Women and the World of Knowledge. Four Collections of Love Letters in Nineteenth-Century Italy

Abstract

This article focuses on four collections of love letters between engaged and married couples in nineteenth-century Italy, and explores the relationship between women and the world of knowledge. The research project on which it is based is concerned with analysing the overlap and borders between the private and public spheres. Personal and public sentiments are examined and contrasted with ideal constructions of love expressed in intimate correspondence as well as in the public discourse of the nation. Romanticism strengthened the importance of love not only in personal relationships but also in the public sphere. Consequently, perceptions of love as well as the role of women in society underwent change in the late nineteenth century. This article explores how women used ideal constructs of love to undermine, at least partially, their traditional subordination in society and their exclusion from the public sphere. Specifically, it analyses how the idea of love was used in the writings of the four women examined to access the world of literary education and knowledge.

Notes

As a general reference for this topic see Jacques Revel (Ed.) (1996) Jeux d'échelles: la micro-analyse à l'experience (Paris: Gallimard).

For the use of private correspondence for a wider analysis of society see the following: Roger Chartier (Ed.) (1991) La correspondance: le usage de la lettre au XIXe siècle (Paris: Fayard); Roger Chartier, Alain Boureau & Cécile Dauphin (1997) Correspondence: models of letter-writing from the middle ages to the nineteenth century (Cambridge, Polity Press); Mireille Bossis (1986) Methodological Journeys through Correspondences, Yale/French Studies, 71, pp. 63–75; Mireille Bossis (Ed.) (1990) L'épistolarité a travers les siècles. Geste de communication et/ou d'écriture (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verleg); Mireille Bossis (1991) La lettre entre mythe et réalités: quelle lecture? Pour une bibliographie sur l'‘epistolaire’, Igitur, 1, pp. 7–26; Mireille Bossis (Ed.) (1994) La lettre a la croisée de l'individual et du social (Paris: Edition Kimé); Cecile Dauphin, Pierrette Lebrun-Pézerat & Danièle Poublan (1995) Ces bonnes lettres. Une correspondance familiale au XIXe siècle (Paris: Albin Michel); Daniel Fabre (Ed.) (1997) Par ecrit: ethnologie des ecritures quotidiennes (Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme); Daniel Fabre & Agnès Fine (Eds) (2000) Parler, chanter, lire, ecrire, Clio, 11; Marie-Claire Grassi (1986) Friends and Lovers (or the Codification of Intimacy), Yale/French Studies, 71, pp. 77–92. See also Christa Hämmerle (Ed.) (1995) Plurality and Individuality: autobiographical cultures in Europe. International Research Workshop (Vienna: Internationales Forschungszentrum); Rebecca Earle (Ed.) (1990) Epistolary Selves: letters and letter-writers, 1600–1945 (Aldershot: Ashgate). For the Italian debate, see mainly: Adriana Chemello (1998) Alla lettera. Teorie e pratiche epistolari dai Greci al Novecento (Milan: Guerini e Associati); Gabriella Zarri (Ed.) (1999) Per lettera. La scrittura epistolare femminile tra archivio e tipografia, secoli XV– XVII (Rome: Viella); Anna Iuso (Ed.) (1999) Scritture di donne. Uno sguardo europeo (Siena: Protagon); Maria Luisa Betri & Daniela Maldini Chiarito (Ed.) (2000) Dolce dono graditissimo: la lettera privata dal Settecento al Novecento (Milan: Angeli); Armando Petrucci (2008) Scrivere lettere. Una storia plurimillenaria (Rome: Laterza).

This is particularly important in Italy in relation to the ideas popularised during the Risorgimento movement (1820–60), which established an ideal connection between a new idea of love and a new representation of the state and the political community. See, as a first but wide approach on the topic: Alberto Mario Banti & Paul Ginsborg (Eds) (2007) Il Risorgimento, in Storia d'Italia. Annali, 22 (Turin: Einaudi).

For the historical exploration of love and sentiments in Europe, see the works of Luisa Passerini, and in particular: Luisa Passerini (1999) L'Europa e l'amore. Immaginario e politica tra le due guerre (Milan: Il Saggiatore); Luisa Passerini (2008) Storie d'amore e d'Europa (Naples: L'Ancora).

