#manzoni

some incunabula and editio princeps I saw in the flesh (and got absurdly excited over) last week:

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, allegedly by Francesco Colonna (Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1499)

Il principe by Niccolò Machiavelli (Antonio Blado, Rome, 1532)

Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Le Terze rime by Dante Alighieri (Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1502)

Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo by Galileo Galilei (Giovan Batista Landini, Florence, 1832)

I promessi sposi by Alessandro Manzoni (Guglielmini e Redaelli, Milan, 1840)

Canti by Giacomo Leopardi (Guglielmo Piatti, Florence, 1831)

Her story only takes two chapters of the novel but it's so fascinating as a standalone.

To put it short, Gertrude's a young noblewoman tormented by love and passion that she can't freely express, and her family uses her guilt against her to make her abide to their wishes (punishments), ultimately resulting in her being forced to enter a monastery and having an affair in the dramatic pursuit of freedom and power. From her wiki page:

[she's] a tragic figure, a bitter, frustrated, sexually deprived and ambiguous woman.

You don't need to know much about the background info, just keep in mind that

It's a historical novel set in 17th century northern Italy under spanish occupation (to mirror the austrian occupation of the same areas occurring at the time the book was written - two centuries later)

Gertrude has to look after a peasant girl named Lucia (and her mother Agnese) as she's hiding from a local nobleman (don Rodrigo) who wants to kidnap/deflower her, and for this reason she's had to part ways with her fiancé Renzo

She's actually inspired by a real person, sister Virginia Maria (born Marianna de Leyva), a noblewoman who was forced to become a nun and had an illicit affair with a man + gave birth to his children in secret.

The man (count Osio) killed three people to hide the affair and was sentenced to death for starvation.

There was also trial against Virginia (ordered by archbishop Federico Borromeo, a historical character that actually appears in the book and saves everyone's ass) and she was sent to be basically buried alive in a monastery in Milan; she survived but decided to remain in the convent till the day she died.

Chapters in english:

(No idea why they translated their names, just know half of them are either spanish or italian)

Life of Marianna de Leyva: