Parlour Games and The Public Life of Women in Renaissance PDF

PARLOUR GAMES AND THE PUBLIC LIFE
OF WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE ITALY
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GEORGE McCLURE
Parlour Games and the

Public Life of Women in
Renaissance Italy
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS

Toronto Bualo London
University of Toronto Press 2013

Toronto Bualo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4426-4659-9
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetablebased inks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

McClure, George W., 1951
Parlour games and the public life of women in Renaissance
Italy / George McClure.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4659-9
1. Women Italy Social life and customs 16th century.
2. Women Italy Intellectual life 16th century.3. Women
Italy History Renaissance, 14501600.4. Indoor games Social
aspects Italy History 16th century.5. Renaissance Italy.
6. Italy Social life and customs 16th century.I. Title.
hq1149.i8m34 2013305.4094509'031c2012-908140-X
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its

publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the

Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing
activities.
Contents
Illustrationsvii
Prefaceix
1The Renaissance Theory of Play3
2The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women (15251555)29
3The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (15631569)55
4Fortunes, Medals, Emblems: The Public Face of Private Women81
5The Birth of the Assicurate: Italys First Female Academy
(16541704)119
6Girolamo Gigli: The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese
Women159
Conclusion182
Notes199
Bibliography287
Index307
Illustrations
1.1
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
4.10
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
6.1
The Game of Happiness and Goods16

Fortune for Elena Tolomei98
Fortune for Livia Marzi100
Fortune for Sulpitia Pannilini de Placidi102
Fortune for Flavia Bellanti103
Emblem of an Unnamed Young Lady106
Emblem of Girolama Petrucci111
Emblem of Fulvia Spannocchi de Sergardi112
Emblem of Leonora Montalvi degli Agostini114
Emblem for an Unnamed Woman 115
Emblem for an Unnamed Widow117
Title Page of the Academy Book of the Assicurate127
Emblem of the Academy of the Assicurate128
Founding of the Academy of the Assicurate129
Roster of Members of the Academy of the Assicurate131
Title Page of Accounts . . . of Giuochi di Spirito Performed in Siena
at Various Times134
Party of 1664, from Accounts . . . of Giuochi di Spirito Performed
in Siena at Various Times138
Party of October 1664, Lucrezia Santi Bandinellis Introduction to
Giulia Turaminis lecture Concerning the Excellence of Women
Over Men at a Party of June 1691140
Title Page of Sole Assicurate Publication, Poesie per Musica155
Roster of Assicurate Members180
Preface
Rejoice, Ladies of the Assicurate, that through a pastime you can make war on time, and
through play you can acquire immortality. With the spirited fearlessness of your wits
this evening you can open up for yourselves a passage to glory. Do not be frightened of
the heroic majesty that . . . will give you courage to make public those virtues that until
now you have kept hidden under the silence of a rigorous modesty.
(BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 58r)
So was recorded the speech of a Sienese woman to her colleagues in the

all-female Academy of the Assicurate (the Assured) during a spirited
parlour game in 1664. Parlour games involving both men and women
emerged as a distinctive institution and literary genre in Italian Renaissance culture. Especially when moving beyond the confines of the court,
such revels constituted a new social space. Somewhere between the
fully public male contests (e.g., tournaments) and fully private games
in womens quarters, parlour games occurring in the public room of
the private home among mixed company comprised a playing and
viewing public that aorded a novel venue for discourse on a variety
of literary, social, and political issues. They also reflected a new cultural zone somewhere between learned and popular culture whether
lowering learned thought to a vernacular idiom or elevating oral
culture (such as proverbs) to the realm of intellectual debate. What do
these games tell us about the interactions of men and women? What do
the structure and content of the games reveal about the intellectual and
cultural life of polite, festive society? How do these games both reflect
social realities in some ways and challenge them in others? Operating
in a temporary world on the margins of traditional hierarchies, such
xPreface
ludic encounters fall into that category Victor Turner defines as the
liminoid, capable of posing alternative social models. In this sense,
parlour games are a window onto a neglected dimension of social experience and experimentation. In particular, my focus will be on patrician women, who were often the overseers of night-time revels and
who, for once, were able to engage men competitively on a somewhat
equal footing and aspire to open their own passage to glory. The purpose of this study is to show that beneath the frivolous exterior of such
games as occasions for idle banter, flirting, and seduction there often
lay a lively contest for power and agency, and the opportunity for conventional women to demonstrate their intellect and talent, to achieve
a public identity, to engage the querelle des femmes, and even to model
new behaviour and institutions in the non-ludic world.
In presenting such an opportunity, the parlour game broadened the
social base of women aorded the chance for intellectual engagement
and cultural performance. As Frances Yates, Diana Robin, Carolyn Lougee, and Julie Campbell have shown, emerging salons and academies
in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, France, and England included some women, but such participants were generally limited to
a courtly or noble elite or to the exceptional literary figure. Moreover,
because Italian salons at times featured or promoted courtesans such as
Tullia dAragona or Veronica Franco, female eloquence could, as Margaret Rosenthal has argued, be associated with promiscuity. The parlour game, by contrast, allowed practically commanded respectable
women to speak up. And it did so in a manner paralleling the rise of female actresses such as Isabella Andreini in the commedia dellarte companies beginning in mid-sixteenth-century Italy. A Sienese parlour game
called the Comedy mirrored the performative structure of such comedies; in fact, the contest or agon that animated parlour games even has
some counterpart in the singing contests between these professional
actresses, which Anne MacNeil describes. The other opportunity for
female performance was to be found in the convents, as Elissa Weaver
has shown in her study of convent theatre in Venice and Colleen Reardon in her treatment of convent music in Siena. The women of the
Italian giuochi di spirito (witty games), however, were largely a class of
participants distinct from these groups. They were not necessarily royalty or nobility, not necessarily courtesans, not professional actresses,
not nuns, but simply the wives and daughters of the urban patriciate.
In this sense, these festivities oered a voice to the traditional, the unexceptional: to matrons of the home and to daughters coming out into
Prefacexi
society. It is this heretofore silent and invisible group that our study
wants to hear and see.
The game dynamic was, moreover, one that interested writers in
broad, experimental social terms. Whether in treatises on card games,
chess, or parlour games, one area of their theoretical concern involved
the sexual rules of play. Should men lose to women out of courtesy?
Are games simply surrogates for the metaphorical game of courtship?
Should women be shy or assertive in game playing? Do women want
truly to compete with men? Part of my study will explore this larger
discourse on gender politics and consider its relevance to general views
of female agency. In two versions of his treatise on games, Torquato
Tasso, imprisoned in Ferrara, presented a powerful case for the assertive female player in the card game primiera and likely did so with an
eye towards eliciting female help in the real world of his embattled
circumstances. A similar plea for authentic competition came in the
voice of a female interlocutor in a Mantuan game book written by Ascanio de Mori. As in the case of Moris treatise, my chief focus will be
on descriptive and prescriptive collections of games of wit and intellect,
and literary simulations of such games, for these oered the opportunity for women to far pompa dello spirito (to make a show of their
wit). Such treatises including those by Innocenzio Ringhieri in Bologna, Girolomo Bargagli in Siena, Bartolomeo Arnigio in Brescia, and
Stefano Guazzo in Casale Monferrato reveal that another prominent
debate revolved around larger moral and cultural function of games:
are they meant to elevate or to divert? To control or to liberate?
Although my study will treat the literature of games emanating from
various parts of Italy including Florence, Rome, Urbino, Bologna,
Brescia, Casale Monferrato, Ferrara, Mantua, Venice, and Padua my
principal focus will be on Siena. Here emerged the most vibrant tradition of giuochi di spirito, one that eventually became a central theme
in Sienese cultural identity and a source of Sienese fame throughout
Italy and even abroad. This tradition was spawned by the new academy
culture emerging in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The
Academy of the Intronati (the Stunned) arose in reaction to the chaos
of the Italian Wars as an overtly non-political literary society aimed at
cultural restoration and escapist diversion. The entertainment and promotion of women was a pivotal part of the Intronatis cultural agenda.
Not only did the academy collectively pitch its literary and theatrical
productions to women, but individual members, such as Alessandro
Piccolomini, became spokesmen for female dignity and champions of
xiiPreface
certain local Sienese women. Quite possibly the general turn to women
can be seen as part of the Sienese retreat from traditional political concerns which itself may have been intensified by its increasing domination by Florence, a process capped by the siege and fall of Siena in the
mid-1550s. Thus, just as in an earlier time Siena played Ghibelline
to Florences Guelph, so in the sixteenth century it once again assumed an almost antithetical identity to its powerful neighbour this
time playing the role of apolitical, ludic, feminized state to Florences
aggressive, powerful, ducal state.
Whatever the reason, the Intronati and numerous other academies
of the Sienese elite directed their attention to women, and not just in
an amatory way. As the principal literary spokesmen of the parlour
games of the Intronati, Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli emphasized the
importance of women assertively engaging in these games, which offered them an opportunity for public fame denied them in other areas.
The Bargagli brothers game books present theoretical statements on
the purpose and structure of parlour games as well as, in Girolamos
case, descriptions of games that had been played and, in Scipiones
case, fictive simulations of games as they could have been played. Written in the 1560s, both books came in the aftermath of the fall of Siena;
in fact, Scipiones book is explicitly set during the siege, a crisis that
prompted the leadership of three women who, under banners with
their individual insignias, led a force of three thousand women to aid
in the fortification of the city. This famous incident became the stu of
legend in subsequent centuries, and the early eighteenth-century Intronati writer Girolamo Gigli pressed the case that the military agency
of these women was linked to their ludic agency in the parlour games.
But the military role of Sienese women is only the most dramatic possible example of the ludic nudge to public agency and visibility, as the
games also oered opportunities for women publicly to present poetry,
to lecture and debate, and to receive (and sometime devise) public personas through fortunes, emblems, insignias, nicknames, and mottoes.
When the Florentine state shut down the Intronati and other Sienese
academies in 1568, new groups arose, such as the Ferraiuoli and the
Travagliati, which continued the Intronati tradition, making compilations of female medallions and fortunes that were in eect public statements of female identity and potential. This in turn led to the entre
of women into the world of the Renaissance emblem, which could be
an important vehicle for womens public fame and self-expression. By
the mid-seventeenth century the Sienese games produced their most
Prefacexiii
tangible institutional result, the creation of Italys first all-female academy. The Academy of the Assicurate, which flourished from 1654 to
1704, was created out of an Intronati parlour game in which the rule
of the Kingdom of Love was transferred from men to women. Like the
male academies, this new female academy inducted individuals who,
proving themselves deserving through some demonstration of talent or
cleverness, were assigned appropriate nicknames, emblems, and mottoes. Aside from brief records of their events and membership, there is
to be found in Sienas Biblioteca Comunale a compilation containing
lengthy accounts of several of the parlour games played by members of
the Assicurate and Intronati. Written in various hands, these accounts
are an invaluable and rare source preserving oral culture, as they oer
us an almost reportorial account of the exchanges between men and
women at these games.
The swan song of the Assicurate came in a game of 1704, which actually resulted in a brief publication under the name of their academy. In
the following years the leading figure of the Intronati, Girolamo Gigli,
lamented the decline of the Assicurate and urged its revival, in part
for the benefit of his daughter. In various published and unpublished
works, Gigli celebrated the history (and mythology) of the Sienese
games and women. In 1719 he published a work in which he envisioned
a dramatic expansion of the universe of Assicurate to include notable
women throughout Italy, whom he immortalized in a catalogue of 219
members identified by flattering nicknames, devices, and mottoes. The
legacy of the Assicurate endured somewhat, as at least two of its members would be enrolled in the Roman Academy of the Arcadi, which
published their poetry in its multi-volume anthology of 171620. This
same academy also held Olympic (parlour) Games in Rome, one of
whose participants was the improvisational poetess Maria Maddalena
Morelli of Pistoia, who became the model for the novel Corinne (1807)
by Frances most famous salonnire, Madame de Stal.
A few words on method and terminology. While historical in its purpose and focus, this study seeks to join historical and literary analysis
in one particular way. In essence, the book will deal with the triangulation of three realms: the actual lives of women in their world; their
ludic lives in this liminoid realm of the parlour game; and the writings
concerning these games and their female dimension. This last realm
the literary one that connects the real world and the game world
sometimes has a function that is not simply descriptive or imaginary
but also prescriptive, even at times functioning as a form of rhetorical
xivPreface
advocacy to embolden both the ludic and real agency of women. These
literary accounts thus need to be read not only for the reality they purport to record or the fictional worlds they create but also for their rhetorical subtexts in regard to female autonomy. The interaction between
this literary realm and the world of play and reality constitutes what I
call a ludic triangle, which represents an unexplored model of social
change and cultural innovation.
As for my use of the term feminism, for me as for others writing
of this period this is largely by way of default. Certainly, I do not intend by its use to transpose the feminist sensibilities of the modern era
back onto the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I use the term as
an antonym to patriarchy (male control of government, society, and
family) to indicate a sentiment favouring greater female voice, equality, and autonomy. As the title of Torquato Tassos Discorso delle virt
feminile e donnesca suggests, Renaissance writers themselves struggled
to find the proper language to describe the domain of female virtue and
character. Nor does my study intend to credit men with too much empathy or women with too much power. To be sure, some men doubtless
sang the praises of women for amatory reasons, and some men were
condescending in coaching women to be more assertive and cerebral.
And yet, some of these same men were also truly invested in facilitating
the emergence of women from an exclusively private sphere into the
public domain. As we shall see, this is evident not only in the parlour
game literature per se, but also in other genres of history, biography,
moral philosophy, and funeral orations, in which Sienese men defined
and praised female virtue. In this regard, I hope that my study complements the work of Diana Robin, Meredith Ray, and Lynn Lara Westwater on the cooperation of men and women in the publishing of female
authors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Finally, why Renaissance in the title? I could as well have chosen
early modern, as the books boundaries run from the mid-fourteenth
century (Boccaccio) to the early eighteenth. To some, the term Renaissance connotes a backward-looking, elite, Latin culture; and early
modern a forward-looking, more inclusive culture and society. This
study in part touches on the transition between these worlds, especially
since parlour games at times translated classical culture to a more accessible vernacular plane. But I chose Renaissance in part because
I want to provide another response to Joan Kellys famous question,
Did Women Have a Renaissance? As Margaret King has shown, various answers to this question have been given in terms of social and
Prefacexv
economic history, spiritual life, and humanist and literary pursuits. In

the case of the last area, the series of texts of female writers that she and
Albert Rabil have issued over the past twenty years (The Other Voice
in Early Modern Europe) has certainly armed the literary gains made
by women in this period as have the studies of Virginia Cox, Janet
Smarr, and Sarah Gwyneth Ross but the realm of play and oral culture has not been fully explored. What this study will show is that the
flowering of games promoted a cultural renewal for a certain class of
women in several ways. First, the ludic world oered them opportunities to perform in an intellectual setting in which both classical themes
and contemporary popular culture could be debated and contested.
Second, it gave them an arena for fame, as originality and cleverness in
such settings became a theme of praise. Third, in Siena it led to the institutionalization of cultural activities in the creation of a female academy, which, if not as fully autonomous as the male academies of the
period, certainly mirrored their cultural practices. The visibility of this
female Renaissance is attested to by the sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and
eighteenth-century histories and biographies that trumpet this fame of
Sienese women and their game playing as a signal feature of Sienese
glory. Indeed, these games and their legacy represent an underexamined link between the archetypes of the idealized, beloved woman of
medieval court culture and the actualized, intellectual woman of early
modern salon culture.
As for technical matters, for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
I have converted all dates in Siena from old style to new style, but
for dates in the first half of the eighteenth century (when the conversion is in transition) I will use the customary slash (e.g., 1721/2) when
dates fall between January 1 and March 25. As for the surnames of
women, which during the period would often take the feminine form
(as in Laudomia Forteguerra), I will use the patronymic (Forteguerri) except in quotations, as this conforms to modern citation style.
Portions of chapter 1 appeared in Renaissance Quarterly 61 (2008) as
Women and the Politics of Play in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Torquato
Tassos Theory of Games. Finally, all translations are my own, unless
otherwise noted.
I am grateful to the stas of many libraries, most especially Dott.
Rosanna De Benedictis and Dott. Pepi Renzo of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati in Siena. I also wish to thank in Siena the Biblioteca
of the Universit per Stranieri and the Archivio di Stato; in Florence,
the Biblioteca Nazionale and the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana; in
xviPreface
Venice, the Biblioteca del Museo Correr; in the United States, Sterling
Memorial Library at Yale, Memorial Library at the University of Wisconsin, the John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections
at Boston College (holder of the only copy in the States of Ottonellis
massive 1646 Pericolosa conversatione con le donne, which they digitized
and provided free to me, courtesy of Robert O'Neill), and the Interlibrary Loan sta of Gorgas Library at the University of Alabama. For
research support, I am grateful to the Bankhead Fund of the Department of History of the University of Alabama. For thoughtful criticisms
and helpful suggestions I am indebted to the anonymous readers for
the University of Toronto Press and I thank others at the press, especially Suzanne Rancourt, who helped bring the book to life, and to
Charles Stuart, who rescued the text from many infelicities. My children Rosie and David became adults during the writing of the book.
Even after leaving home yes, they really left they continued to ask
of my progress with utmost tact and discretion. My greatest debt is
to my wife, Jennifer, who is an astute and tireless (!) critic in matters of
both substance and style. Her suggestions have been invaluable. Born
a bit earlier, she would no doubt have been the Principessa of the Assicurate. To her I lovingly dedicate this book.
PARLOUR GAMES AND THE PUBLIC LIFE

OF WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE ITALY
1The Renaissance Theory of Play
Rabelais would lead us to believe that the sixteenth-century appetite

for games could match a giants boundless capacity for food, as his
Gargantua played over two hundred games in one sitting. Certainly,
this gargantuan list bespeaks the considerable presence of play in European popular culture in the sixteenth century.1 Cinquecento Italys
distinction in this realm lay not in its inheritance of such a rich tradition of games, but rather in its pioneering articulation of a cultural
theory of games. This century had seen the growth of game culture
and game analysis in various settings: from the verse treatment of chess
in Girolamo Vidas Scacchia ludus (1527), to Aretinos dialogue Le carte
parlanti (1543), to Antonio Scainos treatise on tennis in his Trattato del
giuoco della palla (1555), to the parlour-game books of Innocenzio Ringhieri (1551) and Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (1572, 1587), and finally to a general theory of play in Torquato Tassos Gonzaga secondo
overo del giuoco (Second Gonzaga or on games) (1582). No longer were
comments on games submerged in larger encyclopedic or geographical
works, but there arose a discrete literature defending the utility of play
and contextualizing its cultural and social meanings.2 This chapter will
consider the Renaissance theory of play with a particular eye to issues
of gender and the emergence of parlour games.
In his popular La Piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo
(1585), Tomaso Garzoni included a chapter entitled Game Players
among his comprehensive catalogue of vocations and avocations. Surveying ancient public games, chess, cards, dice, all manner of contemporary childrens games, tavern games, and the recent appearance of
tarot cards and parlour games, he opens his chapter with a definition of
4Parlour Games
a game from Tassos recent Gonzaga secondo overo del giuoco.3 It is revealing that Garzoni, who often traced out the classical roots in the definition of human pursuits, turns to a contemporary source in this case.
For all of its specific traditions and descriptions of games, the GraecoRoman world oered no theoretical treatment of generic play. Renaissance Italy did, and one significant dimension of sixteenth-century
game literature was its transformation from a predominantly ironic
or burlesque treatment of play to an authentic, serious analysis. Three
works dealing with card games illustrate the point.
In 1526 Francesco Berni whose burlesque works included praises
of the urinal, eels, and thistles composed a Capitolo and Commento del
gioco della primiera, a poem on the card game primiera and a gloss on
the poem in the style a humanist might give to a work of Virgil. He offers detailed etymologies of vernacular proverbs and expressions used
in card games, and shows primieras capacity to mirror theological and
cardinal virtues, to pique all the passions, and to test character.4 Berni's
fulsome flattery of cards undoubtedly influenced Aretinos lengthy dialogue, the Carte parlanti, in which Cards persuade a card maker of the
nobility of his vocation. The conversation combines absurd and ironic
praises (of the player who is as zealous as a religious hermit) with more
serious encomia of the liberal player who conforms to the laws of play
and shows moderation and true constancy in the face of both winning and losing. In naming examples of many impressive card players,
such as the dedicatee Ferrante Sanseverino, Aretino moved beyond the
exclusively ironic and showed that such a popular pastime could truly
be a mirror of character, a test of skill, and an arena for fame. In fact,
he contrasts the honesty and clarity of cards where a seven is a seven
and an ace an ace with the hypocrisy and ruses of the lawyers and
doctors and the false flattery meted out by writers.5 Much of what was
animating Berni and Aretino was a hostility towards the pretentions of
high-humanist learning and establishment culture. Their promotion of
game culture was partly a plea for the recognition of a more inclusive
and universal realm of popular experience. But by the last quarter of
the sixteenth century, the irony has fallen away, and in Tassos Gonzaga
secondo the analysis of primiera and all games is wholly serious, as
Tasso attempts to reform the rules of play among the well-born.
Tassos Theory of Games
Tassos theory of play, which he develops over the course of two treatises, warrants close attention for several reasons. Not only is it a
The Renaissance Theory of Play5
serious (rather than a burlesque) analysis of primiera, but also it represents the most ambitious theoretical attempt in the Cinquecento to develop a theory that embraces all types of games. Most importantly, the
story behind Tassos writing of his two game books is emblematic of
the ties between female play and female agency. Tassos first treatment
of games appeared in a short treatise entitled Il Romeo overo del giuoco,
published in 1581.6 This dialogue is set at the Este court at Ferrara during Carnival of 1579 at the occasion of Alfonso IIs marriage to Margherita Gonzaga. At the festivities, according to the treatises framework,
the Ferrarese courtier Count Annibale Romei had discussed games before the dignitaries at court, and one auditor, Annibale Pocaterra, later
reported the conversation to an unidentified Margherita while she
watched her husband play the card game primiera. Their conversation,
thus purporting to convey aspects of Romeis discourse, ranges over
many issues such as the types of games (those, like dice, in which luck
is dominant, and those, like chess, in which skill prevails); the venues
of games (fully public spectacles, fully private games in womens quarters, and the middle realm of polite play usually occurring in the home
and yet sometimes in public);7 the goals of games (victory yielding a
reward, an imitation of events in the real world); the role of Fortune in
play; and the delight derived from games.8
This broad outline of the theory of play was rather brief, and Tasso
soon revisited the topic, greatly expanding the Romeo in the Gonzaga secondo, published the following year in 1582. Though framed in the same
context of Romeis Carnival discussion of games, this version adds a
third interlocutor, Giulio Cesare Gonzaga (namesake of the treatise),
who joins Pocaterra and Margherita, now fully identified as Margherita Bentivoglio (daughter of Alfonsos military commander, Cornelio
Bentivoglio). This longer dialogue broadens and deepens the earlier
treatment in several ways:9 for one, it delves more deeply into the psychology and moral philosophy of play. Explaining that recreation is a
necessary relief from the rigours of both the active and the contemplative life, Tasso explains that a trattenimento is literally a diversion that ci
trattiene da loperazione, (draws us away from work) returning us
to our tasks more willingly.10 Moreover, in discussing the archetypes of
players, he treats in considerable detail not only the avaricious player
and the liberal player (types adumbrated in the Romeo) but also the
typical player (reflective of the greater part of players) who, far from
the liberal players Stoic detachment from the vicissitudes of the game,
allows himself be engulfed in the hope and delight of gain and the doubt
and fear of loss. This wallowing in the pathoi resulting from the games
6Parlour Games
fortune is in fact what allows the time of ozio magically to pass.11 This
embrace of psychological chaos shows how far distant the escapism of
Cinquecento game culture was from the moralism of, for instance, Petrarch, who envisioned a Stoic sage rising above both kinds of fortune and
who was generally sceptical of play.12
In both treatises, Tasso discusses the proper goals of men when playing with women.13 Of particular interest are the changes between the
first and second treatises in regard to this question of the gender politics of play. In the Romeo, when Pocaterra suggests that one should
not play for monetary gain but for the honour of winning, Margherita
counters that if it is not honourable to take money from friends, it likewise would not be honourable to feel superior to them. To this Pocaterra answers that the honour of victory is indeed appropriate when
men are playing with men, but might be ill-advised or disadvantageous
when playing with women: He with whom you might play, gracious
Lady, would be able rightfully to place the victory in losing and artfully allowing [you] to win, as do some courteous men, who playing
with women allow [them] to win on purpose But as it is politeness
and courtesy to allow women to win, so it would be foolish for him to
willingly allow men to win, because everyone ought to strive to be superior to others in things honest and praiseworthy, but victory is the
most honest and most praiseworthy.14 Margherita objects that such behaviour, which by you is called politeness and courtesy, by me is considered deceit and artifice, because as you said a little before, they do
not allow [women] to win except in order to win (i.e., in some other
amatory way).15 Pocaterra acknowledges that some might do this out
of love or some other motive, but many do it simply for politeness.16
Margherita then bores in and explicitly confronts this social nicety,
arguing that it is considered good manners to lose to women because
true victory comes only in a true contest, and women cannot compete
with men in fortune or skill. Pocaterra denies that a woman such as
Margherita cannot compete in skill, but does acknowledge that she
cannot compete in Fortune with men (presumably meaning, in the circumstances of life). Margherita asks why Fortuna, though female and a
goddess, does not favour women over men, and then oers the remarkably blunt statement that such fortune is a fiction: But perhaps this
name Fortune is a vain one, to which nothing corresponds; whence, if
we [women] cede to Fortune, this happens because we cede by force,
although we are equal in ability; and the violence of men is the maker of
this Fortune, which, even if it is anything (which I doubt), is nothing other
than the result of their tyranny.17 Female subordination is not simply

fortuitous or circumstantial; it is premeditated and imposed by men.
But if women lose in the fortunes of life, they do, Pocaterra arms,
seem to win in the fortunes of love. That is, to Margheritas assertion
that the violence of men is the maker of [female] fortune, he counters
that the beauty of women would be the maker of the fortune of men,
because if fortune has force in anything, it has it in the game and in
love.18 In explaining womens advantage in the fortunes of love, Pocaterra argues that, as men rule in the marital world, women rule in the
amatory realm: In the Kingdom of Love, female fortune rules, because
the woman, to the degree she is loved, is always superior to the lover,
although to the degree she is wife, she is inferior to the husband.19
When Margherita asks him to reconcile the contradiction between his
contentions that women are inferior in fortune but superior in the fortune of love, Pocaterra flatly states his position: In all the other oces
of life they [women] are born inferior to men; only love is perhaps that
which, equalizing their inequality, renders women equal to men.20 In
Margheritas resentment and in Pocaterras condescension, these two
interlocutors speak harsh truths about female subordination in the real
world and womens temporary and contrived superiority in the artificial world of love and polite play. Moreover, the Romeo, by largely
linking game culture with amatory culture, depicts the game as just a
component of the duplicitous ritual of male seduction and conquest.21
By the time Tasso wrote the Gonzaga secondo (prior to Margherita
Bentivoglios death in September of 1581),22 the tone had changed significantly. At first glance, the prominence of women seems diminished,
as Margherita, one of two interlocutors in the Romeo, is now merely one
of three, her role eclipsed by the conversation between Pocaterra and
Gonzaga. But there are other notable dierences. The revised treatise
excises some of the Romeos harsh and belaboured comments on the
sexist conventions of society. Margheritas complaint that men intentionally lose to women remains, but her remark on mens violent mistreatment of women is gone, as is Pocaterras consolation that women
do rule in the realm of love and his assertions of female inequality in the
larger scheme of life. Softening the indictment of male tyranny found
in the Romeo, this version recasts the discussion of how women fare in
the realms of fortuna and ingegno. Gonzaga here says to Margherita,
it seems to me that more readily you [women] ought to cede to men
in fortune than in intelligence, since by the former there is not granted
to you many opportunities to demonstrate the latter.23 Perhaps games
8Parlour Games
represent a promising arena for women to test their intellectual mettle. Tasso never explicitly states this argument, but it might underlie
the other major and most important change in the Gonzaga secondo,
which concerns Margheritas particular interests in the discussion of
play. At the start of the dialogue, when Gonzaga lays out various abstract questions on the nature and history of games, Margherita says
that she had envisioned these same topics, but that he has left out one
area that she also wants treated: namely, how one who wants to win
ought to play.24 And, appropriately, Margherita now comes to be seen
by her male interlocutors as a player in pursuit of true victory, as Gonzaga comments, I would well wish, if in any mode it would be possible, that we teach Lady Margherita to win, as she desires.25 In fact,
the last portion of the treatise is cast as a discussion of how in the face
of the uncertainties of Fortune in a game such as primiera Margherita
can be taught to achieve true victory by making strategic (and even insidious) pacts (accordi) and agreeing to proper divisions of the stakes.26
The implication of this becomes clear towards the end of the dialogue,
where Pocaterra (so condescending towards women in the Romeo) now
advises that, when splitting the pot towards the end of a game, the
same divisions (true arithmetic ones, not geometric ones) should
be used when playing with a woman as when playing with a merchant
without respect to the quality of persons. 27This prompts Gonzagas
objection that then your player, Signor Annibale, would be little courteous, and little worthy of playing with genteel women.28 Nonetheless, the dialogue ends with Margheritas inviting Pocaterra to further
explain his theory about mathematical odds.
Not only is Margherita now more equal Giocatrice than unequal
Amata, but she is generally depicted as wilier, more determined, and
more forceful in the treatise. At the start of the dialogue, Tasso inserts
an exchange in which Pocaterra praises Margherita in such a way that
implies that she is as adept in the art of the game as Hannibal was in the
art of war.29 Most significantly, in the discussion concerning womens
capacity to contend with men in skill or Fortune, Margherita deflects
a compliment about her own qualities and cites several outstanding
women of the day Claudia Rangone, Barbara Sanseverino, Fulvia da
Correggio, Felice della Rovere, and the Duchess of Ferrara herself (Margherita Gonzaga) who have proven their capacity for ingegno.30 In the
Romeo, the first four of these women are not named, and instead Pocaterra (and not Margherita) simply refers generically to the women at
the Este court, who had been routinely named and praised at the start
of the treatise; thus the insertion of these particular women (named by

