By John Hudson Aemilia Lanyer (Also known as Amelia Bassano Lanier) [1] is a controversial figure. The traditional approach to constructing her biography typically takes literary history and gender theory as its disciplinary boundaries. Within these contexts, the basic facts of her biography, which are a matter of record are included. The more speculative aspects are ignored: Aemilia’s Jewish…
Tag Archive for Poets
Happenings
Eleonora de Fonseca Pimental on Project Continua!
Biography of Eleonora de Fonseca Pimental, Enlightenment poet and activist, is on Project Continua here!
Eleonora de Fonseca Pimental
By Julieta Almeida Rodrigues Eleonora de Fonseca Pimental (Rome, 1752-Naples, 1799) Eleonora Anna Feliz Teresa de Fonseca Pimentel was a notable poet, activist, journalist, and revolutionary, acknowledged worldwide for her role in the 1799 Neapolitan Revolution.[1] She was born of Portuguese noble parents, Dom Clemente Henriques Fonseca Pimentel Chaves and Catherina Lopez de Leão, in Rome in…
Happenings
Cassandra Fedele now on Project Continua!
Cassandra Fedele, renowned Italian scholar of the Renaissance, now on Project Continua. Read about her here.
Cassandra Fedele
By Juliana Ossa Martinez Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558) Fedele was a renowned Italian scholar. Born in 1465, she was the daughter of Barbara Leoni and Angelo Fedele. Her father was learned in Greek and Latin, and was respected among the aristocracy.[1] He trained his daughter in Greek and Latin, and by the age of twelve…
Jeanne d’Albret
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By Elizabeth Pearce Jeanne d’Albret (1528-72) Jeanne d’Albret, later Queen Jeanne of Navarre, was born on November 16, 1528, at St Germain-en-Laye, in France.[1] She was the daughter of Henri d’Albret, King of Navarre, and of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, and niece to King Francis I of France. Little is known about…
Tarquinia Molza
by Penelope Whitworth Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617) Italian virtuosa singer who was a notable courtier, celebrated musician and acclaimed intellectual of her time. In addition to performing, she was probably an instructor and advisor to the concerto delle donne of the court of Ferrara where she was a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess, Margherita Gonzaga-Este.[1] In 1589…
Praxilla
by Lindsay Smith Praxilla (mid 5th century BCE) was a poet from the Greek polis Sicyon[1], a city renowned as a haven for artists. She often performed in Athens{NOTE:Ian Plant, Praxilla, Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries(1803) Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina…
Lucrezia Marinella
by Lindsay Smith Lucrezia Marinella (c.1571-1653) also known as Lucrezia Marinelli Vacca, was born in Venice, Italy[1] to the physician and natural philosopher Giovanni Marinelli. Nothing is known of Marinella’s mother; she may have died in childbirth. [2] Giovanni Marinelli wrote several books on natural philosophy, rhetoric, and medicine, including female medicine and beauty. His…
Modesto Pozzo
Modesta Pozzo – Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana by Koren Whipp Modesto Pozzo -pseudonym Moderata Fonte (1555-92) a Venetian writer and poet. When both parents died of the plague in 1556, when she was just a year old, Pozzo and her older brother Leonardo were placed in the care of their maternal grandmother and her…
Telesilla
by Penelope Whitworth Telesilla of Argos (early 5th century BCE) was well known for her poetry and her bravery.[1] Several accounts tell the story of the Oracle counselling Telesilla to study the Muses to improve her health. The effect was that the power of her verse inspired the women of Argos to join her to…
Cleobulina
by Koren Whipp Cleobulina (fl. c. 6th C BCE) Plutarch states that her father, Cleobulus, the prince of Lindus, called her “Eumetis” which translates to ‘Clever’.[1] Despite her fame as a Greek poet, there is little reliable biography of her; stories about her socializing with famous sages are later inventions, and contradictions in the essential…
Mary Sidney
by Eliana Greenberg Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621) was born in 1561 in Worcestershire, England, to Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley Sidney. Sir Henry Sidney served as Lord President of the Council in the Marches of Wales from 1559 to 1586, and then as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1565 to…
Mary Leapor
Poems Upon Several Occasions (1748) by Mary Leapor by Gina Luria Walker Mary Leapor 1722–1746 was an English poet, born in Marston St. Lawrence, Northamptonshire. She was considered remarkable for being a talented working-class writer of the time. Partly self-educated, she may have received some training at a local Dame school, or at the…
Marie le Jars de Gournay
by Koren Whipp Marie le Jars de Gournay (1565-1645) French writer, editor, literary critic, translator, novelist, poet, and philosopher. She was born in Paris and raised in Gournay-sur-Aronde. Her father, Guillaume Le Jars was treasurer to King Henri III of France. In 1568 he obtained feudal rights to the Gournay estate in Picardy, and in…
