The fabric of Western Culture has its foundations in a long line of philosophers and religious thinkers. Here are some individuals of Italian Heritage who have contributed to weaving it.
Born into a family of wealth and piety, Gregory studied law and worked in government service, becoming Prefect of Rome. After his fathers death, Gregory changed careers, devoting the rest of his life to God. He established six monasteries on the family estate in Sicily, and converted the family home in Rome to a monastery under the patronage of St. Andrew. His mother, Silvia (Saint Silvia) retired there. After being ordained a deacon by Pope Pelagius II, and six years in Constantinople as an ambassador to the Byzantine court, Gregory returned to Rome. His position in the church was elevated, and when Pelagius II died in 590, Gregory was elected Pope. His influences on the doctrines of the Catholic Church were substantial, and include liturgical reform, his attachment to Gregorian chants, and most notably Liber pastoralis curae, a book of rules for Bishops. Pope Gregory died in 604, and was immediately canonized. He is honored as a Doctor of the Church for his contributions. Written by Janice Therese Mancuso
In the early twentieth century, philosopher Benedetto Croce was well known for his views on aesthetics and its correlation to history. His theories on historical knowledge expanded on those of Kants and Hegel ideologies of aesthetics and art. Croce reasoned that intuition and expression were the first two concepts of art, that human knowledge was either intuitive or logical, and that historiography the way history is written is interwoven with philosophy and influenced by aesthetics, intuition, and individual expression. Among his 80 publications, one of his best known works is Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic (1902), his treatise of human knowledge. The following year he established La critica, a magazine that reviewed the historical, literary, and philosophical works of European writers. He ceased publishing the magazine in 1944 and started I Quaderni della Critica, Notebooks of Critical Thought. Croce is viewed by many as "one of the very few great teachers of humanity." Written by Janice Therese Mancuso
Baptized as Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone, the name chosen by his mother to honor St. John the Baptist, his named was changed to Francis by his father. The wealth of his family afforded Francis an early life spent in revelry, and he dreamed of becoming a knight. At 20, he joined to fight a war between ihis hometown of Assisi and Perugia, and was taken prisoner. He spent a year in captivity, and after returnng home, became ill; but recovered and vowed to continue his military career. On his way to enlist in a fight against Puglia, Francis encountered a vision that turned his life toward God. After several years of prayer, he took a vow of poverty, refurbished several ruined churches, and traveled throughout the region, preaching brotherly love and penitence. A small following led Francis to seek approval from the Pope, in 1209, for a new religious order, the Friars Minor, now known as the Franciscan Order. The Order quickly grew, as Francis traveled to other countries, and two more Orders were established. In 1223, to commemorate the Nativity, Francis known as the Patron Saint of Animals created the first live manger. Francis was venerated as a saint in 1228, two years after his death. Written by Janice Therese Mancuso
Devoting most of her life to Jesus, Catherine of Sienna pursued a path of spiritually through the Third Order of the Dominicans (non-ordained) – the first order is male clergy, the second order, nuns – living a cloistered life in her home and later traveling outside of Sienna as a public apostle of Christianity. Throughout her life, starting when she was about six years old and saw her first vision of Jesus, Catherine experienced apparitions that guided her to compose four treatises detailing her conversations with Christ. She was beatified in 1461 by Pope Pius II. In 1939, she was declared – along with St. Francis of Assisi – a patron saint of Italy, and in 1970 she was made a Doctor of the Church, a title given to those who have significantly dedicated their lives to Christian teachings.
During the peak of the Great Plague, Catherine Benincasa was born into a family with about half of her 22 siblings surviving, and with a twin sister who died shortly after birth. Her childhood was guided by her father, a successful yarn dyer, and mother, both wanting all their daughters to follow the traditional role of marriage and family. Even though Catherine had a vision of Jesus at an early age and had pledged her life to Him shortly after, her parents convinced her to spend time with her married older sister who would provide an influential example of married life; but when Catherine was 15, her sister died in childbirth, reaffirming Catherine’s decision to a life of piety.
In their attempt to persuade Catherine to abandon her religious calling, her parents would not provide solitude and required her to become a household servant; and some sources state Catherine’s parents also encouraged her to marry her deceased sister’s husband. Catherine rebelled by fasting and cutting her hair to make her less attractive. Eventually, she was given her own room, and when she was 18 years old, she joined the Third Order of the Dominicans, enabling her to live at home while providing a religious foundation that supported her beliefs.
After several years of religious attainment, Catherine experienced an apparition of marriage to Christ, receiving a ring and, later, the stigmata (wound marks of Christ) only she could see. With this mystical marriage, that reinforced her commitment to His teachings and beliefs, Catherine also received the message to become active in the outside world, helping those in poverty and illness. In doing so, she expanded her circle of followers – men, women, intellects, peasants, politicians, and nobility among others – through her travels. She also attracted misbelievers and in 1374, Catherine was brought before the Dominican Order in Florence for questioning. Absolved of any wrongdoing, she obtained a spiritual director, Raymond of Capua – a prominent member of the Order, and later a Master General – who became a close consultant, travel companion, and author of her first biography.