Margherita) in the later version is significant. And even though Tasso
took out the harsh complaint from the Romeo that female fortune is really just violence done to women by men, Margheritas reference to
these women provides a meaningful subtext concerning women who
did forcefully challenge male tyranny.
It is surely no coincidence that some of these women had lived lives
of unusual independence and even defiance in the face of male control.
Claudia Rangone, long unhappy in her marriage to Giberto da Correggio (who castigated her as a woman of indomitable mind (cervello indomito), in 1567 secured from the pope an annulment, and three years
later she sued her ex-husband (unsuccessfully) to nullify their daughters claustration.31 Fulvia da Correggio, widowed in her mid-twenties
upon the death of her husband Lodovico II Pico della Mirandola in
1568, engaged in a power struggle with one of her brothers-in-law to
win full control of Mirandola, staving o other opposition by executing
one would-be assassin.32 Barbara Sanseverino, the charismatic Countess of Sala who attracted the attentions of princes and poets (including
Tasso), clearly rebelled in her marriage to a man thirty-five years her
elder.33 In 1577, given leave to come to Ferrara for four days to help her
stepdaughter in childbirth, this intrepida woman stayed on for two
months and proved to be the chief reveller at Carnival.34 Another measure of Barbaras personality would emerge long after Tassos death,
when in 1611 she became the ringleader of a conspiracy of nobles
against Ranuccio I Farnese, the Duke of Parma, leading to her execution the following year in Parmas public square.35 Clearly, by adding
this list of assertive women Tasso has recast his female interlocutor
Margherita, like his argument in general, in more armative feminist
terms.36 And in doing so he degenders game culture by moving it from
an exclusively amatory and courtly realm to a more authentically competitive realm.
What was the larger context for Tassos depiction of womens role in
the realm of play? Certainly, the dynamics of game playing in this period were strongly shaped by the patterns of social hierarchy. Among
the well born it could simply mirror and mimic social formalities of
deference and ceremony. That is, a game such as chess or cards might
serve as an opportunity for overly defined, and overly refined, forms of
social intercourse between unequal men or between men and (unequal)
women. Or a game could act as leverage in courtship ritual. The prominent Paduan literary figure Sperone Speroni (150088), one of Tassos
10Parlour Games
advisors for the revision of his Jerusalem Delivered,37 wrote a Dialogo di

Panico, e Bichi, in which Jeronimo Panico and Annibale Bichi discuss
Panicos playing dice with a woman he favours in the context of courtship ritual. Bichi suggests that Panicos beloved cleverly lost on purpose
as a female ruse; and likewise he counsels Panico to make his winnings a gift to her to obligate her to him.38 A womans intentionally losing and a males forfeiting winnings are thus cast as a strategem of the
social game of courting rather than the true playing of a game.39 Doubts
concerning the intrusion of such artificiality in the game realm can be
found, prior to Tassos treatises, in a parlour-game book by the Mantuan Ascanio de Mori.40 In his Giuoco piacevole, written in 1575, Mori
depicts a party of women and men engaged in a challenging game of
extemporaneous storytelling, in which players must fashion tales about
a city, inn, innkeeper, garden, tree, and animal (with a motto), all beginning with an assigned letter of the alphabet. This game, in contrast to
Castigliones parlour game of defining an ideal courtier, was designed
not by a male participant but by a female player, Beatrice Gambara,
who, against the protestations of an initially weaker foil Isabella, insists
that women are capable of greater prowess than they think. And in
the course of the game, even Isabella reflects increasingly feminist attitudes. When she has to give up various tokens because of slips she
makes, an admiring male player gallantly provides one for her. Her
reaction is a swift rebuke, as she chides him that any (amatory) gain
he thus hoped to make with her he has in fact lost with this courtesy
of excessive generosity.41 And when others argue that she earlier escaped another penalty for a slip, she appealed this judgment, proving
that she had not erred and rejected any condescending relaxation of the
rules of the game, saying, I do not wish to triumph without victory.42
Moris character Isabella thus prefigures Tassos character Margherita,
who similarly resents women being deprived of true victory out of condescension or courtesy.43
The two versions of Tassos game book address this issue of the
sexist rules of play: the Romeo states the problem but largely leaves
it unresolved, whereas the Gonzaga secondo makes an eort to transform Margherita from embittered victim to assertive player. Why did
he make this change? The excision of the especially harsh comments
on mens mistreatment of women might have been necessitated by
his now clearly identifying the interlocutor as Margherita Bentivoglio.44 But what about the changed assumptions of Pocaterra and the
more generalized attempt to address Margheritas desire to be a true
player? Speculations on Tassos thinking and his motives in the early

1580s necessarily must be somewhat tentative, as he was incarcerated
(or hospitalized) in SantAnna during these years for instability and
bouts with madness.45 It is possible that, in introducing Giulio Cesare
Gonzaga and renaming the treatise for him, Tasso may have been attempting to further strengthen ties to members of the Gonzaga family as possible intercessors who might aid in winning his release from
SantAnna.46 In the same year that Tasso published the Gonzaga secondo, he also published a Discorso della virt feminile e donnesca (Discourse on feminine and womanly virtue), dedicated to the Duchess
of Mantua, Leonora of Austria (153494), wife of Guglielmo Gonzaga
and mother of Margherita Gonzaga.47 This work lays out the debate as
to whether women have a dierent more private, less heroic virtue than men, citing the position of Thucydides (following Aristotle)
that they do, and the opposing stance of Plutarch (following Plato)
that they do not.48 As for his own position in the treatise, Tasso is able
to have his cake and eat it too, by arguing that ordinary women might
hew to the retiring, private type of feminine virtue, but that regal,
courtly, and heroic women (such as his dedicatee Leonora) can display a womanly virtue, in which there is not found any distinction
of works and oces between them and heroic men.49 This last passage recalls and rebuts Pocaterras comment in the Romeo that, aside
from their upper hand in the realm of love, in all the other oces of
life [women] are born inferior to men.50 And, indeed, the Discorso argues for the agency of women in the public sphere and might even
be intended to plant the idea of such women interceding on behalf of
an imprisoned poet.
In any case, in 1582 Tasso published both of these works that emphasize female agency in the Gonzaga secondo naming notable women,
some of whom (other than Margherita Bentivoglio herself and the
duchess and ladies of the Este court) he might have hoped to plead his
case.51 It was perhaps no coincidence that it was the young prince Vincenzo Gonzaga of the Mantuan court who ultimately secured Tassos
freedom in July of 1586. Tasso had earlier dedicated his Discourse on female virtue and power to Vincenzos mother, Leonora, the Duchess of
Mantua, and had expressed his hope in a letter of January 1585 that by
her and through her [his freedom] might be pled to all those by whom
it can be conceded.52 How much of a role did Vincenzos mother Leonora play in Tassos rescue? Had Tassos feminist arguments in the
Discorso and his overtures to Leonora in some measure hit their mark?
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Tassos personal situation may have linked the potential for female
agency in the ludic realm with the potential for female agency in the
public, political realm. Just as a more assertive Margherita Bentivoglio
could truly win at primiera, an assertive female mediator could (and
possibly did) win his release from house arrest.53 In any case, between
the Romeo and the Gonzaga secondo, Tasso goes far in resolving a problem that existed in both the ludic and the real world. By questioning
and correcting the sexist conventions of play, his two treatises suggest
that game culture might have provided a fertile ground for challenging the sexist conventions of society in the early modern era. As Tassos
Discorso della virt feminile e donnesca suggests, this debate within game
culture should be seen in the larger context of the late medieval and
early modern querelle des femmes, in which both men and women
writers contested the capacities of women for virtue, learning, and autonomy.54 What is interesting here, however, is that Tassos solution in
the Gonzaga secondo located the debate not in the realm of intellectual or
political elites (such as learned female humanists or queens) but among
a somewhat lower and wider range of women. Even his Discourse on
female virtue remained moored to a traditional view that ordinary
women are suited only for a private, domestic, feminine virtue and
that only regal and well-placed women are capable of a heroic womanly virtue equal to that of men. The exemplars he names in that work
include such highly placed and well-known figures as the dedicatee,
Duchess Leonora of Mantua, Queen Elizabeth, Catherine de Medici,
Renata of Ferrara, Isabella dEste, Lucrezia Borgia, and Vittoria Colonna.55 Similarly, in his Jerusalem Delivered, Tassos prominent women
all fit into some archetypal category of the females who frequent the
epic tradition: Sofronia the Christian martyr, Clorinda the Amazon warrior maiden, Armida the underworld seductress, Erminia the smitten
lover.56 By contrast, the women of ingegno that Margherita Bentivoglio
names in the Gonzaga secondo belong fully to none of these categories.
Claudia Rangone, Barbara Sanseverino, and Fulvia da Correggio were
neither epic heroines nor highest royalty (although certainly aristocratic), but women who had undoubtedly shown their capacity for autonomy and even defiance in a male world.57 More forbidding than an
armed knight, these women were identified by Tasso as individuals
who could contend and compete.58 So, too, Tasso apparently decided,
was Margherita Bentivoglio, who should be taught how truly to win at
primiera. Was the Margherita of the Romeo anonymous because of this
unwomanly challenge to tradition? Certainly, by the point at which he
wrote the Gonzaga secondo Tasso had decided that it was time to identify
women as true players players whose agency might even rescue him.
The Parlour Game
Tassos two treatises reveal how sixteenth-century game theory wrestled with the gender politics of play. But what theories did the century advance concerning the purpose and structure of the the parlour
game per se? And what specific role for women was envisioned in these
encounters? Parlour-game collections and ideals roughly fall into two
general categories: one school saw the game more in terms of edification and social control; another, more in terms of entertainment and
social licence. In both models women often played an important part
in contrast to the classical convivial setting in which womens presence was very limited and only indirect (as in Socratess accounts of
a dialogue with Diotima in Symposium 201d212b and an oration by
Aspasia in Menexenus) or limited to courtesans (as in the depiction of
prostititues in Athenaeuss Deipnosophists Bk. 13).59 The emergence of
women in literary gatherings was in evidence in the courtly love tradition in Provence starting in the twelfth century, and this tradition of
course informed the poetic sensibilities of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.60 Moreover, an identification of women as principal overseers of
the ludic and festive realm was already apparent in the Decameron. Boccaccios Pampinea was the prime mover and first queen in the circle of
seven men and three women who retreated from Florence to tell their
hundred tales.61 And in Bk. 4 of his Filocolo, Fiammetta is named queen
for a festive gathering in which she orchestrates (and dominates) a set
of questions of love.62 In the early sixteenth century Castigliones Book
of the Courtier (151314) was framed as a dialogue enacting a parlour
game at the court of Urbino. At that gathering the Duchess Elisabetta
Gonzaga and Emilia Pia were identified as the directors of the ludic festivities though in the dialogue they call for games to be proposed only
by men, and when the game of defining the ideal courtier is suggested,
they generally yield the floor to males who control the conversation.63
Later in the century a more active role for women in parlour games
emerged in Innocenzio Ringhieris Cento giuochi liberali, et dingegno
(Hundred games of learning and wit) of 1551, the ur-text of the edification model of games.
Ringhieri, a Bolognese poet, dedicated his game book to Catherine
de Medici for use in her court in France.64 Distinguishing his games
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from other types of play for example, ancient gladiatorial and funeral
games, modern jousts, soccer, masquerades, and board games he
lays claim to originality in his project by suggesting that he has no real
model for creating such liberal games, worthy of whatever rare and
elevated intellect.65 The games consist of players reciting some lore
for example, the animal and instrument associated with a certain classical god or keeping track of a fluctuating order of terms in rounds.
Failure to do so, or failure to refrain from laughing, results in the payment of a forfeit (pegno), which players can redeem by declaiming on
questions (dubbi), which he appends to the end of each game. The collection of one hundred games constitutes a virtual encyclopedia of polite culture with games on nature (Seas, Mountains, Islands), the arts
(Poets, Painting, Comedy), the moral realm (Happiness, Misery, Envy),
the intellectual tradition (Philosophy, the Liberal Arts), the social world
(Husbands and Wives, Breeding), mythology (Council of the Gods,
Centaurs, Proteus), professions (the Merchant, the Physician, the Gardener), and the wider semiotic and cultural world (Maxims and Signs,
Time). Many of the games overtly deal with the amatory realm (Love,
the Lover and the Beloved), or are framed as metaphors for love. Others
are introduced so as to dignify or be dignified by some aspect of the
female world.66 That this work was largely addressed to a young female
audience in an amatory framework is evident from what is not present
in the games. There are no games on children, parenthood, or widowhood. The complete absence of children suggests a sharp divide between women as lovers and women as mothers in such literature this
despite the fact that the dedicatee Catherine de Medici had given birth
to five children in the six years preceding Ringhieris publication of his
work.67 In a word, Ringhieri wanted to give structure to the ozio of
young women of marriageable age and even included a Game of Leisure, listing love and games as the first two goods of leisure (and indolence and lust as the first two evils).68
While Ringhieris work thus certainly has a footing in the literary tradition of courtly love and in fact he ends each of his ten books of
games with a poem its many intellectual themes suggest a serious
didactic purpose.69 For instance, the Game of Happiness and Goods
is basically an adaptation of Aristotles treatment of the three categories of the goods of body, mind, and fortune (Nicomachean Ethics 1.8).
Three sets of eight goods of each category are sounded by players either alone or in combination according to several possible definitions of
happiness. Thus, happiness as good fortune with virtue would entail
players representing both the goods of fortune and the goods of virtue to sound o. Happiness as in itself sucient for life would entail only the eight goods of the soul to sound o (Figure 1.1). Clearly,
Ringhieri hoped to make the inaccessible accessible. No wonder that
one of the debate topics he poses at the end of one game asks whether
high matters are lowered and rendered easy when reduced into sweetness and games.70 Ringhieri, moreover, is sensitive to the possibly
wide intellectual variations in the mixed company present at games.
In his opening Game of the Knight he explains that a judicious meting
of penalty questions should take this into account. He proposes four
gradations of questions scaled to the abilities of players who are classified across both genders according to intellect or learning: the scholarly
male; the unlearned male; the clever woman (donna dingegno); and the
pedestrian woman of little intellect (donna positiva, & di picciolo intelletto). Thus, the scholarly male might be asked whether it is better to
love a person of letters or arms, with his reasons, while, at the other
end of the scale, a woman of little intellect could be asked how many
lances would be needed (for breaking) in a joust?71 Allowing for a diverse assemblage, the parlour game must operate at several intellectual
levels at once.
Though acknowledging male participants, the chief audience for Ringhieris game book is women, whom he wants both (intellectually) to
elevate and (socially) to control. In his dedication he says that he hopes
his book will return honest women, unworthily aicted by savage
stings, to their original reputation.72 In several cases, his comments indicate that he aims to defend women against their intellectual or moral
detractors and rescue them from their circumstances. As far as the intellectual challenges posed in his book, Ringhieri explicitly addresses
this in several of his game prefaces, beginning with the first game, in
which players must be able to pose and explicate the symbolism of a
knights emblem, motto, and colours. He insists that women are good
for this challenge, because they are modern women, almost all very
shrewd both by nature and by having read much, not a little wise, and
perhaps not too inferior to those famous ancient women praised by
writers.73 In his Game of Celestial Figures, he includes several questions for example, on the nature of fate that are rather philosophical, and he addresses potential criticism that such topics are too lofty
for women. Such critics do a great injustice to the female sex, if they
do not believe that among them can be found some who are very ingenious, expert, and suited to clarify dicult matters.74 Ringhieri
16Parlour Games
Figure 1.1.The Game of Happiness and Goods. From Innocenzio Ringhieri, Cento giuochi liberali, et dingegno (Venice, 1553), fol.
139v. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca del Museo Correr, Venice.)
thus sees his liberal games, and especially his debate topics, as opportunities for women to challenge and activate their ingegno and their
learning. Not surprisingly, the Game of the Liberal and Noble Arts itself confronts this issue of whether such a dicult game is appropriate for simple and modest women, shut inside the small circuit of
their rooms, encumbered by the management of domestic matters, or
restricted by their elders.75 He insists that such a topic should indeed
be extended to them, that any limitations are owing not to their innate ability but to an upbringing that subjects them to lowly pursuits
against their desire and intent.76 As proof that it is only social circumstance, rather than nature, that determines womens potential, he cites
examples of learned and literary women in the ancient world (e.g., Aspasia, Diotima, and the poets Sappho and Corinna) and in the present
day (i.e., Vittoria Colonna and Veronica Gambera).77 A Game of Poets,
furthermore, asserts that in fact many modern women have already triumphed, outshining the talent of Sappho and Corinna and earning the
envy of many contemporary writers. This game is structured around
lists of poets that juxtapose the likes of Homer, Virgil, and Dante, with
about thirty contemporary male poets and eighteen female poets and
scholars (including Colonna, Gambera, Laura Terracina, and Cassandra Fedele), all identified as donne famose.78
For all of his intellectual elevation and flattering of women which
he frames as a socially revisionist position Ringhieri, however, does
strive to reinforce the traditional male ideals of female behaviour. Thus,
in introducing his Game of Chastity he tells his female audience that
this game is truly and particularly yours, since chastity is the source
of their greatest virtue, and its violation the cause of their greatest misery.79 The game turns on the cases of venerable matrons of antiquity (e.g., Lucretia, Penelope, Judith) who persevered in the the face of
threats and other games reinforce the triumph of chastity and the
ideals of purity and fidelity in marriage.80 And even when Ringhieri
flirts with the risqu, as in the Game of the Bawd, he does so in a way
to warn women of these wicked women, destroyers of your honour,
corrupters of chaste minds, and often speedy procurers of your infamy,
ruin, and death.81 In the preface to this game, Ringhieri expressly refutes Boccaccios misogynist view (presumably that found in the Corbaccio) that the only chaste woman is one who has not been entreated
or who has been rebued.82 The game, one of the longest in the collection, matches twelve male suitors with twelve young women through
18Parlour Games
the mediation of a bawd, who conveys a love letter (and gifts) from
the men. The women reply with a Response to a Lover, in Conserving Matrimonial Faith. The men then respond to this letter, and the
women most deft at improvising in turn respond to them.83 The game
is largely a lesson in knowing and deflecting the snares of procurers
and suitors and sublimates such temptations in a vicarious, safe, and
playful way.84
Both in crediting women with greater intelligence than tradition allowed and reinforcing conventional sexual values, Ringhieris game
book largely aims to be a work of edification and elevation. The intellectual dimension is particularly evident in the list of debate topics
(usually ten, but occasionally more) appended to the end of each of
the hundred games. Through these, he argues in his dedication, rare
wits will be able to ascend in a thousand fine ways and by thus disputing acquire immortality.85 These debate topics range from lofty
topics such as why the philosopher need not fear death, but rather
desire it to the interpretation of popular proverbs.86 We cannot know
whether or how Ringhieris games may have actually been played, but
these debate topics certainly suggest the possibility for a new type of
discourse on a variety of social, cultural, and political issues.87 Indeed,
the game worlds provision for such discussions limns the contours
of the emerging bourgeois public culture Jrgen Habermas charts in
the early modern era. But whatever its actual practice, the theory of
Ringhieris games certainly reflected a high degree of intellectualism
that others perceived as rather too cerebral. In the seventeenth century
when the French writer Charles Sorel compiled his Maison des jeux he
complained that many of the games of Ringhieri are meant only for
individuals who are somewhat learned, instead of the games ordinarily played among young people (whether in the court or in the city),
who in short are people of the world and of unrefined conversation and
without great exposure to learning a problem worsened by the fact
that parlour games included women, the majority of whom, not having undertaken extensive reading, are unaware of many of things one is
not able to know without benefit of higher education.88
Ringhieri was not the only sixteenth-century writer who saw the potentially didactic function of games. Early in the century the English
humanist Thomas More prescribed the playing of a lofty game depicting the battle between Virtues and Vices as an ideal after-dinner game
of moral improvement in his all-too-sober Utopia.89 In fact, the proper
game could be seen as a rein on unbridled urges of the appetite. In the
fourth book of his popular Civile conversatione (1574), Stefano Guazzo

depicts a banquet and accompanying parlour games in Casale Monferrato, saying that he wants to present a model of behaviour to correct
the disorders of common banquets, such as gluttony, drunkenness,
contentious, inconsiderate, mordant, shameless, and insolent words,
and indolent, lascivious, impious, inhumane, and bestial thoughts.90
Proper games and conversation are thus an agent of civilization to temper the carnality of the banquet a bridle of culture to counter the
force of nature, as Michel Jeanneret would argue.91 Two years after
Guazzos work, the Brescian writer Bartolomeo Arnigio published his
massive Le diece veglie, which exemplifies the acme of the parlour game
as a conservative, civilizing force.92 Framed as after-dinner conversations among ten men, these veglie consisted of serious conversations on
professional, moral, religious, and cultural issues. The topics include
the errors of every oce and social type, true and false glory, Christian
piety, nobility, and so on. Arnigios idea of the soire resembles that of
Castiglione, whose festive gathering at Urbino explored the issue of
the ideal courtier. In general, Arnigio seemed to be somewhat suspicious of games. Tellingly, he oers a history and definition of play in a
section (in Bk. 6) dealing with the education of young people and their
insulation from the dangers of idleness, drunkenness, prostitution,
and games.93 Casting a moral eye on the culture of play, he condemns
dice as the invention of the devil and is critical of many of the Carnival games, which he sees as shameless, uncivil, and irreligious.94
Play should always retain a certain measure and temperate movement and must never descend into malice, buoonery, and lewdness.95 He approves of chess, childrens games, ancient spectacles, and
parlour games in which humour, quickness, knowledge, and memory
are exercised, citing the collections of Girolamo Bargagli and Ringhieri. Given his own views, his admiration for the learned volume of
Ringhieri, a man of the highest learning, is not surprising, although
his approval of the games of the Intronati is a bit unexpected, given
their carnivalesque setting and tenor.96 That Arnigio perhaps especially
esteems the potential link between games and the intellect is evident
in his observation that the academic endeavours of the contemporary
academies could be identified as games: because the school of young
people was called a ludo by the Romans and giuoco by us, thus one
could call games the honest and virtuous pastimes that are carried out
in academies by sublime and refined talents in their pursuits of music,
history, philosophy, poetry, comic verse, etc.97
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Furthermore, it is probably no coincidence that Arnigios extended

discussion of the polite parlour game itself comes in a book that also
oers a treatment of virtue.98 He envisioned such conversations and/
or games as part of the active and civil life and clearly saw them as
reinforcements of social and professional roles.99 In his depiction of the
proper trattenimento, topics should be pitched towards ones company:
he believes that players will be entertained only by topics that have a
direct bearing on their professional, everyday life. With lawyers, one
should discuss the law; with humanists and philosophers, literary and
moral matters; and so on, with military figures, political leaders, physicians, merchants, farmers. With women one should have a knowledge of things that would entertain them such as fables, stories, jokes,
witty sayings, devices, customs, and moral, scientific, and amorous
questions.100 With an illustrious older woman, talk of her greatness
of mind and nobility of customs. With a young one, speak of matters
of love (but not in a licentious or lascivious way). With a woman of little intellect, speak of domestic and family matters.101 Thus, if leisurely
conversations and games should oer pleasant distraction, they should
not be too much a departure from the real world and should never be a
seduction into the intemperate, inappropriate, or bawdy.
Given his concern to reinforce the status quo, it is not surprising that
Arnigios views of women are quite conservative and his depiction of
females in the dialogue minimal. The book devoted to domestic life
(Bk. 5) oers a thoroughly patriarchal speech on women, which argues
that they are intellectually unfit for public and religious oce; that the
Fall occasioned their subordination to men; that they should be friends
of silence and spend more time at home than away; that husbands,
acting as teachers and fathers to their wives, should educate them so
that, in part, they not be embarrassed by them at social events; that husbands should monitor their wives social engagements, always knowing
where and with whom they are disporting and should see to it that
women not host entertainments or liaisons in their homes involving
dissolute young men, nor use obscene or lewd language but strive to
be exemplary ladies, entertaining themselves according to their station
and never abandoning themselves.102 The group of women who have
been invited to this one of the ten soires in the book, remain wholly
passive, enduring this occasionally insulting speech with blushes and
silence. Their somewhat tepid defence in this rehearsal of the querelle des
femmes is undertaken by another male speaker in the following book.103
Perhaps because of his low-born background and/or because of his

