Donizo di Canossa (original) (raw)
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A draft translation of extracts from Donizo of Canossa’s ‘Vita Mathildis’ (Life of Matilda, written 1111x1115), relating to Beatrice of Canossa/Tuscany (d.1076), including: a description of her wealth and status (Book I, chapter 9); the extravagant celebrations during her marriage to Boniface of Canossa, and the children they had together, including Matilda of Canossa/Tuscany (Book I, chapter 10); Beatrice’s rule after Boniface’s death and her foundation of monasteries, including Frassinoro (Book I, chapter 17); and Beatrice’s death and burial at Pisa in 1076 (Book I, chapter 20).
A draft translation of Donizo of Canossa, 'Vita Mathildis' (Life of Matilda, written 1111x1115), Book I, chapters 2 to 4, introducing Matilda of Tuscany’s ancestors Adalbert Atto of Canossa, Tedald of Canossa and Boniface of Canossa, who was Matilda’s father. Chapter two describes Atto’s donation of relics and wealth to Canossa. Chapter 3 explains who Atto’s wife and children were. In particular it discusses Atto’s son and successor, Tedald of Canossa, and Tedald’s foundation of the monastery of San Benedetto Po. Chapter 4 describes who Tedald’s wife and children were. It focuses in particular on the generosity of Tedald’s son and successor, Boniface of Canossa.
A draft translation of Donizo of Canossa, 'Vita Mathildis' (Life of Matilda, written 1111x1115), Book I, prologue, introduction and chapter 1, introducing Matilda of Tuscany’s ancestors and their rise to power through royal and episcopal patronage, and describing Queen Adelaide of Italy’s escape from captivity at Garda to safety at Canossa, and the unsuccessful siege of Canossa by Berengar II of Ivrea in 951.
A draft translation of Donizo of Canossa, 'Vita Mathildis' (Life of Matilda, written 1111x1115), Book II, chapter 8 describing Matilda of Tuscany’s rescue of Eupraxia-Adelaide (whom Donizo calls Praxedis) from Verona, where she had been confined by her husband, Henry IV of Germany, and Eupraxia-Adelaide’s subsequent denouncing of Henry’s treatment of her at the synod of Piacenza (March 1095).
A draft translation of Donizo of Canossa, 'Vita Mathildis' (Life of Matilda, written 1111x1115), Book II, prologue, introduction and chapter 1, describing the arrival in Lombardy of Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV of Germany, and their famous meeting at Matilda of Tuscany’s castle of Canossa in January 1077.
Part I Saggi Essays Matilda di Canossa at Casa Buonarroti Firenze
Exhibition Catalogue Catalogo di una mostra, Casa Buonarotti, Firenze, 2016
La donna che mutò il corso della storia MATILDA OF CANOSSA (1046-1115) The Woman who Changed the Course of History a cura di edited by Michèle K. Spike traduzione italiana Italian translation
THE VOICES OF "WOMEN" IN MEDIEVAL ITALIAN POETRY: COMPIUTA DONZELLA AND GUITTONE D'AREZZO
Donne del Mediterraneo: Rappresentazioni e autorappresentazioni, a cura di Marco Marino e Giovanni Spani, Rocco Carabba: Lanciano. Pp. 31 - 42, 2017
Over the past few decades literary scholarship has seen a marked increase in studies dedicated to several aspects of two figures from the second half the thirteenth century: the so-called Compiuta Donzella di Firenze, about whom no certain documentation exists, and Guittone d'Arezzo, a public figure in his own time and 'leader' of the second great moment of Italian poetry. These figures are often considered together for two main reasons: both have sonnets that form parts of tenzoni in the manuscript Vaticano Latino 3793, and Guittone seems to have addressed his fifth letter to Compiuta. While these points merit further discussion, there is yet another common aspect that brings them together but has only been alluded to thus far: both writers employ a woman's poetic voice that is not stereotypical, but rather progressive, to discuss the state of women in the social order that was growing in Florence during the thirteenth century. In a recent publication, Teodolinda Barolini affirms that «possiamo identificare la moraleggiante, utilitaristica, pragmatica corrente della letteratura italiana, che parte da Guittone d'Arezzo e arriva fino a Boccaccio, come la più aperta e progressista verso le donne». Though in some of his poetry (and especially in the later poetry of Fra Guittone) he can also be didactic and/or paternal, his giving an intelligent and rational voice to female characters will help pave the way for even stronger women characters in later poetry, the apotheosis of which will be Dante's version of Francesca da Rimini.
This thesis examines the Christian cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba, a curious piece of poetry of 694 lines, put together solely by lines taken from Virgil, the most celebrated Roman poet throughout antiquity. Her cento tells the story from the creation to the death and resurrection of Jesus, thus encompassing both OT and NT material alike, in more or less equal parts. Although the cento genre was well known in antiquity, Christian centos were not. This is mainly due to the nature of cento composition, which was seen as unserious pieces of poetry, a frivolium opusculum (“a trifling piece of work”), according to writers such as Jerome, Tertullian and Decimus Ausonius. But Proba’s cento is not playful. It serves a different purpose, namely that of recounting various bible narratives in words that lend credence to the cento through its hypotext, and thereby forming a symbiotic link between Christianity and classical literature. In the last hundred years, it has been argued by scholars that Proba’s cento was composed during the reign of Julian the Apostate, who ruled from 361 to 363, as a response to his decree of 17th June 362, debarring Christian teachers from explicating classical texts to students. This gives her cento a pedagogical aim: Christian children could then be educated in the verses of Virgil and at the same time acquaint themselves with the various bible stories presented in her cento. The main question discussed in this thesis is whether or not this theory is the most probable reason for Proba to have written her cento. I have attempted to supply a different theory based on a alternate reading of those instances in her cento pertaining to paideia, arguing that her cento might have been meant for her own children to read and also as a celebration commemorating her conversion to Christianity.