Catherine traveled to Avignon in 1376 to convince Pope Gregory XI to bring the Papacy back to Rome. (The following year, Gregory did return to Rome, but his death several months later caused the Western Schism that lasted until 1417.) In 1377, Catherine began work on what would become The Dialogue of Divine Providence, the accounts and her interpretations of her conversations with Jesus. According to various sources, Catherine did not learn to write until 1377, and most of her spiritual works – many of the almost 400 letters and other written documents she composed – were dictated by her to scribes.
Throughout her life, Catherine often fasted, and concerns about her nutrition were frequently brought to her attention, but her focus was on delivering the message of Jesus, and her fasting was part of the message. A stroke at 33 left her without the use of her legs and she died a week later. Her body was interred in Rome, but her head was removed and taken to Sienna where it was placed in the Basilica of San Domenico, also known as the Basilica Cateriniana di San Domenico. Described as having a strong personality, compared to Dante and Petrarch in her composed works, depicted as a prophet, and referred to as a mystical theologian, Catherine of Sienna was an imposing force on religious matters during the late fourteenth century, and her work is often acknowledged today.
In the sixteenth century, Italy was experiencing major changes: the Renaissance was spreading further across Europe as the Italian Wars were advancing across the peninsula. While the wars were impacting foreign policy, for nobility and the upper echelons of society living in prosperous cities, the cultural changes of the Renaissance had provided a pleasurable living, and among the artisans and intellects, among the popes and the counts, and among the rich of any occupation, the courtesan – a sophisticated and highly educated woman – was part of their social circle. Tullia d’Aragona lived in a world of comfort, but her life was shrouded in ambiguity. Her mother was a courtesan, and said to have been a member of the noble Pendaglia family from Ferrara (northeast of Bologna); the Pendaglia Palazzo is now owned and used by the city. Most sources identify her father as Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona (b. 1474), believed to be a grandson of Ferdinand I, King of Naples. (Other sources claim her father was Pietro Tagliavia d'Aragona, born in 1499, making him six years old the year of d’Aragona’s birth. Her birth year is sometimes reported as 1510, he would have been eleven.) The Cardinal’s affluence provided d’Aragona with an education that spanned the humanities and granted her the title of “intellect.” By all accounts, she was an exceptional student; some note her proficiency in Latin, others claim she was a child prodigy. She was born in Rome, travelled with her mother to Siena, and returned to Rome by the mid-1520s. Around that time, she became associated with Filippo Strozzi, a Florentine banker living in Rome. (The Strozzi family had a contentious relationship with the Medici family – at times in competition for wealth, and at other times working together to build both of their financial empires.) Strozzi sometimes travelled with her and after his death in 1538 – either by suicide or murder – d’Aragona went to Venice, and later lived in Sienna.
The uncertain political atmosphere within the myriad sections of a divided land may have been the reason d’Aragona travelled throughout the northern regions. Living in Venice, Bologna, Florence, Sienna, and Ferrara, and in between, Rome, she assembled local cognoscenti to discuss social issues; and her reputation as an intellect, philosopher, and writer grew. She was outspoken with her beliefs about relationships between men and women and her education – along with the differing opinions and knowledge she gained through visiting other cities – provided the foundations for her arguments. Her philosophies are often described as neoplatonic: essentially that men and women possess the same sensual experiences. In 1535, Penelope d’Aragona was born, with both the town (near Venice) and her relation to d’Aragona uncertain. It’s noted that Penelope was described by the family as Tullia’s sister, and Tullia was back in Rome four months after the birth; however, it is debated that Penelope may have been Tullia’s daughter. (Penelope died in her teen years.) A husband and a son are also attributed to d’Aragona, and while she did acknowledged the birth of a son in the late 1540s, the father is not known and no further official records have been found to document the marriage.
During the mid-1540s, d’Aragona settled in Florence at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de Medici and his wife, Eleonora de Toledo. Changing governments were enacting new laws and one required courtesans and those in similar professions to wear a yellow veil. Several sources relate an incident where d’Aragona – with her identity of philosopher/writer and courtesan blending – appealed to the Duke and Duchess to exempt her from putting on the veil and because of her skills as a philosopher and poet, she was freed from wearing the restrictive covering.
In Florence, d’Aragona wrote Rime della Signora Tullia di Aragona e di diversi a lei (Poems of Madam Tullia de Aragona and Several Others), a compilation of poems written for her and by her, dedicating it to the Duchess. Later that same year (both published in 1547), she wrote Il Dialogo della Signora Tullia d’Aragona della Infinita di Amore (Dialogue on the Infinity of Love) dedicated to “Lord Cosimo de’ Medici, Duke of Florence.” In the book, d’Aragona and the humanist and historian Benedetto Varchi – with their friend Dr. Lattanzio Benucci joining in towards the end of the conversation and others in attendance – present a philosophical approach to love and desire addressing the topic “Is it possible to love within limits?” It was the first book to prominently feature a woman’s view on the principals of love.