forced departure from the medical profession (because his patients insisted on dying), Arnigio seemed to strain for propriety.104 His view of
veglie or trattenimenti is one that rearms traditional social expectations
and educational levels. His parties would reinforce professional, class,
and sexual divisions. Any relaxation of his highly stylized rules for social intercourse, any violation of decorum would be to descend to the
level of those games and decadent behaviour that divert young people
from virtue. Women are just another static social group whose standing
needs to be preserved. They may be asked pleasant questions on love,
they may be regaled with their virtue, but in the seven hundred pages
of his ten dialogues (which truly are all themselves versions of Arnigios ideal of edifying entertainment) women do not once speak. They appear merely once to be lectured on their inferiority and domestic duty.
Arnigios conservative social views and his cautious ideal of leisure are
(wittingly or unwittingly) revealed by the organization of his book. His
rather extreme speech on female subjugation comes in a book on family
life. The rather limp defence of women comes in a subsequent book devoted largely to children. Games in general are discussed in the context
of vices that derail youth. The ideal of the polite trattenimento is paired
with a discussion on virtue. Finally, the same speaker (Perseo) who
delivers the patriarchal speech on women in Bk. 5 presents the theory
of the proper entertainment in Bk. 10 and is therefore likely the voice of
Arnigio himself. Both his view of women in family and society and his
ideal of the parlour game reveal an assumption that play is an extension of the real world, not an alternative to it.
If Ringhieri, Guazzo, and Arnigio hewed to the more intellectual,
controlled, and socially conservative ideal of parlour games, Girolamo Bargagli and the Intronati envisioned a more fun-loving, liminoid model.105 In fact, at one point in his Dialogo de giuochi che nelle
vegghie sanesi si usano di fare (Dialogue on the games that are customarily
played at Sienese parties), he likely has in mind Ringhieri when he criticizes those who propose certain games so lofty and that presuppose
so much knowledge as perhaps would not be contained in the library
of Ptolemy, without realizing that speculations ought to remain in the
schools and academies, and that at parties games are undertaken for
delight and recreation.106 As shown above in his Game of Celestial Figures, even Ringhieri himself saw a need to defend himself from the
charge that some of his more philosophical game questions (dubbi)
22Parlour Games
overshot the reach of his female audience.107 Indeed, Bargagli warns

against any type of pedantry, castigating one player who at a Carnival
party introduced a Game of the Animals in which men were to name
the animal their assigned woman had been in a previous life or will be
in a future one with a pretentious lecture on the history of philosophy and the Pythagorean theory of souls.108 Unlike Ringhieri and Arnigio, Bargagli has no interest in the didactic, or in simply rehearsing the
learning of the university world.
Instead, Bargaglis game theory calls for the creation of an alternate
realm that can exist on the margins of the real world whether in the
organization of the ongoing academy or in the more confined time of
the parlour game. In terms of the latter, his model is largely Carnival,
which is not surprising given that the Sienese games in his Dialogo are
generally set at Carnival-evening parties. But rather than emulate the
practices of literal masking and dramatic social inversion, Bargaglis
games present a more civilized, refined version. The lewd potential of such masking had been recently catalogued in Antonfrancesco
Grazzinis publication of Florentine Carnival songs (1559), which are
filled with sexual entreaties couched in metaphors of myriad professional masks.109 And in fact one example of these Carnival songs, that
of chimneysweeps propositioning women, apparently had some life in
Siena, as Bargagli condemns female players who prescribe as a penance that players march through room crying O, spazza camino!110
Although the Intronatis games would often be played during the evenings of Carnival, Bargagli suggests that the practice of wearing masks
has generally subsided, and what he prefers is not so much the creation of an inverted world but simply an alternate one.111 That is, one
should not wear everyday clothes but rather dress in richer and gayer
form (though in a manner generally suited to ones profession and status). More importantly and here Bargagli dramatically diers from
Arnigio one should not discuss ones professional or customary concerns. Men should not discuss war, their studies, or business; women
should avoid talking of their maids, linen, children, or husbands.112
Where Arnigios veglie reinforce professional pursuits, Bargaglis prescribe a respite from them. (The topic instead should be the exaltation
of women.) And when there are present individuals of unusual distinction (princes or princesses, great lords or ladies), the game suspends
status/power disparities. Such individuals should act and be treated as
ordinary people as they assume an alternate identity as if covered
by the mask of the game.113
This alternate sphere, moreover, should free people from some of the
conventional expectations and constraints, and this seems to be particularly true for women. Bargagli dwells at length on women who shy
away from participation in parlour games because of some misguided
notion that their honour demands it. In fact, women who refuse to play
oend those who do and indict themselves of unsociability and prudery itself. Rather than arming their onest, he argues, they look as
if they are hiding their lack of character under a figleaf of shyness. He
rebuts the opinion of Pericles [recorded in Thucydidess History of the
Peloponnesian War 2.45], who said that the highest praise of a woman
was that no word or fame of her valour or virtue should ever reach
the ears of men. In short, Bargagli strives to convince reluctant, retiring overly severe women that game playing is the new social norm
for being reputed well bred (ben creata).114 The old canons of aloofness,
detachment, and invisibility are outdated. So also is womens silence.
He condemns those who stand mute like a marble statue, relying on
their beauty alone, without knowing that the ancients always placed
Mercury next to Venus, wishing to signify that beauty ought not to
be mute, but joined with shrewd and gracious speech; and thinking
that purity of mind proceeds from not knowing how to speak among
men, attributing to ineptitude the name of onest, almost no woman is
found proper unless she speaks only with the maid and the baker.115
His directive is clear. Women, like men, should exhibit in these games
a certain boldness of mind (baldanza danimo).116 (Such baldanza,
it is worth noting, was one of seventeen enemies of proper female
behaviour listed in Francesco da Barberinos early fourteenth-century
conduct book for women, the Reggimento e costumi di donna.)117 He even
observes that this alternate social world could be particularly liberating
to some women. Bargaglis figure Sodo (Marcantonio Piccolomini)
reports that he has more than once seen a woman in a household setting take a particular joy in some game because it oers her a taste of
the free and the out-of-the-ordinary.118
Thus, while Bargagli tames the extremes of Carnival, this festive time
likely inspired his interest in creating a discrete time and space conducive to other pursuits and dierent behaviour. The role of women
in his games is partly linked to his history of such games in the ancient world. He traces his games back to the Saturnalia celebrations in
late December in the time of Augustus and the Carnival celebrations
extending from the early Christian era to his own day.119 Until interrupted by recent warfare, in Siena these Carnival-night celebrations
24Parlour Games
were characterized by women standing in courtyards with torches and

men striking their hand with a bat (mestola). He cites the similar (fertility) rite in the Lupercalia, in which men struck women with strips
of goat skin. By conflating the Saturnalia festival with the Lupercalia
(which, on February 14, fell near the time of Carnival), Bargagli would
seem to recognize the fertility dimension of this tradition which gives
context to the ludic centrality of women and adds further meaning to
the passing of the mestola as the chief ritual act of the game.120 He was
not alone in recognizing such pre-Christian roots; upon witnessing a
Carnival in Siena in 1509, Erasmus condemned the rite for both its licentiousness and its vestiges of ancient paganism.121 In any case, the
exaltation (and mocking) of women that is at the heart of Bargaglis
games not only may be owing to Spanish influence as he suggests, but
it also may be a by-product of this fertility legacy as well as the literary
legacy of Provenal gatherings and love poetry.122
Perhaps, then, because of the Carnival setting Bargaglis games have
a more distinct festive frame than those of Ringhieri and Arnigio and
with that a livelier and potentially more subversive version of play. Exactly what definition and structure did he give to his games? He makes
it clear that his festivities are not to be classed with ancient centennial
(secolari) games, athletic contests, board games, cards, chess, jokes, or
simple storytelling. Rather, occurring in a group where the presence
of women is crucial, his game is a festive action of a happy and amatory group, where, at the pleasant or clever proposal made by one
person as the author and guide of the action, all the others do or say
something dierent from each other this to the end of delight and
entertainment.123 Within this general category, moreover, he identifies
two subdivisions: some may be games of intellect and wit (di spirito e
dingegno), others of jest and pleasantness (di scherzo e di piacevolezza).124
But even with this division, he argues that a game of intellect must have
delight to be worthy, and a game of jest some skill. The important point
here is that these games were not simply rounds or memory games
(as Ringhieris were for the most part) or sedate seminar discussions
(as Arnigios portended), but games in which quickness, creativity, and
comical cleverness were especially prized. Rather than rehearsing a received wisdom or ruminating on individuals own professional lives,
they force players to realms of the original, the individual, and the creative. Throughout the collection, entertainment even where it entails
skill or cleverness clearly trumps edification. Early modern editions
of the Dialogo contain a table that breaks the 130 games into the two
categories of gravi and piacevoli, the gravi games including such

light-hearted topics as the Animals (cited above), the Amorous Inferno,
the Temple of Venus, and the Amorous Senate. Such weighty games
obviously are so identified not because they are academic or sober but
rather because they challenge players imaginations.125
In general, originality and the new were hallmarks of the Sienese
games and invention the most prized faculty. When asked to propose
a game, one should have ready a new game Bargagli suggests that
four such games should suce for one Carnival season.126 The purely
impromptu, likewise, is valued over the premeditated. He cites the case
of a game in which a player had mentioned that his amatory misfortunes have brought him near to the point of death, and the penance
(the game judges assignment for his penalty) was that, appropriately,
he should present a last will and testament which he did, richly mocking his rivals in the process. Both the judge and the player here showed
their capacity for improvised wit.127 There is also a premium on original interpretation. Bargagli suggests that if one is assigned as penance
to answer a question drawn from a literary source (such as one drawn
recently from the questions of love in Boccaccios Filocolo), the skilful player should not openly acknowledge the author and work and
should deliberately chose another solution than that taken by the author, in order not to appear to follow in the steps of others and to show
always, as much as possible, novelty and inventiveness (novit e invenzione).128 The preoccupation with the new is emphasized as well in the
second preamble of Scipione Bargaglis game book, the Trattenimenti.
Here Scipione argues that, like laboratories for assaying and refining
precious metals, parlour games are true proving grounds for experimenting with wit, wisdom, and skill, and for generating and inspiring new concepts, as [attendees] always hear new things and as,
through these things newly brought by others, new spirits and new concepts are awakened in the mind of anyone who attentively sees and
hears.129 One game in Girolamos book even plays upon the idea of
judging and preserving what new creations might be deemed worthy
in such games. In the Game of the Archive each man and woman offers up a poem or other composition and each person in the party renders a judgment as to whether to archive the work. The President of
the Archive must decide and give out punishments and rewards: And
this game when it is played a little thoughtfully oers a good opportunity to air beautiful poetry and witty inventions.130 These gatherings
constituted a new arena outside the university, the court, the press
26Parlour Games
for the composition and validation of creative work. This emphasis on

the new, moreover, perhaps illustrates how Cinquecento vernacular
culture may have been rebelling against the humanist devotion to the
old that had dominated Latin culture.
From the new to the subversive is not a great leap, and the Intronatis
games certainly oered challenges to tradition. Bargagli discusses several games that he places on his own index of forbidden games, a
motif no doubt inspired by the recent launching of the Papal Index of
Forbidden Books in 1559.131 These games include some that are obscene,
that mock someone, or that ridicule religion or the clergy.132 Bargaglis
self-censorship of the Intronati games here is somewhat disingenuous,
and he was likely trying to appease Counter-Reformation critics: why
else would he catalogue, describe, and number these games games
he at times discusses elsewhere in the work in an uncritical way if
he truly wanted to suppress them?133 He even flirts with controversial
soteriological sentiments in one of his forbidden religious games, the
Amorous Inferno, where he gives an example of a young man who said
that he was assigned to the punitive fire for having the opinion that he
was able to acquire the beatitude of love with works, without faith, and
that with service, without the loyalty of love, one is able to merit a divine grace.134 Bargagli obviously wants to have it both ways, nominally
appeasing censors but also describing and publicizing such fordidden
games.
Other games, moreover, show how parlour games could take aim at
social customs. A Game of Ceremonies mocks the practice of excessive
courtesy that ruled the day.135 The Game of the Amorous Senate and the
Game of Errors oer the opportunity for players to propose reforms
in the realm of courtship practices. Finally, moving out of the narrow
world of courtesy and love, Bargagli also reports a Game of Customs, in
which proposing to members of the group that they had the power to
reform the world, each had to say what good custom they would introduce and what bad one they would eliminate.136 Bargagli suggests that
this game was a transmutation of the reform-minded Game of the Amorous Senate, revealing how parlour games could spawn a discourse of
social criticism and reflection that moved beyond the Kingdom of Love
to society at large.
The two poles of Italian Renaissance parlour games the intellectual/
sedate and the flirtatious/bawdy represent two dierent assumptions
about the function of the game world. For Ringhieri, games oer an educational opportunity for repackaging lofty matters in a more palatable
manner; his penalty questions, a forum to debate sometimes serious

topics and interpret popular proverbs. Similarly, Arnigios rather highminded ideal of play sounds at times more like a seminar than a party
and aims to reinforce professional and gender stereotypes. With their
Carnival frame, Bargaglis games, by contrast, countenance the loosening of social restriction, the escape from intellectualism, the privileging of the new. The Carnival overtones of seduction are also evident,
as the assumptions about and demands for female purity found in Ringhieri and Arnigio have been considerably relaxed. Not only does he at
times quote a lewd female statement made at a game (though he discreetly withholds names), but he also argues that when comments a
little scandalous are made, one should not be so prudish as to leave,
but simply blush or pretend not to hear.137 Though not embracing the
extreme vulgarity of the Florentine Carnival songs, Bargagli thus allows
for some degree of bawdiness, and this is not surprising from one who
traces his games to the fertility rites of the Lupercalia.
As this last point hints, Bargaglis games to a considerable degree
represent an armation of naturalism against the artificiality and
constraints of social convention. When one speaker in his Dialogo chastises a woman who was too open about her love, another defended her
candour, saying that it is not inappropriate for a woman to reveal her
love when, as that one did, she accompanies it with such great zeal
of chastity.138 This defence of emotional authenticity is important in a
culture of such guarded emotions, brokered marriages, and confined
women. Time and again, Bargaglis Dialogo speaks of the importance of
being oneself at parlour games, of conforming to ones natural inclinations. As we shall see in the next chapter, this was, in Bargaglis mind,
a hallmark of the Academy of the Intronati itself, in that it allowed
young men the chance to pursue, at least temporarily, their true interests. So also was the parlour game such a space in which one could and
should be oneself, a feat that requires some self-knowledge, although
it would be dicult, because it requires us to be judges of ourselves
and to recognize to what nature inclines us, and to maintain ourselves
in that attitude and natural inclination even if another manner of
proceeding would be more prized.139 This last clause is especially telling: being oneself trumps being most esteemed. Like an actor in a play,
Bargagli argues, one should not seek out the best part but rather the one
most appropriate to ones nature and likewise the smart game player
will not try to imitate the style of someone else, but rather will take another street more suited to his nature.140 It is an irony that the other,
28Parlour Games
liminoid world is where one can and must be oneself, a welcome and
long-overdue injunction in a well-born world of stifling social expectations for women and ordained professional ones for men.141
The games themselves, moreover, often promoted the recognition
and publicizing of individual character. Games, for instance, that call for
choosing an emblem for oneself or others, or for identifying what animal
a woman has been or will become in other incarnations, entail a grappling with personal identity. Likewise, the recognition of individual talents is also central to the assignment of proper penitenze to players by
judges in the games. Almost as an inversion of the priests assignment of
appropriate penances based on sin in the confessional, the game judge
should assign fitting penances based on the talents of the player. Thus,
one known to be a good dancer should be summoned to dance a practice that will guarantee that the game will bring delight.142 What Bargagli does not say, but is also relevant, is that this practice recognized and
celebrated individual abilities in a public setting.
The one exception to Bargaglis insistence on following ones natural inclinations involves the case of those women who might not be
naturally inclined to play parlour games (or think them less praisworthy than the traditional pursuits of singing and dancing). Here Bargagli
resorts to an opposite tack, arguing that such women need to yield to
the new canons of behaviour and breeding that include parlour games.
The natural inclination towards shyness, of course, one might argue
is itself largely the result of social conditioning. In any case, Bargagli
urges that women force or feign an interest in games to be fashionable,
lest they be seen as frivolous, vain, and without taste.143 It is revealing
that he makes this argument part of the rhetorical persuasion that the
Intronati have long advanced to move women from the private sphere
to the public one on the heels of his rejection of the Periclean locus
that women should completely lack public reputation. This campaign
on the part of the Intronati to draw women out is the story of the next
two chapters. The game books of Ringhieri and Girolamo Bargagli reveal the interest in involving women in more challenging and public
forms of play other than the standbys of chess or cards.144 Ascanio de
Moris Giuoco piacevole and Tassos Gonzaga secondo reveal that by the
1570s and 1580s male writers were sounding a theme of the female desire to truly compete with men. Turning from the world of game theory
and literary depictions of play, we now need to go back to the 1530s
in Siena to reconstruct the historical circumstances in which Sienese
women began to win a reputation as players and as public figures.
2The Academy of the Intronati and

Sienese Women (15251555)
The history of parlour games in Siena is inseparably linked to the history of newly emerging academies in the sixteenth century. According
to Girolamo Bargagli, the faint origins of such games can be traced to
the Academy of the Grande early in the century and to such figures as
ClaudioTolomei.1 But their true flowering came with the rise of the Intronati. Why was this so? What was the larger social and cultural function of this and other academies in Siena? As shown in chapter 1, the
realm of play especially at Carnival oered both men and women
an opportunity temporarily to escape to an alternative world. As we
shall see, this yearning for escape was even more generally served by
the rise of literary academies. In seeking such a new arena of cultural
experience for themselves, Sienese men simultaneously created a new
avenue of cultural visibility for women as well. This chapter will chart
the social terrain that gave rise to academies in Cinquecento Siena, focusing in particular on the intellectual relationship the Intronati formed
with prominent women in the city. It will also explore how the Intronatis promotion of women, both within the ludic world and without,
may have had a bearing on the dramatic role Sienese women played in
the defence of the city in the siege of the 1550s.
The Green Years
The origin of the Academy of the Intronati is variously dated to 1525
or 1527.2 The undated but presumably earliest statutes suggest the latter date, in the aftermath of the Sack of Rome.3 Because of the preoccupation with warfare, the exercise of letters had vanished and the
30Parlour Games
Intronati the stunned, who strove to be oblivious to the cares of

the world4 formed to revive the liberal disciplines and to encourage
cultural innovation. And although they listed their interests to include
traditional pursuits such as philosophy, poetry, and law in the vernacular as well as in Greek and Latin, their principal cultural agenda
like that of the Crusca Academy of Florence in its famous Vocabolario
would be the rehabilitation of the volgare after a century or more of
humanist Latin dominance.5 In this vein their statutes also call for more
original, non-traditional contributions, giving freedom to anyone in
the said congregation to be able, through the exercise especially of wit,
to propose conclusions, mottoes, jargon, devices (imprese), new idioms,
and whatever other type of inventions relating to literary studies.6
This provision for somewhat eccentric non-scholarly invention speaks
to the ludic dimension that would come to characterize many of the activities of the Intronati. The escapist and festive tenor of the academy,
moreover, is adumbrated by two of the six precepts: De mundo non
curare and Gaudere.7 The minimal age requirement was twenty,
and prospective initiates would be assigned a nickname by the Archintronato (academy president) and, according to a later set of statutes,
would have to present a composition to prove their merit.8 The other
notable feature of the original set of statutes concerned the prohibition
against any type of political discussion an ingredient of their commitment to eschew the cares of the world.9 The academys interests
instead would centre on purely cultural activities whether lectures,
compositions, or, eventually, comedies with all public productions
vetted and corrected by censors for quality control. The statutes of a
much later constitution (probably from the early eighteenth century)
reflect the Intronatis major involvement in theatre in Siena, as three
chapters deal with the stage and comedies.10
The statutes tell only part of the story of the Intronati. For one, they
make no mention of the academys involvement with women. To appreciate the psychological appeal and social character of the academy
we need to turn to Girolamo Bargaglis Dialogo de giuochi (c. 15634)
and his letter collection (15612). At the start of the second book of his
Dialogo, Bargagli responds to criticism that academies like the Intronati,
which foster dialogue with women, divert the well born from serious
study and proper professional pursuits: And all this, our severe censors argue, has been confirmed in the experience of our Academy of
the Intronati, which was established by many fine and elevated intellects with the greatest promise in law and philosophy, who allured by
The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women31
this siren and almost enchanted by the song of poetry and amorous diversions change their studies and leave their intended professions.11
The result, the critics argue, has been a loss of learning to society, a
loss of status and wealth to individuals, and a wasting of the verdi
anni of young adults. The allusion to the green years, a trope found
elsewhere in the literature of the Intronati,12 suggests that the academy
served a particular function for unmarried young adults embarking on
their preordained careers. Bargagli argues that blaming academies for
individuals embrace of literature is most unfair as neither Boccaccio nor Ariosto changed course owing to an academy. And, in fact, the
real problem lies with fathers who choose a path for their sons that is
contrary to their natural instincts.13 Indeed, society has truly profited
from those who, following their vocazione and proprie inclinazione, have become illustrious, whereas had such individuals continued in pursuits that were repugnant to their genius they would have
lived lives of mediocrity. And as for societys benefits, he cites the incalculable contribution to the Italian language made by Petrarch, who
abandoned his initial studies in law for letters.14
But if the academy did not necessarily subvert conventional goals
and professions, it clearly was a place for young people to experiment
with alternative lives or delay commitment to an appointed career. In
a letter book preserved from the years 15612, when Bargagli was himself in his mid-twenties, he reveals his rather grudging study of the law:
My studies are and have been this summer the law, because having
seen how much my family values it and how much any other pursuit
would displease them, I have resolved to place their happiness before
my pleasure and genius.15 He wrote this in a letter of November 1561
to Fausto Sozzini (recently driven out of Siena because of his Protestant
sympathies),16 in which he discusses his reign as Archintronato, including his eort to mobilize other members to complete revisions of their
joint comedy, the Ortensio. The competing claims of his literary life in
the academy and his legal career are evident also in a letter to his law
professor Giovanni Biringucci (also an Intronati member), to whom he
sends the prologue of the Ortensio. Here he observes that the law has
been rightly called a perpetual turning of pages and notes that he
pursued this course of study for the satisfaction of my family.17 Arguing that usually little profit comes from what Horace called Invita
Minerva (unwilling study), he nonetheless confesses that he is starting
to warm a bit to the law.18 Still, it is revealing that he feels that this path
was a family choice, not a personal one, and that his own talent and
32Parlour Games
happiness had been subordinated. The comments in the Dialogo de giuochi concerning fathers suppression of the natural inclination of their
children certainly applied to him. In the end, however, the outcome of
this struggle was not the abandonment of the law but rather, within a
few years, a lifelong embrace of it. Thus, in his own case, Bargagli was
right in arguing that academies did not necessarily derail young professionals from their path. In fact, we might argue that they oered a necessary way station perhaps a moratorium, as Erik Erikson would have
characterized it, or an alternative, liminoid existence, as Victor Turner
would define it.19
The institutional structure of the Intronati certainly suggests a wholly
alternative existence apart from the conventional lay world. In his description of the academys practices at the start of Bk. 2 of his Dialogo
de giuochi, Bargagli depicts a community closely resembling a secular
version of a monastery. Though members sought a tranquil life and
sincerity of customs so much admired by the ancient philosophers, the
institution had certain features that defined it as something more than
an informal classical sodality. Its institutional structure could be characterized as falling somewhere between a lay confraternity (but with a
fully secular and intellectual focus) and a monastic order:
The Intronati, removed from ambitions, ceremonies, and vanities, lived
under the authority of their Archintronato, as do loving and sweet brothers under the will of a benign father. And what seems more surprising the
clothes, books, houses, villas, and other things were so common among
them that one freely used that which belonged to another without seeking
permission or otherwise without a word. And what seems more remarkable, they were so little avid for individual glory that they delighted in issuing personal eorts under the universal name of the academy.20
Although this portrait of community property is doubtless overblown,

the separatist, ascetic themes certainly suggest a discrete, other community. And the publication of treatises or comedies under the name
of the academy or under ones academy nickname suggest an interest
in alternate identity or anonymity. Thus Bargagli published his Dialogo
under his nickname, Materiale, and the Intronati comedies often appeared as products of the academy in general.
One potential benefit of these alternate identities was a cultural Nicodemism, as one could publish sometimes dubious or scandalous works
under pseudonyms. But the appeal of an alternate identity should not
be underestimated as being merely a defensive cover. Just as medieval

