for “it” is his soul. 57. ABAB ABAB CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 201 qual fu quel foco, onde tal lampo uscio? Amor promette a te ne le mie carte nome immortale. O così fosse degno ne le tue d’haver vita il nome mio.

76. [BY MUZIO] O new example of eternal light,58 gentle soul, from which every soul most rare, gazing upon the beauty that shines in you, the true effects of true love learns, if with the light, which shines from the heavens through you59 to my soul, you will not be in the least miserly, I hope with the ray of such a lofty leader to make myself a flame of manifest fame to the world.60 Of you my verses will sing far and wide, and those with a livelier intellect will ask what fire was that from which such lightening leapt? Love promises to you in my pages an immortal name. O, if only my name were worthy to live in yours.61 77. [DEL MUZIO] In su le rive del superbo fiume,62 ch’altrui già die’ sepolcro in mezo l’onde; ond’altri mutò ’l crine in verdi fronde, et altri si vestì di bianche piume, invaghito del dolce altero lume, lo qual di Cielo in Cielo in voi s’infonde, et con sua luce ogni altra luce asconde, 58. Republished in M 29r. 59. Muzio uses the familiar “tu” form in addressing d’Aragona in this sonnet. 60. Although I was unable to reproduce completely the alliteration of the original, I have attempted here to create two alliterative sounds—the “m” and the “f.” 61. He means “in your pages.” 62. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

202 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona arse ’l mio core oltra mortal costume; poi sendo privo de gli amati rai, non so dove si chiuse il grande ardore, come fuoco, ch’in cener si ricopra. Hor rivedendo il vostro almo splendore, l’antica fiamma chiara più che mai convien ch’ in riva d’Arno si discopra.

77. [BY MUZIO] Up on the shores of the lofty river,63 which once buried another in the midst of the waves,64 so that one changed her locks to green fronds,65 and another still dressed in white feathers,66 enamored of the sweet, lofty light, which from Sky to Sky infuses itself into you and with its light every other light hides, burned my heart beyond any earthly wont; then deprived of the beloved rays, I do not know where the great ardor was concealed,67 like a fire that one may smother with ashes. Now that I see again your magnificent splendor,

63. Republished in M 32r. This sonnet clarifies that Muzio first met or sang of d’Aragona when he was in Ferrara, where the lofty river—the Po—flows and that he saw her once again “on the shores of the Arno” in Florence. For information on Muzio’s return to Florence in October 1546, see the note to the first quatrain of sonnet 24. 64. Phaethon was the son of Phoebus (Helios), who allowed him to drive the chariot of the sun across the sky for a day. Phaethon was unable to control the chariot’s horses and to prevent the earth from catching on fire, Jupiter (Zeus) struck him down with a thunderbolt. Phaethon fell into the Eridanus River, which is an ancient name for the Po. 65. The Heliades, sisters of Phaethon, were so distressed at their brother’s death that the gods turned them into poplars on the banks of the Po and their turned their tears into amber. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 2.340–66. 66. Cycnus, a friend and relation of Phaethon, was changed into a swan in the midst of his lamentations over Phaethon’s death. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 2.367–80. 67. I rendered the verb “chiudere” (“to end”) as “concealed” to pick up on the play on words from l. 11 and l. 14 of “si ricopra” and “si discopra.”

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 203 it is right that on the shores of the Arno the ancient flame more radiant than ever be revealed.68

78. [DEL MUZIO] Sogni chi vuol di riportar corona69 da gli alti gioghi del sacrato monte; altri s’attuffi nel famoso fonte, che fa più chiaro ’l nome d’Helicona; sia gloria altrui se la sua lira suona haver le sacre Muse al cantar pronte; cinga altrui Phebo la felice fronte de la fronde, che mai non l’abbandona; altri si vanti che benigna e lieta stella a lui rivolgendo il suo splendore, a questa luce il fece uscir poeta. Il mio Parnaso, il mio perpetuo humore, le mie Dive, il mio Apollo, e ’l mio Pianeta è ’l valor vostro impresso nel mio core.70 78. [BY MUZIO] Let whoever so desires dream of retrieving the crown71 from the high passes of the sacred mount;72 may another dive in the famous fount that renders more illustrious the name of Helicon,73 let it be the glory of another if his lyre sounds, readying the sacred Muses to song; 68. For information on the “ancient flame,” see sonnet 24. 69. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 70. Muzio’s 1551 edition of his Rime clarifies that the “e ’l” of the earlier editions is in fact a verb by adding an accent. 71. Republished in M 34r. 72. There are two mountains sacred to Apollo and the Muses: one is Mount Parnassus and the other is Mount Helicon. Given ll. 3–4, the reference here is likely to Parnassus. 73. Although two fountains are associated with Mount Helicon—Aganippe and Hippocrene—this reference is likely to the more famous of the two, Hippocrene.

204 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona may another adorn Phoebus’s happy brow with fronds, that will never abandon him;74 let another boast that a benign and felicitous star, shining its splendor on him, by such light made him turn into a poet. My Parnassus, my everlasting juices, my Goddesses, my Apollo, and my Planet is your excellence impressed upon my heart.

79. [DEL MUZIO] Donna gentile, i cui beati ardori75 del celeste splendore, e del mortale, spargon virtù, che mentre i cori assale ne l’alme accende mille eterni amori. Se ’l vostro Sole interno e ’l bel di fuori a voi da me n’han tratto il mio immortale; et s’Amore al mio stile impenna l’ale da gir portando al Cielo i vostri honori; se cara sete a me più di me stesso; s’a voi ne volar tutti i miei sospiri; se con voi vivo, e senza voi son morto; se mi vedete ’l cor ne gli occhi espresso, et le mie pene, e i miei caldi disiri, ben dovreste pensare al mio conforto. 79. [BY MUZIO] Gentle lady, whose blessed ardor76 of celestial splendor, and earthly, sows virtue, which while it assails hearts kindles a thousand everlasting loves in souls. 74. Phoebus is another name for Apollo, who was the god, among other things, of all the fine arts, of eloquence, poetry, and music; he was usually depicted carrying the lyre and crowned with a garland of laurel. 75. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 76. Republished in M 29v. Note the use of the formal “voi” in this sonnet.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 205 If your inner Sun and your outer beauty have drawn my immortal part from me towards you; and if Love will feather the wing of my style77 to carry to the Skies your praises;78 if you are dearer to me than I am to myself; if all my sighs soar to you; if with you I am alive, and without you I am dead; if you see my heart expressed in my eyes, and my suffering, and my burning desires, you should indeed think about my relief.

80. [DEL MUZIO] Quando (com’Amor vuol) la Donna mia79 fra soavi sospiri, e dolci accenti, move la lingua a angelici concenti, et l’aura del bel petto a l’aere invia; al suon de la dolcissima harmonia ferman le penne i tempestosi venti; stanno i giri del Ciel taciti, e intenti: et non ch’altri, ma Phebo il corso oblia. Et qual alma mortal la mira, e ascolta, ad ogni human disio tutta si toglie, et con tutti i pensieri al Cielo aspira. La mia, che mai da lei non si discioglie, co’l vago spirto suo da Amore accolta a quel si stringe, e ’ntorno a lei s’aggira. 80. [BY MUZIO] When (as Love wills) my Lady,80 77. The pun on “style” in its usual sense as well as in the sense of pen (stylus) is largely lost today. 78. This is a metaphor of the soul’s ascent to the sky (a Platonic and Boethian metaphor) and also of the act of writing. See Marcozzi, Petrarca platonico, 43–72. 79. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE. 80. Republished in M 31r.

206 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona amid gentle sighs and sweet words, moves her tongue to angelic harmonies and sends the breath from her fine bosom out to the air; at the sound of her sweetest harmony tempestuous winds still the plumes;81 the rotations of the Sky remain quiet, and intent and not just others, but [even] Phoebus forgets his course.82 And any mortal soul who looks upon her, and listens, becomes completely bereft of any human desire and with all his thoughts aspires to the Sky. My own soul, which never untethers itself from her, embraced by Love through her winsome83 spirit clings to him,84 and around her revolves.

81. [DEL MUZIO] Hebbe la favolosa antica etade85 chi co’l tenor di feri, e dolci canti, et con novo splendor di rea beltade allettando affogava i naviganti. Et hor donata ci ha l’alta bontade Donna, che con l’ardor de gli occhi santi, et con note d’amor e di pietade rende porto e salute a l’alme erranti. Voi, Donna mia, voi sete alma Sirena, voi, voi, TULLIA gentil, che fido lume nel mar d’Amor porgete, e placid’aura. La vista vostra angelica serena fa ch’in voi l’altrui vita ognihor s’allume, e ’l cantar d’ogni affanno ci restaura.

81. “Penne” is naturally a double entendre of “plumes” but also “pens.” 82. Phoebus is epithet for Apollo, as he was also associated with the sun. 83. The original “vago” means both “lovely” and also “wandering.” 84. That is, his soul clings to Love, which is personified in the preceding line. 85. ABAB ABAB CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 207

81. [BY MUZIO] The fabled ancient age had86 those who with the tones of cruel, sweet songs87 and the new splendor of evil beauty seductively drowned seafarers.88 And now lofty goodness has given us a Lady, who through the ardor of her saintly eyes and through notes of love and compassion, offers a port and health to errant souls. You, my Lady, are a munificent Siren, you, you, gentle TULLIA, who place a trusty light in the sea of Love, and a gentle breeze. Your angelic, serene countenance makes it so that another’s life is always illuminated in you, and your singing restores us from every affliction. 82. [DEL MUZIO] Già vide a le sue sponde il gelid’Hebro89 Orpheo cantare, e tacite ascoltarlo varie fere, e augelli, e seguitarlo Quercia, Popolo, Abete, Olmo, e Ginebro. Vista ha ’l gran Po, veduta ha ’l chiaro Tebro; vede ’l bel Arno (a cui sovente parlo quel, che mi detta l’amoroso tarlo) cantar la Donna, ch’io sempre celebro; ma se colui seguiano, e sassi, e sterpi; 86. Republished in M 31r where Muzio uses the adjective “fabulosa” to clarify his meaning. As an interesting counterpart, see the sonnet by Lucia Dell’Oro Bertani’s “Ebbe l’antica e gloriosa etade,” a sonnet addressed to Vittoria Colonna and Veronica Gambara cited by Cox, Women’s Writing, 76 and 293, who dates it to pre-1547. 87. Note the ambiguity and pun behind “tenor” both as a musical reference and as an indication of behavior. 88. The reference here is to the Sirens, female creatures who lived on an island in the Mediterranean and who through their musical abilities were often able to lure men to their destruction. Tullia’s singing is just the opposite however: it restores the listener. 89. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

208 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona questa ogni alma più dura, e più silvestra, trahe dal grave suo incarco, e al ciel la scorge. Beata voce, che dal cor mi sterpi ogni vil cura; onde per te s’addesta l’alma a salir, ove per sé non sorge.

82. [BY MUZIO] Once on its shores the gelid Hebrus saw90 Orpheus sing, and silently, listening to him, various ferocious beasts, and birds, and following him Oaks, Poplars, Pines, Elms, and Junipers.91 The great Po has seen her sing, as has also the blond Tiber; the lovely Arno sees (to whom I often tell that which the amorous worm92 dictates to me) the Lady, whom I always celebrate; yet if both rocks and shrubs follow him;93 she draws every rugged, woodland soul from its grave burden and beholds it amid the skies.94 Blessed voice, which eradicates from my heart every vile care, so that for you my soul readies to rise there where on its own it cannot ascend. 90. Republished in M 31v. The Hebrus—or Hebros, now Maritsa River—flows through Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey and empties into the Aegean Sea. 91. Orpheus sang and played both the lyre and the cithara so sweetly that not only was he able to calm wild beasts, but also plants and trees would bow to him, and he was even able to overcome the song of the Sirens when they tried to seduce the Argonauts. The Hebrus River, however, was the site of his death. Orpheus had made a trip to the underworld in order to retrieve his beloved Eurydice. Because of his excellent musical skills, he was able to make a pact that she could return with him to the world of the living provided that he not look back before leaving the underworld. Orpheus turned to look at his beloved Eurydice before exiting, and she immediately vanished. He was completely distraught and soothed himself by singing and playing his lyre. He was eventually killed by women and, in one version of his death, his body was torn to pieces and his severed head thrown into the Hebrus River, which finally floated to the island of Lesbos, known for its excellent lyric poetry. 92. See Petrarch, Rvf, 360.69 for the image of the “worm” that eats away at the lover’s heart. 93. Orpheus. 94. That is, she is able to draw those souls out and send them on their ascent to the sky.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 209

83. [DEL MUZIO] Donna, a cui ’l santo choro ognihor s’aggira95 de l’alme Muse, e la cui chiara fronte verdeggia de l’honor del sacro Monte, ove chi s’erge eterna vita spira, qual anima gentil v’ascolta, e mira brama far vostre gratie al mondo conte: poi non trovando rime al cantar pronte com’è la voglia, duolsi, e ne sospira. Di così bello, raro e alto suggetto, dal vostro infuori, ogni altro stile è indegno; quel sol n’è degno, e altro non v’arriva. Io per molto provar, vero disegno di voi non feci mai: ma dentro ’l petto ben vi porto scolpita bella, e viva. 83. [BY MUZIO] Lady, whom the saintly choir of inspiring Muses96 forever surrounds, and whose fair brow is greened by the honor of the sacred Mount,97 where whoever aspires to eternal life rises,98 any gentle soul who hears and admires you longs to recount to the world your graces; then not finding ready verses to sing as is his desire, he is pained, and sighs. For such a beautiful, rare, and lofty subject, any other style, besides your own, is unworthy;99 95. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 96. Republished in M 33r. 97. In other words, d’Aragona is wearing the laurel crown of poets; the mount can either be Parnassus or Helicon, as both were sacred to the Muses. 98. In other words, if one is successful as a poet on Parnassus, one is therefore famous and lives eternally through his or her poetic production. 99. Although theoretically the soul in question could be female, I have adopted the masculine possessive pronoun because all the poets who have offered verse about Tullia d’Aragona—that I am aware of—are male.

210 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona that one alone is worthy, and no other reaches it. Although much I have tried, a true drawing of you I have never made, but inside my heart I carry you beautifully sculpted and alive.100

84. [DEL MUZIO] La sembianza di Dio, ch’in noi risplende101 di Cielo in Cielo, e c’ha nome beltade, et move Amor, per perigliose strade de l’orecchie, e de gli occhi al cor discende. Perché dal senso il senso il bello apprende; e ’n la natura nostra è qualitade ch’in mortal disiderio il mortal cade, et così bassa voglia il senso accende. Ond’è ch’ingombro di piacer terreno entrando il mal fidato messaggero fa ne l’alma sentir del suo veleno. Quinci è che talhor cade il mio pensero: ma voi, c’havete in man la verga, e ’l freno, ne ’l ridrizzate per erto sentero. 84. [BY MUZIO] The resemblance to God, which shines in us102 from Sky to Sky, and is named beauty, and persuades Love along dangerous paths from the ears and the eyes into the heart descends. Because sense understands beauty through the senses; and it is an attribute of our nature that the mortal part falls into mortal desire and thus the senses ignite base desires. Thus burdened with earthly pleasures 100. It is striking that in the last tercet Muzio refers to both two- and three-dimensional artistic forms—a drawing and a sculpture. 101. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 102. Republished in M 33v.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 211 the untrustworthy messenger enters and makes his poison felt in the soul. Hence on occasion my thoughts fall, but you, who have the switch in your hand, and the bit,103 direct it back on the ascending path.104

85. [DEL MUZIO] Dal mio mortal col mio immortal m’involo105 sovente o Donna; e da me stesso sciolto al bel vostro splendor tutto rivolto l’ali battendo al Ciel mi levo a volo. Et lontanato dal terrestre suolo giungo a l’essempio de l’amato volto, donde è tutto quel bello in voi raccolto, che fa ’l mio amor fra gli altri in terra solo. Deh vi priegh’io per le bellezze vostre TULLIA, ch’al bel camin compagna eterna mi siate senza mai voltarvi a dietro. Ch’amor, s’anchor da voi tal gratia impetro, promette a noi tranquilla pace interna, et certa gloria a i nomi, e a l’alme nostre. 85. [BY MUZIO] From my mortal part I steal away with my immortal one,106 often, o Lady; and unfettered from myself, 103. This is a reference to Plato’s allegory of the nature of the soul (also referred to as the tripartite soul) found in Phaedrus 246b–254e. It describes the soul figuratively as a chariot, driven by a charioteer, and pulled by two horses, one noble and good and the other of opposite character. Each of these elements combines to make up the soul—the horses figure as positive and negative appetites and the charioteer as reason, who tries to negotiate between the two, particularly in the appearance of the beloved. 104. The primary meaning of “erto” is “steep,” but it also suggests “virtuous” or “morally correct,” reminiscent of Dante’s “straight way” (“dritta via”) of Inferno, 1.l. 2. 105. ABBA ABBA CDE EDC. 106. Republished in M 33v.

212 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona all intent on your beautiful splendor, beating my wings, to the Sky I rise in flight. And at a distance from this earthly plane I reach the example of the beloved visage in which all your beauty is gathered, which makes my love among the others on earth unique. Pray, I beg you for the sake of your beauties, TULLIA, that on the beauteous path, my eternal companion you will be without ever turning back. For love, if still from you such grace I may attain, promises us a tranquil inner peace, and certain glory for our names, and our souls.

86. [DEL MUZIO] Donna più volte m’ha già detto Amore107 che ne l’anima vostra i miei pensieri son tutti espressi così vivi, e veri com’io voi viva, ho impressa in mezo ’l core. Et ch’accesi del vostro alto splendore ne van vostri disir cotanto alteri, ch’a mortal non convien che da voi speri altra mercede ch’immortal dolore. Così dice egli: e io per prova il sento, che quant’ huom più vi serve, e più v’adora voi del suo mal più vi mostrate vaga. Per tutto ciò d’amarvi io non mi pento; anzi bramo ch’in me più d’hora in hora veder possiate quel che più v’appaga. 86. [BY MUZIO] Lady, many times has Love told me108 that in your soul my thoughts are all expressed so alive, and true, 107. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 108. Republished in M 34v.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 213 just as I have impressed you alive in my heart. And that illuminated by your noble splendor your desires are so lofty109 that no mortal should hope to have from you any mercy other than everlasting sorrow. So says he:110 and by experience I feel it, that the more a man serves you, and the more he adores you, the more you show yourself eager for his pain. Nevertheless of loving you I have no regrets, rather I yearn so that in me always you are able to see what gratifies you most.111

87. [DEL MUZIO] Se ben gli occhi, e l’orecchie alcuna volta112 vi mostran tale a i miei bassi disiri, che surgon del mio core agri sospiri, ond’è ch’al lamentar la lingua è sciolta; tosto che l’alma in sé stessa raccolta a l’alma vostra avien che si raggiri, in diletto si cangiano i martiri; et la mia lingua a ringratiar si volta. Che la pena, che par che sì mi prema non passa oltra ’l mortal; ma la dolcezza acqueta i sensi, e pasce lo intelletto. Donna sia benedetta quella asprezza, ch’anzi ’l chiuder de gli occhi a l’hora estrema morire insegna al mio terreno affetto.

109. This is a fine example of the ambiguous use of “altero,” or “lofty,” which may mean “noble” or “exalted” but also “haughty” or “proud.” 110. Love personified. 111. In other words, that he yearns to be in love with her and thus to suffer, which is what she wants to see. 112. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

214 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

87. [BY MUZIO] Although my eyes and ears on occasion113 show you to be such to my baser desires, that from my heart rise bitter sighs, and to lament my tongue is loosened, as soon as my soul has collected itself, towards your soul it tends to wander, agonies transform themselves into delights, and my tongue turns to thankfulness. For the suffering that seems to oppress me so does not extend beyond mortality; but sweetness calms the senses, and nourishes the intellect. Lady, may that bitterness be blessed, for before closing my eyes at my final hour, it teaches my earthly affection how to die. 88. [DEL MUZIO] Donna, l’honor de i cui be’ raggi ardenti114 m’infiamma ’l core, e a ragionar m’invita, perché sia nostra penna mal gradita l’alto nostro sperar non si sgomenti. Rabbiosa invidia i velenosi denti adopra in noi mentre ’l mortal è in vita. Ma sentirem sanarsi ogni ferita come diam luogo a le future genti. Vedransi allhor questi intelletti foschi in tenebre sepolti, e ’l nostro honore viverà chiaro, et eterno, in ogni parte. Et si vedrà che non i fiumi Thoschi, ma ’l Ciel, l’arte, lo studio, e ’l santo amore dan spirto, e vita a i nomi, e a le carte.

113. Republished in M 35r. 114. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 215

88. [BY MUZIO] Lady, the honor of whose beauteous, ardent rays115 inflames my heart, and invites me to speak116 so that our pen may not displease,117 let not our high hopes be dashed. Rabid envy adopts poisonous teeth against us while our mortal part is alive. Yet we shall feel every wound heal [itself] as we give place to future generations.118 Then one will see these sullen intellects buried in shadows, and our honor will live clearly, and eternally, everywhere. 115. Republished in M 29v. According to Giaxich, this sonnet was the one mentioned by Varchi in his Ercolano, written in response to critics of Muzio who posited that he did not write proper Florentine (Vita, 41). Varchi wrote: “I not only consider Muzio to be a learned and eloquent man, but also a loyal one, which as far as I am concerned is of much greater importance. I think that he believed sincerely in all that he spoke about, yet on one occasion when he was in Florence, where I with much pleasure engaged in conversation with him at the house of Signora Tullia d’Aragona, certain people said things about him regarding his compositions: namely, that he was unable to write well in the Florentine idiom, in a praiseworthy manner. These accusations—unfounded—understandably outraged Muzio, and since at this point it seemed that the actions of his critics were motivated by envy, he composed this sonnet against them that you will hear, and he sent it to Signora Tullia d’Aragona, a lady of immense spirit and the most discerning judgement” (Zanrè, Cultural Non-Conformity, 148, translation slightly modified) (“Io ho il Muzio per uomo non solamente dotto, ed eloquente, ma leale, che appresso me molto maggiormente importa, e credo che egli dicesse tutto quello che egli credeva sinceramente, ancorachè quando stette una volta trall’altre in Firenze, dove io con mio gran piacere conversai molto seco in casa la Signora Tullia d’Aragona, furono da certi dette cose di lui d’intorno a’ suoi componimenti per lo non potere egli per l’essere forestiero scrivere bene, e lodatamente nell’idioma Fiorentino, le quali non senza cagione, e ragione lo mossero a sdegno, onde egli contra quei tali, parendogli che fossero, come per avventura erano, mossi da invidia, compose, e mandò alla Signora Tullia, donna di grandissimo spiritio, e bellissimo giudizio, questo Sonetto che voi udirete” [L’Ercolano, 2 vols. (Milan: Società tipografica dei classici italiani, 1804), 2: 24]). For Muzio’s narration of these discussions and response to Varchi, see his Battaglie per difesa dell’italica lingua, ed. Rossana Sodano (Turin: RES, 1994), 52–54. 116. The term “ragionare” means both to “reason” or “reflect” and to “talk” or to “speak.” 117. In the subsequent republication of Muzio’s verses, this line becomes “perché mia penna altrui sia mal gradita.” 118. Cfr. Dante, Paradiso, 33.70–72.

216 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona And one will see that not Tuscan rivers, but the Sky, art, study, and saintly love give spirit, and life to our names, and to our pages.

89. DEL VARCHI Quando doveva (oimè) l’arco, e la face,119 l’una spenta del tutto, e l’altro stanco, a questo ardito, e tormentoso fianco, per suo gran danno, e mio troppo vivace, non breve tregua pur, ma eterna pace donar, poi che nel lato destro, e manco per le nevi del capo homai vien bianco il crin fatto d’argento, che sì spiace; più che mai fresco, e più che mai cocente mi saetta lo stral, m’accende il foco di tal ferite, e così caldo ardore, ch’ogni salute a mio soccorso è poco; anzi cresce la piaga, e fa maggiore incendio, ch’al suo mal l’alma consente. 89. BY VARCHI 120 When (alas) the bow and the torch, the latter entirely spent, the former exhausted, ought to have given to this bold and tormenting flank121 for its own great, and my too vigorous, damage, not only brief truce, but eternal peace, since on the right side and left the snows of my temples are now turning white, my locks made of silver, which is so displeasing; 119. ABBA ABBA CDE DEC. 120. For information on Varchi, see sonnet 21. 121. I have adopted the cognate “flank” as it refers both to the side of the body—and an Italian poetic use recalls the whole body—but in English, as in Italian, it is also used as a term for a military formation, which is consonant with the other imagery adopted in this sonnet.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 217 fresher than ever, and hotter than ever, the arrow pierces me, the fire from such wounds ignites me, and such a burning passion, that every aid to my salvation is slight, rather the wound is made deeper, and increases the fire, so that my soul consents to its own affliction.

90. [DEL VARCHI] Donna, che di bellezza, e di virtute,122 et d’ogni alto valor gran tempo in cima, sola fra tutte l’altre non che prima piovete ne’ miglior senno, e salute; ben so ch’a dir di voi sarebber mute le lingue tutte: e qual prosa, né rima poria cose agguagliar, che poscia, o prima non furon mai, né saran mai vedute? Tacciomi dunque fuor gelato, e fioco,123 per tema di scemar sì chiare lodi; ma dentro infino al ciel notte e dì grido, ringratiando le stelle, il tempo, e ’l loco, gli sguardi, gli atti, le parole e i modi, che mi donaro a cor gentile, e fido. 90. [BY VARCHI] Lady, you who in beauty, and virtue and in every other lofty quality at length on the peaks, alone among all the others as well as first, rain down on the best wisdom and health; indeed I know that in speaking of you all tongues would remain mute, and what prose, or verse would be able to equal things that [either] later, or sooner have never been, nor ever will be seen? Thus I silence myself, frozen and faint on the outside, 122. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 123. The 1549 edition has “tacciovi.”

218 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona for fear of diminishing such resounding praise, but on the inside I shout up to the skies, day and night, thanking the stars, the time, and place, the glances, gestures, the words, and the ways that gave me to a gentle heart,124 and true.125

91. [DEL VARCHI] Io non miro giamai cosa nessuna,126 o in terra, o in ciel, ov’io non vegga quella, ch’amor in sorte, e mia benigna stella da le fasce mi diero, e da la cuna. Ogni nube m’assembra e Sole, e Luna la mia Donna gentil più d’altra bella; monte, o valle non veggio, o poggio, ov’ella per lo mio ben non sia, ch’è nel mondo una. L’herbe, gli alberi, i fior, le frondi, i sassi mi rappresentan sempre, e l’onde, e l’ora quel viso, dopo il qual nulla mi piacque. U’ gli occhi giro, ovunque movo i passi nulla non scorgo, o penso, o sento fuora di lei, che per bearmi in terra nacque. 91. [BY VARCHI] Never do I see a single thing, either on earth or in the sky, in which I do not see her whom love by fate, and my benign star from birth gave me, and from the cradle. To me every cloud, and both Sun and Moon, resemble my gentle Lady, more beautiful than any other; neither mountaintop, nor valley, nor hill do I see 124. The poem “Al cor gentile rempaira sempre amore” by Guido Guinizzelli was a sort of poetic manifesto for the “sweet new style” (“dolce stil novo”) of fourteenth-century Italian poetry. 125. This long list of things for which the lover is thankful recalls Petrarch, Rvf, 61. 126. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 219 where she is not for my [own] good, which in all the world is she alone. The grass, trees, flowers, fronds, and rocks and the waves, and the hour, always represent for me that visage, after which I liked nothing else. Wherever I turn my eyes, wherever my footsteps lead, nothing do I see, or think, or feel besides her, who to bless me127 was born to [this] earth.

92. [DEL VARCHI] Se di così selvaggio, e così duro128 legno sì aspro frutto (oimè) v’aggrada, chi sia ch’unqua vi miri, e poscia vada di non sempre penar, Donna, securo? Bench’io, poi ch’ognihor più m’inaspro, e induro del duol, cui lungo a voi fo larga strada de la mia pena sola, non pur rada fra quante sono al mondo, e quante furo, dovrei trovar pietà, ch’asprezza eguale o più selvaggia, e solitaria vita non sentì mai, e visse alcun mortale. Fera legge d’Amor sperare aita dal dolor che n’ancide: e del suo male pascer l’alma, via più che saggia, ardita. 92. [BY VARCHI] If from such a wild and hard129 tree such bitter fruit (alas) pleases you, who could ever possibly gaze upon you and then move on 127. The verb “bearmi” recalls the name of Dante’s beloved—Beatrice, “she who blesses.” 128. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 129. Varchi chose to republish this sonnet in his sonnet collection printed in 1555, the year before d’Aragona’s death; see V 41. There are variants that include ll. 6–8 (“In questa horrida, alpestra, herma contrada/ Del duol, cui lunge a voi fo larga strada/ E dall’Arbor, cui solo in terra curo.”). He included another sonnet in that collection titled “Quando all’usato mio dolce soggiorno,” which does not appear in d’Aragona’s Rime; see V 52.

220 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona always sure, Lady, of not suffering? Although I grow ever more embittered, and hardened by the pain, for which I have at length avoided you only because of my own suffering, though not rare among the many that there are in the world, and that have been, I ought to find pity,130 for equal bitterness or a wilder or more solitary life has no mortal man ever felt or lived. It is the cruel law of Love to hope for help from the pain that kills us, and of its malady to nourish the soul, a path more bold than wise.

93. [DEL VARCHI] Per non sentir la turba iniqua, e fella131 così larga al mal dir, com’al ben parca, da lei, che nel mio cuor siede monarca, non men cortese, che leggiadra, e bella, non mio voler seguendo, ma mia stella, parto col corpo sol, che l’alma scarca de la soma mortal meco non varca; ma riman seco obediente ancella. Et se quel, che fra me tacito, e solo cantando vo con più di mille insieme per la Garza, e Forcella, e Tavaiano, udisse pur un dì l’invido stuolo, ben morria di dolor veggendo vano tornar l’empio ardir suo, ch’in darno freme. 93. [BY VARCHI] In order not to overhear the crowd, unfair and cruel, as generous with aspersions as spare with praise about her, who sits as monarch in my heart, no less courteous, than full of grace and beauty, 130. Cfr. Petrarch, Rvf, 1.8: “trovar pietà nonché perdono.” 131. ABBA ABBA CDE CED.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 221 not following my wishes, but my star, I depart only in body, for my soul emptied of its mortal burden does not pass the threshold with me; but remains with her an obedient handmaiden. And if that one,132 who within me silent and alone, I go singing together with more than a thousand, by the Garza, Forcella, and Tavaiano,133 were to hear even one day the envious throng, he would surely die of pain seeing how futilely returns its wicked audacity, which shudders in vain.

