1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910823751503321

Autore

Aragona Tullia d' <ca. 1510-1556.>

Titolo

Dialogue on the infinity of love [[electronic resource] /] / by Tullia d'Aragona ; edited and translated by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry ; introduction and notes by Rinaldina Russell

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 1997

ISBN

0-226-13636-1

1-281-12543-1

9786611125431

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (124 p.)

Collana

Other voice in early modern Europe

Altri autori (Persone)

RussellRinaldina

MerryBruce

Disciplina

128/.4

Soggetti

Love

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: Introduction to the Series -- Introduction -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- To the Most excellent Signora Tullia d'Aragona from Muzio Iustinapolitano -- To the Most Illustrious Lord Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Florence - her deeply revered master - from Tullia d'Aragona -- Dialogue on the Infinity of Love -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Celebrated as a courtesan and poet, and as a woman of great intelligence and wit, Tullia d'Aragona (1510-56) entered the debate about the morality of love that engaged the best and most famous male intellects of sixteenth-century Italy. First published in Venice in 1547, but never before published in English, Dialogue on the Infinity of Love casts a woman rather than a man as the main disputant on the ethics of love. Sexually liberated and financially independent, Tullia d'Aragona dared to argue that the only moral form of love between woman and man is one that recognizes both the sensual and the spiritual needs of humankind. Declaring sexual drives to be fundamentally irrepressible and blameless, she challenged the Platonic and religious orthodoxy of her time, which condemned all forms of sensual experience, denied the rationality of women, and relegated femininity to the realm of



physicality and sin. Human beings, she argued, consist of body and soul, sense and intellect, and honorable love must be based on this real nature. By exposing the intrinsic misogyny of prevailing theories of love, Aragona vindicates all women, proposing a morality of love that restores them to intellectual and sexual parity with men. Through Aragona's sharp reasoning, her sense of irony and humor, and her renowned linguistic skill, a rare picture unfolds of an intelligent and thoughtful woman fighting sixteenth-century stereotypes of women and sexuality.