monastic initiates took a new name to mark the drama of assuming a
new religious identity, the members of the Intronati including, surprisingly, even current or aspiring clerics assumed a dierent persona from that prescribed by parents, class, or church. Especially for
those in their twenties, this new identity could serve as an opportunity
for self-fashioning, experimentation, and even outrageous behaviour.
Clearly, Bargagli struggled against his prescribed profession and saw
the academy as a haven for following his true genius and vocazione. So too, as we shall see below, did the destined cleric Alessandro
Piccolomini in his younger years. The academy, then, could be a safety
valve for the young, just as the adoption of new names and crafting
of emblems in the groups parlour games could serve as vehicles for
self-definition or public redefinition. The anthropologist Arnold van
Gennep has discussed the meaning of naming ceremonies in rituals
of incorporation, not only for monks but also for knights, who would
henceforth be identified with the emblem of the coat of arms.21 The new
sixteenth-century academies replicated these rituals of incorporation,
as new identities were proposed by or for entrants and approved by
the academy members. The appeal of taking such names and the sixteenth-century fashion of non-aristocrats proposing personal emblems
might indicate that the academies were in part serving as a venue for
coming-of-age rituals.
Despite their largely high-minded precepts, the Intronati and other
academies also had a sexual dimension, which further reinforced their
role in the rites of passage from puberty to adulthood. The device of the
Intronati was a pumpkin (containing salt), crowned by two pestles, with
the motto Meliora latent (The Better Things Are Hidden). This motto
could indicate the sentiment that the true character of an individual lies
beneath the exterior, or collectively within the academy, where the salt
(often preserved in pumpkins) or seasoning is protected from the chaos
of the world and the conventions of society. Of course, this motto could
have sexual connotations as well, with the pestles as phallic symbols
and the pumpkin gourd a scrotum.22 The potentially sexual character of
the academy was dramatically illustrated by the highly pornographic
work written by Antonio Vignali, one of the founders of the Intronati.
His La cazzaria (The Book of the Prick) (c. 15257) was a dialogue on sexual anatomy and behaviour written in the basest vein.23 If the academy
could be seen partly as a rite of passage into adulthood, it might be said
to parallel the youth Abbeys of Misrule of rural communities, which
34Parlour Games
also reflected fertility themes in, for instance, their ceremonies mocking inappropriate marriages.24 In his study of rites of incorporation, van
Gennep found that sexual licence was sometimes a feature of the initiation.25 Thus, the underpinning of fertility which Bargagli seemed
to appreciate in his discussion of striking during the Lupercalia and
Carnival could partly explain the social function of the sixteenthcentury urban academy.26 But this rather timeless anthropological factor joins with the more timely historical norms of delayed marriages
and wasted green years forced upon well-born youth of the day.
In fact, these twenty-somethings were perhaps an age group in need
of greater social coherence. Richard Trexler has shown that in Florence,
these giovani were in a state of limbo between adolescence and full
adulthood, especially beginning in the mid-fifteenth century when they
were both excluded from the youth confraternities and ineligible for
high public oce.27 And, in fact, he notes that when such young men
were forced out of the youth confraternities, this passage was marked
by a change in clothing from the white of adolescence to the green of
young adulthood thus, the green years in this sense had something
of a ritual tangibility.28 In admitting members from age twenty, then,
the Intronati may have been oering an institutional umbrella for a
neglected and unsettled age group. And while its membership did include more mature individuals, the vocational and sexual testimonies
of young Intronati members in their twenties suggest that the academy did provide some psychological or social coherence to the troubled green years.
Arguably the collective goal of the Intronati to address and appeal to
women during these green years spoke to this sexual dimension. The
academys first recorded production, the Comedia del Sacrificio de gli Intronati di Siena (The comedy of the Sacrifice of the Intronati of Siena)] was a
comedy celebrated in the games of Carnival in Siena, 1531 [new style,
1532], in which a priest ociates at the altar of love. Thirty Intronati,
who have lost the flower of their green years / serving Love with all
their heart / and these cruel, ungrateful women, discard tokens of their
beloved a ring, a lock of hair on the altar.29 Two of the men, whom
we shall discuss further below, were Marcantonio Piccolomini (b. 1505),
one of the founders of the academy and an interlocutor in Vignalis La
cazzaria and Bargaglis Dialogo, and Alessandro Piccolomini (b. 1508),
future Archbishop of Patrasso.30 Both of these men were in their midtwenties at the time, as was Girolamo Bargagli when he wrote his
Dialogo. Even for these two men who eventually entered clerical life a
career for which Alessandro was groomed from an early age and to
which Marcantonio turned in his later years the academy served as a
venue for a real or vicarious amatory life.
Bargagli was at least partly correct in refuting the charge that the
academy derailed individuals from their destined serious pursuits.
Whether oering an opportunity to weigh the choice of profession or
freely to beseech women before or outside of marriage, the academy
clearly served as a transitional stage for young men. Yet, if this academy did not necessarily alter an individuals life choice, it did perhaps
oer an opportunity to alter society. Victor Turner has argued that the
world of ritual play resides on the margin (limen) of society. Thus, this
world, which at Carnival might invert the hierarchies of society, could
either reinforce the normal order by its temporary suspension or oer
models of change. He suggests that the liminal often characterizes
tribal society and is more universal in nature (compelling everyones
participation), more cyclical (occurring around seasonal moments),
and generally reinforces the status quo.31 He proposes another category
of the liminoid zone, more marginal but also more permanent in nature, more freely chosen, and more prone to oering critiques of the
status quo.32 The sixteenth-century Italian academies perfectly fit this
category, as their activities allowed a counter-cultural persona for individuals (even into old age), and their parlour games oered challenges
to social convention. Their Carnival parlour games in fact signalled the
transition from the traditionally ritualized inverted masked events to a
subtler ludic realm with more promise of permanence throughout the
calendar and throughout society. And by bringing women into their
games, they altered one of the most rigid social segregations of Western
society and oered women as well as men the opportunity for social
experimentation.
Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini and the Promotion of
Women: Laudomia Forteguerri, Aurelia Petrucci, and Frasia Marzi
Was the Intronatis interest in women merely amatory? Or merely a
bourgeois version of the courtly? Or was it something more? The answer is that it is variously all three even in some cases within one
and the same individual. Two figures, Alessandro Piccolomini and his
cousin Marcantonio, are emblematic of the complicated and changing
attitudes towards women on the part of the Sienese male elite. Both figures, as we saw above, had a role in the Intronatis first comedy in 1532,
36Parlour Games
depicting the sacrifices of discouraged Intronati on the altar of love

and in this both figures would seem to reflect traditional courtly gestures of entreaty to women. But both figures would also develop more
serious appraisals of female virtue.33
In the case especially of Alessandro these amatory and admiring
postures would seem at times overtly contradictory. Receiving his first
benefices in 1517 at the age of nine (and further ones in 15234), Alessandro was destined for ecclesiastical life no surprise, given the family name he shared with Pope Pius II and Pius III. He was ordained in
1555, and the culmination of his clerical life came in 1574 when he was
named coadjutor of the Archbishop of Siena and himself Archbishop
of Patrasso.34 He is most prominently known, however, as one of the
first great popularizers of the Cinquecento press, as he published various scientific and philosophical works in Italian and translated several
classical texts into the vernacular.35 Two of these scientific works, the
La sfera del mondo and the De le stelle fisse (jointly published in 1540), he
dedicated to Laudomia Forteguerri, a married woman with whom he
clearly was infatuated.36 His ambivalence towards her and perhaps
women in general was particularly encapsulated by two works he
wrote for her.
One was a scandalous dialogue published in 1539 under Piccolominis academy name, Stordito (Bewildered). This work, the Dialogo
della bella creanza delle donne (or, the Raaella), depicts an aging woman
counseling a married woman to sow some wild oats while she is still
young.37 She should avail herself of whatever opportunity exists at
parties, banquets, etc. to find an appropriate lover between twentyfive and thirty years of age (and ideally twenty-seven or twenty-eight
years old). Is it not sinful to betray ones husband? the young woman
asks. No, Raaella assures her, because husbands and wives are chosen blindly without ever being seen, and a great fortune it would be if
they would love each other in their hearts and not through ceremony,
through obligation, or, shall we say, through force.38 In a world of coerced matches, the realm of parties and games oers the opportunity to
find a true love, freely chosen. Raaella (or rather, Piccolomini) also attacks the double standard that deems that any suspicion of such behaviour brings irreparable disrepute upon women but is a matter of some
honour among men. In fact, Raaellas aim is to give advice as to how a
woman can accomplish this adultery with cleverness and prudence so
as to preserve secrecy.39 Oering her counsel as an act of neighbourly
charity, saying the Lord has sent her to instruct young Margarita not
to squander her youth, Raaella assumes a religious air. Piccolomini

even has her discourse on the casuistry of sin: as we are all innately
sinners, better to sin in youth than to commit more serious sin in later
years (and regret ones spent youth).40 In all of this, the figure of Raaella virtually becomes the anti-model of a confessor. This treatise allows
Piccolomini, the intended priest, to assume a ludic academy identity as
Stordito and depict a Raaella who counsels a libertine lifestyle obviously at odds with the values of priestly vocation. For Piccolomini, as
for Antonio Vignali, the mask of the academy allows for a licentious literary pursuit. And for Piccolomini, as for Girolamo Bargagli, the academy allows a chance to depart from his prescribed professional course.
For the young Margarita of the dialogue, moreover, the ludic world
of the party, sinful as it is, allows the young Everywife the chance for an
alternate life of self-realization.
Scandalous though it may have been, the Raaella was not merely
the rebellious piece of libertinism that Vignaglis pornographic treatise
was. True, Piccolominis fellow Intronati members and early biographers tended to submerge this work and Piccolomini himself later
renounced it.41 For the same reason, scholars tend to see it as the outlier
in relation to his more upstanding and moral writings on women, such
as the De la institutione di tutta la vita de lhuomo nato nobile e in citt libera
(1542) and the Orazione in lode delle donne (1545).42 And yet beneath the
apparent discrepancies in these works there lie crucial points of overlap
in Piccolominis view of the circumstances and promise of contemporary women. The Raaella, while encouraging immorality, is not necessarily contemptuous of women. In fact, in his preface to women who
will read his dialogue, he claims that men are wrong to hold the view
that women are incapable of anything but frivolous and enfeebled discourses, and he argues that women are able to discuss, judge, counsel, and see to any matter of importance as well as men; and if there is
an advantage, it is in their favour.43 As we have seen, this work not
only condemns men for their double standard of sexual behaviour, but
also, in objecting to loveless arranged marriage, countenances a necessary outlet. Laudomia herself was married by the age of twenty, and
the arguments of the dialogue were perhaps as much for her liberation
as they were owing to Piccolominis (likely) own desire for her.44 This
was the historical reality underlying the serious-minded point of the
Raaella: social norms tyrannically45 discriminated against women,
arranged marriages trapped them, and festive social gatherings were
their only hope for escape from domestic oppression. Thus, as the ludic
38Parlour Games
academy and pseudonym allowed the future priest Piccolomini to be

temporarily free, the ludic setting and the advice of the Raaella prescribed freedom for Margarita and Laudomia. In this sense, the ludic
genre proposed a measure of social reform, albeit one whose adulterous solutions could never be taken seriously.
With the writing of the Institutione, however, the satirical reforms
of the Raaella are mainstreamed in more traditional and constructive
terms. This massive manual on the happy and proper life was written
at the occasion of the birth of Laudomias son Alessandro in 1539 (her
third child within four years). Piccolomini, the childs godfather, composed the work as a gift, traditional upon such occasions. He intended
it to be a primer for the boys education, directed to the mother in the
first books dealing with the early years and then to the youth himself
in later ones. Despite the fact that the treatise, concerned with the shaping of a young man, necessarily reflects traditional patriarchal values,
some surprisingly feminist tones also pervade the work. At the most
fundamental level, Piccolomini credits his inspiration to an exposition
he had heard Laudomia give on Dantes Paradiso 31, concerning happiness. Channelling her insights, he draws upon material from Aristotles Ethics, the Ps.-Aristotelian (i.e., Xenophons) Economics, and Platos
Republic. The circular flow is telling: Laudomias insights on Dante supposedly lead Piccolomini to summarize pertinent classical learning
that he in turn repackages and gives back to her in the vernacular. He
has likely embellished Laudomias role as catalyst,46 but this account
of the genesis of his treatise does reflect the intersection of three forces
in the first half of the sixteenth century: the popularization of classical
thought, the vernacular press, and women as new audience and participants in moral discourse.
Laudomia, moreover, is mentioned throughout the work: as an accomplished poet, as an exemplar of urbanity, as a model of heroic
virtue. As for the first of these talents, he mentions a commentary he
made on one of her poems, presumably the lecture he presented to the
Paduan Academy of the Infiammati in 1541.47 He praises her social gifts
in a chapter entitled On Urbanity and Its Extremes, in which he discusses the needed recreation of the mind that can be found in some
honest games, witticisms, and jokes.48 Here he warns between the extremes of oensive buoonery and excessive reserve, noting that the
sophisticated individual will tread the middle way and be attentive to
time, place, and company. He tells Alessandro that this virtue is exhibited by his mother from whose splendid wit and invincible propriety
I have heard born the subtlest and most ingenious witticisms and sayings, full of such great delight a true sign of the great judgment and
propriety that are joined in her.49 This ludic social presence suggests
that Laudomia was no wallflower. And, in fact, in the following chapter
on modesty (verecundia), which Piccolomini praises as a particular virtue of women, it is revealing that he does not cite Laudomia.50 Instead,
in the chapter On Heroic Virtue and Its Extremes he praises her as
trumping in this heroic virtue not only any great woman found in our
time but any from antiquity and making our city happy, famous, and
divine.51
Piccolominis comments on women in this work, however, transcend
the particular case of Laudomia. For one, the social circumstances that
drive young women to adultery in the Raaella are constructively addressed to some degree in the Institutione, and the festive gatherings
that are opportunities for sin in the earlier dialogue now become legitimate outlets for women. In the chapter On Conversation and Entertainment With Noble Women, Piccolomini alludes to womens
forbearance under male authority: through the force and dominion
that men have exercised over them, compelled and constrained they
suer many diculties and yet nonetheless most prudently and patiently they endure with cheerful face and happy heart.52 This being
so, Piccolomini urges Laudomias son, it is all the more important that
in social settings men honour, appreciate, and exalt women, especially those rare women who come along sometimes who are so excellent, magnanimous, ingenious, and virtuous that they astonish men
who are not stupid.53 The festive occasion thus is praised as a welcome
relief to the confinement imposed on women by men, and rather than
a venue for adultery (as in the Raaella) it is potentially a public setting
for male elevation of women and appreciation of female personality.
Likewise, Piccolomini implicitly recommends reforms in marital customs. In a chapter entitled Whether True Love Is Through Choice or
Through Destiny he emphasizes the importance of choice, warning of
the dangers of those who through force and violence are induced to
love and not through free election, through which merits and demerits
and praise and blame are weighed and measured.54 This emphasis on
free choice recalls the comments in the Raaella of women who, coerced
into marriage blindly, have the chance to choose their lovers in adulterous aairs. Thus, in this regard, Piccolomini although assuming in the
Institutione the inevitability that spouses will stray emotionally hints
at a reform that might lessen the desire for adultery.55 Similarly, in the
40Parlour Games
realm of marital relations, he urges that husbands should allow wives

a proper sphere of autonomy and a measure of freedom: that is, they
should cede to them authority and governance over the household and
should permit them latitude to visit and socialize at various events.56
The Institutione partly resolves problems satirically depicted and cynically resolved in the Raaella. Rather than oering irreconcilable visions
of immorality vs. morality (and misogyny vs. feminism), both of these
works wrestle with issues of female freedom and autonomy. And in
fact the ludic identity and licence of Stordito may have helped to articulate and dramatize problems later resolved by the moral philosopher
Piccolomini. The arc of Piccolominis development as a social reformer,
moreover, would peak with a revised edition of the Institutione, published in 1560. Conor Fahy observes that this second version, retitled
Institutione morale, includes a new chapter on love that argues for the
complete union of amor umano (delightful Platonic love) with amor
coniugale (marital, familial aection) thereby moving beyond the
disjuncture between these two found in the first version of the treatise.57
In other genres as well, Piccolomini, writing under his own name,
praises women in serious terms. In 1542 he composed an Orazione fatta
in morte di Aurelia Petrucci, which reveals that his admiration for women
extended beyond Laudomia. This funeral oration for Aurelia ran to
thirty-eight pages in its eighteenth-century edition. His praise of her
does contain some typically patriarchal, left-handed compliments of
women: for instance, he asserts that if there is any part of women that
is not good, it was not found in her; and all those important qualities
that befit men were to be found in her so completely that, lacking any of
the imperfections of women and abounding in the perfection of men, a
most singular figure, as we saw her, she bore to the world.58
But more important was his praise of her for qualities not usually associated with women. Her face was beautiful in its being not soft and
frail, but rather of a certain masculine mien (aer virile).59 He also emphasizes Aurelias eloquence, a quality that in the previous century the
humanist Leonardo Bruni, for one, considered irrelevant to the education of women: Aurelia Petrucci was naturally most eloquent, as everyone knew, it being evident that she was accustomed to speak with
vehemence, sweetness, expression, and disposition of her words that to
hear her was a great marvel.60 And like a good rhetorician she knew
how to trim her words to the audience, whether familiarly in domestic
matters, sweetly and cleverly in respectable pleasures and recreations
of the mind, gravely on important occasions, and in sum always spoke
appropriately according to the subject.61 This quality, which enabled

her to speak with visiting dignitaries and to protect the interests of her
family with such acuteness of wit that she always knew the mind
of people she spoke with before they themselves did.62 Eloquence obviously is not only a social skill but potentially a political one as well.
And Piccolomini soon revealed his polemical purpose in this paean to
her eloquence and judgment: considering the discourse and prudence
of this woman, I do not know if that tradition that women not involve
themselves in public aairs was, with Aurelia living, a cause of greater
good or harm to your city it being that because of that law this Republic was deprived of guidance that more fully would have availed of the
goodness and judgment of such a great woman.63
In fact, during her life Aurelia did find one political outlet available
to women: poetry. When Lodovico Domenichi published the first-ever
collection of all-female poetry (in Lucca in 1559), the first piece in the
anthology was a poem by Aurelia on the political discord of her city.
Granddaughter of the famous Pandolfo Petrucci, virtual ruler of Siena
from 1497 until his death in 1512, Aurelia was a member of Sienas controversial first family. Even after the expulsion of the Petrucci family
in 1524, infighting between the Noveschi party and the new Libertini
party provoked the intervention of first the pope and then the emperor,
who installed Spanish troops in the city beginning in 1530 to control the
situation. Aurelias poem is not dated but likely alludes to this legacy of
chaos that provoked Alessandro Piccolomini himself to write a piece on
civic unity. In any case, Aurelias poem opened with the lines Where
does your valour stand, my dear Country / Since miserable you forget
the servile yoke / And only nurture in yourself discordant thoughts /
Prodigal of your harm, stingy of good?64 In some fashion, then, it appears that Aurelias political eloquence was able to enter the political
arena of her troubled Siena.65
Piccolominis interest in proclaiming a public voice for women was
also apparent in an oration that praised women in generic terms. This
brief Orazione in lode delle donne, published in 1545, appeared the year
after the Italian translation of Agrippa von Nettesheims influential De
nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus and, in fact, appeared in print
jointly with that work. Perhaps influenced by Florindo Cerretas unpersuasive dating, several scholars ascribe the treatise to around 1538, just
before Piccolomini left Siena for his studies in Padua and Bologna, but
I think it much more likely he wrote it after his return to city in 1543.66
The Orazione, presented in Siena to the Intronati, praises womens
42Parlour Games
prudence and capacity for political authority with a simple syllogism.

A survey of households governed by women and those that are not
reveals women to be eective administrators; men who govern their
households poorly govern a state poorly; therefore, women who govern a household well will govern a state well.67 He also oers views
about female sexual behaviour, countering the male canard that were
it not for the fear of shame or the fear of husbands and others, there
would not be found a chaste women.68 First, he says that fear of shame
(though not, hypocritically on their part, shame over sexual misbehaviour) also motivates males but that this is seen as a mark of honour for
them. But more important is his advice that men loosen the reins in
their control over women: And when they [male critics], these perfidious tongues, would say that women restrain from sin through fear, I
would say this is most false, because we see that the more a woman is
conceded freedom by her husband to do what she wants, the more she
is known to be wise, chaste, and perfect.69 As in the Institutione, then,
once again Piccolomini urges reforms in marital relations that would
give women greater latitude in their social life. Finally, in the Orazione
he argues that mens disparagement of women is owing to their own
disappointments over unrequited love.70 This is thought to have been
the animus behind Boccaccios misogyny in his Corbaccio, and indeed it
may have coloured Piccolominis own depiction of women in the Raffaella, in that the newly married Laudomia would likely never be his.
Despite Piccolominis serious publications under his own name in
the early 1540s, the ludic persona continued to exist. In 1544, not long
after his return to Siena from Padua and Bologna, he wrote his comedy LAlessandro.71 A bawds flattering reference in the play to Monna
Raaella proves that the renunciation of the scandalous play applied
only to Piccolomini the moral philosopher, not to Stordito the comic
writer.72 But once again the two personae of Piccolomini have more
overlap than is at first obvious. Piccolomini uses the play to deal with
social issues not so much in the scandalous extreme of the Raaella, but
in the softer, satiric middle. In his preface, he says that he is writing
the play to renew the literary interests of the Sienese women, who have
recently descended into more vulgar pastimes.73 He promises that there
is much that is didactic for all in the play, defends comedy against priggish detractors, and suggests that it might be more useful for the Intronati to spend their funds on staging a play than supporting some big
fat friar.74 He was true to his promise that the play had redeeming social value. The story involves two young lovers separated as youths and
forced by circumstances and by relatives to live disguised as members

of the opposite sex. A second plot involves a young law students love
for a girl already promised by her father to someone else. Both couples
eventually unite and prove the durability of true love to triumph over
the (metaphorical) disguises and tangible constraints imposed by society. The theme of sexual disguise or inversion was a common one in the
Intronatis plays, and it perhaps spoke to the function of the ludic world
of (the) play to empower women in a mans world. The second joint
production of the Intronati in 1532, in which Piccolomini had a hand,
was the Ingannati (The deceived), produced a few days after their comedy, the Sacrificio, discussed earlier. The Ingannati purportedly grew
out of the Intronatis attempt to appease women oended by the Sacrificio, which in turn seems to have grown out of the parlour game of
Befana, or fortunes (venture), which occurred at Twelfth Night. (The
legacy of the game continued to be strong later in the sixteenth century,
and the Ingannati itself is thought to have indirectly influenced Shakespeares Twelfth Night.)75 In this work, a young woman, disguised as a
boy, foils her fathers attempt to force her into a loveless May-December match. Thus, in this play as well the practice of arranged marriage
is thwarted.76 As for Piccolominis Alessandro of 1544, as a piece of social commentary it splits the dierence between the libertine Raaella
and the moralizing Institutione. Taken together, the three works form a
continuum of social commentary dramatizing the constrictions on the
freedom of women and proposing solutions at various levels of fantasy
and reality. This continuum reveals how the ludic and real worlds were
constantly interpenetrating and not only was this true in the realm of
literature but also, as we shall see, it was true in the world of play itself.
***
The potential interchange between the ludic realm and specifically
that of the parlour game and more serious issues can also be seen
in the case of Alessandros cousin, Marcantonio Piccolomini. One of
the founders of the Intronati, Marcantonio was an interlocutor in Vignalis pornographic treatise of the 1520s and a major speaker in Girolamo Bargaglis Dialogo de giuochi of the 1560s. In 1538 he composed
a Ragionamento involving Laudomia Forteguerri, Girolama Carli de
Piccolomini, and (in a cameo role) the dedicatee Frasia Marzi. In his
dedication of the treatise Marcantonio suggests that he was inspired to
write the work after hearing reports of a recent discussion by the two
44Parlour Games
principal speakers concerning the philosophical and theological question of whether a perfect woman is formed by chance or by design of
nature (or God). He wants to present a dialogue that refutes the misconceptions of those who think women are not capable of conversing profoundly or speaking or understanding something other than the
most commonplace things and who, drawing on their false opinion,
have many times reproved those who in their books have interposed
women speaking of philosophy or some other science.77 In this work
the women cite the likes of Plato and allude to the contemporary theologians Aonio Paleario and Agostino Museo.78 Several times they refer
to writings or disputations of various Intronati members touching on
these subjects.79 Although the philosophical sophistication of the female
interlocutors is an embellishment and Piccolomini takes pains to have
the women allude to the Intronati influences the work clearly aims to
convey a sense of the ideal and, likely, the partial reality of intellectual
exchange between Intronati men and Sienese women. Girolama alludes
once to the many times she has heard Laudomia dispute Platonically,
and later Laudomia marvels at Girolamas erudition, saying she wishes
that she could be heard by those detractors of women who dare to say
that it is dicult to believe that women can speak of philosophy.80 Girolama names several other Sienese women capable of such reflections
Frasia Venturi, Camilla Saracini, Isifile Toscana, Atalanta Donati, and
Contessa Margherita de Salvi dElci and Laudomia alludes to a recent disquisition in favour of women presented by an Intronato at
a party the previous year (i.e., 1537).81 At a gathering at the home of
Atalanta Donati this Intronato reportedly proered a praise of women
to disabuse Contessa dElci of her gloom that Nature was born female;
this academy member was also identified as one always ready to speak
to the benefit of women.82 As Rita Belladonna suggests, this Intronato
was undoubtedly Alessandro Piccolomini, whose promotion of women
thus seems to have had currency and impact as early as 1537.83
Aside from its flattering portrait of the female mind, Marcantonios
Ragionamento is also revealing in that it links female intellectualism to
the emerging parlour games. At the start of the dialogue a reference
is made to a recent discussion of the question of whether misfortune
weighs more heavily on a woman of noble spirit or on one who is rough
and lowly. This topic arose in a certain game in which the rendering
of forfeits [or tokens] fell to Signor Marchese del Vasto, who having returned a necklace to Lady Frasia [Venturi], asked, as a reward (as you
know is the custom), that she please clarify this question.84 She gave
her response, the Marchese responded, and the two then tilted for more
than an hour. This incident tells us three things. First, it suggests that
these parlour games could lead to or inspire relatively cerebral discussions. Second, described as occurring a few years before in the home
of Lady Camilla Saracina, it expressly locates the setting of such games
in the home of the woman, rather than her husband.85 Third, it reveals
how these Intronati games involved women who actively participated,
rather than merely watched the men oer up sacrifices to them or perform Carnival plays.86
Finally, Marcantonio does not shrink from depicting women in his
dialogue in an intellectually combative and even controversial light.
When the terms of their debate begin to emerge, Girolama urges Laudomia to arm yourself well, because she is ready to engage the issue
with sword drawn. Laudomia replies that such has been the phrase
advanced by men in battle rather than women, but allows that she
does not see that there are arms capable of defending the contrary
of my view and for this reason I believe the fight will be short.87 This
martial language is complemented later in the dialogue by theological
content that flirts with the heretical. When the discussion turns to the
seeming contradiction between unalterable divine predestination and
an allowance of some role for human free will, Laudomia poses the crucial question: Oh, do you think that, without the grace that He [God]
concedes in our acts, they can be good and accepted? Girolama presents the orthodox line in her reply: Certain preachers of the day would
say no, although they are few and opposed by all and reasonably so in
my view.88 Rita Belladonna argues that Girolama is suggesting that
Laudomia has been influenced here by the predestinarian positions of
Agostino Museo, who had preached in Siena in 1537. It is revealing
that, as Diana Robin observes, Laudomia is assigned a Protestant position, given the similarly defiant role she will later assume in the siege
of Siena.89
Frasia Marzi, to whom Marcantonio dedicated his treatise, is the
subject of the treatises principal debate on the formation of the perfect
woman. She enters the dialogue at the end and arms that the perfect
woman is produced not by chance but by the design of nature aided by
God, first mover.90 Only afterwards is she told that she herself was
the perfect woman in question Piccolomini thus succeeds in simultaneously flattering women with an all-female discussion of lofty philosophical matters while flattering this particular woman in the process.
His admiration for Marzi is also evident in his subsequent biography
46Parlour Games
of her, a lengthy tribute running to twenty-five folios. The title of the

undated manuscript, La vita de la nobilissima Madonna Arithea de Marzi,
reflects Piccolominis etymological ploy in the treatise to create a new
first name for Frasia by combining the Greek words Aris for Mars
(obviously playing on Marzi) and thea (goddess).91 The biography
merits attention both for its topos of womens disenfranchisement from
political life and the inversely linked theme of Marzis fame in the social realm.
Piccolominis extended biography is something of a departure from
the normal praise of women (other than that devoted to saints or royalty) in that it is not in verse, the usual format for the flattery and/or
amatory praise of a contemporary female equal. Recognizing that I
well know how little the base style of prose can praise the high virtue
of others and that verse avails so much more than prose in praising
others, he nonetheless attempts to describe her virtue.92 After tracing
the ancient lineage of the Marzi name, Piccolomini recounts her early
life. When her mother died young, her father placed her in an order of
nuns (which included her aunt), where she received a proper education. Addressing his comments to Marzi herself, Piccolomini continues
the story: when you came of age, you married in order to please your
father,93 and though still a girl (fanciulla) when your husband died,
your father remarried you again and you most obediently pleased
him.94 Twice then Piccolominis account reveals his own awareness
that the young Marzi like so many dutifully entered marriage under
parental pressure.
Aside from the family, the state also limited female freedom. When
discussing Marzis forceful personal and intellectual presence, Piccolomini hails her mature discourse, solid judgment, wise counsel, exquisite reasoning, sage words that are always frolicking in a thousand
charms, or the fine and learned matters illustrated by the lit torches of
your words.95 He then makes a pointed distinction concerning what
he will not address:
I will indicate only part of the courteous and shrewd manners that you
exhibit in living. I will not speak of the dangerous wars, victorious deeds
of armies, cities, and provinces, and the justice and foresight in ruling subjects and keeping citizens at peace as pertains to emperors. Not that you
as a woman would not know how to govern and rule whatever empire; indeed in Macedonia, Egypt, Sparta, Syria, and Scythia many women were
found to hold greater authority than the kings themselves and many also

there were who carried such great weight on their feminine shoulders and
so bravely that they greatly surpassed men in virtue and valour.96
For exemplars Piccolomini cites the case of Semiramis, legendary