94. DI IULIO CAMILLO TULLIA gentile, a le cui tempie intorno134 verdeggia avolta l’honorata fronde; et la cui voce a l’harmonia risponde di chi fa in Helicon dolce soggiorno; qualhora a voi fo co’l pensier ritorno, et ritrovo sentenze sì profonde in sì leggiadro stil, sì mi confonde novello horror, ch’in me più non soggiorno. Vostra Musa di me cantando canta d’uno sterpo silvestro, a cui nemica stata è natura, e ’l Ciel, e io no’l celo. Ben è la vostra fortunata pianta: che lieto il Re de’ fiumi la nutrica, et la rinforza il gran Signor di Delo. 132. The antecedent for “quel” of l. 9 is not immediately apparent. In fact, it seems to be a shortened form of “quello” and, as such, refer to some other previously unmentioned poet. 133. All three of these rivers or streams are relatively obscure compared to some of the others we have come across so far. The Garza is a stream that flows in the territory of Brescia. The reference to the Forcella is likely to the waterfalls (“le cascate di Forcella”) that are located between Roccafluvione and Acquasanta in the province of Ascoli Piceno. The Tavaiano is a Tuscan stream in the province of Florence that flows from Mount Gazzaro into the Sieve River. This tercet was used in the sonnet “Quando all’usato mio dolce soggiorno” that appears in V 52. 134. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

222 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

94. BY GIULIO CAMILLO 135 Gentle TULLIA, whose temples the fronds of honor encircle with green, and whose voice responds to the harmony of those who sojourn sweetly in Helicon;136 whenever my thoughts return to you, and I discover judgments so profound in such a graceful style, a new horror so confounds me that I am beside myself. Your Muse singing of me sings137 of a dry sylvan bough, whose enemy has been nature, and the Sky, and I do not hide it. Indeed your plant is fortunate; for the King of Rivers happily nourishes it,138 and the grand Lord of Delos strengthens it.139 135. Although the 1549 edition refers simply to Giulio Camillo as the author, the 1560 edition adds the title “M[esser].” Camillo, also known as Camillo Delminio. Giulio Camillo Delminio (1485–1544) was a multifaceted philosopher and poet most often remembered for his memory theater, discussed by Frances Yates in The Art of Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), 129–72. Camillo’s interests were varied and included hermetic philosophy, the Kabbalah, rhetoric, and linguistics; his commentary on Petrarch’s canzoniere was also well-known and republished several times throughout the sixteenth century. He lived for some time in France, where he received patronage from the French king Francis I, although he eventually returned to Italy, moving between Padua, Venice, his native Friuli, and Milan before his sudden death in 1544. Girolamo Muzio was a dear friend of Camillo and was apparently responsible for writing down, over the course of seven days, the text for which he is most often remembered, his L’idea del theatro (The Idea of the Theater). Although Camillo’s sonnets to d’Aragona did not appear in the first posthumous edition of his works published in 1552, they were added to the 1560 edition, where we also find an ode dedicated to her; see Giulio Camillo, Opere di M. Giulio Camillo, 2 vols. (Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1560), 5. It is likely that d’Aragona and Camillo met in Ferrara in the late 1530s when he was there to seek the patronage of Duke Ercole II; note the reference in l. 13. On Camillo, see Giorgio Stabile, “Giulio Camillo, detto Delminio,” in DBI 17 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1974), 218–30, Giaxich, Vita, and the letters of Muzio. 136. That is, musicians and poets. 137. I have maintained the repetition of the original. 138. The King of Rivers is the Po. 139. One of the primary cults of Apollo, the god of poetry, was on the island of Delos, and thus this sonnet also refers to d’Aragona’s role as a poet.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 223

95. [DI GIULIO CAMILLO] Poi ch’a la vostra tanto alma beltade,140 onde pregiata d’honorate, e rare spoglie di tante elette anime chiare n’andate altero specchio ad ogni etade, piace ch’io anchor per le medesme strade seguir vostre amorose insegne impare, non siano almen vostre alme luci avare di quel raggio, ond’io scorgo ogni bontade. Et nel bel petto vostro Amore ispiri pietà e mercede al mio dolore eguale, et a gli ardenti intensi miei disiri; poi se le aggrada il mio destin fatale versi in me pur ognihor doglie, e martiri141 che dolce mi fia sempre ogni altro male. 95. [BY GIULIO CAMILLO] Since it pleases your excellent beauty, for which, adorned with the honorable and rare tributes of so many outstanding, illustrious souls, you go forth a lofty mirror for every age, that I also on the same streets follow your unequaled, amorous tracks, may at least your grand lights not be sparing of that ray, from which I discern every goodness. And in your fine breast may Love inspire pity and mercy equal to my pain, and to my intense ardent desires; then if my fated destiny pleases him, may he also forever pour into me sorrows and pain so that every other ill will be sweet to me.

140. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 141. I changed “martire” to “martiri” to follow the rhyme scheme.

224 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

96. [DI GIULIO CAMILLO] Ben fu tra gli altri aventuroso il giorno,142 quando l’eterno, e gran Re de le stelle fece, per fare il fior de l’altre belle, di voi TULLIA divina il mondo adorno; le gratie tutte, e le virtuti intorno vi fur quasi devote, e fide ancelle; e ’l Ciel lasciar per seguitarvi quelle in questo nostro humil basso soggiorno; però ripiena di celeste ardore; di gloria accesa, e colma di mercede; vaga di bello, e di perpetuo amore; di gratia albergo, e di bellezza herede sola fra noi vivete in dolce amore del ben del Ciel facendo in terra fede. 96. [BY GIULIO CAMILLO] So fortunate among the others was the day when the eternal and grand King of the Stars,143 to make the very flower of all beauties, adorned the world with you, divine TULLIA; all the graces, and the virtues surrounding you were nearly devoted, and faithful handmaidens; and they left the Sky to follow you into this our humble, lowly sojourn; you however filled with celestial ardor, alight with glory, and full of mercy, desirous of beauty, and of everlasting love, haven for grace, and heir of beauty, live alone among us in sweet love, proving on earth the goodness of the Sky.

142. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 143. God Almighty.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 225

97. DEL S[IGNOR] HIPPOLITO CARDI= NAL DE MEDICI Anima bella, che nel bel tuo lume144 divino interno ti rivolgi, e giri; et indi in voce dolcemente spiri il suon ch’avanza ogni mortal costume, onde la mia poi d’amorose piume coverta avien ch’al Ciel volando aspiri; et nel tuo chiaro raggio aperto miri com’Amor sani, ancida, arda, e consume, deh se l’alta bellezza, e ’l dolce canto ond’in te stessa sol beata sei; et s’Amor punto mai ti piacque, o piace, prego volgendo in me ’l bel viso santo al lungo penar mio dia qualche pace, et qualche tregua a gli aspri dolor miei.

144. ABBA ABBA CDE CED.

226 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

97. BY S[IGNOR] IPPOLITO CARDI= NAL DE MEDICI 145 Beautiful soul, who within your beautiful, divine inner light you turn and rotate,146 and from there with voice sweetly utter147 the sound that exceeds all earthly customs, so that my own [soul] may then with the feathers of love148 be covered and aspire to fly to the Skies; and in your luminous ray may you freely see how Love may heal, kill, burn, and devour, alas, if your lofty beauty, and sweet song by which you alone are blessed in yourself,149 145. Ippolito de’ Medici (1511–35) was a legitimized son of Giuliano de’ Medici, duke of Nemours, raised within the family from an early age and given a humanist education befitting a nobleman. Pope Leo X hosted him in his court in Rome and viewed him as the future heir of the family. Upon the rise to power of Clement VII (another Medici pope) in 1521, he returned to Florence but was forced to leave the city when the republic was reinstated in 1527. He was made cardinal in 1529 by Clement VII, yet when the Medici were reinstated in Florence in 1530, the pope preferred Ippolito’s cousin Alessandro de’ Medici as duke. Ippolito de’ Medici continued to compete with his cousin for control of the city of Florence and maintained mutually beneficial relations with the Florentine exiles, known as the fuoriusciti. Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici died by poison on 10 August 1535. According to recent studies, his cousin Duke Alessandro ordered his death, although Pope Paul III (Farnese) may possibly have been involved in the plot. Cardinal Ippolito kept a court with a number of poets with whom d’Aragona was in contact, such as Claudio Tolomei and Francesco Maria Molza, although her acquaintance with him may also have arisen out of his relations with the Strozzi. For other poems by Ippolito de’ Medici, see Dionigi Atanagi, ed., De le rime di diversi nobili poeti toscani raccolte da M. Dionigi Atanagi, vol. 1 (Venice: Lodovico Ananzò, 1565), 129r–132v. For a recent, succinct biography of Ippolito, see Irene Fosi and Guido Rebecchini, “Ippolito de’ Medici (Pasqualino),” in DBI 73 (Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 2009), 99–104, and for an excellent new biography of Ippolito de’ Medici that pays particular attention to Ippolito’s creation and management of his own cultural capital, see Guido Rebecchini, “Un altro Lorenzo”: Ippolito de’ Medici tra Firenze e Roma (1511–1535) (Venice: Marsilio, 2010). 146. Note that the poet uses the informal “tu” in this sonnet, whereas he uses the “voi” in the following one. Here he is addressing her soul directly. 147. The term “spirare” indicates the physical act of breathing but also suggests an element of inspiration. 148. These are the feathers of the soul’s wings mentioned on page 194n39. 149. This refers to the self-sufficiency of the soul purified of earthly passions that desires nothing other than the contemplation of its own divine nature.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 227 and if Love ever pleased you, or pleases you now, I pray that you, turning your lovely saintly face to me, might give to my long suffering some peace and some respite from my bitter pains.

98. [DEL S[IGNOR] HIPPOLITO CARDI= NAL DE MEDICI] Se ’l dolce folgorar de i bei crin d’oro;150 e ’l fiammeggiar de i begli occhi lucenti; e ’l far dolce acquetar per l’aria i venti col riso, ond’io m’incendo, e mi scoloro, son le cagion, per voi vivo e moro, piango, e m’adiro, e fo restar contenti gli spirti, afflitti in mezzo i miei lamenti, et mi par dolce il grave aspro martoro; non voi sì bella, io non così bramoso; voi non sì dura, io non sì frale almeno fossi, non voi d’amor rubella, io servo; ch’io sperarei nel stato mio gioioso goder un giorno almen lieto, e sereno, piegando alquanto il core empio e protervo. 98. [BY S[IGNOR] IPPOLITO CARDI= NAL DE MEDICI] If the sweet flash of your beautiful locks of gold,151 and the sparkle of your beautiful shining eyes, and your sweet ways calming the winds outside with your laughter, so that I am in flames, and grow pale, those are the reasons that I live and die through you, I cry and grow angry and make my spirits content, afflicted in the midst of my lamentations, 150. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 151. This might perhaps lead us to assume that at least before 1535, d’Aragona’s hair was blond or with streaks of blond. Yet this description may also not be realistic but consonant with the classical figuration of the female beloved in the Italian poetic tradition.

228 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona and sweet seems to me my grave, bitter martyrdom; if only you were not so beautiful, nor I so yearning, you not so obstinate, nor I so weak, you not a rebel to love,152 nor I a slave, that I might hope in my joyous state to enjoy at least one happy, serene day, by swaying enough your cruel, imperious heart.

99. DEL MOLZA Spirto gentil, che riccamente adorno153 de i più pregiati, e cari don del cielo, cortesemente nel corporeo velo con tue virtuti fai lieto soggiorno: deh s’amor sempre a te faccia ritorno di nove spoglie ornando al caldo, e al gelo d’huomini, e Dei, il tuo honorato stelo; et cresca il valor tuo di giorno in giorno, fa che ’l nobile tuo chiaro intelletto sempre guardando a la più bella parte di sé, giamai non si rivolga a terra. Ch’allhor vedrai come natura, e arte soavemente in te rinchiude, e serra d’ogni bell’opra il seme, e ’l bel perfetto.

99. BY MOLZA154 Gentle spirit, who richly adorned with the most precious, dear gifts of the heavens, courteously in your corporeal veil 152. For the term “rubella d’amore,” see Bembo, “La mia fatal nemica è bella e cruda,” and Gli Asolani, ed. Giorgio Dilemmi (Florence: Accademia della crusca, 1991), 147, “Sì rubella d’Amor, né sì fugace.” 153. ABBA ABBA CDE DEC. 154. For information on Francesco Maria Molza, see sonnet 18. The sixteenth-century editions are addressed by last name only to “Molza”; Celani inexplicably misidentifies the author as Bernardo Molza.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 229 with your virtues enjoy a happy sojourn; pray, as love may always make its155 return to you with new tributes of men, and Gods, adorning both in the heat and the cold your renowned stem156 and as your excellence may grow from day to day, make it that your bright, noble intellect, always seeking out the best part of itself, may never look down to earth. For then you will see how nature, and art happily enclose and hold tight within you the seed of every good work, and perfect beauty.

100. [DEL MOLZA] Se ’l pensier mio, ov’altamente amore157 TULLIA gentil vostra sembianza impresse, tutto altamente in sé voi tutta espresse dal piacer vinto, che mi strinse il core; e tutta hor vi risembra, e a tutte l’hore trasformando pur sempre in quelle stesse virtù, gratia e beltà, che vi concesse Dio, ch’in voi tutto intese a farsi honore: non dovete voi dir ch’io sia diforme; che io son quello, che son fatto voi bello, e non questa rozza e fragil scorza. Et spero anchor seguendo ognihor vostr’orme, esser appresso Dio ’l secondo poi, se ’l bello a trarre il bello sempre ha forza.

155. Love is not personified in this sonnet, which explains the use of the indeterminate possessive adjective “its” rather than “he.” 156. Here Molza is playing on the typical Petrarchan and Petrarchist metaphor of the plant, although Petrarch never adopts the term “stelo.” The choice of “stem” in English is appropriate because it recalls the ancestral element present in both. 157. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

230 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

100. [BY MOLZA] If my thoughts, on which loftily love, gentle TULLIA, impressed your likeness, all loftily on their own expressed all of you,158 overcome by the pleasure that clenched my heart;159 and even now they resemble you, forever transforming even those same virtues, grace, and beauty, that was conceded by God to you, for through you he intended to honor himself. You must not say that I am deformed, for I am the one who was made beautiful [by] you, and not this rough and fragile rind.160 And I still hope by following continually your footsteps to be second nearest to God then, if beauty still has the power to attract beauty.161 101. DEL S[IGNOR] HERCOLE BENTIVOGLIA Poi che lasciando i sette colli, e l’acque162 del Tebro oscure e le campagne meste, d’illustrar queste piagge e premer queste rive del Po col piè TULLIA vi piacque: ogni basso pensier spento in noi giacque; 158. I maintained both the repetition of “altamente” in l. 1 and l. 3 and “tutto” in l. 3 and l. 5. 159. The Italian makes clear that the poet’s thoughts were overcome by the pleasure of l. 4. 160. This verse does not make grammatical sense: it needs to read “fatto [da] voi.” In other words, Molza is made beautiful by d’Aragona because she ennobles his soul, whereas his body is deformed. The use of the term “scorza” (an outer covering like the bark of a tree or a rind) is a typical Petrarchan image; see Rvf 23, 127, 180, 278, and 361. The same image is also adopted by Bembo in “Lasso, ch’i’ piango e ’l mio gran duol non move” and “Mentre di me la verde abile scorza.” Vittoria Colonna also uses it in “Mentre la nave mia, lungi dal porto,” “Il parlar saggio, e quel bel lume ardente,” “Rinasca in Te il mio cor quest’almo giorno,” and, interestingly enough, in a sonnet addressed to Molza, “Molza, ch’al Ciel quest’altra tua Beatrice.” Gaspara Stampa also adopts it. Unsurprisingly, d’Aragona never adopts this term, reminiscent of the elision of body talk in her poetry; see my “Di sangue illustre.” 161. The implication, of course, is that she would be first. 162. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 231 e un dolce foco, e un bel disio celeste, quel primo dì ch’a noi gli occhi volgeste, ne le nostre alme alteramente nacque. Fortunate sorelle di Phetonte, ch’udir potranno a le lor ombre liete i dotti accenti che vi ispira Euterpe. Potess’io pur con rime ornate, e pronte (com’è ’l disio) dir le virtù, c’havete ma troppo a terra il mio stil basso serpe.

101. BY S[IGNOR] ERCOLE BENTIVOGLIO 163 Since to leave the seven hills, and the dark waters164 of the Tiber and the gloomy countryside, to honor these shores and to impress the banks of the Po with your foot, TULLIA, it pleased you, 163. Ercole Bentivoglio (1507–73) was of the noble Bolognese Bentivoglio family that had been ousted from that city before his birth. He was born in Mantua but from the age of five lived in the d’Este court of Ferrara, as his mother was an illegitimate daughter of Ercole I d’Este. Bentivoglio was a courtier, musician, poet, satirist, and playwright, who frequented the same circles as Ludovico Ariosto in Ferrara and later Anton Francesco Doni and Francesco Sansovino in Venice, where he lived after the early 1540s. Bentivoglio likely first met d’Aragona on her arrival in Ferrara in June 1537, as attested by the letter of Battista Stambellino to Isabella d’Este. According to Nicola de Blasi, Bentivoglio’s sonnets to d’Aragona are among his earliest compositions; see Nicola De Blasi, “Ercole Bentivoglio,” in DBI 8 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1966), 615–18. 164. This sonnet first appeared in Rime diverse di molti eccellentiss, auttori nuovamente raccolte, vol. 1, ed. Lodovico Domenichi (Venice: Giolito de’ Ferrari, Gabriel, 1545), 192, together with three other sonnets devoted to d’Aragona, according to Franco Tomasi, which, however, were not incorporated into d’Aragona’s canzoniere. One of the other three—”Benché l’invida età co’l duro morso”—is important as a historical document because it contains the lines “Ben ch’habbiate lo spatio di sei brume,/ et di sei lustri homai vivendo corso,” which thus give us some indication of d’Aragona’s age. Six winters and five lustra indicates that she was thirty-six at the time that Bentivoglio wrote the poem. The terminus ante quem would suggest that if in 1545, she was thirty-six, then she was born in 1509, although the poem was likely written several years earlier. D’Aragona arrived in Ferrara in June 1537, according to one of Isabella d’Este’s informants; see introduction and Luzio, “Un’avventura.” See Franco Tomasi and Paolo Zaja’s new edition of the Rime that includes mini-biographies of the contributors; for the poems see 180–81; for information about Bentivoglio, see 411.

232 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona all lowly thoughts lay extinguished in us; and a sweet fire, and beautiful celestial desire, that first day you turned your eyes towards us, was nobly born in our souls. Fortunate sisters of Phaethon,165 who in their happy shadows will be able to hear the learned words that Euterp166 inspires in you. If only I were able with ornate and ready rhymes, (as is my want) to tell the virtues you possess but too close to the ground does my lowly style slither.

102. [DEL S[IGNOR] HERCOLE BENTIVOGLIA] Vaghe sorelle, che di treccie bionde167 ornò natura, e di fattezze conte; poi la pietà del misero Phetonte vi volse in duri tronchi, e ’n verdi fronde; hor sotto l’ombre tremule, e gioconde vostre sedendo fo palesi, e conte le gran beltà de la celeste fronte di TULLIA mia cantando a l’aure, e a l’onde. Così già sotto i vostri ombrosi rami cantò d’Omphale sua gli occhi, e le chiome il vincitor de’ più superbi mostri. I’ priego il ciel, che sì v’essalti, e v’ami, ch’eterno sia con voi sempre il bel nome di TULLIA scritto in tutti i tronchi vostri. 102. [BY S[IGNOR] ERCOLE BENTIVOGLIO] Beautiful sisters, whom nature adorned with blond tresses and features well-known, 165. See notes to sonnet 77. 166. Euterpe is a the muse of lyric poetry. 167. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 233 then your pity for the miserable Phaethon turned you into hard trunks, and green fronds;168 now underneath your quivering, playful shade, I sit and make manifest and known the great beauties of the celestial brow of my TULLIA, singing to the breezes and the waves.169 Thus once already under your shady boughs the conquerer of the most haughty monsters sang of the eyes and the locks of his Omphale.170 I pray to the skies, that they may exalt and love you so that forever may rest with you the beautiful name of TULLIA written on all your trunks.

103. DI PHILIPPO STROZZI Alma gentile, ove ogni studio pose171 natura in darvi a pieno ogni eccellenza; et fece il ciel quasi restarne senza per dar a voi quel bel, ch’a ogni altra ascose: voi fra leggiadre Donne, e gloriose elesse sola; e per esperienza si vede altera andarne hoggi Fiorenza de le belle opre vostre alte, e famose. Ma non solo Arno hoggi vi loda, e canta, ma dove anchora l’inesperto auriga caddè, di voi terrà memoria eterna, 168. This sonnet is addressed to the Heliades, Phaethon’s sisters. See notes to sonnet 77. 169. The waves are those of the Po River, formerly known as the Eridanus. 170. In order to purify himself of a crime, Hercules was forced to be sold into slavery by the oracle at Delphi and Omphale, the queen of Lydia, bought him. He cleared her kingdom of many robbers and monsters, such as the Cercopes and Lityerses. Out of admiration for his exploits, Omphale freed Hercules and married him. Their love was apparently mutual, and, for this reason, Hercules may have sung of his love for her under the boughs of poplar trees. What is interesting is that in the love story of Hercules and Omphale, they are frequently represented as cross-dressers: Omphale wears the lion’s mantle and carries his club, and Hercules dresses as a woman and uses a distaff to weave cloth, allegedly at her insistence. In some artistic representations, these figures are used for satirical commentary on women’s power over men. 171. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

234 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona il Tever lascio, che tenera pianta vi nutrì, dolce essendo ogni fatiga a chi co’l spirto, e ’l core in voi s’interna.

103. BY FILIPPO STROZZ I172 Gentle soul, in whom Nature placed every care to give you fully every excellence and almost deprived the heavens of any in order to give you that beauty it conceals from all other women: you among graceful Ladies, and glorious 172. Filippo Strozzi (1489–1538) was an extraordinarily wealthy banker and later leader of the Florentine exiles before his capture at the Battle of Montemurlo in 1537 and suicide in prison in December 1538. He was highly educated, in both Greek and Latin, wrote verse and prose and “delighted in music and sang well,” according to Agee. In addition to the two sonnets here, Luigi Ferrai published another two sonnets written just before Strozzi’s death that were likely also addressed to d’Aragona. Strozzi married Clarice de’ Medici—against the wishes of many in his family, as they had struggled against the Medici for decades. Their marriage resulted in ten children before her death in May 1529. Although Strozzi had slowly ingratiated himself with some Medici family members, particularly Clement VII, this coexistence and collaboration began to waiver once Alessandro de’ Medici was made duke of Florence, only to fail completely after Pope Clement VII’s death in an incident involving the arrest of Piero Strozzi, Filippo’s eldest son, and—later—the death by poisoning of Luisa Strozzi in circumstances that seemed to involve Duke Alessandro. After these events, late in 1534, Filippo assumed the role of leader of the Florentine exiles. D’Aragona’s relationship with Strozzi is documented at least from June 1526 through July 1537, before his departure for the Battle of Montemurlo. D’Aragona also frequented two of his elder sons—Piero and Ruberto—as attested by notarial documents in the state archives in Rome, as well as her letter 1. For the early period of Strozzi’s life and his banking activities, see Bullard, Filippo Strozzi; see also Niccolini, Filippo Strozzi, Bardi, “Filippo Strozzi,” and Romano, Lettere di cortigiane. Salvatore Bongi surmised that these two sonnets were written by a different Filippo Strozzi than the one with whom we traditionally associate d’Aragona. He suggests Filippo di Raffaello di Battista, who was born in 1509, or Filippo di Lorenzo, who was born in 1515, and credits Gaetano Milanesi with this idea (“Rime della signora Tullia,” 180). Bongi, however, does not provide any reason to assume that Filippo Strozzi (1499–1538) did not author these sonnets. We clearly have other sonnets that he addressed to d’Aragona; see Ferrai, Lorenzino de’ Medici, 414–15. The only reasons that I can surmise would be that the poem specifically places her in Florence and that she is credited with famous artistic works (ll. 7–8). Yet we do know that d’Aragona had likely been in Florence before her sojourn of 1545/46–1548 and in the company of Strozzi; see Bardi, “Filippo Strozzi,” 46n2. Moreover, other sonnets written before 1538 attribute artistic merits to her; see sonnets 97 and 101.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 235 alone were elected; and by experience one sees today Florence go proud of your lofty beautiful works, and famous. But today not only the Arno praises you, and sings, but still there where the inexperienced coachman173 fell, of you will remain eternal memory, I omit the Tiber, which nourished you as a tender plant, since every toil is sweet to one who in spirit and heart becomes immersed in you.174

104. [DI FILIPPO STROZZI] Uscendo ’l spirto mio per seguir voi175 Donna gentile, in voi vera pietade spinse l’anima vostra a le contrade, ond’egli uscio, con che vivess’io poi; tal che ’l splendor, che dite uscir tra noi di me, è propria vostra qualitade, concessavi da l’alta, e gran bontade per sembianza de i chiari raggi suoi; dove scorger si puote un dolce inganno veggendovi in me vaga di voi stessa; né v’accorgete ch’io v’appago a punto; che se mi vi toglieste allhora il danno mortal mio vedereste: e fora espressa la colpa vostra, send’io a morte giunto.

173. Phaethon is the young headstrong son of Apollo, who fell into the Eridanus, an ancient name for the Po. Strozzi metonymically names the places where d’Aragona has garnered praise and thus is referring to Ferrara. 174. The closing tercet is interesting for more than one reason. Strozzi is thus placing d’Aragona in Rome as a “tender plant” when Muzio also states that she was in Siena; see sonnet 61, ll. 12–13. Also Strozzi, through occultatio, seemingly equates the Tiber to d’Aragona’s parent or relative and thus claims that he does not need to mention it. 175. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

236 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

104. [BY FILIPPO STROZZI] My spirit leaving in order to follow you, gentle Lady, in you true compassion pushed your soul to the regions from which it [had] left, so that I might then dwell with it, such that the splendor, which you say emanates from me when we are together, is properly your own characteristic, conceded to you by the great, high goodness out of the resemblance to its own luminous rays; there where one can perceive sweet deceit by seeing yourself in me, desirous of you yourself176 nor do you realize that I fulfill you at all, for if you were to take yourself away from me, then my mortal injury you would see, and your fault would be expressed, since I am nigh to death.177 105. DEL DOTTORE DE’ BENUCCI Se per lodarvi, e dir quanto s’honora178 di voi natura, e ’l ciel, TULLIA gentile, fosse eguale al suggetto in me lo stile, e ’l saper pari a l’alta voglia anchora; forse non tanto il secol nostro indora vostra virtute, e non dal Gange al Thile fate voi co i begli occhi eterno Aprile, quant’io n’havrei gratie, e favori ognihora: non può ingegno mortal tante divine virtù ritrar; né può basso disio scolpir parti sì eccelse, e pellegrine. Che ’n voi il valor del vago petto, e pio 176. This recalls the neo-Platonic concept mentioned on page 181n60 of how the soul of the lover becomes a mirror where the image of the beloved is reflected. 177. One cannot help but wonder if this sonnet might have been composed during Strozzi’s captivity in the Fortezza da Basso in Florence. 178. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 237 avanza ogni pensier, passa ogni fine, non che l’aguagli altrui parlare, o mio.

105. BY DOCTOR DE’ BENUCCI 179 If to praise you and to say how much nature is honored by you, and the sky, gentle TULLIA, my style were to equal my subject, and my knowledge were also to match my fine desire, perhaps our century does not extol your virtue enough, nor from the Ganges to Thule do you make with your beautiful eyes an eternal April,180 as much as I would have forever graces and favors:181 mortal genius cannot depict so many divine virtues, nor can lowly desire sculpt such magnificent parts, and exceptional.182 For the excellence of your lovely, compassionate breast183 exceeds every thought, surpasses every end so that the words of others and my own cannot equal it.

179. For information on Lattanzio Benucci, see sonnet 49. Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 5n11, notes that this sonnet is not in the Chigiano manuscript at the BAV. 180. The Ganges River flows from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, mostly in India. For Thule, see note 56 to sonnet 49. The expression indicates a large expanse. Thus Benucci is reversing the usual topoi regarding the beloved, who is usually praised hyperbolically, and uses the same language to point out his reversal. See Petrarch, Rvf, 148. 181. I think the implication is that the poet would have these graces and favors to recount. 182. Note the similarity in meaning between “pellegrine” and “vago,” both of which mean “errant” but that also have other less negative connotations. 183. The Italian “pio” harbors a dual meaning—“compassionate” but also “pious.” The poems written with Benucci are generally all considered to be from the period after d’Aragona’s arrival in Florence, although she may well have known Benucci from her time in Siena. Might this adjective be an initial reference to the transformation of d’Aragona from courtesan to repentant woman outlined more clearly in her preface to the Meschino?

238 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

106. [DEL DOTTORE DE’ BENUCCI] O fiumicel se ’l più cocente ardore184 estivo il lento tuo correr affrena, et la tua profonda humile arena incende e fa restar priva d’humore, ecco a le rive tue novo splendore, che l’aer d’ognintorno rasserena di colei, che cantando in dolce vena a le nove sorelle aggiunge honore. Onde il vecchio Arno hormai d’invidia pieno lascia l’usato corso, e a te rivolto quivi perde le chiare, e lucid’onde; godi hor che vedi entro il tuo ricco seno la imagin bella del leggiadro volto: et TULLIA odi sonar ambe le sponde. 106. [BY DOCTOR DE’ BENUCCI] O little river, even if the most burning heat185 of summer slows your slack pace, and your deep, humble sand ignites and leaves you without liquid, here on your shores is a new splendor, which calms the air all around of her, who sings in [such] a sweet vein to add honor to the nine sisters.186 184. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 185. In a manuscript version of this poem, the title “Alla Mensola Fiume” is given; see BNCF, Magliabechiano VII 1185, 305r. The Mensola is a stream that flows from Fiesole and Settignano into the Arno. D’Aragona is assumed to have lived during the hottest part of summer in a villa outside of Florence, likely near where the Mensola passes; see her letter 2, which was written from the countryside, “in villa,” and in which she mentions that Benucci is visiting her there. Benucci’s sonnet also appears in a manuscript that collects many of his works; see BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 316r. 186. The nine sisters are the Muses.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 239 Thus the old Arno by now full of envy leaves its usual course, and having turned to you here loses its clear, sparkling waves; enjoy now that you see within your rich bosom the beautiful image of her lovely visage and TULLIA you hear resounding on both your banks.

107. DI ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI L’aspetto sacro, e la bellezza rara,187 eguale a cui non hebbe il mondo anchora; il folgorar de gli occhi ch’innamora il mondo tutto, e quasi Sol lo schiara; il parlar saggio, onde la via s’impara di gir al chiaro, e uscir del fosco fora; et l’alto sangue, lo cui ammira, e honora chiunque adorno è più di stirpe chiara; i bei costumi; e ’l portamento adorno; et col dolce cantare il dolce suono, che fan di marmo una persona viva, fur le cagioni o donna, ch’in quel giorno stetti a mirare il bello, a udire il buono, in guisa d’huom che pensi, parli, e scriva. 107. BY ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI 188 The sacred appearance, and the rare beauty, the equal of which the world has not had till now, the lightning of eyes that has enamored all the world, and almost dimmed the sun; the wise words, by which one learns the path to turn towards light, and abandon darkness; and whoever is most adorned with illustrious heritage

187. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 188. For information on Alessandro Arrighi, see sonnet 53.

240 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona admires and honors her noble blood;189 your lovely manners and elegant behavior and with your sweet song the sweet sound that make of marble a living person,190 were the reasons, o lady, for which on that day I stood admiring the beauty, listening to the goodness, as a man who thinks, speaks, and writes.191

108. [DI ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI] Come di dolce più che d’agro parte192 Donna mi feste il dì, che ’l colpo caro di voi impiagommi: onde sì ardente e chiaro foco poscia avampommi a parte a parte. Così men d’agro, che di dolce parte da me per guiderdon del dono raro; et giunge a voi per addolcir l’amaro vostro languir del tutto non che ’n parte. Il foco ch’io dovrei mandarvi anchora per render mercé pari al degno merto, meco si sta, né vuol partirsi un’hora. Selva chiusa non è, né campo aperto, né giardin culto, o poggio aspro, o deserto, che non sappian com’ei m’arde, e divora. 108. [BY ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI] Just as more sweet than sour,193 189. The term “stirpe” would seem to signal an unambiguous reference to d’Aragona’s noble lineage. 190. Her qualities are either so excellent that they are able to bring a marble statue to life or they immobilize someone, who is stunned with admiration. I have added the possessive pronoun “your” which in Italian is not necessary but implied. 191. See Petrarch, Triumphus mortis, 2.60, and Rvf, 204. 192. ABBA ABBA CDC DDC. 193. The use of these adjectives recall Bembo, Gli Asolani, 175–7. D’Aragona discusses the nonoppositional qualities of these adjectives in her Infinity of Love; see Varchi’s discussion

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 241 Lady, you made my day when the dear blow of you wounded me, so that such an ardent and bright fire then consumed every part of me. Thus less sour than sweet parts from me as reward194 for the rare gift and reaches you to sweeten your bitter languor completely, if not in part.195 The fire that I might still send you to render compensation equal to your merit stays with me, nor does it want to leave anon. No impenetrable forest is there, nor open field,196 nor cultivated garden, nor harsh peak, nor desert, that does not know how it burns, and devours me.

109. [DI ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI] S’il dissi mai ch’io venga in odio a voi197 donna, ch’io tanto pregio, et è ben degno. S’il dissi che mai sempre ira, e disdegno portiate in seno, e sol me stesso annoi: s’il dissi che ’l mortale eterno muoi di me non mai giungendo al santo regno: s’il dissi sia d’amor prigione, e segno de l’acuto suo strale, e preda poi. Ma s’io no ’l dissi chi sì dolce aprio a me lo cor chiudendovi entro i raggi non mai rivolga altronde il lume chiaro. I’ no ’l dissi giamai, né dir disio: of privative and positive causes in Lezioni sul Dante e prose varie, ed. Giuseppe Aiazzi and Lelio Arbib (Florence: Società editrice delle storie del Nardi e del Varchi, 1841), 134. 194. See page 108n120 on “guiderdone,” or “love’s reward.” 195. Note the rima equivoca (same word with different grammatical functions) of “parte” as adverb in l. 1, verb in l. 4, and noun in l. 8. I tried in part to replicate this in my translation. 196. “Selva chiusa” is a relatively rare term in Italian; it appears in two other places, in the Italian translation of Zacchariah 11:2 and in the poem “La caccia,” published in 1591, by Erasmo da Valvasone; see canto 4.72. 197. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

242 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona vinca ’l ver dunque, e ’l falso a terra caggi, e ’n dolce amor ritorni l’odio amaro.