My analysis takes into account, historically and methodologically, the results of gender studies on Victorian society, which analyse the nineteenth-century middle-class divide between the private and public spheres, and the condition of women in respect to the family and the state: Leonore Davidoff & Catherine Hall (1987) Family Fortunes: men and women of the English middle class, 1780–1850 (London: Hutchinson); Catherine Hall (1992) White, Male and Middle Class: explorations in feminism and history (Cambridge: Polity Press); Catherine Hall, Keith McClelland & Jane Rendall (2000) Defining the Victorian Nation: class, race, gender and the British Reform Act of 1867 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Catherine Hall analyses personal identities and their connections to definitions of the British Empire and its political consciousness.

Ercole Trotti Mosti and Gianna Maffei were married in 1818. Their correspondence (1817–27) is preserved in Fondo Trotti Estense Mosti, Museo Centrale del Risorgimento di Roma (MCRR), b. 576, ff. 38–40; b. 577, ff. 1–5

Augusto Pierantoni and Grazia Mancini were married in 1868. Their correspondence (1866–1909) is preserved in Fondo Pierantoni, Museo Centrale del Risorgimento di Roma (MCRR), b. 979, ff. 10–23; b. 738, f. 11; b. 769, f. 144; b. 777, f. 3; b. 984, f. 71.

Luigi Majno and Ersilia Bronzini were married in 1883. Their correspondence (1877–1913) is preserved in Fondo Ersilia Majno Bronzini (FEMB), Archivio Unione Femminile Nazionale of Milan, cart. II–IV.

Laura Cantoni and Angiolo Orvieto were married in 1899. Their correspondence (1899–1950) is preserved in Fondo Orvieto, Archivio Contemporaneo Bonsanti del Gabinetto Vieusseux (ACGV) of Florence, Or. 4.1.31 (a–c); Or. 5.2.2; Or. 4.6.1.

The most influential study on the emergence of the bourgeois public sphere is Jürgen Habermas (1969) Strukturwandel der Őffentlichkeit. Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der Bürgelichen Gesellschaft (Neuwied and Berlin: Luchterhand). See also: Davidoff & Hall, Family Fortunes; Leonore Davidoff (1991) Al di là della dicotomia pubblico/privato: pensando ad una storia femminista per gli anni Novanta, Passato e presente, 27, pp. 133–152; Hall, White, Male and Middle Class; Hall et al., Defining the Victorian Nation.

See, in particular: Leonore Davidoff (1995) Worlds Between: historical perspectives on gender and class (Cambridge: Polity Press); Davidoff, Al di là della dicotomia pubblico/privato; See also: Joan Landes (1988) Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press); Mary P. Ryan (1990) Women in the Public: between banners and ballots, 1825–1880 (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press); Jane Rendall (1999) Women and the Public Sphere, Gender and History, 3, pp. 475–488, and for a more theoretical perspective, Joan Landes (1998) Feminism, the Public and the Private (New York: Oxford University Press).

Gianna came from the Maffei family of Verona. Her father was Antonio Maffei, from the branch of San Pietro Incarnario. Her mother, Laura di Canossa, belonged to another wealthy noble family of Verona. See Eugenio Morando di Custoza (1980) Genealogie veronesi (Verona).

See Mancini Pasquale Stanislao, in Michele Rosi (1933) Dizionario del Risorgimento nazionale: dalle origini a Roma capitale. Fatti e persone, vol. III (Milan: A. Vallardi); Mancini, Pasquale Stanislao in Dizionario biografico degli italiani (2007) (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana).

For Laura Beatrice Mancini Oliva, see Grazia Pierantoni Mancini (1908) Impressioni e ricordi (1856–1864) (Milan: Cogliati); Mancini, Laura Beatrice, in Rosi Dizionario del Risorgimento nazionale.

She wrote principally fictions, poems and plays. See Grazia Pierantoni Mancini (1876) Dora, Treccia bionda, La casa nasconde, ma non ruba, Arnoldo (Milan: Libreria Editrice Brigola); (1880) Lidia. Racconto (Milan: Giuseppe Ottino editore); (1887) Costanza (Rome: Loescher); (1894) Sul Tevere (Rome: Sommaruga); (1899) Alla Vigilia (1858–1859) (Turin: Roux Frassati); (1900) La signora Tilberti (Città di Castello: Lapi); (1904) Novelle umili (Catania: Giannotta); (1907) Tardi: romanzo (Turin: Società Tip. Ed. Nazionale). The poems are collected in: Grazia Pierantoni Mancini (1905) Poesie (Turin: Roux & Viarego) and (1898) Poesie straniere (Rocca S. Casciano: Stab. Tip. Licinio Cappelli Editore).