queen of the Assyrians who ruled after the death of her husband and
invaded India, and Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae who conquered
the mighty King Cyrus of Persia to avenge her sons death.97 He then
hails Marzi herself as an equestrian Mars: Do you not seem to be not
merely a descendant of Mars but Mars himself, given that you take a
spirited steed for a thousand rides as a valiant knight?98 He concludes
in this section that it is the iniquity of the times following the opinion
of Thucydides [Pelop. War 2. 45] who did not want even the name of
women to leave the room and not lack of valour that makes you unable to show how high your virtue would be able to fly.99 In invoking
the iniquity of the times, Marcantonio like Alessandro Piccolomini
in his funeral oration for Aurelia Petrucci, but in more detail siezes
the opportunity to critique the suppression of women and implicitly
urge reform.
If, however, the political and military realms were closed to Frasia
Marzis intellect and talent, another public world apparently was not.
Piccolomini discusses in some detail her capacity for debate, arguing
that the sweetness of her words is often overheard by those unworthy of them. Unlike Scipio Africanus, whose continuous conversation
with the populace won him great respect, Marzi, who always in debate
overcom[es] everyone else, does not enjoy such universal acclaim, since
many are incapable of fully appreciating her reasoning.100 In comparing
Frasia to Scipio, Piccolomini paints a portrait of a woman with a particular verbal public persona. Moreover, he goes on to detail her discourse as
endowed with exceptional wit, quickness, and subtlety: You also embellish your fine and learned arguments with such charm of graceful witticisms that it seems a miracle to people who hear them, [and] with this
you bedazzle them such that they marvel less at that which before astonished them. And you are not less quick in rebutting blows that may come
your way than prompt in attacking and with such charm and remarkable
skill that you do not make any oence.101
He further contends that as much as some may try to learn such skill,
I make the argument that mother nature cannot be imitated by art in
all cases, and I agree with those who contend that quickness of wit is
a true gift of nature, that whoever lacks a liberal nature vainly labours
48Parlour Games
with art to acquire it, and that witty charm does not come from anything
other than quickness of wit (prontezza dell ingegno).102 Piccolomini here
lays out a particular type of natural talent namely, quickness of wit
that can be demonstrated in the social realm and cannot necessarily
be learned or acquired. To women lacking political opportunity and
university education, this exercize of wit is a promising arena for fame.
And in fact and this is his most intriguing comment in this section
he says he would like one day to write a history of Marzis witticisms:
I have a great desire to embellish this history of your fine sayings and
charming witticisms, both in responding and in speaking, but I am disposed to leave it for now.103 This notion of a history of a womans witticisms certainly solidifies the idea of cleverness as an avenue for female
fame and signals the Intronatis ever greater interests in promoting a
ludic persona for women.104
Taken together, what do these works of the 1530s and 1540s from
Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini tell us about the relationship between Intronati men and Sienese women? Certainly, both of
these men recognize and promote the festive, ludic realm as a possible
venue for female escape, freedom, and renown. And both do so against
a backdrop of social and political constraints on women. In genres of
moral philosophy, eulogy, and biography they oer praise of women
collectively and individually while often critiquing social custom and
recommending social reform. As two of the most influential Intronati
of the first generation, they illustrate that the academys overtures to
women could have motives and ramifications beyond idle flirtation or
studied seduction.
The Women at the Walls
The siege of Siena in the 1550s oered an opportunity for women to
come centre stage in the defence of the city. Two incidents in particular
became lore in the history of the siege and in the mythology of Sienese
women. From the time of the second generation of Intronati (in the
1560s and 1570s) until the era of Girolamo Gigli (in the late seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries), these siege episodes would be interwoven with the history and historiography of Sienese parlour games.
As we shall see, moreover, Laudomia Forteguerri figures prominently
in linking the first generation of the Intronatis promotion of women to
this later involvement and depiction of women in the public life of the
city.
First, a few words on Sienese political (mis)fortunes in the first half of

the sixteenth century. After the exile in 1524 of the Petrucci family, ending that houses unrivalled domination of the city since the rise of Pandolfo Petrucci in the 1480s, the political infighting continued. The old
Noveschi (the Nine) party, hoping to take up the legacy of the Petrucci,
were toppled by the Libertini. Because the pope favoured the Noveschi,
he intervened in the politics of the city in the late 1520s, provoking the
concerns of the emperor, who countered by installing imperial troops
in the city beginning in 1530. Charles Vs Spanish troops became an
increasingly oppressive force, and they were expelled in 1552. Imperial forces soon returned, however, to besiege the city with the help of
Florence, and this alliance provoked the entry of the French, who aided
the Sienese in their cause. In 1555 the city fell; two years later Philip II
ceded Siena to the Medici Duke, and the city thus came fully under the
control of Florence.105
Accounts of the siege of Siena are especially noteworthy for an event
occurring in December and January 15523, in which a large portion of
citizenry both male and female gathered to build a fortification outside
of the Porta Camollia. A well-known account of this episode and one
that circulated Sienese fame to French and English readers came in
the Commentaires of Blaise de Monluc, who had been dispatched by the
French king Henry II to be governor of the city. Unfortunately, Monluc was not an eyewitness to the event, as he arrived in the city in July
1554, and wrote of events that were reported to him by Marshal Paul
de Thermes.106 Nonetheless, Monlucs paean to the Sienese women who
played a leading role in the event and his tribute to them would be
cited by later writers. Indeed, Monluc expressly hoped his commemoration would be long-lived, as he opened his account by saying, may
it never be, Sienese ladies, that I not immortalize your name as long as
the book of Monluc will live; for, in truth, you are worthy of immortal
praise if ever women were.107 He then describes how three thousand
of the women of Siena mustered in three groups, each led by a woman
wearing her colours and bearing an insignia Lady Forteguerri, Lady
Piccolomini, and Lady Livia Fausta and all of these women, ladies
or bourgeoisie, were armed with picks, shovels, hods, and faggots. And
with this equipment they proceeded to begin the fortification, singing a song in honour of France possibly composed by the Sienese poet
Laura Civoli.108 When Ugurgieri Azzolini compiled his biographies
of notable Sienese women probably the first prosopograhy of such
women in his Pompe sanesi of 1649, he included chapters on these three
50Parlour Games
women leading the squadrons. He praised their masculine vivacity

of spirit, quoted in full an Italian translation of Monlucs account of
the event, and cited the subsequent comment in the Commentaries that,
when the Duke of Alva was assaulting Rome, Monluc praised the bravery of the Sienese in general and opined that I dare say that I would
always be more assured to defend Siena with only Sienese women to
help me than to defend Rome with the Romans there present.109
A far more detailed account of the women at the walls can be found
in Ascanio Centorios La seconda parte de commentarii delle guerre, and de
successi pi notabile, avvenuti cos in Europa come in tutte le parti del mondo
dallanno MDLIII fino tutto il MDLX. This account, drawing on the earliest record of the event by Marco Guazzo, includes some details that
are revealing of the semiotics of this female martial event and the larger
social dynamics of the occasion:
And the women not to remain idle nor be outdone in virtue by the men
on the day of St Anthony [Jan. 17] 1553 congregated to make their appearance, led by three women each with an insignia in hand and with
drummers, and these women were Lady Tarsia Forteguerra dressed in violet with an insignia of the same colour hoisted in round shape, with ankle
boots of violet velvet with a motto that read Pur che sia vero. The second,
Lady Fausta Piccolomini, dressed all in red in that same fashion with an
insignia all of red, with a white cross and a motto that read Pur che non la
butto. And the last woman, Lady Livia Fausta, dressed all in white in the
same way as the other two, with a white insignia that had in the middle an
olive branch with a motto that read Pur chio lhabbia. And all three in this
guise went throughout the city gathering all the other ladies and artisan
women to number more than three thousand, a sight indeed as beautiful
as ever seen and of not little marvel to the Cardinal of Ferrara and Monsignor de Thermes, with each one seeing to what degree the women, for
love of liberty, did not refuse death, travail, nor any labour. And thus in
formation they went all around crying France, France, and each one of
them carried a faggot to the fort of Porta Camollia, which at that hour was
built.110
There is some discrepancy as to the identity of Forteguerri here,

identified only as Signora Forteguerra by Monluc and as Tarsia
Forteguerra by Centorio. Ugurgieri Azzolini seems to have been
uncertain about her identity, perhaps chiefly because of his reliance
on Centorios account, which he cites. In his chapter he identifies the
other two womens first names, but leaves Forteguerris blank, and he
includes a separate biography of Laudomia Forteguerri that makes
no mention of the incident: clearly, he is baed by the Tarsia identification.111 I have found no other traces of a Tarsia Forteguerri, and
I agree with those scholars who identify her as Laudomia.112 Diana
Robin presents the most persuasive evidence for Laudomias candidacy by citing a contemporary praise of her found in Giuseppe Betussis 1556 Imagini del tempio della Signora donna Giovanna Aragona.
At one point in this work, Betussi discusses the hard and obstinate
siege of Siena, praises the citys rare women,113 and enshrines Laudomia with an image in the temple (as Fame) by saying that there is
no enemy so fierce as not to be intimidated by Laudomias protection of the city.114 This homage, so close upon the events of the siege,
would certainly square with Laudomias having had a prominent role
in the defence of the city. Moreover, her assuming a military role as
captain was even more plausible, given her half-brothers political
and military roles in the city. In addition to his stints as an ambassador for the state, Nicomedo Forteguerri was appointed captain of
one of the companies defending the city during the siege.115 As for the
other two women heading the female brigade, Livia Fausti and Fausta
Piccolomini, I have found no other details.
Centorios account is particularly important for providing the mottoes of the three women.116 Vague as they are, these mottoes are significant for several reasons beyond their equivalency to male military
standards. As we saw in the previous chapter, one of the most popular parlour games discussed by Girolamo Bargagli was the Game of
Imprese, which allowed women to construct their own devices and
mottoes. Furthermore, as we shall see in the following chapter, Scipione Bargagli, who sets his game book in the circumstance of the siege,
presents a Game of Insignias and Banners. Did Sienese parlour games
promote this specific martial display and, more importantly, did they
in any way inspire this moment of female involvement in the defence
of the city? A century and a half later, the Intronato Girolamo Gigli
will make the explicit connection. In a letter he wrote to a fellow Intronato, the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi, Dell origine, e
processo dellAntica Sanese Academia, he discusses the long-distant
siege of Siena and praises the three women, our Amazons, who raising each her own conceived device, explicated in the amorous parties, served armed and ready as far as these more manly devices go.117
Perhaps drawing on oral tradition or perhaps conflating history with
52Parlour Games
mythology, Gigli (as we shall see in chapter 6) would link the martial
and ludic traditions of the female devices.
Returning to Centorios account we find, furthermore, that he argues that the womens boldness inspired (or shamed) other segments
of the population to come forth. Owing to the womens example all
the gentlemen started to do a similar thing and every day there came
forth some leading figure with his insignia to the fort in imitation of
those valiant women, and in such a manner that the priests and monks
pressured the Archbishop that they should all go there, carrying each
of them something to complete the fortifications.118 Finally, when the
archbishop came upon the scene and encountered maidens and matrons singing praises of the Virgin Mary, a religious procession ensued.119 In all, then, this narrative suggests that the women provoked
a total mobilization of the population, male and female, lay and clerical. It is also worth noting how the agency of these women in the crisis in the 1550s compared to events surrounding an earlier siege in the
1520s, when the city was beset by the forces of the Florentines and the
papacy. In a battle outside of the Porta Camollia in July of 1526, Sienese
forces displayed the banner (gonfaloniere) of the Virgin, owing to a commitment to establish a cult of the Immaculate Conception in the event
of victory: a decision made in response to a prophecy of a Margherita
Bichi, a Franciscan tertiary.120 The events of 1553 signalled a dramatic
change: from the banner and divine support of the Virgin, to the emblems and material aid of the Sienese women.
The fame of Sienese women during the siege also arose from one
other specific episode that dates from Monlucs Commentaires and this
incident he did eyewitness. He recounts that during his command of
the city in the siege he issued an order than no one was to neglect to
perform his guard duty under threat of punishment. When one young
man could not take his assigned shift, his sister took his helmet, which
she placed on her head, took his pants and a bualo-hair shirt, and,
with his halberd on her shoulder, she went to the muster in that equipage, passing as her brother when the roll was called and standing
guard in her turn without being discovered until daybreak. She was returned home with honour and later brought before Monluc.121 Though
Monluc did not name the woman, a poem of the time did. The story
of Caterina Fontebrandese was dramatized in verse, earning it an epic
status, and the poem fills in a few more details.122 Fontebrandeses ailing brother, fearing punishment and accusations of cowardice, was
determined to serve his turn guarding the Porta Ovile, but Caterina
convinced him otherwise:
To bed you! To me the sword and armour.
Come now, what are you saying? You are mad.
Dont you see? I resemble you in height.
Oh God! If you are discovered what will they do to you?
Why worry? This is not a bad deed.
No, look at the courage of Fontebrandese.123
When she returns and reports that she was discovered, the brother asks
if she was punished and she says:
They welcomed me and said many things.
And most of all the captain of France [Monluc].
He spoke and had tears in his eyes.
He opened a book and noted my name
Then he muttered something of memorie 124
This last reference presumably refers to Monlucs noting the event

in his Commentaires, and it was his account that was taken up by Ugurgieri Azzolini in a chapter on an unnamed young Sienese woman
in his collection of biographies of Sienese women in his 1649 Pompe
sanesi. And, as we shall see in chapter 5 below, Ugurgieri Azzolinis
account in turn resurfaced in a parlour game of the early eighteenth
century.125 Thus, the literary history of this incident of a sister dressed
in her brothers uniform moved from a first-hand French military account, to a chapter in a biographical collection, to the recording of
the proceedings of a parlour game during an evening of play. As for
this latter party, held during Carnival, it is worth noting that it also included a game of female Amazons and male knights errant, suggesting once again that the historical intersection of ludic women warriors
and real ones might be more than casual or coincidental especially in
such a case as Caterinas, in which cross-dressing was not simply carnivalesque or burlesque, but rather practical and heroic.126
The liminoid world of the Academy of the Intronati certainly allowed young men the licence and venue to challenge the social and
professional expectations of their class whether it be clergy-bound
Alessandro Piccolomini vicariously (or actually) courting Laudomia
54Parlour Games
Forteguerri, or Girolamo Bargagli indulging his literary genius as

he avoids his law books. But as they drew women into their revels,
did the Intronati help to create a subversive liminoid setting for young
women also in the time and space of the evening parlour game? And as
their celebration of women transformed from seductive flattery to serious praise (in biography, in eulogy, in moral philosophy, in theoretical
briefs on the querelle des femmes), did they nudge their female colleagues
to a more public, literary, and even military life? Of course, Laudomia
Forteguerri may have manned the walls without the feminist incitements of Alessandro Piccolomini in the Raaella, in the Institutione, and
even in the funeral oration for Aurelia Petrucci. But given that she came
to him for help in publishing her sonnets for Margaret of Austria, as
Diana Robin has shown, clearly she saw some link between this Intronato and her public persona.127 Furthermore, in their serious writings in
praise of Aurelia Petrucci and Frasia Marzi, both Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini broached the theme of womens unjust exclusion
from political and military involvement. Given the games devoted to
female devices and banners, it would seem reasonable to speculate that
the ludic world of the Intronati may also have promoted a greater female activism in its own indirect way. Indeed, the encounters between
women and Intronati men in the 1530s and 1540s may have partly inspired the women at the walls in the 1550s. Certainly, the theme of the
behaviour of Sienese women during the siege will simmer in the game
book of Scipione Bargagli in the 1560s and far beyond.
3The Games of Girolamo and Scipione

Bargagli (15631569)
The eorts of Alessandro and Marcantonio Piccolomini to promote

women were continued in the second generation of Intronati by the Bargagli brothers, Girolamo and Scipione. To the variety of genres the Piccolominis employed in the 1530s and 40s comedies, moral dialogues,
orations, biographies, eulogies the Bargaglis added game books in the
1560s, signalling the prominence of parlour games as a cardinal feature
in Sienese festive life.1 Girolamos Dialogo oers a theory of play interlaced with brief descriptions of 130 games that supposedly had been
played at one time or another in the Sienese soires. Scipiones Trattenimenti presents a full literary simulation of how a few games might be
played. Although written in the 1560s, both works are set in the previous decade in the course or aftermath of the siege and fall of Siena: the
Dialogo around 15578, upon the reopening of the academy after the
turbulence of that era; the Trattenimenti in 1555, back during the siege
itself.2 Given Florences ocial control of the city, any Sienese commentary on the recent war had to be carefully parsed, completely avoided,
or cleverly disguised by a ludic fig leaf. Both texts must be read with
this recent history in mind, and both must be viewed in part as works of
rhetorical advocacy for the glory of Sienese games and Sienese women.
To a large degree, these two subtexts the martial/political and the cultural/social intersect, as the Bargagli brothers assign particular importance to Sienas ludic identity in an era of political weakness.
From Private Play to Public Performance
As we saw in chapter 1, in the treatment of the theory of play Girolamos Dialogo clearly emphasized the activist role of women, who should
56Parlour Games
not demur from participation for reasons of modesty but rather show
the same boldness of mind as men. But what of the actual playing of
games in Bargaglis book? What can we unearth from it about the logistics of these events and the social history of these games? Girolamos dialogue is retrospective, because its central agenda is to record the glory
days of Sienese festive life before the recent hiatus occasioned by the
war. He wants to compile these games as a manual for use in the future.
His chief interlocutor, Sodo (the academy name of Marcantonio Piccolomini), is particularly useful in this regard as a figure bridging the
first and second generations. A founder of the academy in the 1520s,
Piccolomini, now in the service of a high-ranking ecclesiastical figure
in Rome, has stopped o in the city en route to Venice, and he engages
his younger colleagues on the history of the Sienese games, which, as
shown in chapter 2, were under way by the 1530s.
In presenting his history of games, now as a speaker in Bargaglis
Dialogo, Sodo suggests that the ur-game, Cicirlanda a corruption from
ghirlanda (garland) has classical roots in the King of the Banquet.3
And when another speaker corrects him by saying that the modern
Sienese innovation was to have the King served by two women advisors, the elder Sodo acknowledges this as your modern invention not
current in his day and admits that the games and entertainments of
women are among those things that the young understand better than
the old.4 Bargagli thus depicts the ludic innovations involving women
as evolving over the lifetime of Marcantonio Piccolomini and, for this
reason, credits the Sienese with the true (re)discovery of this tradition.
Thus Sodo can claim Sienese originality against the arguments of the
sceptic of the group, Fausto Sozzini, who asserts that the tradition can
be found earlier in high culture (for instance, Castigliones Courtier), in
low culture (the revels of peasant rural culture), or even in the earlier
academy of the Grande.5 Sodo deflects all of this to argue that, just as
Columbus and the Portuguese deserve credit for discovering territories known before, the Sienese of the Intronati era truly reinvented the
parlour game, as a revival of lapsed vernacular culture and an innovative incorporation of women into festive life.
Moreover, Bargaglis history of the Sienese games tells us something
about the particular social dynamics of these revels. When describing
the early association of the Intronati with the Sienese women of high
intellect, who delighted in virtuous entertainments, he does so in such
a way as to desexualize the context. That is, Sodo argues that owing
to the propriety of those times there was an unusual climate of social
The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli57
freedom in which the men continually and at any time were accustomed to visit one or the other of those women, with that liberty that one
feels today in visiting a sister.6 This image of brotherly visits casts
male-female relations in something other than the expectably seductive
terms that Carnival parties would normally suggest. Indeed, Bargaglis
account reveals the settings of games to be not only the homes of men
but also those of women.7 And if, as the Courtier typified, women were
the overseers of ludic activity in courtly, ducal settings, in Siena this female role extended down to a wider population of urban women. This
population, furthermore, seemed to have had a taste for a more challenging form of entertainment than the traditional pursuits of dancing
or cards. Here again, in describing their fill of dancing Sodo depicts the
womens interests as more cerebral and less physical, claiming that they
desire displays more of cleverness of wit, than comeliness of person.
It was this challenge that the Intronati met through the multitude and
perfection of many games that today are found among us.8
The setting for such games was in one sense private, but in another
not. While taking place in private homes, this socializing became somewhat more fluid, more public when men were free to drop by in a
brotherly way. At times these encounters became even more overtly
public, when staged as performances for viewing. These public settings
were seen by the Intronati as more challenging for women. As a result
Bargaglis book suggests that the nature of the occasion and the participants should be taken into account. At the grander settings of huge
banquets or weddings requiring more elevated themes, or at gatherings
including foreign visitors, Bargagli recommends that men take on the
primary burden of speaking. In such large and public settings women,
even if expert and wise, might be reluctant to speak, especially in the
matters of love that the games often address.9 On two such occasions
one when many women were gathered for a joust that had occurred
earlier the day, another when some visiting dignitaries were present
the Dialogo records games in which the men conferred upon the women
attributes worthy of fame or a crown.10 In such cases, all the industry was on the part of the men, and upon the women was incumbent
nothing but to be praised and exalted.11 These depictions of womens
conventional shyness and reserve reflect the norms of female attitudes
towards public display and throw into greater relief the eorts on the
part of the Intronati at other times to prompt women to undertake a
more assertive role.
58Parlour Games
According to Bargaglis treatise, there was in fact a pivotal moment

when the Intronati orchestrated a public performance by the Sienese
women. The occasion was the appearance in Siena of Alfonso dAvalos
(150246), the Marchese del Vasto, and Ferrante Sanseverino (150768),
prince of Salerno.12 Sodo reports that the Intronati caucused the day before to select the games that we planned to make in their presence. I
do not mean that we composed exactly what everyone was to say, but
rather that there were proposed and chosen two or three games designated to be played, so that each of us could contemplate some nice
conceit.13 These games, then, would be partly planned performances.
The account of this event comes in a section of the treatise discussing
circumstances when, because of the presence of a foreign person or
for any other reason the game needs to succeed well, it must be assured that the most clever individuals are chosen to play. After musing on their own planned capricci(whimsies), the men then visited
some of the women who would be involved, and we discussed with
them some fine things that could be said by them.14 The crucial statement follows, as Sodo claims that this prompting of women led to an
impressive performance, which thereafter spawned a tradition of truly
improvisational wit that won certain women public fame: Whence it
occurred that there was heard that evening fine concepts and spirited
vivacity, and the women with a little bit of help said marvellous things.
And from this initial assistance they began to make a habit of it, so
that extemporaneously and on every occasion wonderful discourses,
sayings, and arguments were heard to come from them, whence Ladies Aurelia and Giulia Petrucci, Lady Frasia Venturi, the Saracina, the
Forteguerra, the Toscana and some others acquired eternal fame.15
Bargagli thus argued that a particular occasion transformed the parlour game into a public spectacle in which the reputation of the city
and of certain individuals would be enhanced. It was this setting, he
contended, that also occasioned the public emergence of women, who,
needing the help of men at first, apparently became stellar improvisational wits in their own right. Among these women are two prominently
praised by Alessandro Piccolomini Aurelia Petrucci and Laudomia
Forteguerri but also several mentioned in Sodos own Ragionamento:
Frasia Venturi, Camilla Saracini, and Isifile Toscana.16 When did this
pivotal party occur? In his Ragionamento of 1538, Marcantonio Piccolomini refers to a parlour game a few years earlier in the home of Camilla Saracini in which the same Alfonso was present as a participant
and assigned Frasia Venturi the penalty of discoursing on the eects of
misfortune on a woman.17 This may well have been the occasion Piccolomini (as Sodo) now refers to in Bargaglis Dialogo.18
As Bargaglis account of this incident makes clear, the Intronati certainly conveyed a rather patronizing attitude towards women, who had
to be set up with clever lines beforehand. Sometimes male assistance
came during the game. Men would stand near a woman and whisper
suggestions; an astute Rector of the game, spotting reticent women,
might subtly provide them (quasi somministrarle) with material; men
should be at the ready to embellish or improve upon any obscure or
confused statements the women might make.19 As condescending as
this sounds or as self-serving as it might be on the part of Bargagli as
a male author Sodos account does convey the social reality of mens
necessary role in drawing out women who are socially conditioned to
be silent and who are untrained in public speaking. After all, Bargaglis
book emphatically rejects the convention that women stand mute, act
aloof, and rely on their beauty. If the retreat into false modesty was the
prevailing norm for women, men would need to coax them out. In this
way, the Intronati mentored the shy. Indeed, part of the task of the
male players was to recognize the disposition of female participants and
act accordingly. When discussing the role of the Judge in a game, Sodo
argues that when he [a male Judge] will have a woman as a companion he will at once shrewdly evaluate whether she is suited or disposed
to speak. If so, he will allow her to comment, reinforce her judgment,
and supplement if it needs buttressing. If she does not know how to
argue or does not wish to he will make a show of conferring with
her and present her decree.20 The Intronati rules of the game considerately allow for various levels of assertiveness or eloquence among
women, assuring that games remain always recreational, not coercive.
But if the shy will be accommodated, so also will the bold. In a section on the proper demeanour of the Judge of a game, when Sodo fails
to explicitly address how women might perform this role, another interlocutor, Lelio Maretti, challenges him on his silence. Sodo remarks
that Maretti would seem to be a solicitous attorney on behalf of
women,21 and replies that for the most part everything he (Sodo) prescribes in the discussion applies equally to men and women. He does,
however, qualify his comment, noting that, in the role of Judge, women
should generally speak less than men and more cryptically, avoiding
an overt desire to speak or presumption to know.22 Thus, Sodo defaults to a conventional view that women should be more restrained
and laconic, but then he oers an exception for older, more established
60Parlour Games
women: when there might be a well-spoken woman of some age who

