Today we read Sdegna Clorinda a i femminili uffici, by Petronilla Paolini Massimi. This sonnet belongs to the long tradition of poems by outspoken women that have no qualms in claiming their complete equality with men.
Petronilla Paolini Massimi uses two literary examples to support her stance. The first quatrain is dedicated to Clorinda, a heroine-warrior in the super-famous poem La Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso. The second extols the intellectual prowess of Amalasonta, the daughter of Theodoric. Her conclusion is clear: since Nature gives women the same abilities that it gives to men, it is men that deny women their due. One cannot blame Petronilla for the strength of her denunciation: she lived a very unhappy life. Married off at the appalling age of ten to the instigator of the killer of her father, she was forced to live in Castel Sant’Angelo, literally a prison at the time, while all she wanted was to study literature and philosophy in a convent. The original: Sdegna Clorinda a i femminili uffici
chinar la destra, e sotto l’elmo accoglie
i biondi crini e con guerriere voglie
fa del proprio valor pompa a i nemici.
Così gli alti natali e i lieti auspici
e gli aurei tetti e le regali spoglie
nulla curando, Amalasonta coglie
de’ fecondi Licei lauri felici.
Mente capace d’ogni nobil cura
ha il nostro sesso: or qual potente inganno
dall’imprese d’onor l’alme ne fura?
So ben che i fati a noi guerra non fanno,
né i suoi doni contende a noi natura:
sol del nostro valor l’uomo è tiranno. \ The music in this episode is Vivaldi’s Credo in Unum Deum, RV 591, played by Advent Chamber Orchestra (under Creative Commons).