See Alberto Mario Banti (2000) La nazione del Risorgimento: parentela, santità e onore alle origini dell'Italia unita (Turin: Einaudi); Paul Ginsborg & Ilaria Porciani (Eds) (2002) Famiglia e nazione nel lungo Ottocento (Milan: Angeli); Ilaria Porciani (Ed.) (2006) Famiglia e nazione nel lungo Ottocento italiano: modelli, strategie, reti di relazionei (Rome: Viella).

For general biographical information on Luigi Majno, see Maino Luigi, in Franco Andreucci & Tommaso Detti (1977) Il movimento operaio italiano. Dizionario biografico, vol. 3 (Rome: Editori Riuniti). See also Arnaldo Agnelli (1915) Per Luigi Majno e Mario Martelli. Parole dette dall'on. Arnaldo Agnelli alla Camera dei Deputati nella tornata del 18 febbraio 1915 (Milan, Società Editrice Libraria); Ada Negri (1917) Discorso commemorativo tenuto all'Asilo Mariuccia il 28 giugno 1916 (Varese: Tipografia Varesina); Francesca Tacchi (2004) Dalla Repubblica Cisalpina alla Repubblica Italiana, in Ada Gigli Marchetti, Alceo Riosa & Francesca Tacchi (Eds), Avvocati a Milano. Sei secoli di storia (Milan: Skira), pp. 39–153. For Ersilia Bronzini, see: Edoardo Majno (1985) La fondazione della clinica del lavoro di Milano attraverso il carteggio Luigi Devoto-Ersilia Majno Bronzini (Milan: Asilo Mariuccia), pp. 21–25; Bronzini Ersilia in Majno, in Rachele Farina (Ed.) Dizionario biografico delle donne lombarde, 568–1968 (Milan: Baldini & Castoldi).

These argumentations are taken from the sources: Carteggio Luigi Majno-Ersilia Bronzini, Fondo Ersilia Majno Bronzini (FEMB).

See mainly Annarita Buttafuoco (1895) Le mariuccine. Storia di un'istituzione laica, l'Asilo Mariuccia, (Milan: Angeli) and Annarita Buttafuoco (1997) Questioni di cittadinanza. Donne e diritti sociali nell'Italia liberale (Siena: Protagon).

The formation of the National Maternity Foundation is reconstructed and analysed in: Annarita Buttafuoco (1997) Questioni di cittadinanza; and also in: Annarita Buttafuoco (1991) Motherhood as Political Strategy. The Role of the Italian Women's Movement in the Creation of the Cassa Nazionale di Maternità, in Gisela Bock & Pat Thane (Eds) Maternity and Gender Policies: women and the rise of the European welfare state, 1880s–1950s (London: Routledge), pp. 178–195.

For the autobiographical narration of her life, see Laura Orvieto (2001) Storia di Angiolo e Laura, ed. Caterina Del Vivo (Florence: Olschki). For her intellectual and political engagement, see: Claudia Gori (2004) Laura Orvieto: un'intellettuale del Novecento, Genesis, III(2), pp. 183–204; Claudia Gori (2003) Crisalidi. Emancipazioniste liberali in età giolittiana, (Milan: Angeli). For her works, see mainly Laura Orvieto (1909) Leo e Lia: storia di due bimbi italiani con una governante inglese (Florence: Bemporad); (1911) Storie della storia del mondo, greche e barbare (Florence: Bemporad); (1914) Principesse, bambini e bestie (Florence: Bemporad); (1920) Sono la tua serva e tu sei il mio signore: così visse Fiorenza Nightingale (Florence: Le Monnier); (1925) Beppe racconta la guerra (Florence: Bemporad); (1928) Storie della storia del mondo. Il Natale di Roma (Florence: Bemporad); (1933) Storie della storia del mondo. La forza di Roma (Florence, Bemporad); (1937) Storie di bambini molto antichi (Milan: Mondadori).

See Claudia Gori (2004) Laura Orvieto: un'intellettuale del Novecento.

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Claudia Gori

Claudia Gori received her PhD from the European University Institute of Florence, Italy. Her research is focused on women's and gender history in modern Italy. Her publications include (2003) Emancipazioniste liberali in età giolittiana (Milan: Angeli); (1999) Dal pacifismo all'interventismo, ovvero il mito della ‘guerra giusta’, Storia e problemi contemporanei, 24, pp. 175–199; (2004) Laura Orvieto: un'intellettuale del Novecento, Genesis, III, 2, pp. 183–203; (2005) Oltre domani: futuro, progresso e divino nell'emancipazionismo italiano tra Otto e Novecento, Storia delle Donne, 1, pp. 239–255). Dr Gori's interests are currently focused on the cultural and social history of modern Italy and the study of sentiments and emotions.