has acquired some authority, in that case it would be permitted that she
reason at length, contradict, and be paradoxical in the same manner
we have said in regard to men.23 Bargaglis rules thus simultaneously
protect the reticent and empower the confident. In this way he gives a
nod to traditional gender norms but also provides a blueprint for transcending them.
What do the specific games themselves tell us about the dynamics
between women and men? Here, Bargaglis treatise oers evidence
in terms both of the themes of these games and anecdotes of verbal
sparring during their playing. As mentioned in chapter 1, the Intronati games certainly fell into the category more of flirtatious, subversive play than of the generally high-minded, didactic entertainment of
Ringhieris and Arnigios sort. Yet, even though all of the games were to
have a touch of the festive, Bargagli divided his games into the gravi
and the piacevole. The latter could be quite obscene, such as the Bird
Pecking at the Fig, which Bargagli included among his index of forbidden games.24 As for the gravi games, these were not so much serious or sombre as they were more taxing of players creativity or literary
knowledge. And it was in these weighty games that women, as well
as men, had most occasion to demonstrate their wit and vernacular
learning. But whether amusing or weighty these games generally
constituted occasions for flirtation and even lewd seduction, befitting
the Carnival setting in which the revels often occurred.25 Because of this
amatory context and because of the suspension of normal hierarchies
during the ludic setting women often had the upper hand. Thus, in
the Game of the Ship, each woman selects her two favourite men at the
party and chooses which one she will throw overboard during a storm
at sea and which one she will keep and she must give her reasons
for both decisions.26 Or, to take another example, in the Game of the
Enchantress a woman turns two men into animals, who then indicate
how this Circe mistreats them in their states as particular beasts. The
best pleader is rewarded by being returned to his original state. Sodo
recounts one enactment of this game in which a man, turned into a fish,
suggests that, like a fish, he is always silent in this ladys presence and
that his particular grief is that, just as a fish can thrive only in water, he
subsists in a fire (of desire) in which she perpetually holds him.27 Such a
game comically enacts the transformative sway women have over their
admirers, illustrating the point that Tassos figure Annibale Pocaterra
would later make in the Romeo that women are the dominant force in
the realms of love and the game. This power inversion could even extend to the academic world, as in the game in which women, acting as a
board of university examiners, judge how well an aspiring young man
declaims on assigned verses from Dante and Petrarch. After the women
discuss his interpretations, they award him the dignity of the dottore
amoroso, at which point he delivers an oration on love and receives
his diploma.28
The dynamics of power, however, are not always so one-sided. The
Game of the Amazons depicts a more evenly matched battle of the
sexes, when a band of women warriors combats a group of young men.
Couple by couple, the men and women step forward: the man declares
what weapon he will use to conquer the woman; the woman describes
her defence. This game, one of the weighty, requires a capacity for
clever metaphor. In one enactment, when a man declares he will conquer his lady with the sword of fidelity (fidelt), his opponent answers
that she will protect herself with the shield of little belief (poco credulit).29 The lord of the battlefield then decides which of the two is
best armed and awards the victory. While this game is frivolous, it does
nonetheless transpose the traditionally male realm of martial warfare
to a male-female battle of wits. As we shall see in chapter 5, this game
would be re-enacted over a century later at a party involving sixteen
Intronati (as knights errant) and sixteen members of the new all-female
academy of the Assicurate (as Amazons).
The possibility for true intellectual competition between men and
women could be found in other games as well, and this represents one
of the most important legacies of the Intronatis games. Many games actively engaged vernacular literature, calling upon participants to spar
with lines of famous verse (especially from Petrarch), to mine love poetry for images of beauty or the qualities of Cupid, or to examine situations from epic romances.30 This amatory realm was obviously the most
relevant for encounters meant to flatter or seduce women, but it was
also the realm most available to women as readers. Thus, Sodo argues
that women should always be very familiar with Dante, Petrarch, and
Ariosto and even have many verses memorized.31 In fact, because
their intellectual world is more circumscribed than that of universityeducated men, they need to prove their mettle by mastering the literature available to them. Sodo urges that it would be profitable to have
fresh familiarity with books that contain such [amatory] concepts, and
for women especially, who being able to read less than men, induce
more marvel.32 Bargagli is calling for women to develop their own
62Parlour Games
type of literary specialization, which they can then use for public display, becoming expert in memorizing, mining, and juxtaposing material from the vernacular realm.
The Game of Questions provided a forum in which women could especially shine. The tradition of such questions of love originated in
the Provenal courts of love and was developed by Boccaccio in his
Filocolo.33 In Bargaglis record of the game two men are assigned a question to discuss for instance, whether one loves through choice or destiny, whether separation increases or diminishes love and a woman
is chosen to determine the victor.34 Sodo remarks that this, one of the
weighty games, is often a source of great courtesy and invention,
especially if the questions have been drawn from well-known sources
that are familiar to the women present.35 Thus, this game requires
and fosters a literary and intellectual world that is shared by men and
women. Here, in some way the academic model is exported to polite
society, for just as a common body of Latin texts in the university underlies academic disputations, so does a common corpus of volgare texts
enable parlour games to become true contests. In describing one party
at the home of Contessa Agnolina dElci, Bargagli suggests that there
was gathered a restricted group of ladies who delighted in reading,
aside from the [Orlando] Furioso, the books of Amadigi of Gaul and of
Greece and those of Palmerini [de Oliva] and Don Floriselli.36 Sharing
as they did a common reading list, this group was a perfect audience
before whom a visiting Intronato posed questions of love drawn from
this body of works questions and resolutions that one of Bargaglis interlocutors then recounts.
Some of the Intronati men at times proved to be deficient in this
realm of romantic literature. When Sodo alludes to a story about two
princesses from the novels of Don Floriselli, one of his colleagues in the
dialogue admits that his familiarity with it is faint and suggests that
because others in the discussion might not know it, Sodo would do
well to recount it, which he does in considerable detail. Sodo admits
that, while these romantic epics are too long and contain only a few
nuggets for their size, these gems must be mined, because if the Intronati want to ingratiate themselves to women they must take up their
interests just as they must with princes. While this comment betrays
some disdain for this literature, it does reveal a recognition that men
should relate to women in the arena of their literary interests.37 To drive
the point home, Sodo tells a story of one particular figure who confessed to being embarrassed at not being privy to this literature. When
Jacopo Grioli returned to Siena after an absence and went to visit Porzia Pecci, he found her in conversation with several Intronati over some
questions (drawn from the Amads novels) that she had meted out as
game penances. Grioli stood mute during this occasion, since he had
not read the books in question. Greatly distressed, he sought out Sodo
soon afterwards, saying, Sodo, please loan me a few of these Spanish books, which I want to bolt down, so that I never experience again
what happened to me today at Lady Porzias, where I appeared to be a
complete ignoramus (grande ignorante), not having had anything at all
to say.38
This account suggests that the body of romance literature crucial to
the Sienese games could not be wholly dismissed as an object of scorn,
but had become something of a requirement for cultural literacy in
polite society. And when this corpus became a common ground for
discussion it levelled the playing field and became an arena for intellectual display. Indeed, in this section Sodo praises an unnamed woman
whose mastery of this literature has caused him to marvel at the grace
she had in reading [such books], the judgment in enjoying them, and
the memory in referring to them.39 If women were generally excluded
from the university and their reading tastes confined, they nonetheless could exercise memory and intellect by problematizing issues of
love and courtesy drawn from the vernacular. And as the volgare was
being elevated by the Cinquecento academies and increasingly integrated into the philosophical and scientific realms, the issues debated
in the Intronatis games could be a springboard for disciplined debate
between men and women. Marcantonio Piccolominis Ragionamento of
1538 revealed this in describing an encounter between Frasia Venturi
and Alfonso dAvalos. Now, in Bargaglis Dialogo this same Marcantonio (as Sodo) recounts the incident of an ill-read man unable to keep up
with discussion at the home of Porzia Pecci.
The Intronatis games activated the vernacular literature tradition in
other ways as well. Storytelling clearly played a large part in the games,
and at the end of his second book Bargagli gives extensive advice on the
art of narration or extemporaneous composition. Stories might serve
as the basis for extracting questions of love, or players might be assigned the task of simulating a parlamento or scene, writing a love
letter, or telling a tale. Not surprisingly, Bargagli turns to the Decameron
more than forty times to construct a template for choosing and telling a story that has verisimilitude, that gives proper consideration of
audience and purpose, that focuses on one action, and so on.40 While
64Parlour Games
Bargagli recommends that a novella should ideally present something nuovo to hold the attention of listeners, stories long obscured
or little known can be recycled as new as some players have done
to great acclaim replicating some of the Decameron tales with almost
the exact phrasing.41 Whether retelling Boccaccios tales or emulating
their style, Bargaglis storytellers actively engage this tradition, and the
Sienese games thereby enable any player to become his or her own novelist/performer. The revival of Trecento culture thus comes full circle,
only now rather than Boccaccio fictively depicting everyday men and
women telling stories, the games oer a venue for men and women actually to tell stories from or in the style of the Decameron.
Moreover, the chance to perform extends to women as well as men.
When discussing incidents of women who have been called upon to act
out small scenes (such as responding to the entreaties of an admirer),
Bargagli encourages theatricality:
I wish that women would do this same thing [fully play the part] not only
in these smaller scenes but also if they have occasion to perform in an improvised comedy, as is accustomed to happen sometimes, not having any
disdain for playing the part of maid, a nurse, a bakers wife, or similar
lowly types, but rather donning the proper aspect and dress they ought to
study to represent their part appropriately, as I have seen done remarkably
on some occasions. Because four words that women might say, accompanied with certain acts and mannerisms well imitated by which [women]
transform themselves, seem wondrous. Whence in such improvisational
comedy it is always the women who receive the glory.42
In contrast to the largely silent, passive women in Castigliones

Courtier, Bargaglis ludic women may and should perform with brio in
these polite games, just as they are beginning to appear in the commedia dellarte.43 In fact, in the Dialogo Sodo recounts that it was these professional comedy troupes that led him to create a Game of Comedy, in
which he meted out roles to all the women and men of the group, who
then auditioned to determine whose role would be the starring one.44
Whether in the framework of storytelling or street comedy, women
were recruited as performers, not just spectators.
Aside from leavening the intellectual, literary, and performing life
of women, the Intronatis games enabled women to define and publicize their personalities. This was especially the case with the Game of
Devices (Imprese), which, along with the Game of Proverbs, was one
of the more popular games played.45 The culture of devices and the
related forms of emblems, reverses of medals, and insignias proliferated in Cinquecento Italy, as the Italians took up the tradition from
the French and Spanish troops that had begun to stream into the
country with the start of the Italian Wars in 1494.46 In appropriating
this tradition, however, the Italians broadened the scope of these designs, which became vehicles for self-fashioning that extended to nonmilitary and non-noble individuals and even to collective groups such
as academies. Designing such cryptic epigraphs for oneself or for others required creativity and cleverness. In describing his Game of Devices, in which players must create a design they would use in a joust
or tournament, Bargagli specifies that the device must not be so obvious as to be immediately understood by any roughneck or ignoramus, that it not contain human figures, and that it not be evident by
the figure alone or by the motto alone, but only by the conjunction of
the two.47 This last criterion obviously makes this game one of considerable subtlety. Just how subtle is well illustrated by an example of such
a device designed by Curzio Vignali for a lady of the Santi family. The
image was of an abacus reading 66 (sessantasei) and in the inscription was Perch mi uccidi? Bargaglis interlocutor explains the pun:
Wishing to signify, Se santi sei, perch me uccidi [If you are holy, then
why do you kill me?].48 In the next century, in his prosopography of
famous Sienese women, Isodoro Ugurgieri Azzolini cited this device
in his biography of Iuditta Santi, the woman in question, and also recorded her clever device in response so much had the ludic tradition
become the stu of Sienese cultural history.49
Even more revealing than devices composed for women were those
they composed for themselves. The parlour-game device lent itself to
highly personalized, even idiosyncratic use for a couple of reasons. One
feature, Bargagli argues, that separates devices from emblems is their
function to express particular thoughts relevant to the individual,
rather than didactic, universal principles.50 And unlike those devices
designed for public or permanent display that must have images generally decipherable by all, those conceived at games can be highly cryptic,
because the player is there to make clear the figure and its property
alike.51 Bargagli includes two examples of devices that were indeed
very coded and yet powerful statements of female sentiment. The first
is a somewhat poignant testament to the burden of domestic life. Sodo
reports the example oered one evening of the device of a woman
that ordinarily would have been obscure, because wishing to show that
66Parlour Games
being married, having a family, and having endured many adversities

had subdued the loftiness of her thoughts, she proposed a bull with
a wreath of wild fig around its neck with the motto Mutatus ab Illo
[Changed by That]. But because she explained the nature of the wild
fig, which, placed at the neck of the wildest bull, humbles and makes it
immobile, it seemed that [the device] was very pleasing.52
Aside from underscoring the creativity possible in such a game (obviously one of the weighty games), this passage illustrates the potential for the personal emblem to be a public statement in this case a
testament of personal frustration and psychological defeat. His second
example of female self-fashioning, by contrast, reveals a confident, optimistic tone. In this case a woman proposed for her device [an image
of] Indian linen, which, placed in fire, neither burns nor is consumed
(whence the ancients were accustomed to place dead bodies to burn
inside a sheet of Indian linen, because there the ashes would be conserved). And the motto was Inaccendibile (Unburnable).53 In one instance a dispirited woman laments being brought to heel; in the other,
a defiant one declares her indestructability. Both devices reflect the opportunity for women to define their character and express their outlook. And for those women not of the exceptionally high literary talent
or ambition of a Vittoria Colonna, such a game must have been a welcome form of self-expression.54
The related Game of Reverses [of Medals] provided an opportunity
for men to publicly characterize and praise women in specifically personal terms. Sodo explains that unlike emblems which reflect universal themes, point to the future, and issue warnings the reverses
treat the individual, look to the past, and confer praise. In Bargaglis
game men are to compose reverses for medals of silver and gold to be
produced for the women of great merit present at the gathering.55 A
few years later (in 1569) Girolamos brother Scipione recorded the results of such a game in a discrete collection of Reverses of Medals composed for women at a Befana celebration in a conscious eort to move
the field of glory from the male to the neglected female realm.
***
The opportunities and even obligations of women to participate in
Sienese parlour games are abundantly clear in Bargaglis Dialogo.
The social default to modest retreat was condemned, as a baldanza
danimo was required of women as well as men. It is not surprising
that men initially mentored and sometimes protected women in this

more public role. In such a strongly patriarchal society, male licence
for new forms of female licence would be expected. And that is what
the liminoid world of play facilitated. Just as it allowed young men the
chance to be other than dutiful profession-bound archetypes, it also allowed women the leeway of departing from invisible home-bound archetypes. In exploiting this new shared public space for heterosocial
contact, the games cultivated a common cultural corpus in the vernacular, whether interpreting proverbs, sparring with lines from Petrarchan
love poetry, or analysing situations from the latest romantic epics and
novels.56 Certainly, the shared interest was grounded largely in the
conventions of flirtation and seduction (real or faux), especially fitting
during the games of Carnival evenings. But the exchanges could nonetheless lead to more cerebral weighty contests requiring literary lore
and creative cleverness. And the players eorts in this realm could be
a spur to creativity and source of fame for all involved: whether composing a poem to be ruled worthy of inclusion in the Game of the Archive, creating an emblem for oneself or another, or oering a riposte
clever enough to be recorded in the Dialogo.57 The promise of immortality for women in this ludic setting was expressly articulated by Bargagli
in his praise of the Petrucci sisters, Frasia Venturi, the Forteguerra,
the Saracina, and the Toscana. As the writings of Ugurgieri Azzolini and Girolamo Gigli reveal, the legacy of fame for both particular
women and the everywoman of the Intronatis games would endure
into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Games and the Siege of Siena
When Girolamo Bargagli composed his Dialogo in the mid-1560s, the
siege of Siena was not so distant. Yet, despite the fact that he delved
far back before this disaster to the origins of the academy and set the
dialogue in the period shortly after it, he makes virtually no mention
of this event itself rather, he alludes only to recent wars and the civil
discord and turbulence of the times.58 This was likely a political decision, as he takes pains in the dialogue to stress the importance of having the protection of princes, which at the time of his writing would
have alluded to the Medici Dukes, to whom the emperor had ceded
the city.59 And given that he dedicated the treatise to Duke Cosimo Is
daughter Isabella, calling attention to Florences recent siege of the city
would not serve any useful end and only recall a bitter time. Why then
68Parlour Games
does his brother Scipione, writing his Trattenimenti in the aftermath of

Girolamos Dialogo (probably 15649), make the siege the focal point of
his work? The answer to this question takes us to the core of the relationship between the Sienese games and the larger political and social
reality.
In his lengthy Oratione in lode dellaccademia deglIntronati dello Schietto Intronato (Oration in praise of the Academy of the Intronati), written on the occasion of the reopening of the academy in 1603, Scipione
discusses the Intronatis tradition of games and cites the treatises of his
brother and himself as complementary treatments of this legacy. Girolamos book deals with the theory of the games, and his own with the
practice and actual operation of them.60 That is, whereas Girolamo
only briefly sketched the themes of his 130 games, Scipione simulated
the full playing out of a select few. This simulation permitted him to
oer his literary vision of the ideal parlour game (and, ironically, in
this sense, Scipiones treatise is arguably the more theoretical compared
to Girolamos, which recounted many incidents occurring at actual
games). As a more purely literary work with fictional characters, Scipiones Trattenimenti resembles Boccaccios Decameron, although, as we
shall see, it reshapes it in some bold ways. And it is this fictional frame
perhaps that allows Scipione to address the siege fully, without fear of
compromising himself or others vis--vis their Florentine overseers
though it is also possible that a lingering unease kept him from publishing the work until two decades later in 1587. Finally, this treatises
literary frame also allowed Scipione to advocate how games should be
played.
Even more than his brother, Scipione was certainly a champion for
greater opportunities for women. In the preamble to the second part of
his treatise, Scipione praises festive gatherings as settings for the demonstration of clever spirit and elevated intellect, even schools that
speak as much to the intellect and the senses.61 More importantly, he
explains that such gatherings are particularly important for women,
because I do not know why women are completely forbidden or at
least greatly impeded from embarking on the many and diverse honoured paths through which, in the manner that men do, they could rapidly demonstrate the acuity of their wit and the valour and frankness of
the soul that resides within their breasts.62
He then expounds upon the opportunities for men to shine in letters
or in arms, avenues all but closed to women to advance themselves
in esteem and to elevate themselves in clear fame among mortals.63
Furthermore, the male pastimes of hunting, fishing, and jousting are

similarly closed to them. Owing either to reasons of their sex, or rather
perhaps to the harsh control (duro possesso) gravely exercised over them
by relatives or husbands, their recreational life is largely confined to
watching others have fun.64 For these reasons festive gatherings are
the one opportunity for women to escape the tedium of their captive
lives. Scipiones preamble here resembles that of the Decameron, where
Boccaccio dedicates his tales as a consolation for melancholic, lovesick
women who lack the outlets available to men. But there are some notable dierences. For Boccaccio, the larger cultural framework is the
amatory one of pining women who need a remedy. Bargagli greatly
expands the plight of women from the amatory to the general social
realm. Women are deprived of the professional and literary arenas in
which to demonstrate their wit and talent. The game setting becomes
their potential arena for fame. Boccaccios tales are to be passively read
by the aicted; Bargaglis games are to be actively played in agonistic
contests allowing women, yes, relief from melancholy, but also a venue
to achieve a new public presence and acclaim.
The influence of the Decameron on the Trattenimenti is evident in another prominent way. Like Boccaccio, Scipione sets his work in the context of tragic circumstances. The disasters of the Black Death and the
siege of Siena obviously were equivalent in neither degree nor kind.
As a cataclysmic natural disaster the plague of 1348 oered a plausible
reason for Boccaccios characters to seek idyllic refuge in the countryside. The siege of Siena, by contrast, would seem to be an inappropriate
setting for confined citizens to celebrate Carnival with parlour games
and indeed Scipione was criticized for this.65 But this anomalous setting in fact may have been intended to make a particular political and
social point. Scipione as author and his female characters in the treatise
pointedly speak out on the siege that his brother Girolamo so carefully
avoided. Why? One obvious reason is that Scipione had more political leeway: whereas Girolamo had dedicated his Dialogo to the daughter of the Florentine Duke, Scipione dedicated his treatise to the prominent Sienese woman Fulvia Spannocchi. But there was more. His
account of the origins of the games was made all the more pointed by
the graphic horrors of the siege, which he relates in gruesome detail
much in the vein of Boccaccios picture of the medical and social catastrophe Florence faced during the plague. Scipiones grim account details the blockade of the city; food shortages; the expulsion of the poor
bocche disutile and the weak; the pillaging and rape of those left in
70Parlour Games
the city; the slow starvation that led to the killing of babies, the eating
of domestic animals, and the hoarding of grain.66 Yet, even in the midst
of these travails, Scipione reveals, foreign allies of the Sienese, especially Monluc, praised the united eorts of the citizenry. And here he
alludes to the signal eorts of the women at the walls: the work of the
women among whom sometimes appeared with their husbands some
noble and charming ones proved no less helpful than that of the men
in defending the walls, trenches, and towers, and venturing outside to
confront the armed enemy with arms and to provision within the city
the fortifications.67
The horrors of the siege and the determination of the citizenry made
all the more defiant the decision by four women to orchestrate three
days of parlour games. These characters appear to have been at least
partly inspired by a dress match of soccer/rugby (calcio) that Bargagli
reports was staged by young men on Fat Thursday.68 The context in
which he mentions this match is telling. Bargagli writes that the besiegers were impressed that the Sienese always showed themselves to
be fierce and obstinate in every occasion presented to them. But much
more, I warrant, they perhaps would have been stupefied if with their
own eyes they had seen the most joyful ball game that on the day of
Fat Thursday in the piazza of Santo Agostino was played by the flower
of the noble Sienese youth bedecked in rich and ornate livery in the
presence of the finest young women.69
That the playing of this game had symbolic significance is suggested
by Bargaglis ensuing comment that it revealed a confidence that the
city would soon achieve a secure and happy victory, such as their fathers had achieved not many years before alluding to the Sienese
success in 1526 in routing besieging forces of the Florentines and the
League of Cognac.70 It is unclear whether this particular game actually
took place, though he does rearm it in a document defending his treatise.71 (And there is testimony that a similar game had occurred the previous month in the Piazza del Campo to the wonderment of the French
allies.) Further, when the Florentines themselves were besieged by imperial troops in 1530 they too staged such a game, and Laura Ricc perceptively suggests that Bargaglis mention of this game might be meant
to recall that one.72 In a word, such a game in wartime had implications
in terms of both the Sienese and Florentine past: as a sign of spirited defiance, maybe even a thumb in the eye of the enemy.
Certainly, the playing of such a game indicates that spirits of the besieged are not broken, nor their traditions halted. This latter point is
explicitly articulated by the leader of Bargaglis group of four ladies,

Clizia, who laments the absence of all customary festivities on this, the
Sunday of Carnival. Thus, whereas Boccaccios Pampinea defiantly suggested that she and her colleagues abandon their customary role of female mourning and flee Florence, Clizia defiantly suggests that she and
her colleagues maintain their traditional revelries of Carnival even in
the face of war: Today, dear young ladies, I would like us to put to the
test whether those cruel public enemies of ours have the power to deprive us still of the pleasures and solace that, following our fine old custom, we should be able to pursue in order that we might somewhat take
respite from the many troubles and grave issues that on their [the enemys] account still pierce our hearts.73 Neither Bargagli nor his character Clizia overtly states it, but the implication is clear: the staging of
the parlour games will be the young womens equivalent of the young
mens athletic match, with all the attendant tone of defiance vis--vis
the siege. This stance reinforced that dimension of the ludic realm that
can be subversive to the status quo, which in this case was one of crisis
and imminent defeat.74
The emulation or refiguring of the ball game as parlour game resonates strongly in the themes of the games themselves, several of
which deal with male pursuits of warfare, hunting, and gardening.
In fact, three of the nine games are martial in tone and obviously reflected the circumstances of the siege: the opening Game of Insignias
and Banners, the Game of the Siege, and the Game of Challenges and
Reconciliations. These games in particular warrant close scrutiny to
understand how Scipione attempted to weave together play and reality in suggestive, yet careful, ways. In framing the Game of Insignias
a male character concedes that such a martial game might seem improper for women, but he argues that it fulfils a need in the proper
acknowledgment of their sublime merit and valour (valore).75 This
character, named Fulvio (perhaps not coincidentally, the male version
of the name of the dedicatee Fulvia Spannocchi), says he has been
searching for a proper medium to commemorate women. He rejects
temples or altars, statues or paintings, or floral crowns for something
befitting our current situation.76 He says that for many months
they have seen and talked of nothing but the squadrons of people
armed not more with weapons than with valour, before whom are
paraded those banners and those standards whence the captains
and honoured leaders make a special show of the worthy qualities of
their spirit and under which their valiant soldiers and companies are
72Parlour Games
willingly moved to follow and imitate them.77 The game he proposes

will be for the men to formulate appropriate colours and mottoes for
the women in the group.
This game takes on a particular meaning when compared to the earlier parlour-game tradition and contextualized within the actual events
of the siege of Siena. As for the precedents of such a game, the first of
Ringhieris Cento giuochi liberali, et dingegno was that of the Knight, in
which women formulated for men an appropriate device and motto for
use in a joust.78 In his Dialogo, Girolamo Bargaglis game of formulating
devices (for both men and women) also was directed towards display
in a joust or tournament.79 In Scipiones version of the game, two factors
have been changed. The insignia are to be designed only for women,
and the framework is not a tournament or spectacle, but the circumstance of the siege. He has simultaneously further martialized the motif
(from joust to war) and feminized it. He knows that the latter point will
strike some as inappropriate, that it might seem strange and disproportionate, attributing to women such insignias that seem appropriate
for men and of men only who are dedicated to warfare and disposed
with mind and body to crude and bloody battles even though it is
known by us and the whole world that women know how to fight,
wound, kill, and achieve their famous victories over their adversaries,
and how under the insignia of their beauty and virtue they go everywhere with infinite bands of men fighting in their service.80
In the course of this passage Scipione turns the metaphor of warfare
back to the amatory realm, which is, of course, the proper realm of parlour games. The game then proceeds with men devising standards for
the women with terse mottoes, which they explicate in detail. All of the
mottoes in one way or another suggest that the four women have transcendent powers beyond the realm of the worldly or the corporeal: one,
Ognun Pareggia (She Makes All Equal), invokes the state image of
the sun to show how the honoured lady radiates the light of her intellect equally to all, as the sun does to all the entities of the Zodiac;
another indicates how she transcends the worldly, in which, although
immersed, she nevertheless emerges N Pur Bagnata (Not Even Wet);
another, Immobile Muove (Immobile She Moves), explains how she
attracts all people and remains steadfast, as a magnet attracts other
objects; another, Di Maggior Luce Vaga (She Yearns for the Greater
Light), how she aspires to more than beauty, lineage, and wealth, as the
moon seeks of the sun.81 Despite their amatory contexts, in dealing with
the most lucent virtue,82 nobility of mind, and firmness of character,