109. [BY ALESSANDRO ARRIGHI] If ever I said it, may I be hated by you,198 it would indeed be right, Lady, whom I prize so much. If ever I said it, may you always carry anger and disdain in your breast, and vex me alone: if ever I said it, may my mortal part die for eternity without ever reaching the saintly kingdom: if I said it, may it199 be a prisoner of love and a sign of its sharp arrow, and then its prey. But if I did not say it, may she who so sweetly opened her heart to me, enclosing within its rays, never turn elsewhere her bright light. Never did I say it, nor do I wish to say it. May the truth thus win, and falsehood fall to the ground, and may bitter hate turn into sweet love. 110. DI BENEDETTO ARRIGHI Voi, che volgete il vostro alto disio200 a la chiara virtù; donde si coglie quelle honorate, sacre, sante spoglie, di che va altera e Calliope, e Clio; voi che schernite al tempo quell’oblio, che la fama immortale al nome toglie; colpa, e vergogna de l’humane voglie, che non son come voi rivolte a Dio; voi sol vi sete fabricato un tempio di glorie tal, che gli honori, e trophei non pon lasciar di lui più chiaro essempio. 198. The first verse of this sonnet is an almost verbatim (except for the last word—“quella” instead of “voi”) replication of Petrarch, Rvf, 206. 199. The antecedent is “my mortal part.” 200. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 243 Deh così potess’io com’io vorrei le virtuti cantar, ch’in voi contempio, memoria eterna a gli huomini, e a li Dei.

110. BY BENEDETTO ARRIGHI 201 You, who turn your lofty desire to the clear virtue, one gathers from those honorable, sacred, saintly tributes of which both Calliope and Clio walk proudly,202 you who mock at the same time that oblivion which removes immortal fame from your name; guilt and shame for human desires which are not, as you, turned towards God, you alone have made yourself a temple203 of such glories that honors and trophies

201. Benedetto Arrighi (d. July 1550), nicknamed Betto, was a Florentine poet who was elected to the Florentine Academy on 17 March 1545 but then excluded after the reform of 1546. He wrote a capitolo in lode dello stidione (a pot for roasting meat, according to the dictionary of the Accademia della crusca) and other verses as well as a poem, now lost, from which Girolamo Amelonghi copied parts for his own burlesque La Gigantea. He is also recalled in works by Anton Francesco Doni and Antonfrancesco Grazzini, with whom he quarreled. For information about Benedetto Arrighi, see Plaisance, L’accademia, 140, 153 (which lists manuscripts in which some of his works are contained), 178, 186, 200–1. He may be mentioned by d’Aragona in letter 2. 202. Calliope is the Muse of epic poetry and Clio of history. This statement seems to be an unambiguous reference to the fact that d’Aragona was writing epic poetry and a text that was historical, in other words, the epic poem Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino, published posthumously in 1560. Note also that Arrighi states that she is “turning” her desire, which means she is near the beginning of its composition. 203. A tempio (temple) is a type of encomiastic poem that was first inaugurated by title with the collection gathered by Girolamo Ruscelli and dedicated to Giovanna d’Aragona in 1554. A large and varied group of authors write poems in praise of a single individual; the majority of tempi were dedicated to noblewomen. Arrighi is quite rightly suggesting that in this last section of her choral anthology, d’Aragona has assembled her own tempio, in which a number of men write in praise of her. For more about the structure of her canzoniere, see my “Di sangue illustre,” 166.

244 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona can no longer leave a clearer example of it.204 Alas, if only I were able as I would like to sing the virtues, which in you I contemplate, an eternal memory for men, and for the Gods.

111. [DI BENEDETTO ARRIGHI] Alma gentile, che già foste al paro205 de l’alta, e gran colonna, hoggi si mostra in voi tutto l’honor de l’età nostra; in voi lo stil più che ’l suo dolce, e caro; al vostro stil, dov’io ch’al mondo imparo a riverir la chiara virtù vostra, c’hoggi solinga l’universo giostra non trovando di lei pregio più chiaro. Sì come un picciol lume alta chiarezza vince, così con vostre lodi sole lei vincete in virtute, e in bellezza; l’alto motor come ’l ciel ornar vole la terra, piacque a sua reale altezza far VITTORIA una Luna, et TULLIA un Sole. 111. [BY BENEDETTO ARRIGHI] Gentle soul, who already was the equal206 of that high and grand Colonna,207 today is seen in you all the honor of our age

204. Arrighi is punning on the double meaning of chiaro as both “obvious” or “manifest” and “famous” or “celebrated.” 205. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. 206. For commentary on this sonnet, see Bausi, “ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 74–75. He also notes the possible allusion to the Orlando furioso, 37.17. 207. The Italian text does not capitalize “colonna” (“column,” “pillar”), although the reference to the poetess Vittoria Colonna is made clear in the last line of the poem. For information on Vittoria Colonna, see the introduction.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 245 in you a style,208 more than hers, sweet and dear; in your style, with which I instruct the world209 to revere your clear virtue, which today jousts all alone [with] the universe, not finding a worthier reward than it.210 Just as a small lamp great brilliance defeats, so with your praise alone211 do you defeat her in virtue and beauty; as the high mover212 wants to adorn the sky and the earth, it pleased his royal majesty to make VITTORIA a moon and TULLIA a sun.213

112. DI LATINO IUVENALE Vide già la famosa antica etade214 nel palazzo reale alto di Roma donna empia sì, che fe’ del carro soma al padre anciso, e spense ogni pietade. Vede hor Donna real di tal beltade la nostra, e Roma, e da colei si noma; che chi mira i begli occhi, e l’aurea chioma di piacer, d’amor empie, e d’humiltade. Questa sol per mio ben; per mio sostegno al mio imperfetto, a la fortuna adversa diede natura, e ’l ciel cortese, e largo. O gloria de le donne, o ricco pegno 208. Arrighi is punning on the double meaning of “stile,” both stylus, a writing instrument, and style. 209. Here the poet misuses the verb “imparare” in a manner that still occurs in current Italian, that is, the difference between to learn and instruct is elided. 210. I am assuming that “lei” of l. 8 refers to “virtù” of l. 6. 211. I expect that Arrighi refers to the praise d’Aragona receives as well as that she confers in her poetry. 212. God Almighty. 213. Colonna’s most often used metaphor for her beloved was the sun; to use this metaphor instead for d’Aragona is a classic trope of the Renaissance—the reversal. 214. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

246 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona d’honor, d’ogni virtù c’hoggi è dispersa. Deh perché non ho io gli occhi c’hebbe Argo?

112. BY LATINO GIOVENALE 215 That famous, ancient age once saw in the high royal palace of Rome a woman so impious that she made of her carriage a load on her murdered father, and extinguished all piety.216 Now our age, and all Rome, sees a royal woman of such beauty and from her she takes her name;217 215. Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti (1485/86–1553) was a Roman nobleman who held numerous posts under cardinals Bernardo Bibbbiena and Alessandro Farnese and popes Clement VII and Paul III (the latter of whom Manetti had served when he was cardinal). In 1534, Pope Paul III bestowed on him the position of commissary general of Roman antiquities, a post earlier held by Raphael. At the same time, however, Manetti also maintained high positions within the Roman municipal government as maestro di strada, caporione, conservatore, and advisor to the Roman senate. He was also responsible for organizing both the Carnival celebrations of 1536 and, more importantly, the celebrations for Carlo V’s triumphal entry into Rome in April 1536 after his successful battles in Tunisia. Given that Ariosto includes Manetti among the literati awaiting him on the shore as he guides his bark (the Orlando furioso) into port, Manetti is likely the author of more than the nine extant sonnets we now have. The sonnet to d’Aragona is thus his first published work; the other eight are included in Dionigi Atanagi’s anthology (see De le rime, 132v–134v), which, despite the reference in the title to “poeti toscani,” includes poems by a large number of non-Tuscan poets; the phrase refers to the language they adopt rather than their place of origin. For recent brief biographies of Manetti, see Angela Quattrocchi, “Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti: Un diplomatico “umanista” nella curia pontificia,” in Offices et papauté (XIVe– XVIIe siècle): Charges, hommes, destins, ed. Armand Jamme and Olivier Poncet (Rome: École française de Rome, 2005), 829–40, and Simona Feci, “Latino Giovenale Manetti,” in DBI 68 (Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 2007), 617–20; for a more extensive dicussion, see Léon Dorez, “Un personnage-type de la ‘famille’ de Paul III: Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti,” in La cour du Pape Paul III d’après les registres de la trésorerie secrète (Collection F. De Navenne), 2 vols. (Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, 1932), 1:115–41. 216. Manetti is referring to the infamous Tullia, daughter of Servius Tullius, who incited her husband, Tarquinius Superbus, to overthrow her father, and once her father had been murdered, she ran her carriage over his corpse. See Livy, History of Rome, 1.46–48, 1.59–60. The other, most famous ancient Tullia was the much-loved daughter of Cicero. 217. Manetti suggests that Tullia’s name derives from the infamous Tullia of the first quatrain.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 247 that whoever gazes upon her beautiful eyes and golden locks218 with pleasure and love is filled, and with humility. This woman alone for my good, for my sustenance, against my imperfection and adverse fortune, was given by nature, and the courteous, generous sky. O glory of women, o precious token of honor, of every virtue that today has been lost. Alas, why do I not have the eyes that Argus did?219

113. DI LUDOVICO MARTELLI Voi, che lieti pascete ad Arno intorno220 il vostro gregge fra leggiadri fiori, godete, poi che da i superni chori discesa è TULLIA a far con voi soggiorno, sforzisi ogniun co’l crin d’alloro adorno gli altari empir de i più soavi odori; che per costei vostri tanti alti honori faranno anchor a voi degno ritorno. Quest’è la vaga pastorella, c’hebbe fra i più degni pastor del Tebro il vanto: del cui partir restar sì afflitti, e mesti. E poi che per voi sol non le rincrebbe lasciar le rive ove fu in pregio tanto, siate a cantarla, e a riverirla presti.

218. See note at sonnet 98. 219. In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes, or Argos, is a monster with a thousand eyes. The poet wants to have many, many eyes in order to look at her. 220. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

248 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona

113. BY LUDOVICO MARTELLI 221 You, who by the Arno happily graze your herd among the lovely flowers, rejoice, since from the supernal choirs TULLIA has descended to make her sojourn among you. May each of you adorned with a laurel crown strive to fill the altars with the sweetest fragrance since for her your many high honors will yet give you worthy return. This is the wandering shepherdess,222 who was praised by the most worthy shepherds of the Tiber and whose departure so afflicted and saddened them.223 And since only because of you224 does she not regret leaving the shores where she was held in such high esteem, may you be quick to sing about her and revere her. 114. DI SIMONE DALLA VOLTA TULLIA, mostro, miracolo, Sibilla,225 221. Lodovico Martelli (1500–27/28) was a Florentine poet, linguist, and playwright, who died at a very early age. He was active in the Compagnia del Cazzuolo in Florence and later in the Accademia della virtù in Rome. He was friends and exchanged poetry with Benedetto Varchi; Philippe Verdelot put some of his poems to music and a wrote a chorus for Martelli’s play Tullia (a tragedy about the same Tullia mentioned in the first quatrain of sonnet 112); and Monsignor Giovanni Gaddi was responsible for financing the posthumous Roman edition of Martelli’s Rime, which was dedicated to Ippolito de’ Medici. For information about Martelli’s life, see Paola Cosentino, “Lodovico Martelli,” in DBI 71 (Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 2008), 58–60; for a modern edition of his verses, see Lodovico Martelli, Rime, ed. Laura Amaddeo (Turin: RES, 2005). See also Paola Cosentino, “Roma 1533: Le ‘Rime volgari’ di Lodovico Martelli,” Roma nel Rinascimento 21 (2004): 269–91. There is also a modern edition of his tragedy, see Ludovico Martelli, Tullia, ed. Francesco Spera (Turin: RES, 1998). 222. The adjective “vaga” means both “errant” or “wandering” but also “beautiful” and “pleasant”; I chose the former here because of the rest of the content of the poem, but the other meaning is implied and relevant. 223. For another, more satyrical view regarding one of d’Aragona’s departures from Rome, see my “Mastro Pasquino’s Lament.” 224. The reference is to a plural “you,” the Florentine poets. 225. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 249 di cui si maraviglia il mondo, e gode; mar di saper, che non ha fondo, o prode, e mena l’onda sua lieta e tranquilla. Da cui sì dolce humor, sì chiaro stilla di virtù vera c’hoggi rado s’ode; cui non guasta fortuna, o ’l tempo rode; men che quelle di Sapho, e di Camilla. Ma che dich’io? il vostro alto valore non si può comparare a cosa alcuna: perché, non che ’l poter, passa il disio. Chi vuol vivo vedere in terra amore, divin, pien di virtù, miri quest’una vera amica de gli angioli, e di Dio.

114. BY SIMONE DALLA VOLTA 226 TULLIA, monster, miracle, Sibyl, about whom the world marvels, and rejoices; sea of knowledge, that has no floor, nor shores, and who conducts her wave happily and calmly. From whom such sweet dew so clearly beads227 of true virtue, which rarely one hears today, that fortune does not ruin, nor time wear away, less than those of Sappho, and of Camilla.228 226. Simone Della Volta (1506–1554) was a Florentine poet and among the founding members of the Academy of the Damp , who participated under the name the WateredDown One (l’Annacquato); he later also joined in the Florentine Academy but was forced out after the reform of 1546 (finalized in 1547). Della Volta was a childhood friend of Antonfrancesco Grazzini and also one of Varchi’s most fervent supporters within the Florentine Academy; several times he proposed to elect him consul. Varchi later published exchanges with Della Volta in his correspondence verse. See Plaisance, L’accademia, 56, 59, 137, 166, 186, for his poetic exchange with Varchi, see his De’ sonetti, par 2, 120–22. 227. The terms “umore” (“dew” or “juices”) and “stilla” (“drops” or “beads”) partake of high poetic style, even though they don’t sound particularly poetic in English, as attested in Petrarch, Bembo, and Colonna and refer metaphorically to d’Aragona’s verses. 228. Although there is no antecedent for “quelle” of l. 8, I assume that it is referring to the “virtù” of l. 6; its plural form is invariable. Sappho was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos who wrote intensely of her love for men and women. One legend recounts that she threw

250 Sonetti di diversi alla Signora Tullia d’Aragona But what am I saying? Your great worth cannot be compared to anything at all, for it exceeds not only my ability, but my desire.229 Whoever wants to see love alive on earth, divine, full of virtue, look upon this one, true friend of the angels, and of God.

115. DI CAMILLO DA MONTE VARCHI Mosso da l’alta vostra chiara fama,230 di cui per tutto il mondo il grido suona vengo cantarvi anch’io TULLIA ARAGONA, cui chi più sa più sempre ammira, e ama. Et s’adempir potessi ardente brama di salir l’alto monte d’Helicona, qual voi n’arrecherei degna corona ch’al ciel vi porta, che vi aspetta, e chiama. Hor voi più d’altra saggia, e più gentile, degnate di pigliar, quanto vi porge un ch’a voi consacrato ha ingegno, e stile. Ben so, vostra mercé, ch’altera e vile alma tanto non è, che quando scorge d’esser amata non divenga humile. 115. BY CAMILLO DA MONTE VARCHI 231 Moved by your manifest great fame, herself into the sea out of unrequited love. Camilla was a maiden warrior who appears in Vergil’s Aeneid. She fought against Aeneas and was eventually killed by the Etruscan Arruns. 229. It exceeds the poet’s desire to represent it because he does not feel qualified to do so adequately. 230. ABBA ABBA CDC CDC. 231. The only information I have found on Camillo Malpigli di Montevarchi is that he collaborated with Varchi, Luca Martini, and others on an edition of the Commedia toward the end of 1546 and the beginning of 1547; they had left Florence to accomplish this task and were

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona 251 for which all over the world a cry resounds I, too, come to sing of you, TULLIA ARAGONA, the more one knows you, the more one loves and admires you. And if I were able to fulfill my ardent desire to scale the high mount of Helicon,232 just like you I would bear a worthy crown that would carry you to the sky, which waits for you, and calls you. Now you more than any other wise, and more noble,233 deign to take that which is offered you by one who has devoted his genius and style to you.234 I am well aware, thanks to you, that no soul is ever so proud and base that when it discovers it is loved does not become humble.

at the Pieve di S. Gavino in the Mugello area; see Franco Angiolini, “Luca Martini,” in DBI 71 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2008), 234–48, and Lo Re, Politica e cultura, 348–49. 232. Mount Helicon was a mountain in Boethia that was sacred to the Muses, who had a temple there. To scale mount Helicon means to become a poet; the crown of l. 7 is laurel garland of poets (and of Apollo, the god of the arts). 233. In a manuscript version of this poem, d’Aragona is called “bella” (“beautiful”) rather than “saggia” (“wise”); for a discussion of this variant in the overall image that d’Aragona was trying to construct, see my “Di sangue illustre,” 174. 234. As in sonnet 111, “stile” in l. 11 suggests a double meaning of style and stylus, or pen.

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS BY TULLIA D’ARAGONA AND EXCHANGES WITH HER 1

1. All the poems in this section were either authored by d’Aragona or function as proposta (proposal) sonnets in a verse exchange with her; they are in manuscript or were published after her 1547 canzoniere by Giolito, and I have noted in each case where they appear. My rationale for the order in which I present them is that I am attempting to provide a chronological sequence of their composition (I make an exception to this approach in those cases in which the poems appeared in publication. In these cases, I have respected the year of publication).

254 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 116. Stanza per Madonna Laura Spinelli, alias Nini Lieto viss’io sott’un spinoso lauro2 et vivrò fin ch’il bian’amor m’infondi, non per ornar le tempie d’ostro o d’auro, ma sol delle tue sacre altiere frondi. Ma poi che più et più volt’il sole in Tauro tornato, fa ch’i suoi bei crini ascondi, so s’a fredda stagion mutarà il corso, i frutti seccarà, le frondi e ’l dorso.

116. Stanza for Madonna Laura Spinelli, also known as Nini3 Happily I lived under a thorny laurel4 and so I shall live as long as you infuse me with your pure love, not to adorn my temples with vermilion and gold, but only with your lofty, sacred fronds. Yet since the sun into Taurus again and again has returned, make sure to hide his beautiful locks, I know that if during the cold season he changes his course, the fruits will dry up, the fronds, and the trunk.

2. ABABABCC. This isolated octave stanza is called a strambotto. 3. BAV, Ottoboniano latino 1591, 119v. Celani incorrectly identifies the manuscript as BAV, Ottoboniano latino 1595, but adds that in the first edition of d’Aragona’s Rime held by the BNCR, sonnet 30 has a handwritten dedication, which was crossed out by the same hand. The dedication reads “alla S. Philomena Nini,” intimating an association between Filomena Nini and “Laura Spinelli, also known as Nini” (d’Aragona, Rime, ed. Celani, 65). In fact, Laura Spinelli was a Sienese noblewoman who married Raffaello Nini, according to the pseudonymous Phylolauro di Cave in his capitolo in honor of numerous Sienese noblewomen (e.g., Aurelia Petrucci, Laudomia Forteguerri, Honorata Tancredi, Hortensia Piccolomini, among many others) entitled Dialogo amoroso (Siena: per Calistro Dubbioso di Simeone di Nicolo, 1533). The octaves dedicated to Laura Spinelli are found on 136–52; in the same volume, Phylolauro di Cave also dedicates a triumph to Madonna Laura Spinelli; see 152–68. For the Nini family tree, see BCSI, Manoscritto A. V. 23, f. 35v, where Raffaello appears with the year 1531 g.c. 4. Celani has “bianco” instead of “spinoso” in l. 1.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 255 117. Sonetto Pastorale della Signora Tullia d’Aragona mandato di Roma all’Achademia delli Humidi in laude di Sua Eccellenza Almo Pastor, che godi alle chiar’onde5 del più bel fiume, che Toscana honori, cui s’aggiran le gratie, e i santi Amori, lieti spargendo intorno fiori, e fronde, le tue virtute a null’altre seconde, alto soggetto a’ più gentil pastori, da i colli ornati già di mille allori, mi volser con mie gregge a le tue sponde. E al primo mio desir, nuovo desire aggiunto ha dentr’al cor tua cortesia, ch’in le tue piagge eterno sia ’l mio Albergo. Et vorrei ben almen farmi sentire grata al Tenor della sampogna mia ma a dir el ver tant’alto il suon non ergo.

117. Pastoral sonnet of Signora Tullia d’Aragona sent from Rome to the Academy of the Damp in praise of His Excellency6 Magnanimous Shepherd, who rejoice in the limpid waves of the most beautiful river that honors Tuscany,7 where the Graces visit, and the saintly Loves, happily tossing flowers, and fronds; your virtues, second to none, as lofty subject for the most noble shepherds, 5. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 6. BNCF, Magliabechiano II IV 1 (formerly Magliabechiano VII 195), f. 75r. Celani listed the source as Magliabechiano II I IV. This sonnet was addressed to Duke Cosimo I of Florence; for information on him, see sonnet 1. The Academy of the Damp was the name of the Florentine literary academy before it was transformed by Duke Cosimo; see the introduction. The following three sonnets must have been sent sometime between November 1540, when the academy was founded, and 25 March 1541, when Francesco de’ Medici was born, because the manuscript seems to be organized chronologically, and Benedetto Varchi wrote a sonnet on the birth of Francesco, which appears on f. 91v. The manuscript notes that the sonnets were sent from Rome, although d’Aragona was assumed to be in either Ferrara or Siena in these years. 7. Note the similarity with Muzio’s sonnet 61, l. 13.

256 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona from the hills already adorned by a thousand laurels, turned me with my flocks to your shores. And to my first desire, your courtesy has joined in my heart a new desire, so that your lands may forever be my refuge. And indeed I would at least like to make myself pleasing to the tone of my bagpipes, but in truth to such heights I cannot raise my sound.

118. Sonetto Pastorale della Medema in laude di Sua Eccellenza Se gl’Antichi Pastor di Rose et fiori8 sparsero i Tempi, et vaporar gl’altari di maschi incensi a Vener, poi che cari fece, et dolci alle Ninphe i lor amori, a Voi, che sceso dai più nobil chori degl’Angiol sete, et ch’ai desir mie pari rendete i favor vostri, quai più rari fiori offrirò io? Quai grati odori? Veramente non Tempio, altare, o dono trovar si può di tal pregio, e valore, ch’a vostra cortesia sia merto uguale, fuor che fia ’l petto vostro il tempio, u’ sono alti pensieri, e ’l saggio vostro core fia altar, Vittima, l’alma mia immortale.

118. Pastoral Sonnet by the Same in praise of His Excellency9 If the ancient shepherds with Roses and flowers strew the Temples, and smoked the altars with manly incense to Venus since she made their loves dear, and sweet, to the Nymphs, which among the rarest flowers shall I offer to You, who have descended from the most noble choirs 8. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 9. BNCF, Magliabechiano II IV 1 (formerly Magliabechiano VII 195), f. 75v. This sonnet is a variant of the published version that opens d’Aragona’s canzoniere; see sonnet 1.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 257 of Angels, and who render your favors equal to my own desires? Which pleasant fragrances? Truly no Temple, altar, or offering is found of such excellence, and worth, that to your courtesy it may be of equal value, unless your breast be the temple, where noble thoughts reside, and your wise heart be the altar, my immortal soul the Victim.

119. Sonetto della Medesima Alla Signora Maria Mandato agl’Humidi Anima bella, che dal Padre eterno10 pura fosti creata, e immortale, et ingombra di velo oscuro, et frale, pur di fuor mostri il tuo valor interno, dal ciel scendesti in questo vivo inferno u’ n’aggrava il Terren peso mortale per innalzarne dibattendo l’ale al sommo bello, et sommo ben superno, tu di casti Pensier, d’honesta voglia ingombri l’alma a chi tuo essempio mira et le fai Vaghe del Verace Amore, dunque ver me col vivo raggio spira del Desiato tuo almo favore, ch’io m’erga e ’nnalzi al ciel di questa spoglia.

119. Sonnet by the Same to Signora Maria Sent to the Humidi11 Beauteous soul, by the eternal Father pure you were created, and immortal, and burdened with the veil, dark and frail, yet you show outwardly your inner worth; 10. ABBA ABBA CDE DEC. 11. BNCF, Magliabechiano II IV 1 (formerly Magliabechiano VII 195), f. 76r. This sonnet is very similar to the one that d’Aragona published in her canzoniere, but there are enough variants to warrant republishing it in its entirety; see sonnet 12, where information is also available on the recipient, Maria Salviati de’ Medici.

258 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona from the sky you descended into this living hell where the Earthly, mortal burden weighs heavy in order to elevate it, beating its wings, to the supreme beauty, to the supreme supernal goodness, you, with chaste Thoughts and honorable desires, fill the soul of whoever looks upon your example and make them desirous of true Love, thus radiate upon me with the bright ray of your Coveted auspicious favor, that I may emerge and rise to the sky from this carcass.

120. Al Lasca in risposta Perch’io d’Alga tenessi ingrata e vile12 l’eterna pria di me celata parte, non che la scorza fral, che si diparte ognior che piega in Noi l’età senile; hoggi da sì vivifico e sottile humor che ’l tuo bel dire in me comparte, rigando vommi e forse ad honorarte ch’io mi pregio un bel fiore a mezzo Aprile; già la radice mia suggendo piglia tanto valor dall’humido Terreno quantunque arrida hormai da sé s’attempi; che non pure adeguar le bianche Ciglia, ma ’l verde e odorifero e ameno, spero ch’amando sé par che si scempi.

120. To Lasca in Response13 Since I considered an Alga, ungrateful and cowardly, the eternal, first, hidden part of myself, 12. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 13. BNCF, Magliabechiano VII 651, f. 20r. The author is indicated as “La Signora Tullia d’Aragona.” This is a variant of d’Aragona’s response to Grazzini; see sonnet 58. I corrected “honorate” to “honorarte” in l. 7 and “Giglia” to “Ciglia” in l. 12. Celani did not publish this version. For information on Antonfrancesco Grazzini, also known as il Lasca, see sonnet 57.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 259 as well as the frail shell, which always departs when old age bends Us over; today because of the lively and keen juices that your eloquent words circulate throughout me, I go forth watering and perhaps [it is] to honor you that I deem myself a beautiful flower in mid-April; once my root drank in as much benefit from the damp Terrain, as by now, arid, it ages on its own; for not only to change whitening Brows but also the fragrant, pleasant green, I hope that by loving itself it seems to lessen.

121. Ho più volte, Signor, fatto pensiero14 di risonar con la zampogna mia di te il valor, e l’alta cortesia, salendo al ciel presso al suggetto altiero. Ma (lassa) in van m’affanno, o destin fiero, che roco è il suono, e mia fortuna ria, sì dietro a’ miei dolor tutta m’invia, che levarmi da terra indarno spero. Cantin di te tanti gentil pastori, che pascon le lor greggie al Po dintorno, a cui le muse, a cui fortuna è amica. Forse il mio Mopso ancor fatto ritorno farà sentir non pur suoi bassi amori, ma tu sarai la sua maggior fatica.

14. ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.

260 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 121. Many times, my Lord, have I thought15 about sounding with my bagpipe your excellence and sublime courtesy up to the skies near the lofty subject. But, alas, I labor in vain, o fierce destiny, for raucous is its sound; and my cruel fortune sends me wholly after my sorrow so that to rise from the ground in vain I hope. May the many gentle shepherds, whose flocks graze near the Po, sing of you, to whom the Muses and fortune are friendly. Perhaps my Mopso,16 once he has returned, will make heard not only his earthly loves, but you will be his greatest charge.

122. All’Illustre Signor il signor Giordano Orsino Alma gentil, in cui l’eterna mente,17 per farvi sovra ogni alma bella et chiara, pose ogni studio: onde per voi se ’mpara la via di gir al Ciel sicuramente, sì come il mondo della più eccellente cosa di voi non ha, né tanto cara; et come sola sete et non pur rara d’ogni virtute ornata interamente, potess’io dirne appien quanto ’l cor brama che d’invidia ’mpirei et di dolore 15. BAV, Ottoboniano latino 1591, f. 119r. This sonnet is a variant on sonnet 47 in d’Aragona’s published canzoniere, which was addressed to Ugolino Martelli. In his edition of the Rime, Celani incorrectly identifies the manuscript as Ottoboniano latino 1595 and claims that this version, whose ll. 12–14 differ substantially from the other version, seems to be written to Muzio, as revealed by the pastoral name Mopso (29). Yet d’Aragona is speaking of Mopso in the third person and addressing another dedicatee, so the intended recipient remains an open question. 16. Pastoral name of Muzio. 17. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 261 ogni spirto più saggio, et più gentile, benché vostro valor eterna fama per sé vi aquisti, Caro mio signore, quanto ’l sol gira et Batro abraccia e Tile.

122. To the Illustrious Signor Signor Giordano Orsini18 Gentle soul, in whom the eternal mind, to make your soul more beautiful and illustrious than any other, places every thought, so that through you surely one learns the path to the sky, since the world something more excellent than you does not have, nor so dear; and since you are alone and wholly adorned with every most rare virtue, if only I could fully say how much my heart yearns, for I would fill every spirit, wiser and nobler [than I] with envy and pain, until your excellence for itself

18. BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 16. This autograph sonnet was included in a letter to Varchi; see letter 8 in the present edition. This Giordano Orsini should not to be confused with Paolo Giordano Orsini, who later married Isabella de’ Medici, Cosimo’s daughter. Giordano Orsini (1525–64) was a military leader who participated in numerous military exploits in Italy and France and, according to Litta, also wrote a military treatise entitled Modo di ben formare uno squadrone, which is found at the Biblioteca ambrosiana. In 1548, when d’Aragona met him, Orsini was naval commander for Duke Cosimo and had recently been stationed in Pisa together with Lucantonio Cuppano (see sonnet 19), where they stood ready to respond to the political tumult in Naples in 1547. After having earned entry into the Military Order of S. Michele, Orsini suffered an early death at thirty-nine when he was crushed underneath a carriage pulled by a pair of runaway horses. For information on Giordano Orsini, see Francesco Sansovino, L’historia di casa Orsina di Francesco Sansovino (Treviso: Edizioni della galleria, 1988), 86, Pompeo Litta, Famiglie celebri di Italia, vol. 5 (Milan: P.E. Giusti, 1819–83), 92, and Roberto Cantagalli “Gianfrancesco Barbolani” in DBI 6 (Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 1964), 260–62. Sansovino claims that Titian painted a portrait of him, but this portrait is apparently lost. See Charles Davis, “Una scheda per Tiziano: Il ritratto perduto di Giordano Orsini,” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 27, no. 3 (1983): 383–85. I thank Paolo Alei for this last reference.

262 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona acquires eternal fame, my dear Lord, as far as the sun turns and the Balkh and the Thule encompass.19

123. Tullia d’Aragona a Lattanzio Benucci Con le rime leggiadre, altere e terse,20 di che il Benuccio adorna i dotti versi, il maggior pensier mio suol trattenersi, s’avvien, che chiuda in sé cure perverse; perché nel Mar d’oblio l’altre sommerse, che tanto care pria solea tenersi ne la memoria (di rari e diversi ch’han scritto) il dì ch’a queste gl’occhi aperse: ond’io conosco bene il tempo e l’hore haver indarno spese, e tanto inchiostro ne le carte spiegando hor prosa, hor verso; veggio di saper priva in grave errore girmene a forza nel più basso chiostro, mercé del mio destin duro et avverso.

123. Tullia d’Aragona to Lattanzio Benucci21 With the light, proud, and polished rhymes, with which Benuccio adorns his learned verses, my greatest concern tends to hold back if it happens that it contain within malicious cares; for in the Sea of oblivion it submerged the other [rhymes] which it previously held so dear 19. The Balkh River flows in Afghanistan; for Thule, see note 56 to sonnet 49. “From the Balkh to the Thule” is an expression similar to “to the four corners of the earth.” 20. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 21. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 317r. These eight poems were first published by Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 3–15, and consist of four proposte (proposals) and four risposte (responses) by Benucci. This poem appears on 8. The manuscript Chigiano I VIII 295 is clearly a fair copy, possibly intended for print. It contains a canzoniere, complete with incipitario and a listing of the metric forms (411 sonnets; 19 canzoni; 3 eclogues; 2 elegies; 2 capitoli; 33 madrigals; 4 sestine; 167 stanze), all in the same hand, from 1–369. For information on Benucci, see sonnet 49.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 263 in its memory (of the rare and diverse others who have written) the day that it opened his eyes to these [rhymes]: thus I am well aware that time and hours I have spent futilely, and so much ink in pages expressing now in prose, now in verse; in grave error I see that, lacking knowledge, I am forced to move to the lowest cloister, due to my destiny, difficult and adverse.

