Maria Maddalena Morelli Fernandez (17 March 1727, Pistoia – 8 November 1800, Florence), also known by the Arcadian pseudonym Corilla Olimpica, was a Florentine Italian poet, improvisatrice, and musician. The official poetess to the grand ducal court in Florence (1765–1775), she won fame as the foremost female performer of the improvised poetry then popular in Italy, and was controversially crowned with the laurel wreath on the Roman Capitol in 1776, an event later fictionalised by Madame de Staël in Corinne, or Italy.[1]
Maria Maddalena Morelli | |
|---|---|
 Portrait printed in Sarah Josepha Hale's Woman's Record (1853) | |
| Born | 17 March 1727 Pistoia |
| Died | 8 November 1800 (aged 73) Florence |
| Pen name | Corilla Olimpica |
| Notable awards |  Laurea poetica (1776) |
References
edit- ^ Hainsworth, Peter; Robey, David, eds. (2002). The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198183327.
Further reading
edit- Ademollo, Alessandro (1887). Corilla Olimpica. Florence: C. Ademollo.
- Burney, Charles (1771). The Present State of Music in France and Italy. London: T. Becket & Co.
- Caesar, Michael (2005). "Improvised poetry". In The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Catucci, Marco (2012). "MORELLI, Maria Maddalena". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 75. (Treccani.it)
- Goldberger, Avriel H., trans. (1987). Madame de Staël (1807). Corinne, or, Italy. New Brunswick N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
- La Cecilia, Giovanni (1861). Storie segrete delle famiglie reali. Vol. 4. Genoa: Cecchi & Armanino.
- Machen, Arthur, trans. (1902). The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt. Vol. 4. New York: G. Putnam's Sons; London: Elek Books.
- Mardikes, Catherine, ed. (2010). "Morelli, Maria Maddalena, 1727?-1800". Italian Women Writers. University of Chicago Library.
- Natali, Giulio (1934). "MORELLI, Maria Maddalena". Enciclopedia Italiana. (Treccani.it)
- "Morèlli, Maria Maddalena" (2014). Enciclopedia on line. (Treccani.it)