SANTINI, Pietr’Antonio. [with] MARINELLI, Lucrezia. [and] LEONI, Ambrogio.

An interesting poetic sammelband, with uncommon works. The most interesting and scarcest  is the second – a versified life of St Francis by the Venetian Lucrezia Marinella (or Marinelli, 1571-1653) daughter of Giovanni Marinelli, a physician who wrote popular works on women’s illnesses. She never married, and lived a secluded life devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and literature, whilst encouraging other talented female writers. A key theme of her works was the defence of women, although she also wrote a couple of religious poems. Her ‘Vita’ is based on Tommaso da Celano’s two biographies of St Francis. Marinelli ‘initially portrays St Francis’ life before his conversion – his love of material things, […] his lust for beautiful women. She then describes St Francis’ conversion […] and his travels to the mountains and to Rome, where he often pauses to meditate and ward off worldly temptations. […] The poem replays Christ’s crucifixion in a dream sequence, after which St Francis receives the stigmata, the physical proof of his perfect imitation of Christ. The poem closes with St Francis’ death and his soul’s ascent towards Heaven’ (Price, ed., p.65). ‘La Taide Convertita’, here in its first edition, was written by Ambrogio Leoni, member of the Crosier (or Hospitaller) order, of whom little is known. It is a religious play on the conversion of St Thais, not included in the Roman martyrology but found among the Eastern saints. Originally a prostitute, St Thais converts to Christianity, then spending three years in the mortification of her body to expiate her past. Unlike in the ‘Golden Legend’, ‘the saint is no longer the isolated protagonist of a heroic Christian story, but the center of a network of human relationships that includes several characters’: the hermit monk, two servants, two suitors, personifications of virtues and vices, and even an angel, Lucifer, and demons (Leone, p.53). The first work is a poetic narration of the life of Christ. An interesting collection.