124. Lattanzio Benucci a Tullia d’Aragona. In risposta. Tullia, poi che per me chiaro si scorse22 Apollo e le sorelle ogn’hor godersi dei concetti di Voi sì dolci, aspersi dall’acque, in cui tanta virtù s’immerse; s’acquetò la mia Cetra, e mute ferse quelle rime, in ch’io già lieto scopersi i miei vivi pensier, tutti dispersi per quel sentier, ch’Amor a gl’occhi offerse; a voi si deve il primo altero honore, che d’altri esser non dee, se non è vostro; in Voi risorge, in Voi sola è converso: io l’ombra son di Voi, né deve il Core più di questo bramar, che ’l secol nostro chiara v’ode cantar dal Mauro al Perso.

124. Lattanzio Benucci to Tullia d’Aragona. In response.23 Tullia, since I so clearly discerned that Apollo and his sisters24 forever enjoyed your conceits25 so sweet, sprinkled by the waters, in which so much virtue was steeped, 22. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 23. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 317v; Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 8. 24. The Muses. 25. The Italian “concetti” has a dual meaning, both “conceits” with a stylistic or formal connotation and “concepts” or “ideas” with reference to content.

264 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona my Cithara26 was quieted, and mute were made those rhymes, in which I had already happily revealed my liveliest thoughts, all lost along those paths, which Love offered to my eyes; to you is owed the first, most proud honor, which should not be of any other, if not yours; in You it rises again, to You alone it is devoted: I am the shadow of You, nor must my heart desire more than this, for our century famously hears you sing from Mauritania to Persia.27

125. Tullia d’Aragona a Lattanzio Benucci A la virtù, che con Voi nacque e vive,28 Benuccio, e cresce più di giorno in giorno, e a quel saper, di cui vi sete adorno, c’hor vi rende sì caro all’Alme dive, cede non pur chi poetando scrive (onde l’Invidia n’have oltraggio e scorno) ma voi rimira, e a voi si gode intorno hor l’inventrice de le prime olive: quindi il più chiaro spirto, e ’l più gentile, v’ammira e cole, e seguir tenta e brama quell’opre, che sovente escan da Voi: deh, perché non ho io sì colto stile, che (qual io cerco) con eterna fama vi portasse a gli Hesperii e a i liti Eoi?

26. A cithara is a stringed, musical instrument, similar to the lyre, associated with gods and goddesses of mythology and with poets. 27. This geographical combination is relatively rare in verse. In the Italian, it reads “from the Moor to the Persian.” “Mauro” is the adjective used to refer to ancient Mauritania, or roughly an area in northern Africa corresponding to present-day Morocco and part of Algeria (and not to the country in present-day West Africa) but also simply meant “Muslim.” Similarly “perso” is the adjective used to refer to Persia. 28. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 265 125. Tullia d’Aragona to Lattanzio Benucci. To the virtue, which is born and lives with You,29 Benuccio, and grows more from day to day, and to that knowledge, with which you have adorned yourself, that now renders you so dear to the fertile goddesses, yields not only one who writes as a poet (so that Envy feels insult and scorn) but now [even] the inventor of the first olives looks upon you, and in you delights;30 thus the most illustrious spirit, and the most noble, admires and reveres you, and attempts and yearns to follow those works, that often come from You. Alas, why do I not have such a cultured style,31 which (as I seek) with eternal fame would have carried you to the Hesperian and Aeolian shores?32

126. Lattanzio Benucci a Tullia d’Aragona. In risposta. Lasso, ch’ogni sapere hor mi prescrive33 il Choro de le Muse, ond’io ritorno, pastor incolto, a Voi, primo soggiorno, selve d’ogni vaghezza ignude e prive: ove che lungi a le famose rive d’Helicona, solingo a piè d’un orno, richiamo il Gregge mio, che d’ogn’ntorno se ne va errando, e par ch’anch’ei mi schive: 29. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 318r; Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 8–9. 30. Ballisteri notes that this would refer to Minerva, also the goddess of wisdom, war, and all the liberal arts. Although d’Aragona’s meaning is not unambiguous, one assumes that Minerva’s delight is due to his wisdom and poetry. We have no other biographical information related to military efforts on his part. 31. Note the common play on the doubled meaning of “stile” as pen and as style. 32. Hesperia was a classical name for a western land, often associated with Italy or Spain, whereas Aeolus was the god of wind that blows from the east; this periphrasis means from west to east, thus all across the land. For the exact same expression, see Ariosto, Orlando furioso, 1.7.3 (“Quella che dagli esperii ai liti eoi”). 33. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

266 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona così grave a me stesso oscuro e vile ho di pianger mai sempre interna brama, et ogn’altro desio par che m’annoi; ma Voi, cui forse mai non fia simile, Tullia, là dove Apollo hoggi vi chiama, gite sicura a i pregi e a gl’honor suoi.

126. Lattanzio Benucci to Tullia d’Aragona. In response.34 Alas, now all knowledge is forbidden to me by the Chorus of the Muses, so that I return, an uncouth shepherd, to you, first refuge, from forests naked and deprived of every beauty, where far from the famous slopes of the Helicon,35 lonely at the foot of an ash tree I call my Flock, which goes wandering about, and it seems that it too shuns me; so onerous to myself, gloomy and unworthy, I have now a constant, inner yearning to weep, and every other desire seems to vex me; but You, to whom perhaps there will be no equal, Tullia, there where today Apollo calls you, go forth boldly towards his honor and esteem.

127. Tullia d’Aragona a Lattanzio Benucci Benuccio, a cui si deve eterno honore,36 poi che Fortuna (a i buon sempre più fera) non puote haver giamai Vittoria altera dell’interno, e di Voi degno valore: scacciate in tutto homai l’aspro dolore e de i foschi sospiri la folta schiera, laonde a noi fuor si dimostrò intera la virtù che chiudete in mezo al Core; 34. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 318v; Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 9. 35. Mount Helicon in Greece is considered the traditional home of the Muses. 36. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 267 e la vostra bell’Alma, al suo costume tornando, tempri in me tutto l’amaro con la dolcezza di tant’alto ingegno; che del vostro Helicona un picciol fiume spero di trar, ma sì purgato e chiaro, che forse non l’havran le Muse a sdegno.

127. Tullia d’Aragona to Lattanzio Benucci37 Benuccio, to whom is owed eternal esteem since Fortune (ever more ferocious against good souls) can never gain proud Victory against the inner and worthy excellence of You: dismiss entirely now the bitter pain and the teeming droves of heavy sighs, so that to us outside is wholly shown the virtue that you hold within your heart; and may your beautiful Soul, to its usual wont returning, temper in me all the bitterness with the sweetness of such lofty genius; thus from your Helicon a small river I hope to draw out, but so purified and limpid that perhaps the Muses will not disdain it.

128. Lattanzio Benucci to Tullia d’Aragona. In risposta. Tra gielo e spine i bei pensier d’Amore38 (che mi rendean sì dolce Primavera) restan sepolti, e notte oscura e nera mi cela il mio divino almo splendore; né puote il Cor per lungo volger d’hore tornar a quel riposo, in che prim’era; ma lungi a la sua pace, hor brama e spera chiuder la vita in così tetro horrore. Tolte mi sono (ahimè) l’ali e le piume, 37. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 319r; Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 9. 38. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

268 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona onde forse potea, pregiato e caro, poggiar anch’io di vera lode al segno; voi, ben cinta da i rai del proprio lume, Tullia, col dolce stil sì colto e raro a Febo vi rendete amato pegno.

128. Lattanzio Benucci to Tullia d’Aragona. In response.39 Among ice and thorns Love’s beautiful thoughts (which made Springtime so sweet for me) lie buried, and the dark, black night hides from me my divine, lofty splendor; nor can my Heart for the long passing of many hours return to that repose, that it had before; but far from its peace, now it yearns and hopes to end its life in such dark horror. Taken from me (alas) are my wings and feathers whereby perhaps I too, treasured and dear, could rise to the mark with true praise; you, encircled by the rays of your own light, Tullia, with your sweet style so cultured and rare, render yourself a beloved pledge to Phoebus.40

129. Tullia d’Aragona a Lattanzio Benucci Non dee spirto più degno e più gentile41 (se però drittamente il ver discerno) poiché del Core e del pensiero interno ha fatto dono a bella Donna humile ritrarlo a sé giamai, mentre simile desire ambidue scalda, e n’ha governo cortese Amor; ma s’unqua vede a scherno prendersi la sua fiamma, ei cangi stile; felice voi, Benuccio, anzi beato, 39. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 319v; Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 10. 40. See sonnet 78. 41. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 269 poscia ch’Amor d’Alma cortese e bella la nobil vostra dolcemente invola, e me infelice, a cui dal Ciel fu dato seguir ai miei desii, mente rubella, per farmi esempio a mille amanti sola.

129. Tullia d’Aragona to Lattanzio Benucci42 A more worthy and gentle spirit must not (if however I rightly discern the truth) since its heart and innermost thoughts were offered as gifts to a beautiful, humble Lady, ever withdraw itself, while a similar desire warms both, and courtly Love governs it; but if it ever sees its flame derided, may it change its style;43 happy you, Benuccio, blessed rather, since the Love of a courteous, beautiful Soul sweetly steals your own noble one [soul], and I, unhappy, to whom the Sky commanded to follow my desires, rebellious mind, to make me, alone, an example to a thousand lovers.44

130. Lattanzio Benucci a Tullia d’Aragona. In risposta. In braccio ai fiori e al più cortese Aprile,45 goda del raggio di sua Donna eterno chiunque arde per lei la ’state e ’l Verno, porgendo a quella ogn’hor l’esca e ’l focile; io no, che lungo tempo oscuro e vile in van cercai nel più profondo Inferno, gli atti finti, e soavi, che mi ferno 42. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 320r; Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 10. 43. Another pun on “stile” being a stylus and a style. 44. The adjective “sola” has a double meaning in this line: she alone is an example, and her exemplarity is that she is alone. 45. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

270 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona agno infelice a così dolce ovile. Hor s’al merto di Voi porgesse il fato, Tullia, degna mercede, in questa e in quella parte, ove il nome vostro altero vola; ogni spirto più degno e più lodato devrebbe a Voi (com’a sua fida stella) sacrar sé stesso in bianca e pura stola.

130. Lattanzio Benucci to Tullia d’Aragona. In response.46 Embraced by flowers and by a gentler April may he who burns for her both summer and winter enjoy the eternal ray of his Lady, continually offering her tinder and steel; not I, who for a long time, gloomy and lowly, searched in vain in the deepest Inferno the feigned, elegant acts, that made of me an unhappy lamb in such a sweet fold. Now if to Your merit fate were to offer, Tullia, a deserving reward, in either these or those parts, where your proud name soars, every spirit most worthy and praised would have to You (as his trusted star) consecrate himself in a pure, white stole.

131.

Ben mi credea, fuggendo il mio bel sole,47 scemar (misera a me) l’estremo fuoco, con cercar chiari rivi, e stare all’ombra dei verdi faggi et habitar tra boschi; ma quanto più lontano è ’l suo bel volto, 5 tanto più d’hor in hor cresce ’l mio vampo. Chi crederebbe mai che questo vampo crescesse quanto è più lontan dal sole? 46. BAV, Chigiano I VIII 295, c. 321v; Ballistreri, “Una corrispondenza poetica,” 10–11. 47. This poem is a sestina; see the note at poem 38 for its rhyme scheme.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 271 Io pur il provo, che quel divin volto accresce, e ’n me raddoppia ognihor il fuoco, 10 né mi giova cercar fontane o boschi, che questo sol non cuopre o fronde, od ombra. Non cercarò via più posare all’ombra per minuire il mio cocente vampo, né, lassa, errando gir fra folti boschi, 15 ma ben seguirò io sempre quel sole, per cui sì lieta mi nutrico in fuoco, ch’a ciò mi sforza il cielo, e ’l suo bel volto. Deh, perché non è meco il sacro volto ovunque io vadi o per sole, o per ombra, 20 c’havria forse men forza al cuor il fuoco, e soffrirei più lieta ogni mio vampo, che puote sol un raggio del mio Sole farmi beata ne gli ombrosi boschi? E perciò in odio havrò sempre quei boschi 25 che terranmi il veder del sacro volto e i chiari raggi del almo mio sole, che fean sgombrar le nube e fuggir l’ombra, e me sola gioir nel chiaro vampo qual Salamandra nel più ardente fuoco. 30 Quanto mi fora dilettoso il fuoco, noiosi i fonti e via men grati i boschi; men cari i faggi, e più noioso il vampo, s’unir potessi il mio volto al bel volto, e col mio stesso corpo al suo far ombra: 35 ben d’arder goderei toccando il sole. Deh—dicesse il mio sole—anch’io sto in fuoco; però non cercar più ombra né boschi, che vo’ ch’il volto mio tempri il tuo vampo.

272 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 131. I truly believed that by escaping my beautiful sun,48 I would lessen (miserable me) the extreme fire, by searching for limpid streams, and resting in the shade of the green beeches and living in the forests; but the further away is his beautiful visage, the more hour by hour my flame grows. Who would ever have believed that this flame would grow in relation to its distance from the sun? Yet I feel that divine visage grows, and in me the fire continuously redoubles Nor does it help me to seek fountains or forests, for neither fronds, nor shade give cover from this sun. I shall no longer seek a way to rest in the shade to lessen my burning flame, nor, alas, by wandering through the dense forests. Yet I shall always follow that sun for which so happily I nourish myself in the fire for to that the skies force me, and his beautiful visage. Alas, why is the sacred visage not with me wherever I go, either in the sun or shade, for perhaps the fire would have less strength over my heart, and I would suffer more happily every flame of mine,

5

10

15

20

48. BAV, Ottoboniano latino 1591 118v–119r. This manuscript primarily contains Cicero’s De oratore and tucked in at the very end are poems 131, 121, and 116, respectively. This sestina is very similar to the published version (see poem 38) up until l. 15. Celani also published this version, although he incorrectly identifies the manuscript as Ottoboniano latino 1595 and says that it was probably addressed to Mannelli, even though he notes that the “sacred visage” (“sacro volto”) of l. 19 might indicate instead “some cardinal.” See Celani’s edition of d’Aragona’s Rime, 61–63. Given that this version was likely composed subsequent to poem 38, upon d’Aragona’s return to Rome in late 1548, an excellent candidate for d’Aragona’s “sacred visage” would be Antonio Trivulzio (1514–59), the bishop of Toulon, who served as executor of her will and was by her side as a witness when she drafted it several weeks before her death. Cardinal Trivulzio was also the protector in Rome of French interests and considering that d’Aragona later addresses a composition to Cardinal Tournon (see poem 135), it is unsurprising that she dedicates a poem, albeit a reelaboration of an earlier one, to Trivulzio; for Trivulzio’s role in French affairs within the Curia, see Émile Picot, Les français italianisants au XVIe siècle, 2 vols. (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1906–7), 1:112.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 273 for a single ray of my sun can make me blessed in the shaded forests? And thus I shall always hate those forests 25 that keep me from seeing that sacred visage and the bright rays of my lofty sun, which clear away the clouds and make the shade flee and me alone rejoice in the bright flame as a salamander in the most ardent fire.49 30 As delightful as the fire would be for me, vexing would be the fountains, and even less pleasant the forests; less dear the beeches, and more vexing the flame, if I could unite my own visage with his lovely visage, 35 I would indeed enjoy burning, touching the sun. Alas—if only my sun were to say—I too am in the fire, but seek no more shade nor forests, for I want my visage to temper your flame.

132. Tullia d’Aragona al Cardinale d’Urbino Qual chiareza posso io crescere al Sole50 della vostra virtù, chiaro Signore? Et al nome di voi, qual degno honore rendar si può con simplici parole? Già scorge il mondo come altiera vole di voi la gloria e de’ verdi anni il fiore v’adorni sì che ’l lungo volger d’hore tema non è ch’il pregio unqua v’invole; ma qual freno già mai tenere al segno potrà ’l desio che nel mio petto alberga sì che ’l nome di voi non chiuda in carte? Però s’avvien ch’a sì pregiato e degno oggetto hora il mio stil basso non s’erga, giunga l’affetto ove si niega l’arte.

49. See page 116n142. 50. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

274 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 132. Tullia d’Aragona to the Cardinal of Urbino51 What luminescence might I add to the Sun of your virtue, illustrious Lord? And to your name, what worthy tribute might one render with mere words? Already the world discerns how high flies your glory, and the flowering of your green years52 adorns you so that there is no fear that the long succession of hours will ever steal your excellence; but what bit might ever restrain the desire that resides in my breast so that your name is not enclosed within these pages? If however it happens that to such an excellent and worthy object my lowly style53 were not now to rise, may my affection reach where my art is denied.

51. BCSI, Manoscritto I XI 49, c. 30v, which is dated at the top of the page “1552 di Dicembre.” The likely recipient of this sonnet is Giulio Feltrio della Rovere (1535–78). Although by December 1552 he had renounced his position of ecclesiastical authority over Urbino, he was nonetheless widely known by the title “Cardinale d’Urbino.” It seems unlikely that d’Aragona would have been writing to his successor Felice Tiranni, a relatively minor figure of the Catholic hierarchy, known for little else. Della Rovere, on the other hand, was the son of Francesco Maria della Rovere, duke of Urbino, and Eleonora Gonzaga and was born and raised in Urbino. He was nominated cardinal in July 1547, at the age of thirteen, although his nomination was not made public until 1548. Also in 1548, he was nominated papal legate for Perugia and Umbria. Because of his long-standing ties with the city of his birth, he was referred to as the “Cardinal of Urbino.” For a succinct biography, see Matteo Sanfilippo, “Giulio Feltrio Della Rovere,” in DBI 37 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1989), 356–7, and for information on his later cultural patronage, see Ian F. Verstegen, “Reform and Renewed Ambition: Cardinal Giulio Feltrio della Rovere,” in Patronage and Dynasty: The Rise of the Della Rovere in Renaissance Italy, ed. Ian F. Verstegen (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2007), 89–110. 52. The reference to his “green years,” that is, to his youth, is another indication that the cardinal to whom she is referring is Giulio Feltrio della Rovere, who would have been just eighteen years old in December 1552. 53. Another example of “stile” as “style” and “stylus.”

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 275 133. Tullia d’Aragona al cardinale di Monte S’a voi cortese il Cielo, alto Signore55 ha posto in man cotanto ampio governo, cercate hor voi, che ’l vero nome eterno divenga per bontà senno e valore vincete qual più degno hoggi è d’honore con l’opre chiare, che se ben discerno non pur farete al empia invidia scherno ma vedrovvi di Roma ancor Pastore onde a la gloria vostra ergere ogni hora devransi altari, e tempi in ogni parte, poscia n’andrà di voi l’altiera fama, o potesse io tra le più dotte carte degnamente di voi scrivere ancora, così come ne tengo ardente brama.

R54

133. Tullia d’Aragona to Cardinal Del Monte56 If courteously into your hands, lofty Lord, the sky has placed such ample rule, 54. I have faithfully reproduced what appears in the manuscript, which carries an “R.” One possibility is that “R” stands for “risposta” and that this sonnet is a response to a proposal sonnet by the Cardinal Del Monte. Yet we have no record of Del Monte composing poetry. 55. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 56. Note that the sonnet is followed by the phrase “Di Roma.” There were three cardinals named Del Monte during these years. One was Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi Del Monte (1487–1555), who was elected Pope Julius III on 7 February 1550; upon his election, Julius III immediately made his adoptive nephew Innocenzo del Monte (1532–77) cardinal, causing a scandal over the nomination of a seventeen-year-old of low birth, who was constantly by the pope’s side (as he had been earlier when Cardinal Giovan Maria was papal legate in Parma). The third figure is Cristoforo Ciocchi Del Monte (1484–1564), who was a first cousin of Julius III and nominated cardinal on 20 November 1551. Two references in the sonnet lead me to think that d’Aragona is referring to the most obvious choice, which is, Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi Del Monte, namely, that in l. 2 she refers to his “ampio governo” and in l. 8, that she calls him the shepherd of Rome, as he was born in Rome and served more than once as governor before becoming pope. The sonnet was likely written during the very long conclave (over two months; the longest on record up to that point) that led to the election of the cardinal as pope, as his name was put forward several times. For this reason, she still addresses him as Cardinal Del Monte, as he likely had not yet been elected.

276 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona seek now that your name eternal may become for goodness, wisdom, and excellence. Surpass whomever today is most worthy of honor with your excellent works, for if I understand correctly, you will not only mock impious envy but I will also see you as shepherd of Rome so that to your glory altars must constantly be erected, and temples everywhere; then your lofty fame will go forth, o, if only among the most learned pages I were still able to write worthily of you57 as much as I so ardently desire.

134. Tullia d’Aragona Sacro pastor, che la tua greggia humile,58 di caritade acceso, e d’Amor pieno, guidi fuor del mortal camin terreno, per ricondurla al suo Celeste ovile; se ’l ben oprar ti rende a Dio simile, hor che raggio divin le scalda il seno, ricevi, o Santo, nel tuo pasco ameno questa tua pecorella errante, e vile. Sì che possa, ridotta in piaggie apriche, ove nocer non può contraria sorte, né fiere Stelle al nostro danno intente, poste in oblio l’acerbe sue fatiche, fuggir le pompe, e disprezzar la morte, tenendo sempre in Dio ferma la mente.

57. This affirmation could either mean that she is no longer to write or, in the classic captatio benevolentiae trope, she is saying that her writing is unable to equal her subject. 58. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 277 134. Tullia d’Aragona Sacred shepherd, who guide your humble flock,59 ignited by charity and full of love, away from the mortal, earthly terrain, and conduct it to its Celestial fold; if good works render you similar to God, now that the divine ray warms her breast, receive, o Saint, into your verdant pasture this your little sheep, errant and lowly;60 so that she may take refuge in open fields where neither adverse fate can hurt her nor cruel Stars intent on our harm, having consigned to oblivion her bitter travails, to escape all pomp, and disdain death, her mind fixed firmly on God.

135. Tullia d’Aragona al Cardinale di Tournon Signor, nel cui divino alto valore61 tanto si gloria l’una Gallia altera, e l’altra tutta mesta, e afflitta spera por fin a l’aspro suo grave dolore, 59. Poems 134 and 135 first appeared in Il sesto libro delle rime di diversi eccellenti autori, nuovamente raccolte et mandate in luce, con un discorso di Girolamo Ruscelli (Venice: Segno del Pozzo, 1553), 182–83. Sonnet 134 was later republished in 1556 [Rime di diversi, et eccellenti autori: Raccolte da i libri da noi altre volte impressi, tra le quali se ne leggono molte non più vedute, di nuovo ricorrette e ristampate (Venice: Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1556), 300] and again in 1586 in Il primo volume delle rime scelte di diversi autori, di nuovo corrette e ristampate (Venice: Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1586), 306. Neither composition has an addressee line, although 135 specifically mentions Cardinal Tournon in l. 10. It seems that Celani assumed that both of these poems are to Tournon, as he did assumed the other two were both dedicated to Mannelli. The first composition may be addressed to him, although he is not named; its recipient is clearly ecclesiastical. For information on Tournon, see poem 135. 60. Note that the image of herself as a little lost sheep is consonant with the image as a repentant woman that she was projecting in the preface to the Meschino. 61. This composition is a canzone of three stanzas of ten lines each, with an envoi of five. It follows the rhyme scheme of Petrarch, Rvf, 70, that is, ABBAAccADD in the stanzas and XYyZZ in the envoi.

278 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona poscia, che voi tornando, il suo splendore 5 torna, e fa bella Roma, ecco la sparsa chioma, ella v’accoglie lieta, e manda fore voci gioconde, e asciuga gli occhi molli, e TORNON grida ’l Tebro, e i sette colli. 10 La pace, la letitia, a la sublime schiera de le virtù sacre, ch’a noi spariro al partir vostro; hora con voi riedono, e fan contesa al tornar prime le Muse a celebrarvi in versi, e in rime, 15 destano i chiari spirti, ond’hor s’ergano i Mirti, e i lauri spargon l’honorate cime, e prima de l’usato il Mondo infiora, e l’aria empie d’odor Favonio, e Flora. 20 Fra tanto almo gioir, fra tanta festa, ch’oggi al vostro tornar si mostra, e sente, anch’io la speme e la letitia spente, poter nudrir ne l’alma dubbia, e mesta, se mirate, Signor, quel, che m’infesta 25 noioso, e aspro duolo, che voi potete solo ridurmi in porto da crudel tempesta, e volgendo ver me pietoso il ciglio trar mia vita di doglia, e di periglio. 30 Canzon, se innanzi a lui per gratia arrivi, che dee chiuder di Giano il tempio aperto; benché nulla è ’l mio merto, pregal, che sola non mi lasci in guerra poi, che per lui si spera pace in terra. 35

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 279 135. To Cardinal Tournon62 My Lord, in whose divine, lofty merit the one Gaul proudly exults and the other, all dark and afflicted, hopes to put an end to her bitter, grave pain,63 once, after your return, her splendor returns and makes Rome beautiful behold, with her tresses loose, she64 happily embraces you, and sends out joyous voices, and dries damp eyes and “TORNON” shouts the Tiber and the seven hills. Peace and joy to the sublime troop of sacred virtues, which for us

5

10

62. Cardinal François de Tournon (1489–1562) was French cardinal who performed significant service to the French Crown as a diplomat, beginning with his role in the negotiation for the release of Francis I, captured during the Battle of Pavia and subsequently held in Madrid by Charles V. Tournon, the son of French nobility, was an Augustinian friar before his nomination to the cardinalate in 1530 under Clement VII. In subsequent years, he served the French king, primarily Francis I, in numerous negotiations with the papacy and also participated in the conclaves that elected Paul III, Julius III, Marcellus II, and Paul IV. His biographer recounts that after the death of Francis I in March 1547, Tournon was no longer influential or welcome at court. King Henri II, Francis I’s successor, had also threatened to revoke Tournon’s benefices from the Abbey of Saint-Germain des Prés. Yet given the complexity of France’s relationship with the papacy and other Italian states and Tournon’s long-standing experience and abilities, he was finally recalled to court and to the king’s favor in October 1549. Upon the death of Paul III (on 10 November 1549), Henri II gave the order to those French cardinals who were not in Rome (and this included Tournon, among others) to depart immediately for the eternal city for fear that imperial pretensions would win out over French claims during the conclave. Tournon’s biographer cites an anonymous chronicle of the conclave, as well as a letter of Claude d’Ursé, the Henri II’s ambassador to the Holy See, that Tournon reached Rome on the evening of 12 December 1549, after a trip by land and sea. Thus the context for Tournon’s “return” to Rome mentioned in this poem is for the conclave of 1549–50 that elected Julius III in which he himself was a candidate. See Michel François, Le cardinal François de Tournon: Homme d’état, diplomate, mécène et humaniste (1489–1562) (Paris: E. De Boccard, 1951). 63. The two Gauls to which d’Aragona is referring are likely the Cisalpine and Transalpine; the former, which corresponds to northeast Italy, exults because Cardinal Tournon is returning from France, the Transalpine Gaul, which instead bemoans his departure. I thank Luca Marcozzi for this reference. 64. The city of Rome is personified.

280 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona disappeared upon your departure, now with you return, and the Muses compete to be the first to celebrate you in verse, and in rhymes, awaken the illustrious spirits, so that now Zephyrus and Flora make Myrtles rise and laurels adorn the esteemed heights and earlier than usual the World flowers, and fills the air with fragrance. Among so much bountiful joy, such celebration, which is seen and heard today at your return, I, too, my hope and happiness exhausted to be able to nourish in my doubting, sad soul, if you consider, my Lord, what infects me, bothersome and bitter pain, that you alone can lead me to refuge in port from the cruel tempest and turn towards me your merciful gaze to extract my life from sorrow, and from danger. O song, if before him by grace you arrive, for he must close Janus’s open temple;65 although nothing do I merit beseech him, that he does not leave me alone in war since through him one hopes for peace on earth.

15

20

25

30

35

136. La S[ignora] Tullia d’Aragona [a Benedetto Varchi] VARCHI, mostrivi Amore ogni mio affetto,66 che i segreti de i cuor67 vede, e intende, e scorgerete in che guisa m’incende 65. Janus is the god of gates and doorways in Roman religion and thus also of beginnings in general. His temple’s gates were closed only in times of peace, and thus if Cardinal Tournon closes the temple, it means that he is able to bring about a political peace at the same time that he guides her to inner, spiritual peace. One wonders if the reference to the closing of the temple might be a metaphor for the door that closes the cardinals in during conclave to which Cardinal Tournon is returning. 66. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 67. I correct “quor” from V2 to “cuor.”

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 281 vostra virtute, e l’Alma, e l’intelletto; o ver m’aprite dolcemente il petto, per accertarvi, come dentro scende il raggio vostro, che sì chiaro splende in me, ch’ogni altro fa scuro, e negletto; e, poi, che ’1 vostro vivo ardente lume mi fa provare ogn’hor più d’una morte col fulminar de’ suoi possenti strai, non vogliate, ch’ardendo io mi consume, fate, prego, al disio le strade corte, non è per tempo vostra aita omai.

136. Signora Tullia d’Aragona to Benedetto Varchi VARCHI, may Love show you my every affection,68 which the secrets of hearts see and understand and you will discover in what way I am enflamed by your virtue and soul and intellect; or rather sweetly you open my breast to ascertain69 how your ray, which so brightly shines, descends into me, so that it makes every other one dark and neglected and then for your ardent, bright light always makes me feel more than one death with the flashes of its powerful bolts, may you not wish that I be consumed by burning; please make the paths to my desire short; your help by now is no longer timely.

137. Risposta di Benedetto Varchi a Tullia d’Aragona TULLIA, se come ’1 bel, così ’1 perfetto70 di tutte l’altre, in voi sola risplende, se sol da’ bei vostri occhi nasce e pende 68. V2 200; this exchange was republished by Francesco Bausi, “ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 84. 69. Like Bausi, I correct “accettarvi” to “accertarvi.” 70. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

282 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona mio ben, mio mal, mia noia e mio diletto; come è che sola a voi par che interdetto sia, dove Amore ogn’hor più lume accende, veder qual io mi sfaccio? E donde attende mio cor, soccorso in mille nodi stretto? E non è poggio o valle o selva o fiume, che non sappia quanto è mia pena forte, mentre io vivo lontan da’ vostri rai; che giorno, e notte per lungo costume grido pregando il ciel, ch’omai n’apporte della mia vita il fine, o de’ miei guai.

137. Response of Benedetto Varchi to Tullia d’Aragona TULLIA, if as beauty, so perfection71 above all others in you alone shines, if only from your beautiful eyes is born and depends my well-being, my pain, my worry and delight, how is it that to you alone it always seem disallowed, where Love forever more light ignites, to see how I am undone? And from where can my heart, in a thousand knots tied, expect rescue? And there is no hill, nor dale, nor forest, or river that does not know how strong is my suffering, while I live far from your rays, for day and night from long habit I cry out, beseeching the sky that at last it bring an end to my life, or to my troubles.

138. All’Illustrissima et eccellentissima Signora duchessa di Tagliacozzi Alcide vinse i più superbi mostri72 con quel valor che gli donò natura; altri ch’ebber nell’armi alta avventura furon suggetto ai più purgati inchiostri; 71. V2 200; republished by Bausi in “ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 84. 72. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 283 ma rado avvien che ’l cielo a noi dimostri un’Alma così bella e così pura che rendesse qual voi piana e sicura la via di gir a li stellanti chiostri. Donna reale, il senno e la bontade son l’armi onde voi già fatta immortale dei più lodati trapassate il segno; da queste, rotta e vinta a terra cade l’empia Fortuna e calcitrar non vale poscia ch’in voi non have imperio o regno.

