THE LITERARY COURTESAN POET TULLIA D'ARAGONA - A BIOGAPHY OF ITALIAN WOMEN WRITERS

CHICAGO EDU : ITALIAN WOMEN WRITERS : TULIA D'ARAGONA    This biography follows Tullia's travels and residence in various cities of Italy and assorted companions.

In the following passage it is suggested that she may have given birth to a daughter:  On 10 March 1535, Penelope d'Aragona was born. Scholars disagree whether Penelope is Tullia's sister or daughter.  Although twenty to twenty-five years is a significant age difference between siblings it is not an entirely implausible gap.

This next passage suggests that she married and had a son:  On 8 January 1643, in Siena, d'Aragona married Silvestro Guicciardi or Ferrara, although nothing more is known of this relationship, except for a malicious comment by Agnolo Firenzuola that d'Aragona let her husband die of hunger.  The marriage was useful to d'Aragona, for later she used it to exempt herself from living in the neighborhood designated for prostitutes and from wearing apparel designed to differentiate them from, noblewomen.  From d' Aragona's will, preserved in the State Archives in Rome, we learn that she eventually had a son, named Celio, although given that he was young and iin the care of Pietro Chiocca in 1556, we do not know if Guicciardi was indeed his father.