all of the mottoes do suggest a subtext of heroic character.
Scipiones agenda in this game is carefully ambiguous. His players devise a motif to praise women in the terms of the current warfare; he apologizes that military insignias might seem a strange and inappropriate
medium in which to praise women; he then retreats to the safer theme of
womens triumph in the amatory realm; but even in this last their victories and mottoes are as moral and heroic (even at times male) as they are
amatory and sexual. What is most odd is what is not said in the game.
Despite the fact that in his preamble to part 1, Scipione expressly cites
the heroic eorts of women during the siege in engaging the enemy and
fortifying the city, in his account he does not mention the three women
captains hailed in other accounts. Nor in his Game of Insignias which
one must guess was inspired by this event do his interlocutors mention the three women and their own terse mottoes. Why did Scipione not
overtly make the connection? Possibly because he wanted to maintain
the fictional cover of his treatise, which avoids using any real names of
individuals, and/or because he wanted to protect any specific individuals from Florentine overlords who might read his book. There may have
been as well some issues of male pride at stake, as the city not only fell
to the enemy, but the men even needed the eorts of the women. In any
event, he managed to have it both ways, as he used the ludic fig leaf to
refigure the historical event, creating heroic banners for fictive women in
the parlour games these women defiantly staged.
Two other games further develop the martial theme. In the Game of
the Siege, a male character frames the game and explicitly ties it to the
circumstances of the siege, but then converts it all to a war between the
sexes. In laying out the game he charges the rare womanly (donneschi)
spirits there present to explain how the heart of a woman, as a high
and noble fortress, can withstand the long and hard sieges of love.
For their part, the men will show what work, what counsel, or what
argument will prevail in conquering.83 The game then enacts a debating contest on various issues: are looks enough to break through? Are
words? Immediately following this game is one on Challenges and
Reconciliations. Both the evolution and symbolism of this game have
meaning for the male-female contest and for the Florentine-Sienese
war. The framer of the game, a character named Lepido, addresses the
group by expressing his desire that he will succeed in formulating a
successful amusement, hoping that by joining deeds by us, which, as
74Parlour Games
is said, are masculine, with words, which are feminine, you find that a
composition (componimento) will be born one day and thus in fact my
work will succeed.84 The sexual framing of his game with this proverb
Fatti maschi, parole femme (Deeds are male, words female) has
various possible meanings.85 Laura Ricc sees this as an erotic allusion
to coupling that will issue in a child.86 While this sexual allusion is plausible, a more literal meaning may have been intended as well. That is,
the male world of deeds his act of proposing a game will unite
with the female words that characterize such a game in a delightful end. The composition here could refer to Scipiones literary work
preserving their revels just as, in the preamble to part 3 of his treatise, Scipione defends at length his componimenti on parlour games,
hoping that they will help convey pleasure and comfort to the spirits
of tired people.87 Moreover, the parlour games themselves, involving
both action (via selection and even acting) and words, ideally join the
male and female worlds. And, further, given its simulation of the siege,
the Trattenimenti combine the traditionally male world of warfare with
the female world of verbal games refiguring it. The meaning of the putative polarity between male deeds and female words becomes more
pronounced when Lepido tries to launch his game. He asks the ladies
what they would like to play, and runs through a list: card games, then
dice, then several parlour games. But the women remain unmoved, unresponsive, and silent so silent, in fact, that he asks whether they want
to play a mute game. They stonewall him, and he clearly is stymied and
powerless. This stalemate suggests a reversal of the proverb: now the
male, whose province is deeds, is powerless to act; the women, whose
province is words, are silent and yet hold the power. In a sense, the
women act as if they are the impenetrable fortress of the Game of the
Siege. And, indeed, Lepido then returns to the Game of the Siege, which
he says the women enjoyed but which achieved no true end. Thus, he
proposes the Game of Challenges and Reconciliations, which would
in a sense complete it. In the game, each of the players, both male and
female, utters a charge O proud, or O false, or O cruel and
each player responds with words invoking peace.88
In these three games of the Insignias, the Siege, and Reconciliations,
Bargagli restages the siege that is the very setting for the games. Certainly, on one level, the Reconciliations could signify the consummation
of Carnival sexuality,89 but this game also re-enacts the end of the war.
By juxtaposing the sexual and the martial, the Trattenimenti imposes
Carnival sexual conquest onto the historical reality of the conflict, the
siege, and resolution of the war.90 And because Siena was violated
by the Medici and the empire, the treatise seems to sublimate or displace the tragedy by gaily sexualizing it as a festive event in polite society. In such a reading, the military conquest of Siena is equated with
the sexual conquest of women not a very appealing Carnival trope.
Instead, Scipione may have intended these games in part to pay tribute to the women at the walls. Thus, in one game they receive military
standards; in another they are the fortress of determined Siena; in the
third, they force Lepido back to a game again echoing the struggle and
bringing closure in a true, full, and tranquil peace.91 The three actual
women at the walls Laudomia Forteguerri, Fausta Piccolomini, and
Livia Fausti proved that actions indeed were not always male. The
four fictive women of Scipiones Trattenimenti recast this agency in the
war games played at the revelry. The decision to hold the games is portrayed as an act of defiance against an enemy that will not be allowed
to destroy their festive traditions. The games themselves prove to be a
meeting ground of the male and the female, deeds and words, giving
the lie to a proverb that deprived women of agency. And by conflating
the deeds of warfare with the words of an agonistic parlour game, Scipione bridges the conventional divide between the male and female
worlds.
An emphasis on female agency can also be found in certain other of
Scipiones games that, as in the martial games, impose the female onto
the male realm. The result would be a new vision of the roles women
could play in these games. In his preamble to part 2, Scipione names
hunting as one of the pastimes available to men but not to women.92
In his Game of the Hunt, an endeavour that he identifies as a species
of war and combat,93 he opens up the ranks to men and women alike.
In speaking of all the animals prowling in the fields of Love, he says
that of such ferocious animals there are as many female and perhaps
even more than male;94 each man assigns the name of an animal to a
woman, and each woman to a man. There is complete reciprocity in the
game between the women and the man, the hunters and the hunted.
When a hunter calls out the name of the hunted animal, he or she runs
around the circle with palm outstretched and the hunter pursues, hitting his or her hand with the mestola. The hunted will then cry that the
most dangerous beast is really someone else (a woman will identify a
man, and vice versa), and the hunt goes on. Scipiones equalizing of
the roles here is notable. In contrast to the Florentine Carnival songs,
in which the hunters are male, here they are identified as cacciatori
76Parlour Games
e cacciatrici.95 In Girolamo Bargaglis Game of the Hunt, where Love

itself is being hunted, the action is initiated by the male hunters with
their dogs.96 In Scipiones game men and women hunt and, even more
importantly, the hands of both men and women are struck by the bat.
As we saw in chapter 1, when tracing the origins of games Girolamo
Bargagli remarked that up until the onset of the Italian Wars, Carnival evenings in Siena saw men striking the hands of women with the
bat likely, a vestige of the fertility ceremonies of the Roman Lupercalia.97 Now, setting his games during the siege, Scipione has not only
men striking the hands of women but also women striking the hands of
men in his hunting game. In degendering this act, his game moves the
practice from a fertility ritual, in which dominant men strike women, to
one in which men and women are equal players in the travails of love
and the contest of the hunt, which, in turn, he calls a type of war and
battlefield. Thus, if hunting was closed o to women in real life, he fully
opens it up to them in his ludic world.
Similarly, in his Game of the Gardeners, Scipione takes a sexual motif
that is traditionally framed as a male gardener working female fields,
and recasts it as a game in which women as well as men plant seeds in
a garden.98 The traditionally phallocentric use of the theme articulated
by one of the male players who speaks of planting his hard carrot
seed in soft fields of the woman only makes more unusual the womens planting of their seeds (semi). In fact, the opening vignette has a
female character bringing her seed to the garden of our new [male]
lord or steward.99 This depiction of female insemination in the sexual
framework of the work dramatically brings women into the male preserve. This same character, not incidentally, stubbornly fails to follow
the rules of the game in repeating the names of all the seeds formerly
planted by the men and women. She only repeats those planted by the
women, and for this rather feminist stance, she is whacked on the palm
by the bat.100 In short, whether it be in the planting of seeds, in hunting,
or fighting, Scipione makes equivalent in the games the roles of males
and females or, to use Clizias insignia, Ognun Pareggia.
***
Reconstructing a social or even a cultural history from the genres of
the dialogue or polite literature is naturally a tricky proposition. On
the one hand, the goal of verisimilitude in a dialogue obviously does
not equate to historical reality. But, on the other, the licence of fiction
in a purely literary work is not necessarily divorced from the goal of

simulating actual customs and historical players. Fortunately, both of
the Bargagli brothers give historians some solid clues as to what they
at least perceived to be certain realities of the last forty years of the history of the Sienese elite: Girolamo largely through the voice of the oldtimer Sodo, Scipione through his own voice in his preambles. And even
if one argues that their perspectives reflected certain agendas or biases,
these biases themselves reveal a certain reality. One prominent reality
both writers convey is a sense that the sixteenth century saw an ascendant public presence for women that was tied to the culture of play. In
the quasi-historical venue of his Dialogo, Girolamo Bargagli traced how
women were encouraged and prompted by the Intronati to become
energetic and eventually famous game players. In this new arena
they tested their intellects via vernacular literature, bested their male
colleagues who were behind on their reading, expressed their identities and sentiments in self-fashioned devices, and formulated clever ripostes that lived on in the literary record.
Scipiones book, paradoxically both more fictive (in some ways) and
more historical (in others) than Girolamos, was even more pronounced
in its championing of female agency. Decrying the professional and recreational restraints on women, he creates a utopia of female agency.
Women characters defiantly challenge the besiegers with games: games
in which female players poach on the traditional male provinces of
warfare, hunting, and planting; games in which male deeds and female
words merge. Why did he set the games in the seemingly inappropriate
context of the catastrophic siege and fall of the city? He received some
criticism for this: Alessandro Tessauro charged that it violated propriety in that it dredged up a bitter memory and that it violated verisimilitude in that such frivolous amusements would not have taken place in
such a tragic time.101 Scipione would invoke Boccaccio in his defence,
and indeed part of his impulse here was to imitate the Decameron, mutatis mutandis. But, of course, the devil is in the mutatis mutandis here. A
humiliating defeat at the hand of the Florentines is quite dierent from
a natural catastrophe aicting all. Girolamo Bargagli knew to skirt the
events of 15535, so why did Scipione dwell on them? He must have
known there would be some risk of reopening such a fresh wound,
even if done in the service of imitating the great prose work of the
Trecento. In defending his setting, Scipione argued that festive habits
die hard, and he cited the case of the Carnival ball game played by the
boys, which he had characterized as a hopeful, confident, and defiant
78Parlour Games
gesture. This example makes all the more pointed his fashioning of the
womens games as an implicit analogue to this game. Scipiones Trattenimenti reflects the tenacity of the Sienese festive spirit, but also the
activism of women during the siege and within the ludic tradition.
In many ways, Scipione created in his ludic world an outlet that further extended the prominence of women in the world of play, matching the agency they displayed in the real world of the war an agency,
however, that had to be more implied than stated in the still recent
world of Florentine control. Certainly, it is very likely that the banners
of the women at the walls inspired Scipiones Game of Insignias. In
his preamble to part 1 he refers to the fact that the French captains remarked on the bravery of the Sienese eort, revealing his knowledge
of Monlucs remarks (and/or possibly the Italian and French versions of
his account), which noted that these women displayed insignias.102 Furthermore, it is telling that he entitled his game Dellinsegne o bandiere explicitly military displays and not Dellimprese, as found
in his brothers book (and as would probably have been the more common name for such a game). A tempting question, however, is whether
such a Game of Devices from the pre-war era and even from the period of the siege itself inspired the women at the walls to devise and
show their colours. As we shall see in chapter 5, Girolamo Gigli certainly thought so. In any case, the movement from Girolamos much
broader retrospective account to Scipiones focused siege account and
its attendant games suggests a considerable increase in a sense of female equality. In general, did the fall of the city generate a cultural and
social turn in Siena towards an even greater political pacifism coupled
with a heightened female ascendancy, driven by the emasculation of
males who lost the city and virile behaviour of females who tried to
save it? Certainly the intricate relations between the Sienese siege, parlour games, and the game books of the Bargagli brothers bespeak the
multi-directional workings of the ludic triangle. Emblem parlour games
may have inspired the female captains of the women at the walls; these
female captains in turn may have inspired the literary embellishment
of new insignia games; the literary embellishment of the Trattenimenti
in turn voiced more urgent complaints about the limitations on women
in the real world of public action and achievement and an even more
assertive role in the very playing of games. Scipiones literary text thus
absorbs a historical reality of female agency and repackages it in a form
to define and promote an even more radical feminism for both the real
and the ludic world.
Indeed, the game world whether real or imagined promoted the

ideal of womens autonomy. And this ideal was articulated as well in
the related realms of stories and plays. Scipiones Trattenimenti includes
several novellas, one of which illustrates this theme. The story relates
the actions taken by a sixteen-year-old girl to break out of her domestic claustration, seek out her lover, and preserve her honour. The girl,
of daring and lively spirit, often stood at the window onto the main
street looking out without being seen, which was the custom, and
indeed had become the strictest law among us here, as you know
though I do not know how much it should be commended that girls
of marriageable age should not in any way ever be seen except by their
closest relatives until they are married.103 Spying a young man with
whom she becomes smitten, she dons a mask one Carnival evening,
orchestrates a meeting with him, and goes to his home where she removes her mask on condition that he douse the candles so that she can
remain anonymous. Promising to reveal her identity at an upcoming
party, she instead slips away, thus preserving the reputation of herself
and her family. In Carnival, masked men were the customary pursuers and seducers. Now, it is a masked woman, who used the cover of
disguise and then of darkness to come out of her retreat. As a story
of an assertive woman using the festive moment to realize her desires
even within the confines of society, this tale is emblematic of the parlour
games themselves. The layers of ludic meaning multiply, as this tale of
a Carnival escapade featuring a bold woman is told as part of Carnival
games that, in turn, were organized by women.
Stories of restive women also appeared in the Intronatis plays, theatrical pieces also emanating from the setting of Carnival. As we saw
in chapter 1, the academys first play, the Ingannati (1532), featured a
daughters escaping an arranged marriage by disguising herself as a
boy. Sometime in the second half of the 1560s probably upon his return to Siena from Florence for the 15678 academic year Girolamo
Bargagli wrote a play, La Pellegrina (The female pilgrim).104 This story
featured a woman seeking her lost love under the cover of a religious
pilgrim. Another woman in the play, whose father had arranged an unwanted marriage, was feigning madness to escape this fate. In the end,
both women succeed in avoiding arranged matches and uniting with
their true loves. That they do so by way of disguise and simulation is
again notable as a Carnival theme, where disguise was the festive template. But there is a second layer of meaning in this, for the ludic setting was generally a staging ground for non-conventional behaviour.
80Parlour Games
For women as well as for men, then, the liminoid world of the game
and play(s) was an opportunity to pursue ones natural inclinations,
which, Girolamo Bargagli argued in his Dialogo, was the proper behaviour in the ideal parlour game. In a world of stifling professional conventionality (for men) and severe social constriction (for women), the
masked ludic identity ironically became the vehicle for true identity. In
games, stories, and plays women gained greater and greater agency in
the period from the early days of the Intronati to the 1550s and 1560s.
Some women those three famous women at the walls even achieved
notable military personas, replete with their own insignias. As we shall
see in the following chapter, this realm of public identity and the commemoration of women expanded even in the aftermath of the Intronatis closing.
4Fortunes, Medals, Emblems: The Public

Face of Private Women
The Florentine Dukes apparently closed the Sienese academies in 1568.

Documentary evidence for the closing is elusive: no record of an actual decree can be found in Cantinis compendium of grand-ducal
legislation, and the precise motives of the Medici overlords can only be
guessed at.1 Minutes of the artisan academy, the Rozzi, indicate that in
1568 there reigned in our city of Siena many academies and societies
which were all made to close down in deference to our masters
[and] now with the good graces of these same [masters] the society of
the Rozzi was reconstituted and they began to gather the day of 31 August 1603.2 In a letter of 1696 Girolamo Gigli echoed this concession
to Florentine domination, when he suggested that following the fall of
Siena to the Florentines, the Intronati (and certain other groups) ceased
gathering in order not to make jealous with particular gatherings the
watchful eyes of the new regime.3 Most scholars follow Curzio Mazzis
conclusion that the shutdown was owing to the suspicion and distrust
of Cosimo de Medici, who acted as co-regent even after turning over
daily aairs of the state to his son Francesco in 1564.4 But what exactly
did the Florentine regime fear: political unrest, heresy, or both? And
what impact would this crackdown have on the festive life of the city?
Certainly, academic and festive life could be viewed as potentially
disruptive. Earlier in the century local authorities had twice sought
to rein in revelry and private gatherings. In 1535, apparently targeting in particular a popular political group called the Bardotti, the
Sienese Bala issued proscriptions against academies and private
congregations, and in 1542 they banned masquerades and evening
parties during Carnival.5 In the latter case, when a comedy was performed in the home of Buoncompagno di Marcantonio della Gazzaia
82Parlour Games
the evening after a February 8 ban on parties, both the participants

and the spectators were punished.6 Given that the comedies in Siena
were known to target their foes (the Florentines, the pope, and, after
the Spanish occupation in 1530, the Spaniards), it is no wonder that
festive life would be seen as a threat to the Florentine overlords.7 In
Florence itself, in the early 1540s Duke Cosimo had dealt with the
rise of the burlesque Academy of the Umidi by co-opting it to state
ends and transforming it into the Florentine Academy.8 As Domenico
Zanr has shown, in the next decade another group, the Accademia
del Piano, staged a mock funeral ceremony following the death of the
Medici protg, Onofrio Bartolini, Archbishop of Pisa. This irreverent
roast so alarmed Cosimos ducal secretary, Lorenzo Pagni, that in 1556
he recommended to Cosimo that he reinvoke a law of 1549 against unauthorized assemblies, reminding him of the assassination of his predecessor, Alessandro de Medici, in 1537. Cosimo demurred, saying
that he preferred to let the ever-restive Florentines be diverted with
such revels rather than brood. Pagnis suspicions, however, may have
had some merit, as a thwarted conspiracy mounted three years later
included members of this academy.9
As for the Medici policies towards the academies in Siena, the picture
is complex. On the positive side, in 1557 the roster of the Intronati included the young prince Francesco de Medici himself, and one of the
Intronatis plays was performed for one of Cosimos two entries in the
city (in late 1560 and early 1561) and another was staged to celebrate
Ferdinando de Medicis wedding in Florence in 1589.10 On the negative side, however, there is evidence that both Cosimo and Francesco
promoted an increasingly oppressive regime in the city that targeted
the activities and members of the academies. Suspicions concerning the
orthodoxy of certain of the Intronati prompted the entry of the Inquisition into the city in 1559, and by September of 1560 Intronati member Fausto Sozzini had fled the city.11 In a letter to him the next year
Girolamo Bargagli complains that the monks, know-it-alls, and theologians are angry if academies even broach the area of theology (via
lectures on Dantes Comedy) and that the archbishop has forbidden such
discussions in the city.12 By 1562, Bargagli warns a friend not to come
to the city in hopes of improving his spirits, because, in the current climate, here, anyone who talks of the Yule log, of parties, or symbols
is accused of heresy; anyone who designs pleasant entertainments for
Carnival is accused of plotting against the state.13
The Public Face of Private Women83
As it turned out, Duke Cosimo had his own political reasons for taking an increasingly harsh stance on religious dissent. In 1559, with the
ascension of Gian Angelo de Medici (from a Milanese branch of the
family) as Pius IV, the ties between Florence and the Papacy gained renewed strength, as first one and then another of Cosimos sons in succession were named cardinal. As for Cosimos pursuit of heresy in Siena,
in a letter of 1560 to the Inquisition he proclaimed himself the fiercest persecutor of heretics.14 In 1566 Cardinal Michele Ghislieri, who
in 1559 had headed up the Inquisitions investigations of Sienese heretics, became Pius V, and the Tridentine persecution of Sienese figures
became ever more intense. Intronati members Marcantonio Cinuzzi
and Mino Celsi were caught up in the purge, as was Achille Benvoglienti, to whom some Intronati members had ties.15 Cosimos complicity
in stepping up persecutions was no doubt tied to his desire to be elevated to the position of Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title in the gift of the
pope and conferred upon Cosimo in August 1569.16 Cosimos son and
co-regent Francesco followed suit in suppressing heretical currents. In
March 1567 he informed his governor of the city, Federigo Barbolani
da Montauto, of his concerns that German (i.e., Lutheran) students at
the university were contaminating the city with their false opinions.17
By May and June of following year Federigo reported that he had ordered ocials at the customs gates and elsewhere to be on guard for
those bringing in damned books, and in December of 1569 a bonfire
of banned books took place in the piazza of San Francesco, seat of the
inquisitors.18
It appears, then, that the joined forces of Counter-Reformation energies and Cosimos ambition to become a Tuscan Grand Duke led to a
serious crackdown on the intellectual and cultural life of Siena. And
this explains the reported shutdown of the academies and other gatherings in 1568. If, however, Cosimo wanted unauthorized groups to be
less visible in the city, he certainly wanted an authorized group to be
very visible. Surely, it is no coincidence that in the same period (specifically, June 1568) he established a new order of knights, drawn from the
nobility, to police Florence and Siena and to be the standard-bearers
of ducal power.19 As Habermas might frame it, the unlicensed public culture of the academies comedies and assemblies was countered
by a traditional courtly culture and in 1591 Scipione Bargagli himself
published a set of emblems that he and other Sienese literati had composed in honour of this band. Indeed, this Rolo, overo cento imprese de
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glillustri signori huomini dearme sanesi, militanti sottol reale, e felicissimo

stendardo del serenissimo Ferdinando de Medici, Gran Duca III di Toscana
is a perfect example of the Medicean co-opting of the emblem culture
popularized in Siena by the Intronati.20 If it would seem that Scipione
aided and abetted the enemy in this, he may also have helped to rescue
the Intronati from their oblivion. Writing in 1696, the Intronati historian Girolamo Gigli argued that the Intronatis supplying Latin mottoes
for this band of knights convinced then Grand Duke Ferdinando de
Medici that the long-neglected laurels of Minerva needed a distinctive and particular culture as much as those of Mars, and thus he
took the lead in reviving the Intronati in 1603.21 As for 1568, however,
the Medici overlords likely viewed the academies as devotees less of
the goddess of wisdom than of the god of wine (and the heretic Luther).
It would seem that the suppression of the academies was part of the
larger eort to tamp down heresy, embargo and burn forbidden books,
and lock down the city against foreign infiltration. We have seen that
as early as 1562 Girolamo Bargagli had complained that festive culture
which was to a large degree the preserve of the academies had become suspect as potentially heretical and seditious, so the 1568 shuttering had perhaps been brewing for some time. What would this mean
for the Sienese women, who were at the heart of this festive life? Ironically, it may have strengthened their public presence.
The Court of the Ferraiuoli
This elevation of women soon became evident with the formation of
a group expressly identified as a court (innocently serving women)
rather than an academy (potentially mobilizing men).22 Fortunio Martini left an account of the Relatione dellorigine della Corte de Ferraiuoli e
spettacol rappresentato lanno 1568 [1569, new style] nel Palazzo Cerretani
in Siena.23 According to his account, at the end of a party at the Cerretani Palace in January of 1569 Urania Cerretani de Piccolomini arose
to leave (at dawn) accompanied by a group of men dressed in ferraiuoli
(heavy cloaks) owing to the cold weather. This group soon grew from
ten to twenty-three men, and they would invite women to meet with
them at the home of Pietro and Gironimo Cerretani. This decision was
all the more noteworthy, given the contemporary political climate in
the city, which impeded others from leaving their own homes and did
not even permit people to be found together.24 Following this allusion
to the lockdown of the city, Martini then hails Pietro Cerretanis wife,
Flavia Tolomei Cerretani, as an instrumental figure who inspired courage in others, as it was she who would orchestrate this gathering. Aside
from her well-earned reputation for conventional virtues as a lovely
and chaste women, her labours in this venture would win her no little fame in our city as an ecient (essecutiva) and brave woman.25 Indeed, he claims, when the members of the Ferraiuoli court saw with
what fervour she embraced this undertaking and with what virility of spirit (virilit del cuore) she faced any hardship, everyone took
courage in view of the wicked times and any other troubling mishap,
and she and they [the court] made known openly to the world that
there was not any diculty that would not be overcome with a noble
heart.26 Martinis account thus assigns to Flavia a crucial role in realizing the plan of the court in such circumstances, emboldening the men
with her own rather male qualities of courage, agency, and virility of
spirit.
Although Martini depicts the institutionalizing of this group in somewhat defiant terms, Curzio Mazzi implies that the creation of such a
court interested only in entertaining women would not have aroused
suspicion of violating the ban on academies.27 If circumventing the political crackdown was indeed part of the motive for forming the court
of the Ferraiuoli which placed women even more prominently at the
centre of festive life than the Intronati had done we could conclude
that the political prohibition of male groups had the unintended consequence of elevating women. In any case, Martinis account, with its
emphasis on Flavia Tolomei Cerretanis agency, certainly attributes to
her a vital role in orchestrating the first meeting, and thus the actual institutionalizing, of this new social group.
By the time of its first anniversary the court was focusing on the
public recognition and praise of women in equal or even greater proportions relative to men. First it did so through the elaboration of
Befana fortunes. In his description of a Game of Fortune in his Dialogo,
Girolamo Bargagli indicated that both men and women would individually come before a blindfolded individual, who, acting as Befana,
would utter a fortune; another person would then be drawn by lot to
interpret its particular meaning for that individual.28 In the Court of
the Ferraiuoli these fortunes would be elaborated into devices and reverses of medals public recognitions that would be especially notable
in their application to women. In a lengthy account of Befana tributes
made by the Ferraiuoli on Epiphany of 1570 (1569, old style), Scipione
Bargagli recorded reverses of medals made for ninety-four individuals,
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to which he prefaced two discourses in Riverci di medaglie della Ventura