138. To the Most Illustrious and Excellent Signora Duchess of Tagliacozzo73 73. Sonnets 138 and 139 are autographs found in the Biblioteca statale del monastero di Santa Scolastica, Subiaco, Archivio Colonna, Carteggio dei personaggi illustri, b. CEn11 and n5, respectively. Sonnet 138 was signed by “Your Most Humble Servant Tullia di Aragona” (“Humilissima Serva, Tullia di Aragona”) and addressed to the duchess of Tagliacozzo, who has been identified as Giovanna d’Aragona (1502–77), wife of Ascanio Colonna and mother of Marcantonio Colonna, the recipient of sonnet 139. Giovanna d’Aragona was a cultured Neapolitan noblewoman who spent many years in the Castello Aragonese on the island of Ischia, where she frequented the humanist literary circle of Costanza d’Avalos, together with her sister Maria d’Aragona and Vittoria Colonna, who was her sister-in-law. In 1535, Giovanna d’Aragona had deserted her husband, Ascanio, taking all six children with her. Ascanio was already well-known for his profligacy and choleric temperament, and their separation was a state affair, as its development influenced the politics of the noble families of Italy in relation to the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. Although the story is convoluted and sketchy in parts, by the early 1550s, Ascanio Colonna was engaged in a fierce battle against his wife and youngest son Marcantonio over family properties and revenues, and Giovanna played a large role in seeking to strip Ascanio of his role as head of the Colonna. For a more detailed account of the relationship between Ascanio and Marcantonio, see P. Renée Baernstein, “Reprobates and Courtiers: Lay Masculinities in the Colonna Family, 1520–1584,” in Florence and Beyond: Culture, Society and Politics in Renaissance Italy, ed. David S. Peterson and with Daniel E. Bornstein (Toronto: Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2008), 291–303. Although we do not know whether these sonnets were sent together or separately, I expect that they were written in the mid-1550s. By 1551, Girolamo Ruscelli was already compiling a lyric collection in praise of Giovanna d’Aragona, which he called a tempio, or “temple,” although the final version was not printed until 1554. In 1553, Girolamo Ruscelli printed the sixth volume in the series of lyric anthologies and included

284 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona Alcides74 defeated the most ruthless monsters through that courage with which nature endowed him; others who had lofty adventures in arms were the subject of the purest pens; yet rarely does it occur that the sky shows us a Soul so beautiful and pure that it renders, as you do, level and safe the path that leads to the starry cloisters. Lady regal,75 your wisdom and goodness are the arms by which you, already immortalized,76 even among the most praised exceed the mark; by these [arms], broken and defeated to the ground falls unmerciful Fortune, and rebelling is useless since over you it has no power or reign.

two poems by d’Aragona; see 134 and 135. I expect that these were written after Ruscelli’s collection because the poet refers to her recipient as “already immortalized” (see l. 10 in sonnet 138). For more extensive comment on the context of these two sonnets, see Baernstein and Hairston, “Two New Sonnets.” Costa-Zalessow correctly pointed out that both sonnets first appeared in print in a wedding pamphlet in 1932; see Natalia CostaZalessow, “Sonetti ‘inediti’ ”; the original publication was in Francesco Tomassetti, Nozze di donna Sveva Vittoria Colonna con don Alfonso Falcò Principe Pio: 31 dicember 1932 (Rome: Castaldi, 1932), 7–8. Tomassetti identified the “Duchess of Tagliacozzi” as Felice Orsini, Marcantonio’s wife. See Baernstein and Hairston, “Two New Sonnets” for further discussion of the identity of the recipient. 74. The name Alcides means “descendant of Alcaeus” and, as such, refers to Hercules, whose mortal father was Alcaeus. 75. In two of the four sonnets addressed to Eleonora di Toledo in Tullia d’Aragona’s Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei, Tullia d’Aragona refers twice to the Duchess Eleonora as “Donna reale”; see her sonnets 10 and 11. This characterization of the dedicatee as a “Donna reale” whose wisdom (“senno”) is praised further supports the identification of the Duchess of Tagliacozzo with Giovanna d’Aragona, as Felice Orsini was a young bride of 12 at the time of her marriage in 1552; see Baernstein and Hairston, “Two New Sonnets.” 76. I use this reference to Giovanna d’Aragona as “already immortalized” to date the composition of this sonnet post-1554, when Ruscelli’s Tempio was published.

Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona 285 139. All’Illustrissimo et eccellentissimo Signor Marcantonio Colonna Mentre di celebrar, alto Signore,77 di voi tentai ’l valore e la virtute, cose da far tutte le lingue mute, per acquistare a le mie rime honore, pace (lassa) talhor impetrò ’l core da colei per cui sono al fin venute le mie speranze poi che di salute, priva mi tiene e carca di dolore; onde non m’è concesso al merto vostro più consacrar homai l’ingegno e l’arte ne’ qual’ per voi sperai furarmi a morte: hor se l’affetto mio più non vi mostro, di quello empiendo mille e mille carte, me non colpate no, ma l’empia sorte.78

139. To the Most Illustrious and Excellent Signor Marcantonio Colonna79 While I attempted to celebrate, my lofty Lord, your courage and virtue, things to make all tongues mute,

77. ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. 78. On her cruel fortune, see, among others, sonnets 5, 22, 28, 36, and 45. This affirmation could also be interpreted as a reference to failing health. 79. Biblioteca statale del monastero di Santa Scolastica, Subiaco, Archivio Colonna, Carteggio dei personaggi illustri, b. CEn5. This sonnet was signed “Devoted and Most Humble Servant Tullia Aragona” (“Divota et Humilissima Serva Tullia Aragona”). Marcantonio Colonna (1535–84) was the son of Giovanna d’Aragona, recipient of sonnet 138, and Ascanio Colonna. His older brother Fabrizio died in 1551, and, as the sole male heir, Giovanna began a campaign to promote his ascendancy as head of the family. Marcantonio was only in his late teens in the early 1550s, but he went on to garner great success, particularly as a military commander and as the head of the papal navy that won the battle at Lepanto against the Turks in 1570. For a capsule view of him, see Franca Petrucci, “Marcantonio Colonna,” in DBI 27 (Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1982), 372–83; for a more extensive biography, see Nicoletta Bazzano, Marco Antonio Colonna (Rome: Salerno, 2003); for his relationship with his father, see Baernstein, “Reprobates and Courtiers.”

286 Miscellaneous Poems by Tullia d’Aragona in order to acquire honor for my verses,80 my heart (alas) on occasion besought peace from her for whom my hopes have reached their end since she keeps me of health deprived and full of sorrow;81 so that it is no longer granted to me to consecrate my intellect and art to your merit through which I hoped to escape death.82 Now if I no longer show you my affection, filling thousands and thousands of pages with it, do not blame me, no, but cruel fortune.

80. The topos of acquiring fame through poetry is quite frequent in d’Aragona’s verses; see, among others, sonnets 3, 6, 7, 15, and 28. 81. This reference to ailing health also supports the theory of a post-1554 date of composition for this sonnet too. The aging and progressive loss of vigor in the narrator of the Meschino appears in some of the later canti; see Meschino 9.2; 10.1; 17.1; 19.1; 21.1; 27.1; 30.1; 31.1; and 34.1. 82. On escaping death through art, see also sonnets 7, 22, and 50.

LETTERS

288 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona Letter 1 Illustrissimo caro Signor messer Francesco de’ Pazzi, dove sia Messer Francesco mio caro, parmi che non siano però sì lunghe et noiose le giornate del vostro viaggio che, sì per l’amor che io vi porto et fede vi tengo, come per merzé vostra, non potessi et dovessi per contento de l’animo mio haver havuti a quest’hora doi versi vostri, perciò che sapete quanto di contento mi sia saper nova del mio signor et del vostro ben stare, né di lui mi doglio o maraviglio non mi dando avviso, però che nel medesmo stato che io sono lui si trova, cioè, non haver seco l’anima sua ma volta in quella parte dove amor la sprona, sì che non se ricorda né di me né de altrui, penso. Ma sì di voi mi lamento et maraviglio, che né l’amor che io vi porto, né la fede che vi tengo, né ’l continovo desiderio ho de servir sempre possino in voi sì che vi mova di me pietà a consolar la tristezza che è in me et sempre serà, sinché non riveda la persona di messer Pietro et vostra, perché non meno de honesto amor vi hamo voi, che de insopportabil fuoco arda per lui. Ma vi sarò tanta molesta | col mio scriver ad ambedoi, che el dover vi sforzerà tener memoria della mia servitù et recordarvi delle impromesse fattemi et fede data. Et raccomandovi tutti di casa, insieme col signor messer Pietro. Vi prego basciate in mio nome le mani al signor priore, mio signor. Data in Roma, a dì 21 de luglio 1535, di vostra signoria, Tullia A[ragona]

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 289 Letter 1 Most illustrious messer dear Signor Francesco de’ Pazzi, wherever he may be1 My dear messer Francesco, It doesn’t seem to me that since your journey the days have been so long and care-filled, however, that, given the love I bear you and the trust that I place in you, as well as out of your own mercy, I should not have received by now a line or two from you to soothe my soul, since you know how much it pleases me to have news of my lord and of your well-being2 I complain not of him, nor do I marvel that he has sent me no word, for he finds himself in the same state I am, that is, not having with him his soul, which is turned in the direction where love urges it, so that he remembers neither me, nor anyone else, I think. But I do lament and wonder about you, for neither the love I bear you, nor that trust I place in you, nor the constant desire I have to serve you are powerful enough to move you to pity me and console the sadness that is and always will be within me until I see the person of messer 1. This autograph letter, previously unpublished, is found at ASF, Carte strozziane, quinta serie, 1207 n159. I thank Mirko Stocchi for the transcription. Francesco de’ Pazzi, son of Antonio de’ Pazzi, also known by the nickname Ceccone, was an associate of the Strozzi family and a friend and companion of Piero Strozzi, Filippo Strozzi’s eldest son, as well as of Benedetto Varchi. See Luigi Alberto Ferrai, Lorenzino de’ Medici e la società cortigiana del Cinquecento, con le rime e le lettere di Lorenzino e un’appendice di documenti (Milan: Hoepli, 1891), 143, 149, 151, 178, 182-84; Paolo Simoncelli, Fuoriuscitismo repubblicano fiorentino 1530–54, vol. 1, 1530–37 (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2006), 49 and 114n34; Lo Re, Politica e cultura, 63, 161-62, 165, 271n61, 468n88; and Stefano Dall’Aglio, L’assassino del duca: Esilio e morte di Lorenzino de’ Medici (Florence: Olschki, 2011), 27n147, 49, 79n389, 81n397. 2. It seems that “mio signor” refers to Piero Strozzi, Filippo’s eldest son, a near contemporary of d’Aragona who would have been about twenty-five at this time. For information about Filippo Strozzi, see the introduction and sonnet 103. Piero Strozzi, also referred to as Pietro (1510 ca.–58), was primarily a military leader who early on was engaged with the Florentine prorepublican exiles through his father. After their rout in the Battle of Montemurlo (1537), Piero fled first to Venice and then to France. He entered into the service of King Francis I and led several campaigns in Italy, including one again against Cosimo I when he laid siege to Siena. In 1544 he was made a marshal of France, a military distinction awarded by the French Crown. In 1557, as lieutenant general of the papal troops, he freed Ostia from the hands of the imperial forces and thus saved Rome. He was mortally wounded near Thionville, in Lorraine, in 1558.

290 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona Pietro and yourself, because I love you no less honestly than I burn with unbearable fire for him. But I will be so exasperating by writing to both of you that duty will compel you to remember my service and recall the promises you made and that you gave me your word. And I commend myself to all in your household, together with lord messer Pietro. I beseech you to kiss in my name the hands of the lord Prior, my lord.3 Dated in Rome, on the day 21 of July 1535, [I remain/Servant] of Your Lordship, Tullia A[ragona]

Letter 2 Al Molto Magnifico messer Benedetto Varchi patrone suo santissimo in villa se io non fussi havezza ogni giorno rilevare delle bastonate dalla mia cativa et inimica sorte, non ha dubbio che io tanto con voi mi dorrei havendo poco riguardo al dispiacere che io vi causerei, essendo voi l’anima mia, che forsi scemerei lo affanno mio. Venni qui domenica: lunedì vi venne lo Arrigo, martedì il signor Dottore De’ Benucci, et è vi 3. The lord prior is also known as the prior of Rome, or Bernardo Salviati (1508–68), the brother of Maria Salviati de’ Medici, the mother of Cosimo I. Bernardo Salviati assumed the title of prior at the age of fourteen (it was ceded to him by his brother, Cardinal Giovanni Salviati). In the 1530s, Salviati was among the Florentine exiles who favored an oligarchic government. He was both a companion of and fellow soldier with Piero Strozzi. Sometime around 1540 he had an illegitimate son, named Piero, whom he entrusted to his brother Alemanno, and a daughter, Lucrezia, whom he later married to an illegitimate Orsini (Latino, son of Camillo, captain general of the church) in 1561. According to Pierre Hurtubise, Bernardo did not have a particularly good education and only at a late age (at thirty-seven in 1545) was he destined by his family for an ecclesiastical career and sent to Padua to study. In 1549 he became bishop of the Abbey of Saint-Papoul in Languedoc, France, and then, in 1561, he was made cardinal by Pio IV. See Hurtubise, Une famille-témoin, 99n111, 159, 195n148, 205, 283, 292, 297, and 318; for his family tree, see 499. Given that Francesco de’ Pazzi is evidently in the company of Bernardo Salviati, the likely context for this letter is a long trip that Salviati took from April to October 1535. Apparently, early in July, de’ Pazzi and Strozzi joined him; this is also why d’Aragona addresses the letter to de’ Pazzi “dove sia” (“wherever he may be”). Hurtubise provides a relatively detailed list of Salviati’s movements and, according to his summary, in July, Salviati would have been either in Venice or Ferrara, where he spent the summer months. See Hurtubise, Une famille-témoin, 280n63.

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 291 ancora. Hoggi è venuta una grandissima febre a mia madre, né so che sia ma per mio danno et dispetto penso male, acciò io non habbi mai consolatione alcuna, né in tempo alcuno, né in loco. Per queste sopradette facende so che conoscerete parte del mal mio. Messer Ugolino fu qui hieri a vedermi et pare che sia in | un vasel di mele et ha ragion. Lui non parla se non a chi ben gli ci vene; io sono fuor di me et finché non veggi a che finisce la cosa di mia madre, non havrò hora di bene. Lascio considerare a voi amandovi se io ho bisogno della vostra presentia per consolation mia. Mi pare che vegniate qui et starete quando qui et quando a Firenze et se bene vi sarà chi possere giudicare, faci lui, vi è letta per tutti. Lo restante et moltissime cose serbo dirlle a bocca, lo venire rimetto al vostro comodo ma non vorrei vi metesti in viaggio finché non vi sentite a vostro modo. Vi mando quatro sonetti miei vecchi et un per voi nuovo. So che vi sarà raccomandato come gli altri essendo vostra creatura. Vi mando l’altro vostro perché non llo havete fatto riscrivere. Ne ho ancor non so che [alc]uni: la copia fate per voi sarà mia et io vi darò quella mi | mandaste a me l’altro giorno. Io scrivo senza anima che l’havete voi: senza cuore che è da voi: il resto è tristo per voi et per la avversa mia fortuna, siché non trovarete né versi, né ordinata prosa, né dolcezza alcuna. Sono e qual soglio, vostra, vi amo quanto devo et posso: non desidero altro che veder voi da me et mia madre sana. Vi raccomando tutte le donne; mi sono care come l’altre cose vostre le susine; le tortore morirono per la via perché Penelope si dispera. Ragionate alle volte col mio dialogo; ricordatevi de li poveri morti; amatemi; ricordatevi, come io faccio ogni hora di voi, di me. Se io vi do fatica, incolpate la vostra bontà che mi fa così assicurata di pigliare questa di voi sicurtà. Data in villa a dì 25 d’agosto 1546, di vostra signoria servitrice, Tullia Aragona

292 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona Letter 24 To the Magnificent messer Benedetto Varchi, her most blessed patron in the countryside5 If I were not accustomed to receiving the daily blows of my poor, hostile fortune, no doubt I would complain often to you, with little regard for the displeasure that I would cause, since you are my very soul, for perhaps I would reduce my worries. I came here on Sunday. On Monday, Arrigo arrived,6 on Tuesday the lord doctor De’ Benucci, and he is still here.7 Today my mother came down with a great fever; I don’t know what it is, but—for my own spite and misfortune—I think something serious. Thus I never have any solace whatsoever at any time or place. Given these affairs, I know that you will understand in part my distress. Messer Ugolino was here to see me yesterday. It seems that he is in a vat of apples [apparently: upset; in a tizzy] and rightly so. He speaks to no one unless they seem well disposed towards him. I am beside myself, and until I see how this thing with my mother ends, I won’t have a moment’s peace. I leave for you, whom I love, to consider whether I need you here now to console me. I think you should come and stay, some here and some in Florence. And if someone wants to pass judgment,8 let him; there are beds enough for everyone. On a great many remaining matters, I will wait to speak 4. All subsequent letters are autographs addressed to Benedetto Varchi; they have been published in part by Biagi, “Un’etera,” 696–709. For the originals, see BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letters 10–17. I did not adopt the same order as the BNCF; this letter is 11 in the its collection. I thank Orsetta Baroncelli for her transcriptions, although I have made some alterations. For information on Benedetto Varchi, see sonnet 21 as well as the introduction. 5. Varchi was very likely in the Pieve di San Gavino in the Mugello area north of Florence; see Lo Re, Politica e cultura, 348n97. 6. Biagi, “Un’etera,” 697, claims that this is Alessandro; he doesn’t mention Benedetto. It is not clear to which of the two she was referring. Both poets wrote poems honoring d’Aragona. For information on Alessandro Arrighi, see sonnet 53; his later poems to her include 107–9. For information on Benedetto Arrighi, see sonnet 110. 7. For information on Lattanzio De’ Benucci, see sonnet 49. 8. Note that the second meaning of the term “giudicare” in the Vocabolario della Crusca is “giudicare uno, vale, farne cattivo giudicio” (“to judge someone means to pass a negative judgment”). It is also evident from the context that d’Aragona and, we are led to believe,

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 293 with you in person. As to when you might want to visit, I will let you decide when it is most comfortable for you, but I would not want you to begin the journey until you feel all right. I am sending you four old sonnets of mine and one that will be new to you. I know you will care for it as you have the others, being your own creature. I am sending you the other one of yours because you did not have it copied. I still have—I am not sure—a few.9 The copy that you make for yourself will be mine, and I will give you the one you sent me the other day. I write without my soul, which is in your possession, without my heart, which is by your side. The rest is woe for you and for my adverse fortune, for which you will find [here] neither verses, nor well-ordered prose, nor any sweetness at all. I remain, as always, yours: I love you as much as I must and can. I wish for nothing other than to have you here with me and my mother healthy. I commend all the ladies to you. The plums are as dear to me as all things from you; the turtledoves died en route so that Penelope despairs. Talk sometimes with my dialogue.10 Remember the poor dead; love me; remember me as I remember you always. If I give you toil, blame your goodness, which gives me the confidence to take this liberty with you. Dated in the countryside on day 25 of August 1546, servant of your lordship, Tullia Aragona

Letter 3 Patron mio caro, se cosa alcuna fussi per farmegli diventare buona, più ubligata di quello che megli fa essere la sua virtù et bontà natia, non ha dubbio che le also Varchi are worried about appearances if he were to stay at her house, as if they both are seeking to avoid giving the impression that they might be lovers. 9. This expression is slightly ambiguous, but I have opted for d’Aragona having skipped the first three letters of “alcuni,” and thus she is not sure how many of Varchi’s sonnets she still has. 10. This affirmation is interesting and useful to the discussion regarding d’Aragona’s authorship of her works and suggests that she, at least, considered herself to be the sole author. Moreover, it indicates that it was complete at a time she was still revising—and writing—poems that were later included in her choral anthology.

294 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona troppe cortesie che ancor coi presenti mi fa, sarebbero bastevoli, anzi troppe. Ma giaché più di quello che io a suoi meriti ubligata sono,11 non mi posso ubligare. Gli renderò del presente quelle maggiori gratie che per me si puote et devono et pregherò vostra signoria che non mi carchi di più salma di cortesie, poi che deboli et piccioli omeri ho12 et sia certa che io sono già diventata curva per lo gran peso, et tanto più mi agrava quanto mi conosco non bastevole con degno guidardone rendergli se non integro cambio, almeno quasi uguale. Acetti simile a Dio lo mio buon cuore et la grandezza dell’animo: et incolpi la fortuna inimica ai più bei et giusti desiri degli valorisi cuori. Aspettiamo tutti con gran desiderio vostra signoria et se la può, preghiamola ne venghi a vedere. Ben mi doglio che [l]a mu[…]tare d[…] | alcuna mai tema o, mi difidi della bontà, et amorevolezza, et virtù sua, anzi non mi resta altra fede che in quella, né bramo, o spero aiuto, o favore, o consiglio fuori del perfetto giuditio suo, del buono animo suo, della infinita cortesia sua et restando tale, et a suo servitio. Insiemi con la mamma et Penelope et tutto il restante de la casa col cuore ce gli raccomandiamo pregando Iddio la torni in sanità et felice la mantenghi. Data in Firenze a dì 19 de novembre 1546, di vostra signoria servitrice Tullia Aragona

Letter 313 My dear patron, If anything could make me good, more obliged to you than your virtue and innate goodness, no doubt the many courtesies and gifts you give me would suffice, no, rather would be too much. But since I cannot be obliged to your merits more than I already am, for now I render you the greatest thanks that I can and must; and I beseech Your Lordship not to overload my corporeal body with courtesies, since I have weak, 11. Added between the lines. 12. Added between the lines. 13. BNCF, Autographi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 12. Whereas in the previous letter d’Aragona used the “voi” to address Varchi, from this point on she addresses him with the third-person “vostra signoria.” At no point does she ever use the informal “tu” form with him, although she does with other interlocutors.

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 295 slender shoulders, and you may be certain that I am already curved over by the great weight. How much more burdened I am when I realize that I am incapable of suitable recompense, of rendering you if not equal exchange, at least almost equal. Accept, as God does, my good heart and the generosity of my soul and blame fortune, which is averse to the most beautiful and just desires of worthy hearts. We all have a great desire to see Your Lordship and if you can, I beg you to come and see us. It grieves me that […]14 | never may anyone fear or challenge me about your goodness, kindness, and virtue. Rather I am left with no other faith than in you, nor do I desire or hope to find help or favor or counsel outside of your perfect judgment, your good heart, your infinite courtesy. Remaining so, and at your service, together with Mamma, Penelope, and all the rest of the household, we trust and pray to God that He return you to good health and keep you cheerful. Dated in Florence on day 19 of November 1546, servant of your lordship, Tullia Aragona

Letter 4 Patron mio caro, da poi che vostra signoria in tutto s’è smenticata di me, cosa in vero gravia a me medesma a credere, non voglio io dargli il cambio poi che non posso, non devo, né voglio, anzi sempre come faccio ricordarmi di lei et amarlla, servirlla et honorarlla a tutto mio potere. Et acciò almeno si rammenti di me mentre vede mie cose, gli mando una bozza de un sonetto et la prego per quella sua verso di me solita cortesia, mi faci gratia dargli quella perfettione che gli manca, et più presto che potrà, mandarmelo; et se io sono qua giù buona per suo servigio mi comandi che non è in me maggior desio che di fargli servitio et restado (sic) a suoi piaceri col cuore me gli raccomando insiemi con Penelope et tutti finrallo. Data a dì 28 de genaio 1546, di vostra signoria servitrice Tullia Aragona

14. The manuscript is torn and it is impossible to read the last line.

296 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona Letter 415 My dear patron, Since Your Lordship has completely forgotten me, something truly difficult for me to believe, I do not want to repay you in kind since I cannot, I must not, I want not that; on the contrary, as always, I remember you and love you, serve you, and honor you with all my might. And so that at least you may remember me when you see my things, I am sending you a draft of a sonnet, and I pray that, with your usual courtesy to me, you do me the favor of giving it the perfection it lacks, and, as soon as possible, send it [back] to me. And if down here I am of any use to you,16 command me, for I have no greater desire than to do you service and to stay in your good graces. With all my heart I commend myself to you together with Penelope and everyone.17 Dated on day 28 of January 1546, of Your Lordship servant Tullia Aragona

Letter 5 Patron mio osservandissimo, è parere del signor don Pietro che io facci presentare più presto che sia possibile i sonetti alla Signora Duchessa et con essi una suplica pregando sua ecellenza che sia col Signor Duca che mi concedino gratia almeno che io non sia tenuta alla osservanza del segno giallo et brevemente narrare 15. BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 10. Of all the dated letters, this is the only one that falls within the period from January to March. In Florence, as well some other cities in Italy, but not Rome, the new year began on 25 March, the anniversary of the incarnation of Jesus, according to the Julian calendar. We do not know whether d’Aragona, as a Roman living in Florence, would have used the Florentine or Roman dating style and thus whether letter 4 is from 1546 or 1547. By placing it in this position, I have opted, as did Bausi, although not Biagi, for the latter hypothesis; see Bausi, “ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 65n10, and Biagi, “Un’etera romana,” 696. 16. This phrase “qua giù” (“down here”) may well indicate that Varchi was still at the Pieve di San Gavino, which is north of Florence, at the end of January and that she was “down” (i.e.,  south) in relation to him. Lo Re notes that Varchi’s edition of Dante’s Commedia was dated from 27 December 1546 to 3 January 1547, and thus it is entirely plausible that at the end of January, he was still there. For a list of Varchi’s sojourns in San Gavino, see Lo Re, Politica e cultura, 348–9n97. 17. The last word is indecipherable.

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 297 quanto io vivi ritirata et che non ottenendo da loro eccellenze questa gratia, sono forzata lasciare Firenze. Hor io in tanto mio bisogno non so dove possi ricorrere per aiuto meglio che da vostra signoria, et sapendolo, et possendolo havere non llo voglio perché mi sono eletta quella per mia protettrice et guida in ogni mia importante cosa perché così vuole il suo giuditio perfetto, il suo sapere ragionevole, la sua vera | bontà, la ferma fede che io ho nella sua dabenezza d’animo. Adunque18 se mai vostra signoria si affaticò per me volentieri, se mai pensò giovarmi et farmi benefitio, adesso mi aiuti et soccorri del suo sapere, in esporre questa supplica che a vostra signoria sarà facile non altrimenti che se ragionase familiarmente et a me farà gratia tale che maggiore non ne spero o desio et essendogli già ubligata dirò che lo faci per sua bontà et per la fede che io in essa: et quanto più presto, maggiore sarà il benefitio riceverò. Gli resto servitrice et gli bacio le mani, vostra signoria mi faci sapere quello che io habbi da rispondere al signor don Pietro. Di vostra signoria servitrice Tullia Arag[on]a

Letter 519 My most distinguished patron, It is Lord Don Pietro’s opinion20 that I should present the sonnets to the Lady Duchess as soon as possible and with them a plea21 beseeching Her Excellency, as well as the Lord Duke, that they grant me exemption so that I am at least not required to wear the yellow marker22 and to explain briefly how I live in seclusion and that if I am not granted this concession by their excellencies, then I will be forced to 18. The word “però” is crossed out. 19. BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 14. Giuseppe Morini, the archivist who arranged the letters, included a small square sheet of paper that says “It doesn’t have an addressee but seems directed to Varchi” (“Non ha direzione ma sembra diretta al Varchi”). 20. This is likely the same Don Pietro to whom d’Aragona addresses sonnet 14; see there for biographical information about him. 21. See note 21 in the introduction for the supplication. 22. D’Aragona is referring to sumptuary legislation that had been promulgated in October 1546 that required sex workers to distinguish themselves from others—particularly noblewomen—by wearing a yellow piece of clothing, such as a handkerchief or veil, on their upper body. See Lorenzo Cantini, Legislazione toscana, 16 vols. (Florence: Albizziana, 1800–08), 1:322.

298 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona leave Florence. Now, in my moment of greatest need, I do not know to whom I might turn for help better than Your Lordship. And although I know it and can have it, I do not want it because I have elected Your Lordship as my protector and guide in all my important endeavors, moved by your perfect judgment, reasoned knowledge, true goodness, and the steadfast faith I have in the generosity of your heart, and thus if Your Lordship ever gladly exerted yourself for me, if ever you thought to assist and benefit me, help me now and aid me with your knowledge, in expounding this plea,23 which for Your Lordship will be easy, no differently than if you were to speak familiarly, and you will do such a favor for me that I may neither hope for nor desire any greater. And being already obliged to you, I will say that you are doing it out of your goodness and the trust that I [have] in you, and the sooner you do so, the greater will be the benefit that I receive. I remain your servant and I kiss your hands. May Your Lordship let me know how I should respond to Lord Don Pietro, of your lordship servant Tullia Aragona

Letter 6 Al magnifico messer Benedetto Varchi suo osservandissimo Patron mio osservandissimo, conosco essere stata posta da vostra signoria interamente in oblio, et non senza grandissimo dispiacer mio, né mi posso inmaginare la causa. Pur nel male mi è assai conforto il saper certo non esser nata da me. Conosco che adunque devrei fuggire l’occasione di dargli fastidio, ma non posso, volendo adempire il desiderio mio, et l’obligo, mancare per questa volta di molestare, pregando vostra signoria che senza haver riguardo che io non sia, o gli pai, più meritevole de la sua cortesia, ella sua mercé tanta mene vogli usare, che la mi concedi donarmi quello che già mi promesse, cioè la fatica di fare riscrivere quella pistola alla Signora Duchessa, et mandarmela insiemi24 co i sonetti i quali farò io legare. Et invero s’io di già non fussi in obligo, come sa vostra signoria, di havergli a sua 23. The verb d’Aragona uses (“esporre”) suggests that she is asking Varchi to compose a written version of the appeal to send to Duchess Eleonora. 24. The expression “Col mi” is crossed out.

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 299 eccellenza indrizare, lascerei di dare a | quella questa briga ma daché l’a fatto tanto per me, non vogli per questa ultima gratia mancarmi, perché mai dove io potessi a vostra signoria far servigio, mancherei tutto il tempo che mi duri la vita, né cosa havrà mai forza che io ponghi in oblio l’obligo gli tengo. Resto a suo servigio et me gli raccomando, servitrice Tullia Aragona

Letter 625 To Her most distinguished magnificient messer Benedetto Varchi My most distinguished patron, I realize that I have been completely forgotten by Your Lordship, and not without great displeasure on my part, nor can I imagine the reason why. Yet, even in my adversity, I am much consoled that it was not caused by me. I realize that I should thus avoid any occasion to cause you bother, but if I want to fulfill my desire and my obligation, I can do no less than to pester you at this time by requesting that Your Lordship ignore the fact that I am, or seem to you to be, no longer worthy of your courtesy, and afford me such great mercy, as to give me that which you already promised, that is, the labor of having that letter to the Lady Duchess rewritten and sending it to me together with the sonnets, which I will have bound.26 And in truth if I were not already 25. BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 15. Biagi surmises that this letter is from July or August 1547 (“Un’etera,” 704). Varchi as addressee appears on the outside of this letter. 26. It is not entirely clear whether the letter (pistola) to which d’Aragona is referring is her plea for exemption from sumptuary legislation, as Bausi suggests (“ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 69), or her dedicatory letter to the Rime, as Biagi indicates (“Un’etera,” 702–3). The use of the verb “legare” seems to support the latter hypothesis, yet Bausi argues that it is not d’Aragona’s canzoniere, because she refers to the “sonnets” but the Rime contains other verse forms such as an octave and a sestina. This argument is not entirely convincing, as one regularly calls Petrarch’s Rvf a sonnet sequence even though it contains multiple verse forms; the same applies to d’Aragona’s text. Moreover, it should also be noted that d’Aragona states that she is already obliged to address the sonnet to Duchess Eleonora; this leads me to think that her earlier appeal seeking exemption from the yellow veil had been successful and therefore she is obliged to dedicate her publication to the duchess. Finally, although not in relation to the plea vs. dedication argument, one should note that she is asking Varchi to “far riscrivere” (“to rewrite” or “to recopy”) the letter as opposed to drafting it outright.