In 1548, d’Aragona returned to Rome and continued her avocation of hosting philosophical talks in her home. She rewrote, in verse, Il Guerrin Meschino (first published in 1473), a classic tale of a boy searching for his parents. Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino was published in 1560, four years after she died. In the twenty-first century, with more interest in the roles of women in all aspects of society, d’Aragona’s work is considered an important contribution in analyzing the history of women. Written by Janice Therese Mancuso
Additional Source: Dialogue on the Infinity of Love by Tullia d’Aragona (Edited and Translated by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry)
The Cornaro family has ties to Venice going back to before it became a Republic in the late seventh century. In 1172, the Great Council of Venice – the city’s governing bureau – was established, consisting of Venetian nobility and including prominent male members of the Cornaro family. The family accrued great wealth and commissioned numerous palaces (many along the Grand Canal), churches, villas, and two theaters in Padua; and artwork (Bellini, Titian, Tiepolo, and others) now displayed in museums throughout the world. In the mid-fourteenth century, the Cornaro family was divided into two branches, with the surname Cornaro Piscopia emerging from the acquisition of a land grant for the village of Episkopi on the island of Cyprus.
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia has the distinction of being the first woman on record to receive a doctorate degree. One of the family’s earliest prominent women was Felicia Cornaro, wife of the Doge Vital I Michiel, and supporter of the First Crusade (1096-1099) initiated by Pope Urban II. Another was Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus from 1474 to 1489. Elena was born into this noble family that also included cardinals, bishops, doges, and other distinguished titles. Her father, Giovanni Battista (or Gianbattista) Cornaro Piscopia, held the second highest office (after the Doge) in Venice: Procuratore di San Marco, overseer of the treasury and its administration; but her mother, Zanetta Boni, was from a different social class. Most sources note that Elena’s parents were not married when she was born, but did eventually marry.
It is also noted that Giovanni Battista was a proud and ambitious man wanting only the best for his family and determined to bring legitimacy to his children – Elena may have had up to six siblings. Whether her father or a family priest made the discovery, Elena was found to be an exceptional learner at an early age, and at seven years old, she was being tutored in Greek and Latin. Arabic, French, Hebrew, and Spanish, along with the standard subjects of a classical education – mathematics, the sciences, and philosophy – and theology and music were added to her studies; she mastered all. Her musical talents included playing several instruments, composing songs, and singing.
A typical practice of the time was for a father to exhibit his daughter’s talents, and Giovanni Battista made Elena the center of the presentations he sponsored, inviting intellects from throughout Europe to listen to her musical performances and participate in academic debates. The news of her exceptional talents and knowledge travelled, and she was widely known throughout Europe. Although all topics were of interest to her, Elena placed the most significance on theology and wanted to join the Benedictine Order of Nuns. Her father would not give his permission – he had tried several times to arrange a marriage for Elena, but she refused – so Elena made a vow to the Order, but did not become a nun, and instead conceded to her father’s wishes to attend the University of Padua.
At the University, she continued to study theology and held debates that were well attended by scholars, visiting dignitaries, and even members of the Venetian Senate. She applied for a degree for a Doctor of Theology, but was refused because the church did not recognize women as suitable for the degree; instead the University offered her a degree for a Doctor of Philosophy. In 1678, Cornaro Piscopia debated, in Latin, the principles of Aristotle before a crowd so large, the event was held in a cathedral instead of at the University.
After receiving her doctorate degree, Cornaro Piscopia continued to study philosophy, theology, and music, participated in debates, lectured in mathematics, and administered to the needy. Some sources claim she again took the vow of the Benedictines but did not officially join the Order, and most attribute her tireless work as the underlying cause of her death at 38 years old. She was deeply mourned, with some proclaiming a “saint” had died. Services were held in Venice, Padua, and Rome, and her body was interred in the Chapel of St. Luke in the Basilica di Santa Giustina in Padua. About six months after her death, the University of Padua issued a bronze medal in her honor – its first for a woman; and at some time during the 1770s, a statue of Cornaro Piscopia was installed at the University.
The Church of Saint Giustina fell into disrepair during the Italian Wars, but in the late nineteenth century it was restored and Cornaro Piscopia’s crypt was refurbished. In the United States, a 22-foot-tall stained glass window dedicated to Cornaro Piscopia was installed in the library of Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York) in 1906. Cornaro Piscopia is often acknowledged for her work across many fields of study, for her religious beliefs, and for her determination in her pursuit to achieve her goals despite the obstacles. Written by Janice Therese Mancuso
Additional Sources: The Art of Living Long by Luigi Cornaro (c.1464–1566) A Beautiful Woman in Venice by Kathleen Ann González The Lady Cornaro: Pride and Prodigy of Venice by Jane Howard Guernsey
