Letters from the Cloister: defending the literary self in Arcangela Tarabotti's Lettere familiari e di complimento

Italica, Spring, 2004 by Meredith Kennedy Ray

Given such a climate of restriction, Tarabotti must have harbored some trepidation about succeeding in having her letters published. After all, she planned to publish an entirely secular work in which she, and her writing, were the principal protagonists, a defense of her literary oeuvre in which she would take aim at her enemies (and, not infrequently, at men in general) while praising her friends, many of whom would not be considered proper associates for a Benedictine nun.

Not only was there no shortage of men (and even women) who might resent the way they were depicted in the Lettere, but objections were sure to be raised on the basis of the writer's religious status. As Zanette points out, there was no mistaking the nature of the Lettere, the manuscript of which must have exuded a "mondanita e ... spregiudicatezza, che non avrebbe potuto ingannare nemmeno il piu sonnolento e il piu cieco dei revisori." (31) Moreover, in addition to their almost single-minded focus on the writer's literary persona, Tarabotti's letters reveal a steady subtext of resistance to the fate of the monaca forzata. In several points, Tarabotti refers to the convent as a prison ("carcere") (32) and to herself as a "martyr" of religion (67); in one letter she declares that her pen (re)produces not precious gems, but rather the sighs of women imprisoned in convents ("povere incarcerate," 68). Nor does she miss the opportunity to target, as in her more overtly political works, the padri difamiglia guilty of putting these women there in the first place, predicting that they will be excluded from Paradise. (33) And yet, in spite of the secular quality of the Lettere and such challenging references to the practice of monacazione forzata and its effect on its victims, Tarabotti was able to obtain the licenza (34) necessary to publish the work. This was probably due in large part to Tarabotti's powerful allies among the Venetian literary elite, in particular Giovan Francesco Loredano, to whom the nun dedicates her epistolario, a founder of the Venetian Accademia degli Incogniti. (35) As historian Mario Infelise points out, Loredano was the "vero e proprio controllore dell'editoria veneziana degli anni '30 e '40," deeply involved in the city's literary scene in a variety of roles, from taking on new manuscripts for publication to examining page proofs. (36) Indeed, in an era of decreasing literary production in Venice (a result of the crisis years that followed the plague of 1630 and the increasing restrictions imposed on print culture in Counter-Reformation Venice), Loredano and the Incogniti were a driving force behind many of the new works being published. (37) Several letters contained in Tarabotti's published collection reiterate that Loredano played a role in the publication of Tarabotti's letters, helping the nun bypass the initial difficulties she seems to have encountered: Tarabotti recalls, for example, that it was Loredano who first urged her to publish them and who, "con gentilissime esibizioni s'offerse d'esser quel nume favorevole che le facesse comparir alla luce." (38) Loredano's involvement in the publication is confirmed by a letter found in his own epistolario, in which he apologizes to Tarabotti for the errors introduced into her Lettere during printing. (39) With his all-important connections to the world of Venetian publishing, Loredano's support was crucial to Tarabotti, if not always completely reliable. Although he encouraged Tarabotti to publish her letters, he lost interest in the project--to her consternation--at least once before helping her bring it to press. The ups and downs of this interaction are reflected in several letters published in her volume, but Tarabotti's dedication of her Lettere to him suggests that their relationship endured his periodic inconstancy.