300 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona obliged, as Your Lordship knows, to address them to Her Excellency, I would leave off this chore for you, but since you have done so much for me, please do not fail me in this last favor. For wherever I might be able to do Your Lordship a service, the rest of my living days will not suffice, nor will anything ever make me forget my obligation to you. I remain at your service and commend myself to you, servant Tullia Aragona

Letter 7 Al molto magnifico messer Benedetto Varchi patron mio osservandissimo Patron mio caro, è gran tempo che io sono servitrice dello illustrissimo signor Giambatista Savello, onde essendo venuta sua signoria qui al servizio di sua eccellenza per generale, mi pare purtroppo haver mancato del debito mio a non mustrare di ricordarmi di sua eccellenza, ma sì me ricordando, sì di me ogni giorno ragionandone perché [h]o messo in quatordici versi quello che vorrei si dicesse in un sonetto che fussi tale quale è il mio desiderio, se non il suo infinito merito, però non mi conoscendo io bastante tale, farllo prego vostra signoria per quanto possono in lei et nella sua cortesia i preghi miei et per la fede che ho ne la sua bontà che mi faci grazia di ridurllo tale che io ardischi mandarllo nella invitta sua mano senza havermi arrosire et ancora stracciare questa bozza nella quale non ho voluto porre alcuna diligenzia acciò in tutto sia fattura di vostra signoria et riconoscerllo | in dono da la sua amorevolezza. Vostra signoria lo farà ancor riscrivere con quella intitolazione che si conviene et sottoscrizione. Prego vostra signoria mi perdoni se io gli do tanta briga et di grazia si serva di me in qualche cosa et mi tenghi per sua come sono di cuore. Servitrice di vostra signoria Tullia di Arago[n]a

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 301 Letter 727 To the magnificient messer Benedetto Varchi, my most distinguished patron My dear patron, For quite a long time have I been a servant to the most Illustrious Lord Giambattista Savello,28 thus since his Lordship has come here in the service of His Excellency as a general,29 it seems to me, regrettably, that I have neglected my obligations by not demonstrating that I remember His Excellency, but indeed I have been remembering and talking about him every day, I have put into fourteen lines what I would like to say in a sonnet that would match my desire, if not his infinite merit.30 Yet not knowing whether I am equal to this task, I beseech Your Lordship, insofar as my entreaties might [persuade] you, out of your courtesy, and for the trust that I have in your goodness, to do me the favor of redrafting it so that I may dare to consign it to his invincible hand without blushing. I also pray that you tear up this draft in which I did not wish to apply any diligence so that it may be totally of the making of Your Lordship, which I will recognize 27. BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 17. Bausi (“ ‘Con agra zampogna,’ ” 66) dates the letter to 1548 because that’s when Savelli succeeded Stefano Colonna as “capitano delle milizie ducali.” 28. Giambattista Savelli (1505–51) was a well-educated, Roman nobleman who often rendered military services to various potentates; he had previously fought for Clement VII and Paul III. Recalled from Parma after the murder of Pierluigi Farnese by Paul III in 1547, he accepted Cosimo’s request to become captain of the ducal army in Florence after the death of Stefano Colonna in 1548. Savelli, too, was not to live very long after this period; he was killed in 1551. Varchi wrote a funeral oration in his honor, as he had previously done for Colonna. See Litta, Famiglie celebri, 3: 534–5, Plaisance, L’accademia, 188, Lo Re, Politica e cultura, 112, 126, and Anna M. Siekiera, “Benedetto Varchi (Firenze 1503–1565),” in Autografi dei letterati italiani: Il Cinquecento (Rome: Salerno, 2009), 337–57, 341n45. Savelli is also mentioned in Benvenuto Cellini’s Vita for harboring the sculptor in Palombara Sabina when he had angered Pope Clement VII for injuring Ser Benedetto, a Florentine notary; see Benvenuto Cellini, La vita (Turin: Einaudi, 1973), 148; for the translation, see Autobiography, trans. George Bull (London: Penguin, 1956), 120. 29. Therefore this letter must have been written after 8 March 1548, when Stefano Colonna died. Indeed, given that Savelli had already reached the city, it would have been several months after the fact. 30. This sonnet is not extant.

302 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona as a gift of your kindness. Your Lordship shall then have it rewritten with the title and subscription most appropriate to it. I pray Your Lordship forgive me if I disturb you in this way. Please make use of me in something, and consider me yours, as I am in my heart, servant of your lordship, Tullia di Aragona

Letter 8 Al magnifico messer Benedetto Varchi mio hon[orando] Patron mio caro, non mi havendo la mia fortuna voluta esser prima cortese di conoscere il valor, la cortesia et la bontà del signor Giordano prima che hier sera, non ho ancora prima di questa matina possuto cercare con lla penna mustrare a sua signoria che io conoschi parte del merito suo et che io desideri cantarllo, benchè con agra zampogna, perché hor hora mi è venuto partorito il sonetto che in questa carta medesima gli mando fatto con lla solita mia fretta, et poca considerazione, et meno arte, acciò ancora da vostra signoria sia più scusato il poco saper mio, et giudizio, et più aiutato il suo bisogno, mercé della cortesia di vostra signoria. Et se non fussi che m’è nota la sua bontà essere infinita, et che io giudico l’animo suo dal mio quale mai sarebbe stanco, né sazio, possendo di servire a vostra signoria, io fin di qui mi vergognerei di essergli tanto molesta. Ma oltre questo ancora mi dà ardire di affaticare vostra signoria il conoscerlla tanto liberale delle molte virtù sue, che ne vorrebbe dare aba|stanza a ch[iunc]he gliene richiedessi et ne ha più necessità,31 non solo a me che sono sua, et voglio che in ciò ogni mio utile, et honore, riconoscere solamente dalla bontà, et cortesia di vostra signoria, la quale prego al solito sua mi scusi, et sovenghi alla necessità del sonetto, et fattolo ricco de’ suoi ornamenti, me lo mandi perché molto desidero presto sodisfare a parte di quello che io posso, et devo, con que’ gentil Signore. Non voglio mancare ancor di pregare vostra signoria che se ricordi che il tempo si accosta che io l’o da lasciare col corpo, et che desidero più di vederlla,

31. “Et ne ha più necessità” is inserted between the lines.

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 303 et goderlla ancora con gli occhi del corpo, sì come facio continovamente con quelli dello intelletto. Di vostra signoria servitrice, Tullia di Aragona

Letter 832 To my magnificient and honored messer Benedetto Varchi My dear patron, Not having had the good fortune to encounter the excellence, courtesy, and goodness of Signor Giordano33 before last evening, I could not until this morning attempt to show His Lordship with my pen that I recognize part of his merit, and that I wish to sing it, albeit with a shrill bagpipe, and so just now I have given birth to this sonnet, which I send to you with this very same page. It was done with my usual haste, scant consideration, and even less art; may Your Lordship therefore again excuse my meager knowledge and judgment and help it along in its needs,34 by means of Your Lordship’s courtesy. And if your goodness were not well known to me as infinite, and were it not that I judge your heart by my own, which would never be exhausted, nor satiated, if it could serve Your Lordship, I would already be embarrassed to trouble you so. Yet, besides this, I venture to weary Your Lordship knowing you are so generous with your many merits that you would want to help whoever requests and needs it most, not just to me because I am yours. And I want my every benefit and honor to be recognized as coming only through the goodness and courtesy of Your Lordship, whom I beg as usual to forgive me, and assist the sonnet in its needs, and enrich it with your ornaments. Please send it to me as I wish to satisfy soon, in part, what I can, and should, for that gentle Lord. Also I do not want to be amiss by bidding Your Lordship 32. BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 16. Although this letter is not dated, in its closing lines d’Aragona notes that she will soon be departing; therefore it is likely from mid- to late September 1548, as letter 9 is dated 10 October 1548. 33. For information on Giordano Orsini, see the note accompanying sonnet 122, which was appended to this letter. 34. By “its,” she means her knowledge and judgment.

304 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona to remember that the time is drawing near when I must take bodily leave of you, and that I desire to see you and to enjoy you still with the eyes of my body as I do so continuously with those of my intellect. servant of your lordship Tullia di Aragona

Letter 9 Al molto magnifico messer Benedetto Varchi patrone Patrone mio caro, mando a vostra signoria la mia sfera materiale di legno, acciò veggendola ogni volte gli rendi a memoria che mentre durerà la celeste, se egli è, che dopo morte là su le anime habbino ricordanza de le cose di qua giù. Tanto si rammenterà l’anima mia di vostra signoria et de le infinite cortesie ricevute dalla bontà sua et benifizii, così mi concedessi la fortuna che io un giorno potessi in qualche parte pagare gli grandi oblighi che ho con vostra signoria, però in cosa che utile et di suo contento fussi, et vedere quale sia la brama di mustrargli con effetti quello che hora, et più volte, gli ho ditto et scrivo. Gli mando ancora un paro di colombi che sono eccellenti, i quali non possono stare tre giorni a ffere l’uova; gli mando doi fiaschi de aqua et uno di malvagia et una saliera di allabastro: quella, non accetti tal frascherie in dono, ma le godi per memoria degli oblighi che gli tengo finché mi sia concesso il pagarne qualch’uno. La scotta non gli | si manda, perché mia madre la piangne. Non scrivo a vostra signoria quanto mi paia strano lo havermi allontanare, col corpo però, da lei perché dicendo il vero so che dificilmente sarebbe creso35 et forsi preso per cirimonia sarebbe, ma tacendo i miei danni solamente pregherò con tutto l’affetto del cuor mio vostra signoria che non si smentichi di me in tutto, et che ogni volta che io gli mandarò qualche mia cosa, al solito della sua bontà, come mio maestro et il mio Dante, si degni36 correggerlla et ornarlla. Et sopra ogni cosa quando et dove io sia buona a suo servizio, sempre mi comandi con quella ferma fede che vostra signoria ha visto che io, ne’ miei bisogni, sono ricorsa alla bontà, 35. The phrase “pe[r] vero” is crossed out. 36. “Si degni” is added between the lines.

Letters of Tullia d’Aragona 305 et ammorevolezza sua. La mamma et Penelope restano a suo servigio, et se gli offerano per sempre et raccomandano, et io il simile. Penso partirmi alli quindici di questo senza fallo, a Dio piacendo. Di casa il dì 10 de ottobre nel ’48.

Letter 937 To the magnificient messer Benedetto Varchi patron My dear patron, I am sending Your Lordship my wooden globe so that every time you see it, it will remind you that, for as long as the celestial sky lasts—if it is true that after death the souls up there will have memories of the things down here—so long will my soul remember Your Lordship, and the infinite courtesies and benefits that I have received from your goodness. May fortune thus allow me one day to repay in part the great obligations I have towards Your Lordship, but in something useful or pleasing to you, and to [allow you to] see how great is my desire to show you with deeds that which now and many times I have said to you and am writing. I am sending you again a pair of doves that are excellent and that cannot go three days without laying an egg. I am sending you two flasks of water and one of malvasia,38 and a salt cellar made of alabaster. Accept these trifles not as gifts,39 but enjoy them as a reminder of my debts to you, until I am able to pay back a few of them. I am not sending you the scotta,40 as my mother is whining for it. I will not write to Your Lordship how strange it seems to me to have to move away from you, with my body, however, because, to tell the truth, I know that you find it hard to believe and perhaps would interpret it as a formality. Yet, without mentioning my losses, I will only 37. BNCF, Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1, letter 13. 38. Malvasia is a variety of grape, used to make both white and red wines, although the Tuscan variety is white. 39. In not calling her offerings “gifts,” d’Aragona is able to maintain Varchi’s superiority, for he would be in her debt if he received gifts from her; at the same time, however, she is reminding him of their friendship. This reflects the ancient Roma culture of gift giving. See López, “The Courtesan’s Gift” for a discussion of this letter. 40. Scotta is the whey that is left after having made ricotta or other cheeses.

306 Letters of Tullia d’Aragona beseech Your Lordship with all the affection in my heart not to forget me totally, and that every time that I send you something of mine, with your usual goodness, as my maestro and my Dante, you deign to correct it and adorn it. And above all else, whenever and wherever I might be useful in your service, may you command me with that steadfast trust to which, in your goodness and kindness, Your Lordship has seen that in my own need I have taken recourse. My mother and Penelope remain at your service, and they offer and commend themselves always to you, as do I. I think that I will depart on the 15th of this month without fail, if God wills it so. At home the day 10 of October in ’48.

Index of First Lines in Italian Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

125

A la virtù, che con Voi nacque e vive

d’Aragona

Lattanzio Benucci

BAV

138

Alcide vinse i più superbi mostri

d’Aragona

Giovanna d’Aragona

AC

37

Alma del vero bel chiara sembianza

d’Aragona

no addressee C 64

111

Alma gentile, che già foste al paro

Benedetto Arrighi

d’Aragona

C 122; BNCF

103

Alma gentile, ove ogni studio pose

Filippo Strozzi

d’Aragona

C 115; BNCF

122

Alma gentil, in cui l’eterna mente,

d’Aragona

Giordano Orsini

C 55; BNCF

117

Almo Pastor, che godi alle chiar’onde

d’Aragona

Duke Cosimo

C 10

66

Amor ad hor ad hor battendo l’ale

Girolamo Muzio

d’Aragona

C 74; M 32v

29

Amore un tempo in così lento foco

d’Aragona

no addressee C 69; B 115

61

Amor nel cor mi siede, e vuol ch’io dica

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 43; M 27v

63

Anima bella, che da gli alti chiostri

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 71; M 32r

119

Anima bella, che dal Padre eterno

d’Aragona

Maria Salviati de’ Medici

C 19; BNCF

12

Anima bella, che dal padre eterno

d’Aragona

Maria Salviati de’ Medici

C 18; B 111

97

Anima bella, che nel bel tuo lume

Ippolito de’ Medici

d’Aragona

C 109

15

Bembo, io che fino a qui da grave sonno

d’Aragona

Pietro Bembo

C 22; B 111

56

Ben fu felice vostro alto destino,

d’Aragona

Niccolò Martelli

C 53; B 116

307

308 Index of First Lines in Italian Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

96

Ben fu tra gli altri aventuroso il giorno,

Giulio Camillo

d’Aragona

C 108; BNCF

38

Ben mi credea fuggendo il mio bel Sole

d’Aragona

no addressee C 60,62

131

Ben mi credea fuggendo il mio bel sole

d’Aragona

Bishop of Toulon Antonio Trivulzio (?)

C 61,63; BAV

14

Ben si richiede al vostro almo splendore

d’Aragona

Don Pedro di Toledo

C 21

60

Ben sono in me d’ogni virtute accese

d’Aragona

Ugolino Martelli

C 30

127

Benuccio, a cui si deve eterno honore,

d’Aragona

Benucci

BAV

25

BERNARDO, ben potea bastarvi haverne

d’Aragona

Bernardo Ochino

C 39

108

Come di dolce più che d’agro parte

A. Arrighi

d’Aragona

C 118

123

Con le rime leggiadre, altere d’Aragona e terse,

Benucci

BAV

85

Dal mio mortal col mio immortal m’involo

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 93; M 33v

49

Deh, non volgete altrove il dotto/vago stile

Benucci

d’Aragona

C 125; BNCF and BAV

6

Dive, che dal bel monte d’Helicona

d’Aragona

Duke Cosimo

C 12

83

Donna, a cui ’l santo choro ognihor s’aggira

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 91; M 33r

90

Donna, che di bellezza, e di virtute,

Benedetto Varchi

d’Aragona

C 100

62

Donna, che sete in terra il primo oggetto

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 70; M 35r

79

Donna gentile, i cui beati ardori

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 87; M 29v

51

Donna, il cui gratioso, e altero aspetto,

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 97; M 43r

88

Donna, l’honor de i cui be’ raggi ardenti

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 96; M 29v

Index of First Lines in Italian 309 Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

86

Donna, più volte m’ha già detto Amore

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 94; M 34v

10

Donna reale, a i cui santi disiri

d’Aragona

Duchess Eleonora

C 16

74

Donna, se mai vedeste in verde prato

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 82; M 33r

23

Dopo importuna pioggia

d’Aragona

no addressee C 35

31

Felice speme, ch’a tant’alta impresa

d’Aragona

no addressee C 45

72

Fiamma, che chiaramente il mio cor ardi;

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 80; M 34r

41

Fiamma gentil, che da gli interni lumi

d’Aragona

Muzio

C37; M 42v; B 114

82

Già vide a le sue sponde il gelid’Hebro

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 90; M 31v

81

Hebbe la favolosa antica etade

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 89; M 31r

121

Ho più volte, Signor, fatto pensiero

d’Aragona

no addressee C 29; BAV

68

Hor di là se ne vien questa dolce ora,

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 76; M 30r

40

Hor qual penna d’ingegno m’assecura

Simone Porzio

d’Aragona

C 135

75

Il valor vostro, Donna, il cor Muzio m’incende,

d’Aragona

C 83; M 28r

130

In braccio a i fiori, e al più cortese Aprile

Benucci

d’Aragona

BAV

77

In su le rive del superbo fiume,

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 85; M 32r

50

Io, ch’a ragion tengo me stessa a vile,

d’Aragona

Benucci

C 51; BNCF and BAV

58

Io, che fin qui quasi alga ingrata, e vile

d’Aragona

Grazzini

C 52

91

Io non miro giamai cosa nessuna,

Varchi

d’Aragona

C 101; BNCF

310 Index of First Lines in Italian Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

17

La nobil valorosa antica gente,

d’Aragona

Francesco Crasso (Grasso)

C 24; B 112

84

La sembianza di Dio, ch’in noi risplende

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 92; M 33v

107

L’aspetto sacro, e la bellezza rara,

A. Arrighi

d’Aragona

C 117; BNCF

126

Lasso, ch’ogni saper hor mi prescrive

Benucci

d’Aragona

BAV

69

Lasso, ond’avvien che qui non fa ritorno

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 77; M 30r

116

Lieto viss’io sott’un spinoso lauro

d’Aragona

Laura Spinelli

C 65; BAV

20

Mentre ch’al suon de i dotti ornati versi

d’Aragona

U. Martelli

C 27

139

Mentre di celebrar, alto Signore,

d’Aragona

Marcantonio AC Colonna

65

Mentre le fiamme più che ’l Sol lucenti,

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 73; M 30v

115

Mosso da l’alta vostra chiara Camillo da d’Aragona fama, Montevarchi

C 129; BNCF

7

Né vostro impero, anchor che bello/degno, e raro,

d’Aragona

Duke Cosimo

C 13; B 110

46

Nimpha, di cui per boschi, o fonti, o prati

Varchi

d’Aragona

C 105 V2 201

8

Non così d’acqua colmo in mar discende,

d’Aragona

Duchess Eleonora

C 14

129

Non dee spirto più degno e più gentile

d’Aragona

Benucci

BAV

4

Nuovo Numa Thoscan, che le chiar’onde

d’Aragona

Duke Cosimo

C 9; B 110

106

O fiumicel se ’l più cocente ardore

Benucci

d’Aragona

C 124; BNCF and BAV

76

O novo essempio de l’eterna Muzio luce,

d’Aragona

C 84; M 29r

O qual vi debb’io dire o Donna o Diva?

Duchess Eleonora

C 15

9

d’Aragona

Index of First Lines in Italian 311 Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

70

O se tra queste ombrose, e fresche rive,

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 78; M 34v

35

Ov’è (misera me) quell’aureo crine,

d’Aragona

no addressee C 49

120

Perch’io d’Alga tenessi ingrata e vile

d’Aragona

Grazzini

BNCF

93

Per non sentir la turba iniqua, e fella

Varchi

d’Aragona

C 103; BNCF

47

Più volte, UGOLINO mio, mossi il pensiero

d’Aragona

d’Aragona to U. Martelli

C 28; B 115

95

Poi ch’a la vostra tanto alma beltade,

G. Camillo

d’Aragona

C 107; BNCF

101

Poi che lasciando i sette colli, e l’acque

Bentivoglio

d’Aragona

C 113; BNCF

28

Poi che mi diè natura a voi simile

d’Aragona

Piero Mannelli

C 42

19

Poi che rea sorte ingiustamente preme

d’Aragona

Luca Antonio Cuppano

C 26

39

PORTIO gentile, a cui l’alma natura

d’Aragona

Porzio

C 54

18

Poscia (ohimè) che spento ha l’empia mort

d’Aragona

Molza

C 25

42

Quai d’eloquenza sien sì chiari fiumi

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 98; M 42v–43r

132

Qual chiareza posso io crescere al Sole

d’Aragona

Cardinal of Urbino

BCSI

30

Qual vaga Philomena, che fuggita

d’Aragona

no addressee C 44

80

Quando (com’Amor vuol) la Donna mia

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 88; M 31r

89

Quando doveva (ohime) l’arco, e la face,

Varchi

d’Aragona

C 99

64

Quando ’l raggio del bel, ch’in voi risplende,

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 72; M 31V

312 Index of First Lines in Italian Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

43

Quel, che ’l mondo d’invidia empie, e di duolo;

d’Aragona

Varchi

C 33; V2 199 BNCF

134

Sacro pastor, che la tua greggia humile,

d’Aragona

Cardinal François de Tournon (?)

C 56; Sesto libro 182r

11

S’a l’alto Creator de gli Elementi

d’Aragona

Duchess Eleonora

C 17

133

S’a voi cortese il Cielo, alto Signore,

d’Aragona

Cardinal Del BCSI Monte

48

Se bella voi così le Gratie fero,

U. Martelli

d’Aragona

C 133

87

Se ben gli occhi, e l’orecchie alcuna volta

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 95; M 35r

33

Se ben pietosa madre unico figlio

d’Aragona

no addressee C 47

44

Se da i bassi pensier talhor m’involo,

Varchi

d’Aragona

C 104; V2 199

92

Se di così selvaggio, e così duro

Varchi

d’Aragona

C 102; V 41

34

Se forse per pietà del mio languire

d’Aragona

no addressee C 48

118

Se gl’Antichi Pastor, di Rose et fiori

d’Aragona

Duke Cosimo

C 6; BNCF

1

Se gli antichi pastor di rose, e fiori

d’Aragona

Duke Cosimo

C5

45

Se ’l ciel sempre sereno, e verdi i prati

d’Aragona

Varchi

C 34; V2 201; B 114

98

Se ’l dolce folgorar de i bei crin d’oro;

Ippolito de Medici

d’Aragona

C 110

59

Se lodando di voi quel che palese

U. Martelli

d’Aragona

C 134

55

Se ’l mondo diede alhor la gloria a ARPINO

N. Martelli

d’Aragona

C 132

100

Se ’l pensier mio, ov’altamente amore

Molza

d’Aragona

C 112; BNCF

Se ’l vostro alto valor Donna gentile

Grazzini

d’Aragona

C 131

57

Index of First Lines in Italian 313 Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

36

Se materna pietate affligge il core,

d’Aragona

no addressee C 59

105

Se per lodarvi, e dir quanto s’honora

Benucci

d’Aragona

C 123; BNCF

27

Se veston sol d’eterna gloria il manto

d’Aragona

Tiberio Nari

C 41

26

Siena dolente i suoi migliori invita

d’Aragona

Emilio Tondi

C 40

5

Signor, che con pietate alta, e consiglio

d’Aragona

Cosimo

C 11 Libro primo 40r

3

Signor d’ogni valor più d’altro adorno;

d’Aragona

Cosimo

C8

16

Signore in cui valore, e cortesia

d’Aragona

Rodolfo Baglioni

C 23

135

Signor, nel cui divino alto valore

d’Aragona

Cardinal di Tournon

C 57; Sesto libro 182v–183r

2

Signor pregio, e honor di questa etade,

d’Aragona

Cosimo

C7

109

S’il dissi mai ch’io venga in odio a voi

A. Arrighi

d’Aragona

C 119

32

S’io ’l feci unqua, che mai non giunga a riva

d’Aragona

no addressee C 46

78

Sogni chi vuol di riportar corona

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 86; M 34r

73

Spirto felice, in cui sì rare, e tante

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 81; M 32v

13

Spirto gentil, che dal natio terreno

d’Aragona

Don Luigi da Toledo

C 20

99

Spirto gentil, che riccamente adorno

Molza

d’Aragona

C 111

52

Spirto gentil, che vero, e raro oggetto

d’Aragona

Muzio

C 38; M 43r; B 116

71

Spirto gentile in cui sì chiaramente

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 79; M 28r

54

Spirto gentil, s’al giusto voler mio

d’Aragona

A. Arrighi

C 50

314 Index of First Lines in Italian Poem First verse number

Author

Recipient, if known

Previous location

53

S’un medesimo stral duo petti aprio;

A. Arrighi

d’Aragona

C 120

67

Superbo Po, ch’a la tua manca riva

Muzio

d’Aragona

C 75; M 28v

128

Tra gielo e spine i bei pensier d’Amore,

Benucci

d’Aragona

BAV

94

TULLIA gentile, a cui tempie intorno

G. Camillo

d’Aragona

C 106

114

TULLIA, mostro, miracolo, Sibilla,

Simone Della Volta

d’Aragona

C 128

124

Tullia, poi che per me chiaro si scorse

Benucci

d’Aragona

BAV

137

TULLIA, se come ’1 bel, così ’1 perfetto

Varchi

d’Aragona

V2 200

104

Uscendo ’l spirto mio per seguir voi

F. Strozzi

d’Aragona

C 116

102

Vaghe sorelle, che di treccie bionde

Bentivoglio

d’Aragona

C 114

21

VARCHI, da cui giamai non si scompagna

d’Aragona

Varchi

C 31

22

VARCHI, il cui raro, e immortal valore

d’Aragona

Varchi

C 32

136

VARCHI, mostrivi Amore ogni mio affetto,

d’Aragona

Varchi

V2 200

112

Vide già la famosa antica etade

Latino Giovenale Manetti

d’Aragona

C 126

24

Voi, c’havete fortuna sì nimica,

d’Aragona

Muzio

C 36; M 43v; B 113

113

Voi, che lieti pascete ad Arno intorno

L. Martelli

d’Aragona

C 127

110

Voi, che volgete il vostro alto disio

B. Arrighi

d’Aragona

C 121

Structure of the Poems by Signora Tullia di Aragona and by Others To Her and Recipients and Correspondents of the Miscellaneous Poems Dedication to Eleonora di Toledo, duchess of Florence Number in this edition Section with no heading: (38 compositions) 7 sonnets to Cosimo de’ Medici, duke of Florence 1–7 4 to Eleonora di Toledo, duchess of Florence 8–11 1 to Maria Salviati de’ Medici 12 1 to Don Luigi di Toledo 13 1 to Don Pedro di Toledo 14 1 to Cardinal Pietro Bembo 15 1 to Rodolfo Baglioni 16 1 to Francesco Crasso 17 1 to Francesco Molza 18 1 to Colonel Luca Antonio [Cuppano] 19 1 to Ugolino Martelli 20 3 to Benedetto Varchi 21–23 1 to Girolamo Muzio 24 1 to the preacher Ochino 25 1 to Emilio Tondi 26 1 to Tiberio Nari 27 1 to Piero Mannelli 28 8 unaddressed sonnets, the last of which to Lilia, an animal 29–36 1 unaddressed strambotto 37 1 unaddressed sestina 38 Sonnets by Signora Tullia, with Responses Tullia—Porzio Tullia—Muzio Tullia—Varchi Tullia—Ugolino Martelli

39–40 41–42 43–46 47–48

Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia, with Her Responses Lattanzio Benucci—Tullia

49–50

315

316 Structure of the Poems by Signora Tullia d’Aragona Muzio—Tullia 51–52 Alessandro Arrighi—Tullia 53–54 Niccolò Martelli—Tullia 55–56 Il Lasca—Tullia 57–58 Ugolino Martelli—Tullia 5 9–60 Tirrhenia by Muzio to Signora Tullia Sonnets by Others to Signora Tullia d’Aragona (55 total) 28 by Girolamo Muzio 5 by Benedetto Varchi 3 by Giulio Camillo 2 by Ippolito de’ Medici 2 by Francesco Molza 2 by Ercole Bentivoglio 2 by Filippo Strozzi 2 by Dottore de’ Benucci 3 by Alessandro Arrighi 2 by Benedetto Arrighi 1 by Latino Iuvenale 1 by Ludovico Martelli 1 by Simone Dalla Volta 1 by Camillo da Montevarchi

61–88 89–93 94–96 97–98 99–100 101–2 103–4 105–6 107–9 110–11 112 113 114 115

Recipients and Correspondents of the Miscellaneous Poems d’Aragona, madrigal to Laura Spinelli 116 d’Aragona, sonnet to the Accademia degli umidi 117 d’Aragona, sonnet to Duke Cosimo 118 d’Aragona, sonnet to Maria Salviati de’ Medici sent to the Accademia degli umidi 119 d’Aragona, sonnet to Antonfrancesco Grazzini, il Lasca, in response 120 d’Aragona, unaddressed sonnet 121 d’Aragona, sonnet to Giordano Orsini 122 d’Aragona to Lattanzio De’ Benucci and vice versa (proposal and response sonnets) 123–30 d’Aragona, unaddressed sestina, possibly to Antonio Trivulzio, bishop of Toulon, 131

Structure of the Poems by Signora Tullia d’Aragona 317 d’Aragona, sonnet to Giulio Feltrio della Rovere, cardinal of Urbino 132 d’Aragona, sonnet to Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi Del Monte 133 d’Aragona, unaddressed sonnet, possibly to Cardinal François de Tournon 134 d’Aragona, canzone to Cardinal François de Tournon 135 d’Aragona, proposal sonnet to Benedetto Varchi, followed by his response 136–37 d’Aragona, sonnet to the duchess of Tagliacozzi 138 d’Aragona, sonnet to Marcantonio Colonna 139

Bibliography Manuscripts ASC Credenzone 13 ASF Carte strozziane Magistrato supremo 4307 Mediceo del principato ASMn Archivo Gonzaga 1251 ASR Camerale I Notari del auditor camera 4516 Notari del auditor camera 6298 ASS Capitano di giustizia 75 Gabella 758 Notarile antecosimiano 696 Notarile antecosimiano 1107 Notarile antecosimiano 2357 BAV Chigiano I VIII 295 Ottoboniano latino 1591 BCSI Manoscritto. A. V. 23 Manoscritto I XI 49 BNCF Autografi Palatini, lettere al Varchi, 1 Magliabechiano II IV 233 Magliabechiano VII 195, now II IV 1 Magliabechiano VII 340 Magliabechiano VII 651 Magliabechiano VII 779 Magliabechiano VII 1185 319

320 Bibliography Magliabechiano VIII 1447 Magliabechiano IX 91 Palatino 454 Rinuccini 19 MAP 3717

Primary Sources Alighieri, Dante. 1983. La Divina Commedia. Edited by Natalino Sapegno, Scrittori Italiani. Firenze: La Nuova Italia. Aragona, Tullia d’. Della infinità d’amore: Dialogo di Tullia d’Aragona, colla vita scritta da Alessandro Zilioli. Milan: Daelli, 1864. _____. “Dialogo della infinità di amore.” In Trattati d’amore del Cinquecento, edited by Giuseppe Zonta, 185–248. Bari: Laterza, 1912. _____. Dialogo della signora Tullia d’Aragona della infinità di amore. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1547. Reprinted 1549 and 1552. _____. Dialogue on the Infinity of Love. Translated by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. _____. Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino: Fatto in ottava rima dalla signora Tullia d’Aragona. Venice: G. B. and M. Sessa, 1560. _____. Il Meschino detto il Guerrino. Parnaso Italiano. Edited by Francesco Zanotto. Vol. 5. 12 vols. Venice: Giuseppe Antonelli, 1839. _____. Rime della signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei. Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1547. _____. Rime della signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei: Di novo ristampate et in piu luoghi corrette. Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1549. _____. Rime della signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei: Nuovamente corrette e ristampate. Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1560. _____. Rime della sig. Tullia d’Aragona, di nuovo date in luce. Edited by Antonio Bulifon. Naples: Antonio Bulifon, 1693.

Bibliography 321 _____. Le rime di Tullia d’Aragona cortigiana del secolo XVI. Edited by Enrico Celani Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1968 [1891]. _____. Sweet Fire: Tullia d’Aragona’s Poetry of Dialogue and Selected Prose. Translated and edited by Elizabeth A. Pallitto. New York: George Braziller, 2005. Aretino, Pietro. “Dialogo nel quale la Nanna insegna a la Pippa.” In Sei giornate, edited by Giovanni Aquilecchia, 143–352. Bari: Laterza, 1969. _____. Lettere libro primo. Edited by Francesco Erspamer. Parma: Fondazione Pietro Bembo and Ugo Guanda Editore, 1995. _____. Un pronostico satirico di Pietro Aretino, 1534. Edited by Alessandro Luzio. Bergamo: Istituto italiano d’arti grafiche, 1900. Atanagi, Dionigi, ed. De le rime di diversi nobili poeti toscani raccolte da M. Dionigi Atanagi. Vol. 1. Venice: Lodovico Ananzò, 1565. Attendolo, Sforza. Rime. Ravenna: Francesco Tebaldini, 1583. Bandello, Matteo. Le quattro parti de le novelle del Bandello. Edited by Gustavo Balsamo-Crivelli. 4 vols. Turin: UTET, 1911. Battiferra degli Ammannati, Laura. Laura Battiferra and Her Literary Circle. Translated and edited by Victoria Kirkham.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. _____. Il primo libro delle opere toscane. Edited by Enrico Maria Guidi. Urbino: Accademia Raffaello, 2000. _____. Il primo libro dell’opere toscane di madonna Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati: Alla illustrissima ed eccellentissimas ignora la signora duchessa di Fiorenza e di Siena. Florence: Giunti, 1560. Bembo, Pietro. Gli Asolani. Edited by Giorgio Dilemmi. Florence: L’accademia della crusca, 1991. _____. Lettere. Edited by Ernesto Travi. 4 vols. Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1987–93. _____. Prose e rime. Edited by Carlo Dionisotti. Turin: UTET, 1960. _____. Le rime. Edited by Andrea Donnini. 2 vols. Rome: Salerno, 2008. Bentivoglio, Ercole. Le satire et altre rime piacevoli del signor Hercole Bentivoglio. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1558.