Enheduanna
by Gina Luria Walker Enheduanna (c. 2300 B.C.) Sumerian princess, cloistered priestess and popular poet, Enheduanna is the first human author for whom we have attribution, and the first Ancient author to write in the first person.[1] She was appointed by her father, King Sargon, as the head of the main temple at Ur, one…
Mary Beale
by Koren Whipp Mary Beale 1632-99 was one of the most important portrait painters of 17th century England and has been described as the first professional female English painter. Beale was also celebrated for her poetical talents; versions of her psalms are included in A Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David (1667) by Dr. Samuel…
Laura Battiferri Ammannati
by Elizabeth A. Pallitto Laura Battiferri Ammannati (1523-1589) Born in Urbino, the illegitimate child of a nobleman, Giovanni Antonio Battiferri, and a concubine, Maddelena Coccapani of Capri, Laura was nonetheless given a decent education. She married Vittorio Sereni, then, after her died, remarried the Florentine sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati. In 1560 she published Primo libro…
Sarra Copia Sullam
By Ruth Palmer Sarra Copia Sullam was born to a prominent Italian Jewish family in Venice around 1592. Her parents were Simon and Ricca Copia, and her sisters were Rachel (Diana) and Esther (Ster). Sarra was educated in the basics of Jewish and Italian culture, and was most likely learned in several languages, including Hebrew, Latin,…
Gaspara Stampa
by Alix Korn Gaspara Stampa was born in Padua in 1523 to her mother Cecelia and father Bartolomeo Stampa, who had been a wealthy jeweler. She had two siblings, Cassandra and Baldassare. After the death of her father in 1530, the family moved to Venice. Stampa was afforded an excellent education at the hand of Fortunio…
Wallada bint al-Mustakfi
Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (b. 1001 – d. 1080) The beautiful, free-spirited daughter of a caliph in Cordoba, Spain, Walladah wrote and inspired some of the greatest poetry of eleventh-century Andalusia. She was liberated and literary, hosting mixed-sex gatherings where she read her own bold work. Financially independent, Walladah had lovers but never married. She was…
al-Khansa
Tumadir bint Amru al-Harith bint al-Sharid (b. 575–d. 646), better known as ‘al-Khansa,’ was one of the major poets of pre-Islamic Arabia. Born into a powerful family in west Central Arabia, near Mecca and Medina, much of al-Khansa’s work was inspired by her two brothers, who died in tribal battles. Women poets of the…
Phillis Wheatley
by Gina Luria Walker Phillis Wheatley (1753 –1784) A slave girl of about seven or eight years old arrived in Boston in 1761, aboard a slaver, The Phillis.[1] She was a captive from somewhere along the Senegambian Coast in Africa, and her native language was Wolof.[2] Based on the approximated location of her birth along…
Tullia d’Aragona
by Elizabeth Pallitto Tullia d’Aragona (c.1510-1556) was an Italian courtesan, author, and philosopher in Venice. Under her mother’s influence, Tullia had been initiated into the life of a courtesan when very young. She left us three books — her lyric Rime, her philosophical Dialogo, and her epic Il Meschino, and some urban legends. As an…
Anna Maria van Schurman
by Koren Whipp Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) Born in Cologne, Germany to father, Frederik van Schurman and mother, Eva von Harf, van Shurman lived most of her life in Utrecht, Holland, where she became renowned for her knowledge of theology, philosophy, medicine, and, at least 14 languages (Dutch, German, French, English, Italian, Latin, Greek,…
Mercy Otis Warren
by Koren Whipp Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), poet, essayist, historian, and America’s earliest-known female playwright, produced satirical political commentary which influenced public opinion, rallied opposition to British oppression and celebrated rebel victories. Mercy Otis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts on September 14, 1728, eldest daughter of Mary Allyne Otis and James Otis Sr.,…
Isabella Andreini
by Koren Whipp Isabella Andreini 1562–1604, born Isabella Canali and also known as Isabella Da Padova, was an Italian actress, poet, musician and playwright. She was the first European actress to acquire social and cultural respectability and artistic fame.[1] She was a member of the Compagnia dei Comici Gelosi, an important touring theatre company that performed…
Jane Loudon
by Koren Whipp Jane C. Loudon 1807-58 was a British writer best known for creating the first popular gardening manuals, providing an alternative to the specialist horticultural books of the day. Loudon was born into a wealthy family. Following her mother’s death in 1819, she and her father, Thomas Webb, a Birmingham manufacturer, traveled the continent where…
Aphra Behn
by Lindsay Smith Aphra Behn (c. 1640-89) Born in Harbledown, England, the details of Behn’s early life are unclear.[1] She may have been born to a barber and his wife[2] but there are also accounts that her father was a military man who was appointed Lieutenant-general of Surinam. [3] Some scholars of her work…
