TULLIA D'ARAGONA
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"La Tullia"
La Tullia was an Italian Renaissance courtesan and honored poet whose birth date and death date are a bit obscure as are other facts about her heritage. I've seen her birth listed as 1501 -1505 and 1510 and her death listed as 1556 and 1570. She was born and died in the city of Rome, though she is known to have traveled and lived in other cities in Italy. This is important because we'd like to know how old she was when she became a Courtesan, though eighteen seems to be the age decided upon. Certainly some women became Courtesans younger than this just as some women married earlier, for it was a time when life expectancy was not what it is today and children leapt into adulthood without the delays we expect today.
Also obscure - her parentage and if her mother was a Courtesan giving birth to an illegitimate daughter or was illegitimate herself. Her mother, considered to be one of the most beautiful women of her time, is mentioned as Giulia (Julia) Pendaglia, possibly a maiden name, as well as Giula Campana, possibly a married name. Her father is mentioned as two possible D'Aragona men; one with no claim to fame, Constanzo Palmierie D'Aragona, who was from Naples and who her mother may have married, possibly to tuck away scandal, or the more noteworthy Cardinal Luigi D'Aragona, who himself was said to be an illegitimate grandson of Ferdinando D'Aragona - once a King of Naples. However her mother is also mentioned as married to another man. Perhaps she married many times. Or perhaps she took the surnames of her best benefactors?
Luigi had a successful career in the church but he was not a Cardinal immediately nor without sin. He was born in 1474 and died in 1519, and so he would not have been around in La Tullia's life for long. He also married a couple years before he entered into the the institution of the Church. His wife was descended from a Pope! But it is said that he was accused of having a sister and her children murdered because he was enraged that she had married and had children beneath the family's status as well. Would such a man not hide his involvement with a Courtesan, considered beneath him in status? I doubt we can be sure centuries later what the truth was.
Like other Courtesans who were accomplished women, she was known for her beauty, manners, charm, and unsaid, her sexuality, La Tullia lived at a time when there was a special place in Italian society for women who lived the life of the Courtesan. She was an intellectual, could hold her own with the intelligencia and the literary, and was a poet. In this way I'm
reminded of the Geisha of Japan who refined themselves and become artists, dancers, entertainers, and perfect companions and sought to chosen by a benefactor. La Tullia held Salons and her writing and poetry included the philosophical discussions she had with men about love.
The Courtesan lifestyle allowed some women to follow their talents in the arts and to study and to acquire financial support from benefactors rather than be a traditional wife depending on a husband and restricted in the expression of their personal interests. However the Courtesan also experienced a woman's life- pregnancy, miscarriages, childbirth, raising children, and children who died. Some experienced being traded in for other Courtesans, abandonment, or the death of their benefactor. It was common then for Courtesan's daughters to also become Courtesans, for the mother to teach the daughter the ways of that world. It was also a time when it wasn't unusual for priests and other men of authority and power within the Roman Catholic church to take lovers and have children by them. Vows such as poverty or celibacy as we think of them seem not to have existed.
Why is the Cardinal Luigi D' Aragona considered to be La Tullia's father? It is because he provided money for her to become accomplished, suggesting he had a personal interest in her and her mother? A child protégée who could entertain her mother's guests by reciting poetry when she only six years old, she was given an education in the classics that was usually only for rich boys.
She is known to have married once and she may have had a child, a daughter, and definitely had a son but the father(s)?. This is not to diminish her accomplishments as a writer and philosopher of love.
This month we'll look a bit into Tullia's life as we celebrate Valentine's the Italian way.
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References for this months posts include a variety of articles, files, and books, some which we will link to including Italian Women Writers - Biography, Tullia d' Aragona..
Note that the painting used for this book cover was done in 1540 and the artist was Moretto Da Brescia. It's of Tullia d'Aragona as the Biblical Salome.