322 Bibliography Benucci, Lattanzio. “All’eccellentissimo signor duca di Fiorenza: Su una prammatica sul vestir delle donne, fatta dal duca.” In Poesie italiane inedite di dugento autori dall’origine della lingua infino al secolo decimosettimo, edited by Francesco Trucchi, 378–83. Prato: Guasti, 1846–47. Bergalli, Luisa, ed. Componimenti poetici delle più illustri rimatrici d’ogni secolo. 2 vols. Venice: Antonio Mora, 1726. Betussi, Giuseppe. Dialogo amoroso di messer Giuseppe Betussi. Venice: Segno del Pozzo, 1543. Camillo, Giulio. Opere di M. Giulio Camillo. 2 vols. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1560. Cappello, Bernardo. Rime di m. Bernardo Cappello. Venice: Domenico e Giovanni Battista Guerra, 1560. Cassola, Luigi. Madrigali del magnifico signor cavallier Luigi Cassola piacentino. Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1544. Castiglione, Baldesar. The Book of the Courtier. Translated by Charles Singleton. Edited by Daniel Javitch. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. Cellini, Benvenuto. Autobiography. Translated by George Bull. London: Penguin, 1998. _____. La vita. Edited by Guido Davico Bonino. Turin: Einaudi, 1973. Colonna, Vittoria. Rime. Edited by Alan Bullock. Rome: Laterza, 1982. _____. Rime della divina Vittoria Colonna, marchesa di Pescara. Parma: [Antonio Viotti], 1538. Coryat, Thomas. Coryat’s Crudities. 2 vols. Glasgow: J. MacLehose and Sons, 1905. Della Chiesa, Francesco Agostino. Theatro delle donne letterate. Mondovi: G. Gistandi and G. T. Rossi, 1620. Dialogo dello Zoppino de la vita e genealogia di tutte le cortigiane di Roma. Edited by Gino Lanfranchi. Milan: L’editrice del libro raro, 1922. Domenichi, Lodovico. Facetie, motti e burle di diversi signori e persone private. Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1562. Doni, Antonfrancesco. La libraria. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1550. _____. La libraria. Edited by Vanni Bramanti Milan: Longanesi, 1972.

Bibliography 323 Ficino, Marsilio. Commentary on Plato’s “Symposium on Love.” Translated by Sears Jayne. Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, 1985. Firenzuola, Agnolo. Opere. Edited by Adriano Serloni. Firenze: Sansoni, 1958. Franco, Veronica. Poems and Selected Letters. Edited and translated by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998. Gambara, Veronica. Le rime. Edited by Alan Bullock. Florence: Olschki, 1995. Giraldi Cinzio, Giovanni Battista. Gli ecatommiti, ovvero cento novelle. Florence: Borghi, 1834. Libro primo delle rime spirituali, parte nuovamente raccolte da più autori, parte non più date in luce. Venice: Segno della Speranza, 1550. Libro quarto delle rime di diversi eccellentissimi autori nella lingua volgare nuovamente raccolte. Bologna: Anselmo Giaccarello, 1551. Lirici europei del Cinquecento: Ripensando la poesia di Petrarca. Edited by Gian Mario Anselmi, Keir Elam, Giorgio Forni, Davide Monda. Milan: BUR, 2004. Livy. History of Rome. Translated by B. O. Foster. 14 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1919. Martelli, Lodovico. Rime. Edited by Laura Amaddeo. Turin: RES, 2005. _____. Le rime volgari di Lodovico di Lorenzo Martelli. Rome: Antonio Blado, 1533. _____. Tullia. Edited by Francesco Spera. Turin: RES, 1998. Martelli, Niccolò. Il primo libro delle lettere di Nicolo Martelli. Florence: A Instanza dell’Auttore, 1546. _____. Il primo libro delle lettere (Firenze, Doni, 1546). Edited by Barnaba Lucchesi. Nuovorinascimento.org, 2009. nuovorina­ scimento.org/cinquecento/martelli.pdf. Marucci, Valerio, ed. Pasquinate del Cinque e Seicento. Rome: Salerno, 1988. Molza, Francesco Maria. Delle poesie volgari e latine di Francesco Maria Molza corrette, illustrate ed accresciute colla vita dell’autore

324 Bibliography scritta da Pierantonio Serassi. Edited by Pierantonio Serassi. 3 vols. Bergamo: Pietro Lancellotti, 1747–54. _____. Sonetti del Molza, et d’altri eccellentissimi auttori, non più visti, né posti in luce. Venice: Gio. Antonio, detto el Cremaschino, 1544. Muzio, Girolamo. Battaglie per difesa dell’italica lingua. Edited by Rossana Sodano. Turin: RES, 1994. _____. Il duello del Mutio iustinopolitano. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1550. _____. Egloghe del Mutio iustinopolitano. Venice: Gabriele Giolito, 1550. _____. Il gentilhuomo del Mutio iustinopolitano. Venice: Giovanni Andrea Valvassori, 1571. _____. Lettere. Edited by Anna Maria Negri. Alessandria: dell’Orso, 2000. _____. Lettere di Girolamo Muzio giustinopolitano conservate nell’Archivio governativo di Parma. Edited by Amadio Ronchini. Parma: R. Deputazione di storia patria, 1864. _____. Lettere (Ristampa anastatica dell’ed. Sermartelli, 1590). Edited by Luciana Borsetto. Bologna: Forni, 1985. _____. Le mentite ochiniane del Mutio iustinopolitano. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1551. _____. Operette morali. Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1550. _____. Rime. Edited by Anna Maria Negri. Introduction and notes by Massimo Malinverni and Anna Maria Negri. Turin: RES, 2007. _____. Rime diverse del Mutio iustinopolitano. Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1551. _____. Rime diverse del Mutio iustinopolitano; Tre libri di arte poetica; Tre libri di lettere in rime sciolte; La Europa; Il daualo di Giulio Camillo tradutto. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari e Fratelli, 1551. _____. Rime per Tullia d’Aragona. Edited by Anna Maria Negri. Pavia: Croci, 1996. _____. Le risposte caualleresche del Mutio iustinopolitano. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1551.

Bibliography 325 _____. “Trattato di matrimonio alla signora Tullia d’Aragona.” In Operette morali, 50–60. Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1550. _____. Le vergeriane del Mutio iustinopolitano. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1550. Nardi, Jacopo. “Iacopo Nardi a Giovanfrancesco de la Stupha nobilissimo Fiorentino.” In Oratione di M. T. Cicerone a C. Cesare per la quale lo ringratia de l’havere perdonato a Marco Marcello: Nuovamente tradotta in lingua Toscana. Venice: Giovann’ Antonio de Nicolini da Sabio, 1537. Ovid. Metamorphoses. 3 vols. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. 3rd edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977. Passione damore de mastro Pasquino per la partita della signora Tulia, et Martello grande delle pouere cortegiane di Roma, con la allegrezza delle bolognese. 1529? Pecci, Giovanni Antonio. Memorie storico-critiche della città di Siena. 4 vols. Siena: Agostino Bindi, 1755–60. Phylolauro di Cave. Dialogo amoroso. Siena: per Calistro Dubbioso di Simeone di Nicolo, 1533. Plato. “Symposium.” In The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Including the Letters, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, 553–63. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961. Il primo volume delle rime scelte di diversi autori, di nuovo corrette e ristampate. Venice: Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1586. Ragionamento del Zoppino fatto frate, e Lodovico, puttaniere, dove contiensi la vita e genealogia di tutte le cortigiane di Roma. Edited by Mario Cicognani. Milan: Longanesi, 1969. Rime di diversi, et eccellenti autori: Raccolte da i libri da noi altre volte impressi, tra le quali se ne leggono molte non più vedute, di nuovo ricorrette e ristampate. Venice: Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1556. Rime diverse di molti eccellentissimi, auttori nuovamente raccolte. Vol. 1. Edited by Lodovico Domenichi. Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1545. Rime diverse di molti eccellentissimi autori (Giolito 1545). Edited by Franco Tomasi and Paolo Zaja. Turin: RES, 2001.

326 Bibliography Romano, Angelo, ed. Lettere di cortigiane del Rinascimento. Rome: Salerno, 1990. Sansovino, Francesco. L’historia di casa Orsina di Francesco Sansovino. Treviso: Edizioni della galleria, 1988 [1565]. Il sesto libro delle rime di diversi eccellenti autori, nuovamente raccolte et mandate in luce, con un discorso di Girolamo Ruscelli. Venice: Segno del Pozzo, 1553. Speroni, Sperone. Opere. 5 vols. Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 1989. Reprint, Venice: Occhi, 1740. Stampa, Gaspara. The Complete Poems: The 1554 Edition of the Rime. Translated by Jane Tylus. Edited by Troy Tower and Jane Tylus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Stortoni, Laura Anna. “Tullia d’Aragona.” Translated by Laura Anna Stortoni and Mary Prentice Lillie. In Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans, edited by Laura Anna Stortoni, 81–91. New York: Italica Press, 1997. Tariffa delle puttane di Venegia, accompagné d’un catalogue des principales courtisanes de Venise, tiré des archives vénitiennes (XVIe siècle) et traduit pour la première fois en français. Edited by Guillaume Apollinaire. Paris: Bibliothèque de curieux, 1911. Tasso, Bernardo. Libro primo degli amori di Bernardo Tasso. Venice: Giovan Antonio e Fratelli da Sabbio, 1531. _____. Rime. Edited by Domenico Chiodo and Vercingetorige Martignone. 2 vols. Turin: RES, 1995. Del tempio alla divina signora donna Giovanna d’Aragona. Edited by Girolamo Ruscelli. Venice: Plinio Pietrasanta, 1554. Terracina, Laura. Rime dela Signora Laura Terracina. Venice: Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1548. Tomassetti, Francesco. “Documenti dell’Archivio Colonna.” In Nozze di donna Sveva Vittoria Colonna con don Alfonso Falcò Principe Pio. Rome: Castaldi, 1932. Varchi, Benedetto. Componimenti pastorali, di M. Benedetto Varchi. Bologna: Gio. Battista e Cesare Salvietti, 1576. _____. L’Ercolano, 2 vols. Milan: Società tipografica dei classici italiani, 1804. _____. Lettere, 1535–1565. Edited by Vanni Bramanti. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2008.

Bibliography 327 _____. De’ sonetti di M. Benedetto Varchi. Part 1. Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1555. _____. De’ sonetti di M. Benedetto Varchi colle risposte, e proposte di diversi. Part 2. Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1557. Verdelot, Philippe. Madrigali a sei voci. Edited by Alexandra AmatiCamperi. Pisa: ETS, 2003. _____. Madrigals for Four and Five Voices. Edited by Jessie Ann Owens. New York: Garland, 1989.

Secondary Sources Agee, Richard J. “Filippo Strozzi and the Early Madrigal.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 38, no. 2 (1985): 227–37. _____. “Ruberto Strozzi and the Early Madrigal.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 36, no. 1 (1983): 1–17. Allaire, Gloria. “Tullia d’Aragona’s Il Meschino as Key to a Reappraisal of Her Work.” Quaderni d’italianistica 16, no. 1 (1995): 33–50. Amante, Bruto. Giulia Gonzaga, contessa di Fondi, e il movimento religioso femminile nel secolo XVI. Bologna: N. Zanichelli, 1896. Amati-Camperi, Alexandra. “A Fresh Look at the Life of Verdelot, Maestro di Cappella at the Duomo of Florence.” In Atti del VII centenario del Duomo di Firenze, edited by Timothy Verdon and Annalisa Innocenti, 89–105. Florence: Edifir, 2001. _____. Introduction to Philippe Verdelot, Madrigali a sei voci, edited by Alexandra Amati-Camperi, xxiii–xxxiv. Pisa: ETS, 2003. Andreoli, Aurelio. Intorno alla paternità di un dialogo del secolo decimosesto. Pavia: Marelli, 1904. Andreoni, Annalisa. “Alla ricerca di una poetica post-bembiana: Il Dante ‘lucreziano’ di Benedetto Varchi.” Nuova rivista di letteratura italiana 7, nos. 1–2 (2004): 179–231. _____. “Benedetto Varchi all’Accademia degli infiammati, frammenti inediti e appunti sui manoscritti.” Studi rinascimentali 3 (2005): 29–44. _____. “La Lezzione seconda sulla grammatica di Benedetto Varchi.” Nuova rivista di letteratura italiana 6, nos. 1–2 (2003): 137–68. _____. “Questioni e indagini per l’edizione delle Lezioni accademiche.” Studi e problemi di critica testuale 73 (2006): 117–37.

328 Bibliography _____. “‘Sangue perfetto che poi non si beve…’: Le lezioni di Benedetto Varchi sul canto XXV del Purgatorio.” Rinascimento 44 (2004): 139–223. Angiolini, Franco. “Luca Martini.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 71:234–48. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2008. Arrighi, Vanna. “Eleonora de Toledo.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 42:437–41. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1993. Baernstein, P. Renée. “Reprobates and Courtiers: Lay Masculinities in the Colonna Family, 1520–1584.” In Florence and Beyond: Culture, Society and Politics in Renaissance Italy, edited by David S. Peterson and with Daniel E. Bornstein, 291–303. Toronto: Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2008. Baernstein, P. Renée, and Julia L. Hairston. “Tullia d’Aragona: Two New Sonnets.” MLN 123, no. 1 (2008): 151–59. Bainton, Roland H. Bernardino Ochino: Esule e riformatore senese del Cinquecento, 1487–1563. Translated by Elio Gianturco. Florence: Sansoni, 1940. Ballistreri, Gianni. “Una corrispondenza poetica di Tullia d’Aragona.” Il Mamiani: Annali del Liceoginnasio statale Terenzio Mamiani 3 (1968): 3–15. _____. “Lattanzio Benucci.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 8:653–55. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1966. Bardi, Alessandro. “Filippo Strozzi (da nuovi documenti).” Archivio storico italiano 14 (1894): 3–78. Basile, Deana. “Fasseli gratia per poetessa: Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici’s Role in the Florentine Literary Circle of Tullia d’Aragona.” In The Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, edited by Konrad Eisenbichler, 135–47. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001. Bassanese, Fiora. “Private Lives and Public Lies: Texts by Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 30, no. 3 (1988): 259–319. _____. “Selling the Self; or, The Epistolary Production of Renaissance Courtesans.” In Italian Women Writers from the Renaissance to the Present: Revising the Canon, edited by Maria Marotti, 69–82. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.

Bibliography 329 _____. “What’s in a Name? Self-Naming and Renaissance Women Poets.” Annali d’Italianistica 7 (1989): 104–115. Bausi, Francesco. “‘Con agra zampogna’: Tullia d’Aragona a Firenze (1545–48).” Schede umanistiche 2, n.s. (1993): 61–91. Shorter version published as “Le rime di e per Tullia d’Aragona.” In Les femmes ecrivains … , edited by George Ulysse, 275–92. Aix-enProvence: Université de Provence, 1994. _____.“Un’egloga inedita (e sconosciuta) di Girolamo Muzio.” Studi di filologia italiana 47 (1989): 211–54. Bazzano, Nicoletta. Marco Antonio Colonna. Rome: Salerno, 2003. Benrath, Carl. Bernardino Ochino of Siena: A Contribution towards the History of the Reformation. London: James Nisbet, 1876. Bertoni Argentini, Luisa. “Rodolfo Baglioni.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 5:246–47. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia ital­ iana, 1963. Bettella, Patrizia. “Dishonoring Courtesans in Early Modern Italy: The poesia puttanesca of Anton Francesco Grazzini, Niccolò Franco, and Maffio Venier.” In In Dialogue with the Other Voice in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Literary and Social Contexts for Women’s Writing, edited by Julie D. Campbell and Maria Galli Stampino, 289–312. Toronto: Iter and Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2011. Biagi, Guido. “Un’etèra romana: Tullia d’Aragona.” Nuova antologia 4.16, s. 3 (1886): 655–711. Reprinted and slightly revised as “Tullia d’Aragona.” In Fiorenza, fior che sempre rinnovella: Quadri e figure di vita fiorentina, 137–261. Florence: Battistelli, 1925. Bianco, Monica. “Il ‘Tempio’ a Geronima Colonna D’Aragona, ovvero la conferma di un archetipo.” In “I più vaghi e i più soavi fiori”: Studi sulle antologie di lirica del Cinquecento, edited by Monica Bianco and Elena Strada, 147–81. Alessandria: dell’Orso, 2001. Biffi, Marco, and Raffaella Setti. “Varchi consulente linguistico.” In Benedetto Varchi (1503–1565), edited by Vanni Bramanti, 25–67. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2007. Bishop, Morris, ed. A Renaissance Storybook. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971.

330 Bibliography Bongi, Salvatore. “Documenti senesi su Tullia d’Aragona.” Rivista critica della letteratura italiana IV, no. 6 (1887): 186–88. _____. “Rime della signora Tullia di Aragona; et di diversi a lei.” In Annali di Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 150–99. Rome: Presso i principali librai, 1890. _____. “Il velo giallo di Tullia d’Aragona.” Rivista critica della letteratura italiana 3, no. 3 (1886): 85–95. Bonito, Virginia Anne. “The Saint Anne Altar in Sant’Agostino: Restoration and Interpretation.” Burlington Magazine 124 (1982): 268–76. _____. “The St Anne Altar in Sant’Agostino in Rome: A New Discovery.” Burlington Magazine 122 (1980): 805–12. Borsetto, Luciana. “L’egloga in sciolti nella prima metà del Cinquecento: Appunti sul liber di Girolamo Muzio.” Chronique italiennes 3, no. 1 (2003). chroniquesitaliennes.univ-paris3.fr/ PDF/Web3/L_Borsetto.pdf. _____. “Narciso ed Eco: Figura e scrittura nella lirica femminile del Cinquecento: esemplificazioni ed appunti.” In Nel cerchio della luna: figure di donna in alcuni testi del XVI secolo, edited by Marina Zancan, 171–233. Venice: Marsilio, 1983. Bramanti, Vanni, ed. Benedetto Varchi, 1503–1565: Atti del convengo (Firenze, 16–17 dicembre 2003). Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2007. _____. “Ritratto di Ugolino Martelli (1519–1592).” Schede umani­ stiche 2 (1999): 5–53. _____. “Ugolino Martelli.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 71:64–67. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2008. Brundin, Abigail. Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. Bullard, Melissa. Filippo Strozzi and the Medici: Favor and Finance in Sixteenth-Century Florence and Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. Buranello, Robert. “Figura meretricis: Tulla d’Aragona in Sperone Speroni’s Dialogo d’amore.” Spunti e ricerche 15, no. 1 (2000): 53–68. Campbell, Julie D. “Tullia d’Aragona, Sperone Speroni, and the Inscription of Salon Personae.” In Literary Circles and Gender

Bibliography 331 in Early Modern Europe: A Cross-Cultural Approach, 21–49. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006. Cantagalli, Roberto. “Gianfrancesco Barbolani.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 6:260–62. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1964. Cantini, Lorenzo. Legislazione toscana. 16 vols. Florence: Albizziana, 1800–1808. Celani, Enrico. Introduction to Le rime di Tullia d’Aragona, cortigiana del secolo XVI, iii–lxiii. Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1968 [1891]. Ceppari Ridolfi, Maria Assunta. “Un casa toscano: Siena.” In Disciplinare il lusso: La legislazione suntuaria in Italia e in Europa tra medioevo ed età moderna, edited by Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli and Antonella Campanini, 59–73. Rome: Carocci, 2003. Cerrón Puga, María Luisa “Le voci delle donne e la voce al femminile: Vie del petrarchismo in Italia e in Spagna.” In “L’una et l’altra chiave”: Figure e momenti del petrarchismo femminile europeo, edited by Tatiana Crivelli, Giovanni Nicoli, and Mara Santi, 103–31. Rome: Salerno, 2005. Cipolla, Costantino, and Giancarlo Malacarne, eds. El più soave et dolce et dilectevole et gratioso bochone: Amore e sesso al tempo dei Gonzaga. Milan: Angeli, 2006. Cohen, Elizabeth S. “Back Talk: Two Prostitutes’ Voices from Rome c. 1600.” Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 2 (2007): 95–126. _____. “‘Courtesans’ and ‘Whores’: Words and Behavior in Early Modern Rome.” In “Women in the Renaissance: An Interdisciplinary Forum.” Special issue, Women’s Studies 19, no. 1 (1991): 201–8. _____. “Evolving the History of Women in Early Modern Italy: Subordination and Agency.” In Spain in Italy: Politics, Society, and Religion, 1500–1700, edited by Thomas James Dandelet and John A. Marino, 325–54. Leiden: Brill, 2007. _____. “No Longer Virgins: Self-Presentation by Young Women in Late Renaissance Rome.” In Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance, edited by Marilyn Migiel

332 Bibliography and Juliana Schiesari, 169–91. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. _____. “Seen and Known: Prostitutes in the Cityscape of LateSixteenth-Century Rome.” Renaissance Studies 12, no. 3 (1998): 392–409. Cohen, Thomas V., and Elizabeth S. Cohen. Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome: Trials before the Papal Magistrates. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993. Coppi da Gorzano, Carlo. “Il conte Lucantonio Coppi detto Cuppano, ultimo condottiero delle Bande nere e dimenticato governatore generale di Piombino (1507–1557).” Rivista araldica 3 (1960): 87–105. Cosentino, Paola. “Lodovico Martelli.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 71:58–60. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2008. _____. “Roma 1533: Le ‘Rime volgari’ di Lodovico Martelli.” Roma nel Rinascimento 21 (2004): 269–91. Costa-Zalessow, Natalia. “Sonetti ‘inediti’ di Tullia d’Aragona? Variazioni sul recente interesse per le Rime negli Stati Uniti.” Esperienze letterarie 34, no. 1 (2009): 97–101. Cox, Virginia. “Fiction, 1560–1650.” In A History of Women’s Writing in Italy, edited by Letizia Panizza and Sharon Wood, 52–64. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. _____. Women’s Writing in Italy, 1400–1650. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Crescimbeni, Giovanni Mario. Comentarj intorno alla sua Istoria della volgar poesia. 5 vols. Rome: Antonio de’ Rossi alla Piazza di Ceri, 1702–11. Curtis-Wendlandt, Lisa. “Conversing on Love: Text and Subtext in Tullia d’Aragona’s Dialogo della infinità d’amore.” Hypatia 19, no. 4 (2004): 75–96. Dall’Aglio, Stefano. L’assassino del duca: Esilio e morte di Lorenzino de’ Medici. Florence: Olschki, 2011. Davis, Charles. “Una scheda per Tiziano: Il ritratto perduto di Giordano Orsini.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 27, no. 3 (1983): 383–85.

Bibliography 333 De Blasi, Nicola. “Ercole Bentivoglio.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 8:615–18. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1966. Del Soldato, Eva. Simone Porzio: Un aristotelico tra natura e grazia. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2010. Dialeti, Androniki. “The Publisher Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, Female Readers, and the Debate about Women in Sixteenth-Century Italy.” Renaissance and Reformation 28, no. 4 (2004): 5–32. Di Filippo Bareggi, Claudia. “In nota alla politica culturale di Cosimo I: L’Accademia fiorentina.” Quaderni storici 23 (1973): 527–74. _____. Il mestiere di scrivere: Lavoro intellettuale e mercato librario a Venezia nel Cinquecento. Rome: Bulzoni, 1988. Dionisotti, Carlo. “Pietro Bembo.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 8:133–51. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1966. Dizionario biografico degli italiani (DBI). Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1960–. Dorez, Léon. “Un personnage-type de la ‘famille’ de Paul III: Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti.” In La cour du Pape Paul III d’après les registres de la trésorerie secrète (Collection F. De Navenne), 2 vols., 1:115–41. Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, 1932. Eisenbichler, Konrad, ed. The Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001. _____, ed. The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence and Siena. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. Esposito, Anna. “La città e i suoi abitanti.” In Roma del Rinascimento, edited by Antonio Pinelli, 3–47. Rome: Laterza, 2001. Fasano Guarini, Elena. “Cosimo I de’ Medici.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 30:30–48. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1984. Feci, Simona. “Latino Giovenale Manetti.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 68:617–20. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2007. Feldman, Martha. “The Courtesan’s Voice: Petrarchan Lovers, Pop Philosophy, and Oral Traditions.” In The Courtesan’s Arts: Cross-­Cultural Perspectives, edited by Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon, 105–23. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

334 Bibliography Feldman, Martha, and Bonnie Gordon, eds. The Courtesan’s Arts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Ferrai, Luigi Alberto. Lorenzino de’ Medici e la società cortigiana del Cinquecento, con le rime e le lettere di Lorenzino e un’ appendice di documenti. Milan: Hoepli, 1891. Ferri, Pietro Leopoldo. “Tullia d’Aragona.” Biblioteca femminile ital­ iana. Padua: Crescini, 1842. 18–21. Filippi, Luigi. “Un poema poco noto (Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino attribuito a Tullia d’Aragona).” In Le orme del pensiero, 227–257. Ferrara: A. Taddei e Figli, 1919. Firpo, Massimo. Gli affreschi di Pontormo a San Lorenzo: Eresia, politica e cultura nella Firenze di Cosimo I. Turin: Einaudi, 1997. Forcella, Vincenzo. Iscrizioni delle chiese e d’altri edificii di Roma dal secolo 11 fino ai giorni nostri. 14 vols. Rome: Tipografia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche, 1869–80. Forster, Kurt W. “Metaphors of Rule: Political Ideology and History in the Portraits of Cosimo I de’ Medici.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 15, no. 1 (1971): 65–104. Fosi, Irene, and Guido Rebecchini. “Ippolito De’ Medici (Pasqualino).” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 73:99–104. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2009. Franceschini, Chiara. “Los scholares son cosa de sua excelentia, como lo es toda la Compañia: Eleonora di Toledo and the Jesuits.” In The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence and Siena, edited by Konrad Eisenbichler, 181–206. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. François, Michel. Le cardinal François de Tournon: Homme d’état, diplomate, mécène et humaniste (1489–1562). Paris: E. De Boccard, 1951. Frasson, Paolo. “Alvise Corner.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 29:146–49. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1983. Gianfranceschi, Ida, and Elena Lucchesi Ragni. “Tullia Von Aragon.” In Vittoria Colonna: Dichterin und Muse Michelangelos, edited by Sylvia Ferino Pagden, 209–12. Vienna: Skira, 1997.

Bibliography 335 Gibson, Joan. “The Logic of Chastity: Women, Sex, and the History of Philosophy in the Early Modern Period.” Hypatia 21, no. 4 (2006): 1–19. Ginguené, Pierre Louis. Vol. 12 of Storia della letteratura italiana. Florence: Daddi, 1828. Giaxich, Paolo. Vita di Girolamo Muzio giustinopolitano. Trieste: Papsch, 1847. Hairston, Julia L. “‘Di sangue illustre & pellegrino’: The Eclipse of the Body in the Lyric of Tullia d’Aragona.” In The Body in Early Modern Italy, edited by Julia L. Hairston and Walter Stephens, 158–75. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. _____. “Mastro Pasquino’s Lament to Tullia d’Aragona.” In Early Modern Rome (1341–1667), edited by Portia Prebys, 357–64. Ferrara: Edisai, 2011. _____. “Out of the Archive: Four Newly-Identified Figures in Tullia d’Aragona’s Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona et di diversi a lei (1547).” MLN 118, no. 1 (2003): 257–63. _____. “Tullia d’Aragona.” In Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance, edited by Diana Robin, Anne R. Larsen, and Carole Levin, 26–30. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Hempfer, Klaus. “Per una definizione del Petrarchismo.” In Dynamique d’une expansion culturelle: Pétrarque en Europe XIV–XX siècle, edited by Pierre Blanc, 23–53. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001. Hernando Sánchez, Carlos José. “Naples and Florence in Charles V’s Italy: Family, Court, and Government in the Toledo-Medici Alliance.” In Spain in Italy: Politics, Society, and Religion, 1500– 1700, edited by Thomas James Dandelet and John A. Marino, 135–80. Leiden: Brill, 2007. Hurtubise, Pierre. Une famille-témoin: Les Salviati. Vatican City: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1985. _____. Tous le chemins mènent à Rome: Arts de vivre et de réussir à la cour pontificale au XVIe siècle. Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, 2009. Jaffe, Irma B., with Gernando Colombardo. “Tullia d’Aragona (1505/1510–1556) from Bed to Verse.” In Shining Eyes, Cruel Fortune: The Lives and Loves of Italian Renaissance Women Poets, 71–103. New York: Fordham University Press, 2002.

336 Bibliography Jones, Ann Rosalind. “Bad Press: Modern Editors versus Early Modern Poets (Tullia d’Aragona, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco).” In Strong Voices, Weak History: Early Women Writers and Canons in England, France, and Italy, edited by Pamela Joseph Benson and Victoria Kirkham, 287–313. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. _____. The Currency of Eros: Women’s Love Lyric in Europe, 1540–1620. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. _____. “Enabling Sites and Gender Difference: Reading City Women with Men.” Women’s Studies 19, no. 2 (1991): 239–49. _____. “New Songs for the Swallow: Ovid’s Philomela in Tullia d’Aragona and Gaspara Stampa.” In Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance, Edited by Marilyn Migiel and Juliana Schiesari, 263–77. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. _____. “Surprising Fame: Renaissance Gender Ideologies and Women’s Lyric.” In The Poetics of Gender, edited by Nancy K. Miller, 74–95. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. Jordan, Constance. Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. Kidwell, Carol. Pietro Bembo: Lover, Linguist, Cardinal. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004. Kirkham, Victoria. “Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati’s First Book of Poetry: A Renaissance Holograph Comes Out of Hiding.” Rinascimento 36 (1996): 351–91. Labruzzi di Nexima, Francesco. “Tullia d’Aragona.” In Vol. 1 of Bibliografia romana: Notizie della vita e delle opere degli scrittori romani dal secolo XI fino ai nostri giorni, 13–19. Rome: Eredi Botta, 1880. Langdon, Gabrielle. “Bloodlines: Portraits of Maria Salviati de’ Medici by Bronzino and Pontormo.” In Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal, 23–57. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. Lawner, Lynn. Lives of the Courtesans. New York: Rizzoli, 1987. Lee, Egmont, ed. “Descriptio Urbis”: The Roman Census of 1527. Rome: Bulzoni, 1985.

Bibliography 337 Litta, Pompeo. Famiglie celebri di Italia. 10 vols. Milan: P.E. Giusti, 1819–83. López, Maritere. “The Courtesan’s Gift: Reciprocity and Friendship in the Letters of Camilla Pisana and Tullia d’Aragona.” In Discourses and Representations of Friendship in Early Modern Europe, 1500–1700, edited by Daniel T. Lochman, Maritere López and Lorna Hutson, 99–116. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010. Lo Re, Salvatore. “Biografie e biografi di Bendetto Varchi: Giambattista Busini e Baccio Valori.” Archivio storico italiano 578 (1998): 671–736. Republished with a slightly altered title in Lo Re, Politica e cultura. _____. La crisi della libertà fiorentina: Alle origini della formazione politica e intellettuale di Benedetto Varchi e Piero Vettori. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2006. _____. Politica e cultura nella Firenze cosimiana: Studi su Benedetto Varchi. Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2008. _____. “La vita di Numa Pompilio di Ugolino Martelli: Tensioni e consenso nell’Accademia fiorentina (1542–1545).” Bruniana e Campanelliana 10, no. 1 (2004): 59–71. Luzio, Alessandro. “Un’avventura di Tullia d’Aragona.” Rivista storica mantovana 1, nos. 1–2 (1885): 179–82. Manacorda, Guido. Benedetto Varchi: L’uomo, il poeta, il critico. Pisa: Fratelli Nistri, 1903. Marcozzi, Luca. Petrarca platonico: Studi sull’immaginario filosofico del canzoniere. Rome: Aracne, 2011. Masson, Georgina. Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1976. Mazzucchelli, Giovanni Maria. “Tullia d’Aragona.” In vol. 1, pt. 2, of Gli scrittori d’Italia, cioè notizie storiche, e critiche intorno alle vite, e agli scritti dei letterati italiani, 928–30. Brescia: Giambatista Bossini, 1753–63. Moretti, Walter. “Notizia Biografica.” In Giovanbattista Giraldi Cinzio: L’uomo di corte, edited by Walter Moretti, 17–19. Modena: Mucchi, 1989.

338 Bibliography Niccolini, Giovan Battista. Filippo Strozzi: Tragedia, corredata d’una vita di Filippo Strozzi e di documenti inediti. Edited by Pietro Bigazzi. Florence: Le Monnier, 1847. Nussdorfer, Laurie. “Men in Baroque Rome.” I Tatti Studies (forthcoming Spring 2014) Pallitto, Elizabeth Anne. “Diotima (Sometimes) Wears a Yellow Veil: On Tullia d’Aragona.” Differentia 8–9 (1999): 303–7. _____. “A Selection of Poems by Tullia d’Aragona.” Forum Italicum 36 (2002): 179–89. Petrucci, Franca. “Francesco Grassi (Grasso, Crassi, Crasso).” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 58:611–14. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2002. _____. “Marcantonio Colonna.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 27:372–83. Rome: Treccani, 1982. Picot , Émile. Les français italianisants au XVIe siècle. 2 vols. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1906–7. Pignatti, Franco. “Antonfrancesco Grazzini.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 59:33–40. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia ital­ iana, 2002. _____. “Francesco Maria Molza.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 75:451–61. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2011. Pirotti, Umberto. Bendetto Varchi e la cultura del suo tempo, 242–51. Florence: Olschki, 1971. Plaisance, Michel. L’accademia e il suo principe: Cultura e politica a Firenze al tempo di Cosimo I e di Francesco de’ Medici. Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2004. _____. Antonfrancesco Grazzini dit Lasca (1505–1584): Ecrire dans la Florence des Médicis. Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2005. _____. “Culture et politique à Florence de 1542 à 1551: Lasca et les Humidi aux prises avec l’Académie florentine.” In Les ècrivains et le pouvoir en Italie à l’epoque de la Renaissance, vol. 2, edited by André Rochon, 149–242. Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1974. _____. “Une première affirmation de la politique culturelle de Côme Ier: La transformation de l’Académie des ‘humidi’ en Académie florentine (1540–1542).” In Les écrivains et le pouvoir en Italie a l’époque de la Renaissance, vol. 1, edited by

Bibliography 339 André Rochon, 361–438. Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1973. Pompili Olivieri, Luigi. Il senato romano nelle sette epoche di svariato governo da Romolo fino a noi colla serie cronologica-ragionata dei senatori dall’anno 1143 fino al 1870. Rome: Tipografia editrice romana, 1886. Quadrio, Francesco Saverio. “Rime di Tullia d’Aragona.” In vol. 2 of Della storia, e della ragione d’ogni poesia, 235. Milan: Francesco Agnelli, 1741. Quaintance, Courtney. “Defaming the Courtesan: Satire and Invective in Sixteenth-Century Italy.” In The Courtesan’s Arts: CrossCultural Perspectives, edited by Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon, 199–208. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Quattrocchi, Angela. “Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti: Un diplomatico ‘umanista’ nella curia pontificia.” In Offices et papauté (XIVe– XVIIe siècle): Charges, hommes, destins, edited by Armand Jamme and Olivier Poncet, 829–40. Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 2005. Quondam, Amedeo. Petrarchismo mediato. Roma: Bulzoni, 1974. Ramsden, E. H. “Concerning a Portrait of a Lady.” In Come, Take This Lute: A Quest of Identities in Italian Renaissance Portraiture, 95–110. Bath: Element Books, 1983. Ray, Meredith K. “Textual Collaboration and Spiritual Partnership in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Case of Ortensio Lando and Lucrezia Gonzaga.” Renaissance Quarterly 62, no. 3 (2009): 694–747. Rebecchini, Guido. “Un altro Lorenzo”: Ippolito de’ Medici tra Firenze e Roma (1511–1535). Venice: Marsilio, 2010. Richardson, Brian. “From Scribal Publication to Print Publication: Pietro Bembo’s Rime, 1529–1535.” Modern Language Review 95, no. 3 (2000): 684–95. _____. Manuscript Culture in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. _____. “Print or Pen? Modes of Written Publication in SixteenthCentury Italy.” Italian Studies 59 (2004): 39–64. _____. Printing, Writers and Readers in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

340 Bibliography Robin, Diana. “Courtesans, Celebrity, and Print Culture in Renaissance Venice: Tullia d’Aragona, Gaspara Stampa, and Veronica Franco.” In Italian Women and the City, edited by Janet L. Smarr and Daria Valentini, 35–59. Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003. _____. Publishing Women: Salons, the Presses, and the CounterReformation in Sixteenth-Century Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Rodocanachi, Emmanuel Pierre. Cortigiane e buffoni di Roma. Translated by Nino Della Casa. Milan: Pervinca, 1927. Romano, Pietro [Pietro Fornari]. Campomarzio (IV rione). 2 vols. Rome: Agostiniana, 1939. Rosati, Salvatore. Tullia d’Aragona. Milan: S. A. Fratelli Treves, 1936. Rosenthal, Margaret F. The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Ross, Sarah Gwyneth. The Birth of Feminism: Woman as Intellect in Renaissance Italy and England. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. Russell, Rinaldina. Introduction to Dialogue on the Infinity of Love, 21–42. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. _____. “Tullia d’Aragona.” In Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, vol. 1, edited by Paul Grendler, 84–85. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999. _____. “Tullia d’Aragona.” Italian Women Writers. Edited by Rinaldina Russell. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. 26–34. Salza, Abdelkader. “I lamenti di Pasquino.” In Scritti varii di erudizione e di critica in onore di Rodolfo Renier, 795–826. Turin: Bocca, 1912. Sanfilippo, Matteo. “Giulio Feltrio Della Rovere.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 37: 356–7. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1989. Schmitt, Charles, Quentin Skinner, and Eckhard Kessler. The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Serassi, Pierantonio. “La vita di Francesco Maria Molza.” In Delle poesie volgari e latine di Francesco Maria Molza corrette, illustrate

Bibliography 341 ed accresciute colla vita dell´autore scritta da Pierantonio Serassi, edited by Pierantonio Serassi, i–xc. Bergamo: Pietro Lancellotti, 1747–54. Shemek, Deanna. Ladies Errant: Wayward Women and Social Order in Early Modern Italy. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998. _____. “‘Mi Mostrano a dito tutti quanti’: Disease, Deixis, and Disfiguration in the Lamento di una cortigiana ferrarese.” In Medusa’s Gaze: Essays on Gender, Literature, and Aesthetics in the Italian Renaissance in Honor of Robert J. Rodini, edited by Paul A. Ferrara, Eugino Giusti and Jane Tylus, 46–64. Lafayette, IN: Bordighera, 2004. Siekiera, Anna M. “Benedetto Varchi (Firenze 1503–1565).” In Autografi dei letterati italiani: Il cinquecento. Matteo Motolese, Paolo Procaccioli, and Emilio Russo. 1:337–57. Rome: Salerno, 2009. Simoncelli, Paolo. Fuoriuscitismo repubblicano fiorentino 1530–54. Vol. 1, 1530–37. Milan: Angeli, 2006. Slim, H. Colin, and Stefano La Via. “Philippe Verdelot.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 427–34. London: Macmillan, 2001. Smarr, Janet L. “A Dialogue of Dialogues: Tullia d’Aragona and Sperone Speroni.” MLN 113, no. 1 (1998): 204–12. _____. Joining the Conversation: Dialogues by Renaissance Women. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. _____. “Love as Centaur: Rational Man, Animal Woman in Sperone Speroni’s Dialogue on Love.” In In Dialogue with the Other Voice in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Literary and Social Contexts for Women’s Writing, edited by Julie D. Campbell and Maria Galli Stampino, 195–264. Toronto: Iter and Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2011. Stabile, Giorgio. “Giulio Camillo, detto Delminio.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 17:218–30. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 1974. Storey, Tessa. Carnal Commerce in Counter-Reformation Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Stumpo, Elisabetta. “Niccolò Martelli.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani 71:61–64. Rome: Istituto dell’enciclopedia italiana, 2008.

342 Bibliography Tafuri, Giovanni Bernardino. “Tullia d’Aragona.” In vol. 4 of Istoria degli scrittori nati nel regno di Napoli, 458–60. Naples: F. C. Mosca, 1744–46. Téoli, Carlo. “Proemio dell’editore.” In Della infinità d’amore: Dialogo di Tullia d’Aragona, v–xx. Milan: Daelli, 1864. Tiraboschi, Girolamo. “Altre poetesse.” In vol. 4 of Storia della letteratura italiana, 154. Milan: Nicolò Bettoni e Comp., 1833 [1772–82]. _____. Lettere di Girolamo Tiraboschi al padre Ireneo Affò tratte da’ codici della Biblioteca estense di Modena e della Palatina di Parma. Ed. Carlo Frati. 2 vols. Modena: G. T. Vincenzi e nipoti, 1894. Tomas, Natalie. “Commemorating a Mortal Goddess: Maria Salviati de’ Medici and the Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I.” In Practices of Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Megan Cassidy-Welch and Peter Sherlock, 261–78. Turnhout: Brepols, 2008. Tomassetti, Giuseppe, and Francesco Tomassetti. Via Laurentina, Ostiense. Vol. 5 of La campagna romana antica, mediovale e moderna: Edizione redatta sulla base degli appunti lasciati da Giuseppe e Francesco Tomassetti. 6 vols. Edited by Luisa Chiumenti and Fernando Bilancia. Rome: Banco di Roma, 1977. Uginet, Francois-Charles, ed. Le palais Farnèse à travers le document financiers (1535–1612). Vol. 3 of Le palais Farnèse. 3 vols. Rome: Ecole francaise de Rome, 1980. Ugolini, Paola. “The Satirist’s Purgatory: Il purgatorio delle cortegiane and the Writer’s Discontent.” Italian Studies 64, no. 1 (2009): 1–19. Vannugli, Antonio. “L’Arciconfraternità della SS Crocefisso e la sua capella in S. Marcello.” Ricerche per la storia religiosa di Roma 5 (1984): 429–43. Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2008. Verstegen, Ian F. “Reform and Renewed Ambition: Cardinal Giulio Feltrio della Rovere.” In Patronage and Dynasty: The Rise of the

Bibliography 343 Della Rovere in Renaissance Italy, edited by Ian F. Verstegen, 89–110. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2007. Watt, Mary Alexandra. “The Reception of Dante in the Time of Cosimo I.” In The Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, edited by Konrad Eisenbichler, 121–34. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001. Werner, Inge. “The Heritage of the Umidi: Performative Poetry in the Early Accademia fiorentina.” Igitur Archive, 2008. igitur-archive. library.uu.nl/let/2011-1114-200551/The%20Heritage%20of%20 the%20Umidi.%20Performative%20Poetry%20in%20the%20 Early%20Accademia%20Fiorentina.pdf. Williamson, Edward. Bernardo Tasso. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1951. Yates, Frances A. The Art of Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. Zanrè, Domenico. Cultural Non-Conformity in Early Modern Florence. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004.

Index Accademia degli infiammati (Academy of the Inflamed), 91n81, 92n83 Accademia degli umidi (Academy of the Damp), 20, 22, 42, 43–44, 43n136, 65n5, 69n13, 81n55, 89n77, 91n81, 120n4, 125n19, 140n75, 143n81, 146n97, 243n201, 249n226, 255, 255n6 Accademia della Crusca (Academy of the Bran), 146n97, 243n201, 292n8 Accademia fiorentina (Florentine Academy), 20, 22, 42, 42n135, 43–44, 43n136, 65n5, 69n13, 81n55, 89n77, 91n81, 120n4, 125n19, 140n75, 143n81, 146n97, 243n201, 249n226 Academies, 21n71, 44n139, 45, 88n73, 146n97 Academy of the Bran. See Accademia della Crusca Academy of the Damp. See Accademia degli umidi Academy of the Inflamed. See Accademia degli infiammati Adria, 17, 168, 169, 176, 177 Alamanni, Luigi, 45, 45n141 Alighieri, Dante, 22, 22n73, 41n133, 42n134, 76n39, 80n52, 83n57, 83n59, 93n84, 95n88, 97n93, 99n99, 108n120, 121n7, 145n95, 157n6, 165n22, 184n6, 211n104, 215n118, 219n127, 296n16, 304, 306 Alvarez de Toledo, Luigi/Luis, 79–80, 80n50 Alvarez de Toledo, Pedro, 63n1, 80n50

Andreoni, Annalisa, 41n133, 92n83 Aragona, Celio d’, 28, 28n95–96 Aragona, Costanzo Palmieri d’, 12, 14 Aragona, Giovanna d’, 51, 51n156, 243n203, 283n72, 284n74, 285n79 Aragona, Giulia d’, 46n144 Aragona, Luigi d’, 13, 14n43, 178n53 Aragona, Maria d’, 283n72 Aragona, Penelope d’, 17, 17n54, 26, 30, 96n92, 291, 293, 294–295, 296, 305–306 Aretino, Pietro, 1, 1n2, 20n63, 36, 91n81, 143n81 Ariosto, Ludovico, 125n22, 195n43, 231n163, 246n215, 265n32 Arrighi, Alessandro, 22, 140–141, 140n75, 239–242, 239n188, 292n6 Arrighi, Benedetto, 19n59, 242–245, 243n201, 243n202, 243n203, 244n204, 245n208, 245n211, 292n6 Arrighi, Vanna, 63n1 Baernstein, P. Renée, 5n13, 46, 98n96, 283n72, 284n72, 285n79 Baffa, Francesca, 10, 10n27 Baglioni, Rodolfo, 85n65 Ballestreri, Gianni, 135n54, 237n179, 262n21, 263n23, 265n29, 266n34, 267n37, 268n39, 269n42, 270n46 Bandello, Matteo, 10n27, 26n85 Barberino, Andrea da, 47 Baroncelli, Orsetta, 11n32, 12n35, 27n89, 292n4 Battiferra, Laura, 4n9, 45, 54

345

346 Index Bausi, Francesco, 3n7, 19n59, 44n139, 46, 48n149, 96n92, 127n29, 157n4, 164n19, 166n22, 244n206, 281n67, 282n70, 296n15, 299n26, 301n27 Bembo, Pietro, 1n2, 3n8, 22, 42–45, 43n146, 45n141, 48, 53, 79n47, 82–83, 83n57, 83n58, 88n73, 91n81, 93n84, 95n89, 106n114, 138n70, 148n102, 228n152, 230n160, 240n193, 249n226 Bentivoglio, Ercole, 13, 13n38, 18n57, 19, 19n61, 39, 40, 164n19, 164n20, 231–32, 231n163, 231n164 Benucci, Lattanzio, 5–6, 8, 12n34, 21n71, 22, 23, 23n76, 44n139, 134–137, 147n99, 236–238, 237n179, 237n183, 238n185, 262–70, 262n21, 290, 292, 292n7 Bergalli, Luisa, 53, 53n165, 59, 307, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314 Berni, Francesco, 88n73 Bettella, Patrizia, 36n116 Biagi, Guido, 14n43, 17n54, 30n102, 33n109, 46, 168n28, 292n4, 292n6, 296n15, 299n25 Boccaccio, Giovanni, 42 Bongi, Salvatore, 2n6, 17, 17n54–55, 19, 19n62, 21n68, 24n77, 27n89, 28n94, 30n102, 32, 32n106, 81n55, 100n101, 103n107, 166n23, 185n8, 234n172 Bonito, Virginia Anne, 26n86 Bracci, Zanobi, 16n50, 35, 36n113 Bulifon, Antonio, 53, 53n165 Buonarroti, Michelangelo, 3

Camillo, Giulio Delminio, 88n73, 169n34, 170n36, 221–224, 222n135 Campana, Giulia. See Pendaglia Orlandini Campana, Giulia Cantini, Lorenzo, 23n74, 297n22 canzone, 18, 46n144, 277n61 canzoniere, 3, 4, 10n28, 24, 39, 41, 46, 47–50, 50n154, 53–54, 65n5, 88n73, 88–89n75, 96n92, 108n119, 119n1, 194n39, 222n135, 231n164, 243n203, 253n1, 256n9, 257n11, 260n15, 262n21, 299n26 capitolo, 7n21, 23, 23n76, 31, 31n105, 36n113, 243n201, 254n3 Cappello, Bernardo, 54, 54n166 Caro, Annibale, 45, 45n141, 88n73, 91n81 Cassola, Luigi, 10n27, 51, 51n157 Castiglione, Baldassarre, 49, 49n153, 85n67, 138n70, 154n2 Celani, Enrico, 4n12, 10n28, 14, 14n41, 46, 46n146, 47, 47n149, 53, 84n64, 103n107, 107n118, 125n18, 157n4, 159n10, 168n28, 228n154, 254n3–4, 255n6, 258n13, 260n15, 272n48, 277n59 Cellini, Benvenuto, 45n141, 91n81, 301n28 Cerrón Puga, María Luisa, 46n144 Charles V, (emperor), 21, 28n94, 31n105, 39n123, 63n1, 80n50, 86n69, 279n62 Chiocca, Pier Antonio, 28n94 choral anthology, 4–5, 4n9, 10, 41, 46, 48, 50–51, 54, 77n41, 96n92, 119n1, 243n203, 293n10 Cicero, 1, 143n82, 143n83, 246n216, 272n48

Index 347 Ciocca, Pietro, (see also Pier Antonio Chiocca), 28, 28n94 Clement VII (pope), 14, 15n45, 30, 31n105, 35n113, 38, 226n145, 234n172, 246n215, 279n62, 301n28 Cohen, Elizabeth S., 28n93, 29n97–98, 30, 30n104 Cohen, Thomas, 28n93, 30, 30n104 Colonna, Ascanio, 283n72, 285n79 Colonna, Marcantonio, 283n72, 284–285, 285n79 Colonna, Stefano, 85n65, 301n27, 301n28, 301n29 Colonna, Vittoria, 3, 3n7, 9, 19, 46, 46n147, 95n89, 98n96, 148n102, 207n86, 230n160, 244n207, 245n213, 249n227, 283n72 Contile, Luca, 88n73 Cornaro, Cardinal. See Alvise Corner Corner, Cardinal Alvise, 28, 28n94 Coryat, Thomas, 29n99 Costa Zalessow, Natalia, 46n147 Council of Trent, 7, 25 Courtesan, 1–3, 2n4, 2n5, 5n14, 6, 8–10, 9n25, 10n27, 12, 18, 19, 25, 29–47, 29n97, 29n98, 32n107, 35n113, 38n116, 37n119, 40, 45, 54, 123n11, 237n183, 305n39 Cox, Virginia, 3n7–8, 19n59, 43n136, 45, 45n142, 47n149, 48n151, 83n57, 120n7, 207n86 Crasso, Francesco, 85, 86, 86n69 Cuppis/Cuppano, Lucantonio de, 89–90, 89n77, 261n18 Delicado, Francisco, 1n2 Della Casa, Giovanni, 25, 26, 148n102

Della Volta, Simone, 143n81, 248–50, 249n226 Di Filippo Bareggi, Claudia, 24n78, 108n119 Dolce, Ludovico, 24n78, 28n94, 108n119 dolce stil novo, 157n6, 218n124 Domenichi, Lodovico, 10n27, 13, 13n37, 80n50, 231n164 Doni, Anton Francesco, 1, 1n1, 143n81, 231n163, 243n201 Duretti, Bernardino, 39 eclogue, 10, 10n28, 11n30, 17, 17n54, 19, 41, 49, 96n92, 127n30, 156n4, 164n18, 169n32, 173n44, 262n21 Este, Ercole I d’, 231n163 Este, Ercole II d’, 19, 41, 96n92, 191n30, 222n135 Este, Isabella d’, 17, 19, 39, 98n96, 231n163–164 Feminism, 8–9, 9n23, 9n24, 9n25 Filli. See Philli Firenzuola, Agnolo, 1, 2n2, 20n65 Florentine Academy. See Accademia fiorentina Forcella, Vincenzo, 11n31, 17n53, 26n86 Forteguerri, Laudomia, 45, 254n3 Fracastoro, Girolamo, 168n28 Franco, Veronica, 2, 2n4, 6, 103n107, 125n22 Frangipani, Mario, 27 fuoriusciti, 39, 39n122, 65n5, 226n145, 289n1 Gambara, Veronica, 9, 79n47, 83n57, 121n7, 207n86 Gelli, Giovan Battista, 42–43, 44n139, 120n4

348 Index Giambullari, Pierfrancesco, 42–43, 44n139 Giolito de’ Ferrari, Gabriele, 1n1, 3n7,10n27, 13, 17n54, 20n66, 24–25, 49n152, 51, 53, 55 Giraldi Cinzio, Giovan Batista, 1, 1n1, 32–33, 34n111, 47, 32–33, 128n32 Giulia Ferrarese, 11–13. See also Pendaglia Orlandini Campana, Giulia Gonzaga, Ferrante, 86n69, 97n93, 191n30 Gonzaga, Giulia, 135n53 Grandinelli, Vergilio, 28 Grassi, Niccolò, 36 Grasso, Francesco. See Crasso, Francesco Grazzini, Anton Francesco (Antonfrancesco), 22, 38n116, 42, 45, 45n141, 50, 51n156, 143n81, 146n97, 243n201, 249n226, 258n13 Guicciardi, Silvestro, 20 Guinizzelli, Guido, 218n124 Imperia, 10, 10n27 Infinità di amore. See On the Infinity of Love Inquisition, 25 Isabella de Luna, 26, 26n85 Iustinapolitano, Mutio. See Muzio, Girolamo Jackson, Philippa, 11n32, 12n35 Jones, Ann Rosalind, 2n3, 4n11, 48n150, 69n14, 72n27, 103n107, 106n113, 110n124, 113n133, 125n19, 146n98, 150n111 Jordan, Constance, 8, 9n23

Julius III (pope), Cardinal Del Monte, 26n87, 28n94, 275n56, 279n62 Kirkham, Victoria, 4n9, 45, 45n143, 103n107 lamento genre, 31n105, 37n119, 50n155, 248n223 Lo Re, Salvatore, 22n72, 41n133, 43n138, 69n13, 85n65, 91n81, 92n83, 128n32, 251n231, 289n1, 292n5, 296n16, 301n28 lyric anthology, 1, 4, 4n10, 4n11, 13, 26, 40, 46, 49, 49n152, 88n73, 108n120, 114n139, 116n142, 130–131n39, 208n91, 232n166, 283n72 madrigal, 10n27, 14, 15n45, 30, 40, 40n124, 51, 51n157, 95n87, 262n21 Manelli, Piero, 102–3, 103n107, 104n111 Marchianni, Orazio, 28 Marcozzi, Luca, 20n67, 194n39, 205n78, 279n63 Martelli, Ludovico, 143n81, 166n23, 247–248, 248n221 Martelli, Niccolò, 7–8n21, 81n55, 140n75, 142–145, 143n81, 143n82, 144n86, 144n87, 144n89, 145n91, 145n93, 145n94 Martelli, Ugolino, 22, 44n139, 69n13, 90–91, 91n81, 100n101, 130–132, 131n45, 143n81, 148–151, 149n108, 150n111, 151n115, 260n15 Masson, Georgina, 2, 2n5, 29n98 Matraini, Chiara, 45, 125n22

Index 349 Medici, Alessandro de’, 43, 65n5, 91n81, 92n83, 226n145, 234n172 Medici, Clarice de’, 234n172 Medici, Cosimo I de’, 2n6, 20–23, 25, 28n94, 42–43, 42n134, 46, 51–2, 63n1, 65n5, 69n13, 69n17, 70n21, 71n25, 72n26, 73n30, 78n44, 81n55, 85n65, 89n77, 91n81, 97n93, 102n105, 120n4, 135n53, 255n6, 261n18, 289n2, 290n3, 301n28 Medici, Eleonora di Toledo de’, 7n21, 23, 23n76, 24, 28n94, 50n154, 51, 63n1, 65n5, 73–77, 80n50, 81n55, 284n74, 298n23, 299n26 Medici family, 22, 28n94, 39, 42, 50, 65n5, 67n10, 78n44, 80n50, 88–89n75, 143n81, 226n145, 234n172 Medici, Francesco de’, 20n63, 42n135, 225n6 Medici, Giovanni di Giovanni de’, also known as Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, 56n5, 78n44, 89n77 Medici, Giuliano de’, 226n145 Medici, Giulio de’. See Clement VII (pope) Medici, Ippolito de’, 19n61, 40, 40n127, 88n73, 88–89n75, 171n38, 171n39, 225–227, 226n145, 248n221 Medici, Lorenzo de’, 77n44 Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino, 6, 8n22, 27, 47, 47n149, 52n160, 64n3, 83n57, 137n60, 173n44, 191, 191n30, 237n183, 243n202, 277n60, 286n80 Molza, Francesco Maria, 22, 50, 87–88, 88n73, 88n75, 91n81,

164n18, 226n145, 228–230, 228n154, 229n156, 230n160 Montaigne, Michel de, 29n99 Del Monte, Giovanni Maria Ciocchi. See Julius III Muzio, Girolamo, 1, 3n7, 10n28, 10–11, 11n30, 13–14, 14n39, 17, 17n54, 18, 19–20, 20n66, 41, 41n130, 44, 49, 50, 50n155, 53n 164, 54, 54n166, 86n69, 96n92, 97, 97n93, 98n96, 122–124, 124n14, 131n47, 138n69, 138n70, 138–139, 155, 155n3, 156n4, 157, 158n10, 163n17, 166n24, 169n30, 169n32, 169n33, 169n34, 171n39, 172n41, 172n42, 172n43, 173n44, 176n47, 179n56, 183n1, 184–215, 184n3, 185n7, 185n10, 187n15, 188n19, 189n21, 189n23, 191n30, 194n38, 201n59, 202n63, 203n70, 207n86, 210n100, 215n115, 215n117, 222n135, 235n174, 255n7, 260n15, 260n16 Nardi, Jacopo, 1, 22, 67n10 Nari, Tiberio, 100–101, 101n104, 102n105 Nelson Novoa, James, 11n30, 15n47 Neo-Platonism, 6, 49, 83n57, 138n70, 181n60, 236n176 Nini, Filomena, 106n113, 254n3 Nini, Raffaello, 254n3 Nove/Noveschi, 21, 21n68, 86n69– 70, 100n101, 135n53, 144n89 On the Infinity of Love, 5, 5n15, 6, 6n17, 9, 9n24, 21n71, 25, 25n80, 41, 41n132, 47n149, 51, 52, 52n159, 65n5, 92n83,

350 Index 96n92, 135n53, 138n70, 172n43, 240n193 Orlandini, Africano, 11 Orsini, Felice, 284n72 Orsini, Giordano, 261, 261n18, 303n33 Orsini, Latino, 290n3 Orsini, Paolo Emilio, 16, 16n49, 32n106, 33n109 Orsini, Paolo Giordino, 261n18 pastoral poetry, 10, 14n39, 17, 19, 49, 50, 69n16, 127n30, 128n32, 131n47, 156n4, 156–81, 255–57, 260n15 Paul III (pope), 25, 98n96, 226n145, 246n215, 279n62, 301n28, Paul IV (pope), 25, 279n62 Pazzi, Francesco de’, 5, 17, 22, 22n72, 53, 288–290, 289n1, 290n3 Pecci, Giovanni Antonio, 86n69, 100n101, 144n89 Pecci, Orazio, 20, 21 Pendaglia Orlandini Campana, Giulia, 11–14, 17, 26, 179n54–n55 Pendaglia, Orsino, 11 Petrarch, 42, 48, 59, 69n17, 75n36, 83n57–58, 85n67, 95n88–89, 106n114, 109n122, 112n121, 120n5, 121n7, 126n24, 131n49, 136n56, 147n99, 155n3, 174n45, 185n10, 189n22,191n29, 194n39, 208n92, 218n125, 220n130, 222n135, 229n156, 230n160, 237n180, 240n191, 242n198, 249n127, 277n61, 299n26 Petrarchism, 4, 10, 48–49, 48n151, 54, 56–57, 66n8, 69n17, 70n21, 74n34, 137n60, 229n156 Petrucci, Aurelia, 254n3 Philli, 55, 127, 128, 128n32, 129, 130 Piccolomini, Alessandro, 45

Piccolomini, Enea, 12 Piccolomini, Hortensia, 254n3 Pieri, Laura, 45 Pirotti, Umberto, 47n149, 128n32 Pisana, Camilla, 5n14, 10, 12n36 Plaisance, Michel, 42n135, 43n137, 63n2, 65n5, 81n55, 85n65, 89n77, 95n87, 120n4, 143n81, 146n97, 243n201, 249n226, 301n28 Popolani, 21, 21n68, 100n101 Porzio, Simone, 22, 50, 120, 120n4, 122, 168n28 print publication, 3, 3n8, 41, 46, 47n148, 135n54, 145n92, 172n52, 262n21 proposta/risposta, 4, 4n11, 48, 48n150, 119n1, 137n58, 172n41, 275n54 Rebecchini, Guido, 88n73, 88n75, 226n145 Reformation, 6n16, 7, 24n78, 29n98, 98n96 Ridolfi, Cardinal Niccolò, 28n94, 91n81 Rosenthal, Margaret F., 2n4, 37n119 Ruscelli, Girolamo, 26, 46, 51n156, 243n203, 277n59, 283n72, 284n75 Russell, Rinaldina, 5n15, 6n18, 47n149 Salviati, Bernardo, 103n107, 290n3 Salviati, Giovanni, 103n107, 290n3 Salviati, Jacopo, 78n44 Salviati de’Medici, Maria, 20, 65n5, 78n44, 78n46, 257n11, 290n3 Salza, Abdelkader, 31n105, 35n113, 50n155 Sansovino, Francesco, 231n163, 261n18 Sanzio, Antonio Marcello, 20

Index 351 Savelli, Giambattista, 301, 301n28 scribal publication, 3, 3n8, 10, 50n154, 53, 262n21 Sessa, Melchiorre, 6, 47 sestina, 114n140, 116n141, 270n47, 272n48, 299n26 Shemek, Deanna, 26n85, 37n119 Siekiera, Anna M., 301n28 Simoncelli, Paolo, 39n122, 289n1 Smarr, Janet, 8–9, 9n23, 9n26, 16n52, 52n162 sonnets, 4, 4n12, 5, 5n13, 10, 10n27, 16, 23, 23n76, 39–40, 41, 44–45, 45n141, 48–50, 50n154–155, 51–52, 53–54, 63, 83n57, 143n81, 169, 215n115, 238n185, 255n6, 262n21, 293, 293n9, 296, 297, 299, 299n26, 301, 303 Soria, Lope de, 39 Speroni, Sperone, 6n16, 16, 16n52, 36, 36n114, 50n155, 52, 52n162 Spinelli, Laura, 254, 254n3 Stambellino, Battista, 17, 19, 19n58, 98n96, 231n163 Stampa, Gaspara, 45, 95n89, 116n142, 121n7, 136n56, 230n160 strambotto, 114n139, 254n2 Strozzi family, 5, 15, 22n72, 30n103, 39n123, 226n145, 289n1 Strozzi, Filippo, 15n45, 15n46, 15–16, 16n50, 22, 30, 33n109, 33–39, 34n111, 35n112, 36n113, 39n121, 39n123, 43, 43n138, 44, 65n5, 67n10, 85n65, 91n81, 92n83, 113n133, 233–236, 234n172, 235n173, 235n174, 236n177, 289n1, 289n2, 290n3 Strozzi, Lorenzo, 91n81 Strozzi, Piero, 39, 43, 234n172, 289n1, 289n2, 290n3

Strozzi, Roberto (Ruberto), 15, 16, 16n48, 34n111, 43, 43n138 sumptuary legislation, 20, 20– 21n67, 23, 63n1, 65n5, 81n55, 297n22, 299n26 Tancredi, Dorotea, 135n53 Tancredi, Honorata, 254n3 Tasso, Bernardo, 1, 2n6, 16, 16n51, 39n123, 50, 50n155, 167n25 tempio genre, 51, 51n156, 147n100, 242, 243n203, 283n72, 284n75 Terracina, Laura, 3n7, 51n157, 54 di Toledo, Pietro/Pedro, 23, 28n94, 81n55, 296, 297, 297n20 Tolomei, Claudio, 50, 50n155, 88n73, 165–166n22, 226n145 Tomasi, Franco, 13n38, 28n94, 231n164 Tondi, Emilio, 21n68, 86n70, 99–100, 100n101 Tondi, Ottaviano, 21, 21n68, 86n70, 99–100, 100n101, 145n93 Trivulzio, Antonio, 27, 135n53, 272–73, 272n48 Valori, Baccio, 43n138, 85n65 Vanvitelli, Luigi, 11n31, 26n86 Varchi, Benedetto, 1, 3n7, 5–6, 9n24, 20n63, 22–23, 22n72, 22n73, 25, 25n80, 41–45, 41n133, 43n136, 43n138, 44n139, 45n141, 48n149, 50, 53–54, 54n166, 63n2, 65n5, 81n55, 85n65, 91n81, 92–95, 92n83, 95n87, 124–129, 125n19, 125n20, 125n21, 125n22, 126n24, 127n27, 127n29, 128n31, 128n32, 128n33, 129n35, 129n38, 150n111, 164n20, 166, 215–220, 215n115, 216n120, 219n129, 240–241n193, 248n221, 249n226, 250n231,

352 Index 255n6, 261n18, 280–282, 289n1, 290, 292–293, 292n4, 292n5, 292–293n8, 293n9, 294n13, 296n15, 296n16, 297n19, 298, 298n23, 299, 299n25, 299n26, 300–305, 301n27, 301n28, 303n32, 305n37, 305n39 Venuti, Lawrence, 56–57 Verdelot, Philippe, 14–15, 14n44, 15n45, 30, 30n103, 40n124, 248n221 Vettori, Francesco, 15, 33–34, 33n109, 35, 37–38 Vettori, Piero, 91n81 Williamson, Edward, 50n155 Zaja, Paolo, 13n38, 28n94, 231n164 Zanrè, Domenico, 2, 2n5, 42n135, 43n136, 44, 44n139, 52n163, 125n19, 146n97, 215n115 Zoppino, 1n2, 14n43, 29, 30n100, 32n106