Befana de Cortigiani Ferraiuoli. Con due ragionamenti: luno intorno alla
materia delle Sorti, o Venture Befane, et laltro intorno a riverci di medaglie,
et spetialmente a proprii delle persone private; con brevissime dichiarationi
nella fine sopra ciascheduno particolar rivercio (Reverses of medals of the
Befana fortunes of the Ferraiuoli courtiers. With two discussions: one
regarding the matter of fates, or Befana fortunes, and the other regarding reverses of medals and especially those of private persons, with
very brief statements at the end on each particular reverse).29 Prior to
the listing of the ninety-four fortunes/reverses, Scipione includes a
prefatory discussion of the history of prophecy, and prior to the explanations of them a discourse on medals. In the former he argues that the
fortunes often speak to issues of character and can alert people of flaws
(to be corrected) and virtues (to be continued in the future).30 Although
the ninety-four fortunes alternate between men and women, the selfconsciously noteworthy feature of the enterprise concerns the celebration of women. And, in fact, the very parity of women and men in this
ceremony of public fame is significant, given the traditional assumptions of the necessarily private life of proper women (who, according to
Pericless dictum current in Renaissance culture, should ideally have no
public reputation whatsoever).
In Girolamos earlier account of the game, the fortunes are randomly
drawn, and the art of personalizing them comes when players interpret
their meaning for the individuals for whom they are drawn.31 Scipiones description discusses the varying formats of drawing fortunes for
both men and women from vases (either from one vase with all the fortunes, or from two separated by gender). He invokes practices in the
classical tradition to justify the drawing of fortunes by lot, but, as he
presents the ninety-four fortunes for these individuals, it becomes clear
that the process is rigged so that the fortunes are not fortuitous, but
rather are expressly written for particular individuals. Thus, the medal
reverse for Urania Piccolomini, whose early morning journey home in
1569 occasioned the spontaneous creation of the group, included as her
motto Di Rara Corte Illustre et Bel Principio, (Illustrious and Fine Beginning of the Rare Court) and the explanation of it recounted her role
in the founding.32 Thus, the concept of random fortunes transmutes
into statements of personal identity. This process of rigging the fortune
makes sense of Scipiones comment that the fortunes may sometimes
indicate an aspect of the past life of the individual, reflecting the fantasies, thoughts, and, so to speak, the other humours of something you
judge to be in them most fixed in their mind.33 This, in turn, facilitates

the didactic function of these futures that can warn of failings and
identify strengths, so that the recipients of such prophecies may be inspired to refrain from one course or spur on to another that which is
already found to have stirred the thoughts of their mind.34 This rather
innovative type of identity formation, then, is grounded in an individuals observed nature, but it is further shaped by didactic praise and
blame. Such prophecies tend to make private personality a public matter, and thereby encourage the full realization of individual character.
Moreover, the character traits obviously gain heightened social presence and value when they are publicly identified and reified in the
medal reverses.
Although both men and women are accorded these fortunes, Scipiones preface certainly places emphasis on the latter, as evident when
he discusses the decision of Fate to prod women to realize their potential for fame. Fate recognizes that Sienese women have no less brilliant
virtue enclosed within their minds than beauty without, and realizes
how much to every other lofty honour and true and rare glory they
always aspire with their heart.35 As a result, he empowers Befana as
one of his minions to convey to these women the image of those things
whereby each of them is able and would be able to reveal clearly her
singular valour and become worthy that her noble and outstanding
transactions (operationi) be sculpted in marble, bronze, and gold.36 And
not only does this image embolden the individual to action, but also it
publicizes her character and potential to all. The two sides of the medal
thus depict the two sides (inner and outer) of the individual; the crystallizing of character on the reverse of medals enables others to see that,
accompanying the physical beauty depicted on the front of the medal,
there is to be found also the beauty of the intellect equally bestowed
on them.37
When before have private women received such medals or their reverses? And does this conform to tradition? Scipione addresses these
questions in a second discourse preceding the explanations of the
medal reverses.38 In tracing medals back to the ancients, he says that
they were traditionally given to the likes of military generals, consuls,
emperors, and empresses, and would include a physical likeness in addition to some representation of a great deed or character trait. The
example of Marc Antony, whose medal included an image of Orpheus
among the animals signifying his powerful eloquence illustrates
that ancient reverses might represent not a deed, but rather solamente
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la virt dellanimo.39 The possibility for praising a quality of mind is

especially relevant in the application of this tradition to modern-day
Sienese women, for whom the opportunity for high and serious endeavours was severely limited. For this reason, the Ferraiuoli sought
to devise reverses of medals for the honour and praise of private persons, of whom rarely and indeed with diculty are there lofty and excellent accomplishments recorded in the writing of famous historians
and especially the actions of private women, however noble and genteel,
since to them I do not know why it seems almost prohibited to be able to
show their true valour in high and serious endeavours, as is conceded fully to
men.40
This passage closely recalls one found in the second preamble of Scipiones Trattenimenti, in which he lamented the social restrictions on female achievement and hailed parlour games as a liminal zone for glory.
Now, in this instance, the festive occasion represents an opportunity
not for women to perform but for men to promote and encourage their
potential for greatness. And this, Scipione argues, is the reason that
the Ferraiuoli courtiers look to the example of Marc Antonys medal
commemorating his character and gifts rather than his tangible accomplishments to celebrate the illustrious virtue and singular qualities
of mind of private women.41 In fact, Scipione indicates that even the
men in this series who could be commended for their famous deeds
like the women, will be distinguished only for the virtues and qualities of mind.42 Thus, the more traditional male template of glory based
in deeds is set aside for one that speaks to the realities of women. The
Ferraiuoli fortunes level the playing field, accommodating the men to
the women. Strength of character, which can inhabit women in the secluded private lives, trumps tangible deeds.
The process of conferring fame is not only characterized by a movement from private character to public potential, but also by an incremental transition from the specifically amatory to the more generally
moral. Scipione indicates that many of the fortunes of women are anchored in the concept of love, because that realm is the only arena available to them to prove the valour of their fine minds and manifest the
loftiness and nobility of their thoughts.43 In claiming, however, that
the virtues of that love [are] not inferior to any others, and that anyone who wants to truly display these virtues must [possess] optimally
almost all the other praiseworthy virtuous habits, Scipione considerably moralizes and elevates the amatory realm.44 Once again, then, he
exemplifies how well-born men viewed polite women and how these
women may have even viewed themselves that is, broadly within the
terms of the courtly love tradition. And it is from this background that
any gradual changes in the perception of women must start. Similarly,
the intellectual skills of women were tested in the realm of romantic
literature, which, as we saw in the parlour games described by both
Bargagli brothers, became the stu of careful parsing, analysis, and
competition. Thus, love, even when turned to moral, intellectual, or
in the case of the Trattenimenti martial ends, was viewed by men as a
rather inevitable trigger for the identity and self-actualization of polite
women.
The ninety-four reverses alternate between women and men, and
this is itself a telling gesture to equality and to Scipiones stated objective that women and private persons should have their public renown.
Despite this unconventional aim, however, the tenor of the forty-seven
reverses for women are largely conventional in arming traditional
female virtues of chastity and wifely devotion. But even in this case,
such virtues could be given a pronounced martial frame. The first one,
to Flavia Bellanti, who had been explicitly named in Girolamos Dialogo
for a clever riposte at a parlour game, depicts the figure of Armed Minerva. Holding in one hand a shield with the image of Medusa and in
the other a spear, she stands over a slain dragon and boasts the motto
Saggio Custode, e Forte (Wise and Strong Guardian). In his explanation of the medal, Scipione explains that Minerva is a traditional symbol of chastity, who is constantly on guard against the dragon of daily
snares (insidie) that threaten.45 In another medal, Eusta Petrucci is depicted as a victor over the arms of love, which include not only lust,
sweet thoughts, and the like, but also, ironically, pleasant games, one
of which this very text is describing. In one case, the martial imagery of
female resolve against love moves beyond the traditional tropes to ones
found in Scipiones Trattenimenti. Cassandra Arrighettis motto declares
her Secure From the Siege of Love, and her reverse depicts a crown
of weeds (gramigna), the traditional reward for valorous captains and
soldiers who have rescued a city from siege.46 The theme of purity is
so strong that, in one medal, a young bride is depicted as being forcibly
torn from her mothers lap (so much she prized her virginity), and her
motto was Modesty Has No Place Against Force.47 Scipione explains
this scene as alluding to an ancient Roman custom in which the bride
was seized by relatives of the husband and taken to her new home. The
choice of this medal for Aurora Mandoli could simply have been arbitrarily didactic, but we should not rule out the possibility that these
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archetypes were chosen for reasons known to contemporaries. Had she

been, for instance, a particularly young bride? Such subtexts cannot be
retrieved, but they may well have constituted another level of social
meaning.
Some of the medals indicate other forms of conjugal duty spun out,
via classical exempla, from the womens first names. Thus, Artemisia
Bardis medal depicts the tomb of King Mausolus, whose wife Artemisia commissioned his eponymous monument.48 Another, Portia Buoninsegnis medal, depicts a woman placing burning coals in her mouth
alluding to the ancient Portia, daughter of Cato the Younger, who,
upon hearing news of her husband Brutuss death at Philippi, killed
herself, imitating with feminine spirit (spirito femminile) the end of her
father and his manly death (morte virile).49 Obviously, in these cases
that derive from play on a name, the medals are merely didactic exercises in classical allusion (and the publicizing of social norms). In the
case of Berenice Bardi, however, there was no wordplay required to assign her a medal depicting a woman on a turtle. This image, Scipione
explains, alludes to Phidiass ancient depiction of Venus holding her
foot on a turtle, which Plutarch in the Conjugal Precepts (142d) interpreted to mean that women should always remain at home and hidden,
venturing out only in the company of their husbands.50 This is indeed a
rather ironic message that women remain invisible in a Befana ceremony intent on making public heretofore private persons.
Do these allusions suggest that the medals simply reinforced patriarchal assumptions, that the public notice of these women was intended
only to mandate their roles of chastity, sacrifice, and confinement? Perhaps not completely. Two of the medals depict virtues decidedly more
masculine. Livia Foreses medal depicted a spear and a comb with the
motto In Bel Cuor Femminile Alto Valore (In a Fine Female Heart
the Highest Valour).51 Scipione explains that this refers to the ancient
Roman custom of parting the hair of brides with a spear (rather than a
comb), in order to alert them that being joined with a strong and brave
person, it did not befit them to lead their lives in feminine delicacies
and vanities.52 More telling was the medal for Aurelia Tolomei, which
depicted an armed woman with the motto In Petto Femminile Alta
Virtude (In the Female Heart the Highest Virtue). Scipiones explanation of this emblem makes it clear that this was not a case of the chaste
woman armed against the snares of love. Instead, it alluded to the Spartan women who took the battle to the Messenians when their own men
had begun to flag:

The Spartans dedicated the statue of Armed Venus in order to manifest
the virile virtue of these women, because, when the Spartan men were at war
with the Messenians and not able to sustain the attack of those and began
to yield and flee, when apprised of this their women unrestrained (incontinente) took up arms and engaging the enemy not only put back on its feet
the lost squadron of their husbands, but also broke up and put to flight
the Messenians. Whence the Spartans, embracing their wives, who were
armed just as they were, joined with them with the greatest delight. And
thus from that point on they began to worship the Armed Venus.53
This medal reverse obviously echoes the Sienese women at the walls
during the siege of Siena. While the real-time public setting of these
Befana medals perhaps precluded Scipiones making the rather embarrassing connection to the siege, in the literary setting of the Trattenimenti he did connect the Spartan story to the recent siege. In his Game
of Questions of Love in a debate as to whether a lover of women
should pursue arms or letters one of his fictive players alludes to the
Spartan women rescuing their husbands and then expressly alludes to
the siege: [But] why do I go looking for examples of ancient and foreign women, having modern and native ones no less certain than immediate? Do we not see with our own eyes, in this crude war, with what
promptness in our city the women armed themselves to provide aid to
their beloved men? And with what bravery (ardor danimo) they encouraged them in the battles with the common enemy and with their own
eyes fought to see them in combat?54
It bears notice that Scipione had to force the historical analogy to accommodate his point. That is, the Spartan men were themselves besieging the Messenians when a contingent of the latter attacked Sparta and
was defeated by the women, who had been left there alone. Scipione
thus distorted the story somewhat to make the parallel to the besieged
Sienese men and women a closer one.55 There is yet one further possible subtext for Scipiones explication of this medal. He oddly characterizes the Spartan women taking up arms as incontinente (which can
have meanings of unchaste as well as unrestrained), and he may
have intended the dual meaning to suggest a connection between martial and sexual assertion especially since he refers to the Spartan men
as being armed just like their wives and joining with them in pleasure.56 Given its sexual allusion, Scipiones comments on this incident
evidently drew upon the version of the event in Lactantiuss Divine Institutes (1.20.2931):
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The Messenians were under siege; they tricked their beseigers, slipped out
without being noticed, and sped o to plunder Sparta, but were routed
and put to flight by the Spartan women. The Spartan men meantime had
realized their enemies deception and were in pursuit. But their womenfolk, duly armed, had come out a considerable way. They met. When the
women saw their menfolk preparing to fight, they thought they were the
Messenians, and stripped themselves naked. The men then recognized
their wives, and the sight aroused them sexually. Armed as they were, they
grappled with them, quite promiscuously, since there was no time to make
distinctions.57
Lactantiuss story explains Scipiones allusion to the armed men

uniting with the armed women, and it might also explain why he referred to the Spartan women, who had stripped for battle, as incontinent. This fusion of the sexual and the martial of course works to
explain the notion of an Armed Venus of Aurelia Tolomeis medal, but
it might more generally allude to the incident of the women at the walls,
which almost certainly was the chief inspiration for Scipiones medal.
In any case, this example reveals how these medals promoted not only
traditional female virtues but also at times more masculine and martial
ones that bespoke a greater recognition of female activism.
As for the general agency of women, the very creation of the Court
of the Ferraiuoli centred on women who, as Fortunio Martini had indicated, dared to brook the newly installed curfews imposed on the
city. In like fashion, several of the female medals of Scipiones collection hinge on the creation of the court and its continuation in festive
meetings and games. Thus, the medal of Urania Piccolomini depicts
youths in their winter coats (ferraiuoli), and her motto Illustrious and
Fine Beginning of the Rare Court; later medals for Flavia Cerretani,
Vittoria Guglielmi, and Fausta Nuti detail the reconvening of the court
some days later and the games played at that gathering.58 In Martinis
account of the 1569 convening at the home of Flavia Cerretani, whom
he praised for her virility of heart in bucking the curfew, Flavia ordered Martini to propose a game: he recommended the War of Love, in
which players try to persuade recalcitrant women to become vassals of
love. Urania Piccolomini, the other principal in the creation of the court,
was designated one of the enemy castles to be taken.59 While amatory
war and the female castle were familiar courtly themes, the trope
may have had a another layer of meaning in the current oppressive
climate of the city much as the games depicted in the Trattenimenti
did. From the vantage of the Sienese male elite, any fight left in the
Sienese spirit seems to have shifted largely to the virility of heart of
its women.60 Was this a conscious transfer of power to women or a subconscious restaging of another battle that, unlike the Florentine one,
they could hope to win? Whichever one (or both) of these it may be, the
interplay between the ludic/amatory and the martial/rebellious may be
less a sign of exhausted tropes than of reinvigorated troops.
The Ferraiuoli and the Querelle des femmes
Around the time that Scipione compiled his Befana medals, the Court of
the Ferraiuoli produced another text, this one anonymous and recounting a purported gathering of the group with twenty women in attendance.61 Although this text identifies all of the members of the knightly
court, and names Clemente Piccolomini as the current Prince of the Ferraiuoli, it does not expressly locate the meeting as being in his home,
nor does it name the women.62 This meeting simulates an encounter
between some knights of the Prince of the Indomitable Knights from
the island of Herma,63 who come to the Ferraiuolis court to challenge
their customary subservience to women. A debate is proposed with
the following terms: if the foreign knights can persuade the Ferraiuoli
Knights that their submissive ways are wrong, then the Sienese knights
will change their ways; if the Sienese prevail, the foreign knights will
adopt their customs. Specifically, two of the Ferraiuolis practices are
debated: their principal concern with honouring and serving noble
women and maintaining such devotion to women who clearly oer no
hope of reciprocation.64 The first of these debates is particularly revealing, because it stages a debate on the querelle des femmes in some notably
feminist terms.
The brief against male subservience to women thus, the brief against
women is presented by Belisario Bulgarini dressed as one of the foreign knights. He oers a litany of arguments from the natural, literary,
social, and medical realms: women are inferior to men as the moon is to
the sun; Petrarchs verse proclaimed that the femina cosa mobile per
nature (Rime sparse 183:12),65 a sentiment echoed by Sannazzaro; for
every one accomplished woman in a field of human endeavour there
are examples of many more men; all women innately want to be men
(but not vice versa); biology teaches that woman is merely the materia and man the forma et agente (Aristotle, Generation of Animals
727b730b); dowry payments are needed to get them o ones back.66
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The rebuttal in praise of women comes from our same Fortunio Martini, who had described the formation of the Ferraiuoli in 1569. Not
surprisingly, Martinis defence mines the same traditions for countervailing evidence and attempts to parse the language of womanhood
with greater precision. He adumbrates the distinction to which Tasso,
as we saw in chapter 1, devoted a brief treatise in his 1582 Discorso della
virt feminile e donnesca. He claims that Petrarch and Sannazzaro in their
incriminating passages both said femmina and not donna, and a great
distinction needs to be made between females and women.67 In fact,
he argues, it is not that la donna mobile (pace Verdi) but rather that
the femmina is, just as Tasso would similarly argue that feminine
virtue pertains to the private, retiring woman but womanly virtue
can connote a heroic, even manly type of virtue. Martini adduces passages from the likes of Petrarch and Claudio Tolomei to press the point
that service to women (donne) is an avenue to all manner of supernal,
active, practical, and moral forms of happiness. The language of womanhood also informs his refutation of the social convention that would
make men rulers over women, for if man is made head of the woman
(putting aside matrimony, thus instituted by God, though even in this
he ought to be companion and not harsh lord), it has been a tyranny
and wrong, because through the name of donna (which does not signify anything else but signora) it is shown that it ought to be to the
contrary.68 Woman is signora, then, just as man is signore. Even in the
matrimonial realm where submission is biblically mandated, the man
should be compagno rather than duro signore.
Martinis prescription for companionability here shows that the parlour-game debate has a serious side, and the cultural and social ills facing women need to be corrected. Along this line, Martini (as Ferraiuoli
Knight) explains that one reason there are fewer women than men distinguished in arms, letters, and other pursuits is owing to the skewed
filter of patriarchal history. That is, even in those cases when women
actually were or would have been equally capable as men, through
the fault of invidious writers (as Ariosto well states it at the beginning
of canto 37 of his Furioso) there has not endured to our times the reputations of many [women], who could possibly surpass the number of
men.69 The implication here is that history is written by the male winners. Moreover, further evidence that the arguments for female subordination are socially constructed is that they have not been universally
accepted. He cites Platos famous brief in Bk. 5 of the Republic (cf. 453a)
for womens equal involvement in ruling the state, and he invokes the
kingdom of the Amazons, who ruled so happily for so many years,
governed only by themselves without any aid of men.70 Finally, as for

dowries whose price Renaissance scholars have inversely correlated
to womens esteem in the period Martini attempts to redefine their
purpose.71 Rather than being a marker of female undesirability, they
are an acknowledgment of the grave weight of matrimony, because
it is indeed a reasonable thing that a woman have something from the
father in order to support her children, together with her husband, and
also, losing him, to be able to live.72 This last argument shows just how
far from frivolous this staged querelle des femmes was.
Questions of classical history and biology dominate the continuation
of this debate. The Foreign Knight adduces the unchastity (impudicizia) of Helen of Troy as the cause of the Trojan War, a favourite locus
for misogynist claims. The Ferraiuoli Knight answers this by citing
Euripidess Helen, which follows the alternate story that the figure taken
to Troy by Paris was simply an image of Helen conjured up by Hera to
repay him for his flawed Judgment against her the real Helen having been taken to Egypt where she lived chastely with her husband.73
But the mythological exoneration of Helen is less important than Martinis brief against the double standard of the original story. Even if the
real Helen had been involved, why is it, he asks, that Paris is not equally
or more to be condemned?: Perhaps because of the dishonourable and
tyrannical licence that men unjustly take, not only conceding to themselves what is forbidden to women, but (Oh! grand villainy!) even glory
in it, accusing however in poor women what they account a virtue in
themselves under cover of saying that women make the gravest error
in bastardizing the blood by raising children not truly their own, as if
they [the men] themselves were not similarly the cause.74
Thus, the male fear of dubious parenthood that drives a condemnation of female sexuality is worsened only by male hypocrisy regarding
their own behaviour. This social double standard, moreover, leads to
insidious stereotyping. Even if there were one bad woman, all women
should not be condemned as if there have not been found or could not
be found men far more wicked than women, and in greater number.75
Countering the trump card of biology, Martini likewise here brings forward his own countervailing authorities. To the Aristotelian argument
that women are merely the material of life and men the form and
agent, he cites the great physician Galen who indeed imputed to
the seed of the woman the (so to speak) formative virtue.76 A Sienese
parlour-game debate thus explores the case for female agency even in
biological terms of agency that might overturn long-prevailing ones
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(as seen, for instance, in Aeschyluss Eumenides, ll. 65766, where the
male is identified as the only true parent.)
The second debate between the two orders of knights concerns the
Ferraiuolis custom of persevering in the face of unrequited love. This
debate would seem to echo the more traditional protests against unresponsive women that characterized the Intronatis first play, the Sacrificio of 1532, in which they finally renounced their loyalties to the
undemonstrative Sienese women by sacrificing their love tokens on
the altar of Love.77 Here, when the Foreign Knight (Girolamo Cerretani) condemns the intransigence of the Sienese women, the Ferraiuoli
Knight oers the defence that true love is a function of destiny, not
choice. Their debate resurrects (and explicitly cites) Alessandro Piccolominis treatment of this question in his De la institutione of 1542 (discussed in chapter 2).78 Even while conforming to the more conventional
plaint of unrequited love, this second debate also raises some issues
about the essence of natural love and the role of free will in choosing a lover. The Foreign Knight argues that the first pleasurable traces
of love may be by destiny, but that true love is confirmed by choice and
will. The Ferraiuoli Knight attempts to exonerate the harshness of the
Sienese women by emphasizing the power of love through destiny.79
Both sides, however, implicitly articulate significant defences of true
love whether the power of natural aection or the power of free will,
both of which arm an area of emotional or moral agency for women
against the tradition of constrained marriages.80
When the verbal duel between the knights turns to a physical contest, Jove sends the Goddess of Justice to resolve the battle. She rules
for the Ferraiuoli Knights in the cause of serving women, but for the
foreign knights in the question of pursuing unrequited love. This evening party thus has the force of both tradition (in the second decision)
and innovation (in the first). Indeed, this ludic querelle des femmes raises
significant issues of the undervalued status and social constraints on
womens lives. Even granted that this literary depiction is an embellishment of a staged revelry, the social dynamics of this parlour game are
rather dramatic, as Sienese men before an audience of Sienese women
debate male oppression and female agency.
Womens Star Turn
Nestled inside the large volume of papers that contained Scipione Bargaglis catalogue of the Ferraiuoli medal reverses and the
anonymous account of the knightly debate is a self-contained manuscript book with pen and ink wash illustrations. Labelled La Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati con i discorsi di Messer Giugurta
Tomasi, this book reveals the further gelling of the Sienese Befana
tradition. Now, from yet another academy, the Travagliati (the Troubled), comes a celebration that continues the tradition of female praise
by enshrining women in the heavens, as constellations of personal
fame. Once again, the game of the Ventura (Fortune) simultaneously
acknowledges a womans past (and present) and predicts her future.
Few traces remain of this academy, which was founded around the
time of the fall of the Republic (1555), according to one document.81
This academy now takes up the torch of promoting women, like the
Intronati and the Ferraiuoli before it. The event depicted is a 6 January 1572 Epiphany celebration at the home of Orazio Mignanelli, a
festivity that seems to belie once again that the shuttering of the academies meant the complete suspension of their pursuits.82 In any event,
Tomasi describes a Befana Ventura party, in which the names of
Sienese ladies are drawn out of a vase and their futures proclaimed
by members of the Travagliati. In some versions of the game, as we
have noted, when the fortunes were drawn randomly from another
vase, the game was to extemporaneously apply them to the person in
question. In this instance as with the medal reverses described by
Scipione Bargagli the fortunes clearly had been prepared ahead of
time for particular individuals. Tomasis catalogue, moreover, identified the authors of the fortunes, a group that included Tomasi himself, Alessandro Borghesi, Ottavio Saracini, Camillo Chigi, Leonardo
Ghini, and others.
What results, therefore, are futures that are in fact public tributes to
the Sienese women themselves. In Tomasis version of the game, Astrologers proclaim the womens celestial reward, destined by Jove up
there [in the sky] to the merit of their valour.83 The prediction of the future thus equates to a commemoration of the past and present. As a staging ground for public recognition of women, this game like that of the
medal reverses simultaneously acknowledges what is and what could
be. The depictions of individuals cannot be too far o target (for the fortunes are read in the presence of ones cohort), and yet they can nudge,
promote, or authorize female reputation and agency. These homages,
moreover, signal an overt shift from exclusively seductive intentions towards women. In a song performed by the Astrologers, Jove renounces
his predatory ways in favour of honouring women for their merits:
98Parlour Games
Figure 4.1.Fortune for Elena Tolomei. From Giugurta Tomasi, La Ventura

delli Accademici Travagliati. BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 422v423r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
[Y]our other virtue

and wisdom and beauty
hold in Jove such a lively charm
that he guarantees your well-being.
Nor does he wish on your account to be changed into a swan or bull,
but rather that you shine in the highest chorus
what might be the reward equal to your merit
that proceeds from your ladies
and that he give you in sky both fame and an abode.84
There is a new metamorphosis taking place here: rather than transforming himself into worldly forms to couple with mortal women, Jove
transforms women into heavenly constellations. The opening image
of Jove describes a figure who did not know to restrain his amorous
appetite, to the contrary changing himself now into a bull, now into a
swan, now into some other form, made it so the jealousy of his wife
to avenge the injury placed the world often in grave dangers.85 But
a reformed Jove surfaces here, and these female fortunes reflect a corresponding shift from the sexual to the moral, from victim to celestial
beacon. This becomes clear in the first fortune, to Elena Tolomei, who is
depicted as the constellation Cigno (Figure 4.1). In his exposition of this
fortune Tomasi alludes yet again to Joves transformation into a swan
(to pursue Leda), but explicates the image here for its purity candidezza per la bont del animo and especially for the sweetness of
voice.86 The latter distinction leads to a praise of Elena as a singer, a
novello Orfeo, whose talent is matched by her brother Count Cinthios
skill in poetry.87 The swan symbol thus shifts from indicating a rapacious male (Jove) to a chaste and talented female (Elena).
The emphasis on female talent is most prominent in the spirited
even polemical fortune Tomasi confers upon Livia Marzi, whom he
praises not for the more customary musical ability but for literary talent.
This fortune depicts her as the constellation Lyra, hailing this nuova
poetessa as the welcome return of a new Orpheus (Figure 4.2). But
then Martini reflects on what she might take as the subject of her verse:
But of what will she sing first? Will she perhaps sing the praises of the
female sex, showing that they would not lack their own Orpheus and
Hesiod, if the arrogance of men subjugating them did not circumscribe
their every boldness? Certainly not, because her modesty would not
select such material. Will she perhaps sing of the patience of Psyche? I
do not believe so, because, as one most shrewd, she would not wish to
provoke inimical lust.88 No, he declares, her verse will not lament
and condemn male suppression of the female voice or cite longsuering females, but rather will arm the glory of her female
companions, of the Travagliati, of all of Siena. She will make the new deification of all of your divine young ladies the subject of her songs. Oh,
you happy ones, oh you lucky Travagliati, oh you most fortunate Siena,
since in the glory of the sky over the lyre of Apollo in the presence
of the divine consistory through the mouth of Lady Livia will be heard
the glories dangling from your merits, the learning of the Academicians, and finally the grandeur and good fortune of your city.89
Marzi will celebrate the glories of the Sienese even in the face of
male arrogance that always strives to restrain any boldness (ardire)
100Parlour Games
Figure 4.2.Fortune for Livia Marzi. From Giugurta Tomasi, La Ventura delli
Accademici Travagliati. BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 496v497r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
in women. This male praise thus acknowledges the prevalence of the

patriarchal suppression of women, while hailing (or encouraging) a female voice that celebrates women and Siena without rancour. That this
fortune was written by Tomasi suggests that, in compiling the collection of public homages to women, he likely had a feminist agenda.
As for the general tenor of the female fortunes (and all but a couple
are female), most dwell on the triumph of moral virtues. In the case
of Ottavio Saracinis fortune for Claudia Tolomei degli Ugurgieri as
Ursa Major, the explication as in the case of the opening fortune on
the swan turns on the contrast between Joves unworthy sexual behaviour and a womans moral purity. Here, the fortune invokes the
story of Callisto amorously pursued by Jove and then turned into a
bear by Juno but whereas Callisto was pleasing to Jove for reasons
of little chastity, Lady Claudia is pleasing to God for honest and

chaste reasons: namely, for the the highest and sincere Love with
which she honours the first monarch.90 For these sublime reasons she
is designated Callisto and assigned the constellation of the bear. If Jove
in some way represents men, this fortune again suggests a reversal of
tradition: from the unjust metamorphosis of a victimized woman into
a bear, to the apotheosis of a pious woman, to stellar immortality. Furthermore, the binary opposition between a predatory god and an admiring one possibly suggests that these fortunes could be speaking to
men as well as to women.
Moral virtue can trump corporeal beauty even in fortunes that feature
physical attributes. The lengthiest account in the collection is devoted
to Fulvia Spannocchi de Sergardi, the dedicatee of Scipione Bargaglis
earlier Trattenimenti.91 Her celestial future is as the Hair of Berenice, a
constellation that achieved full autonomy (from Leo and Virgo) only in
the course of the sixteenth century, culminating in its enshrinement as
the Coma Berenices in Tycho Brahes star chart of 1602.92 The story of
Berenice, the only historical namesake of a constellation, deals with female honour and sacrifice. This Egyptian queen vowed to cut her beautiful hair as a sacrificial oering to her mother (later identified with
Aphrodite) if her husband Ptolemy III Euergetes returned safely from
battle. He did, she did, and when the hair went missing from the altar,
the court astronomer decreed that Aphrodite had taken the hair to the
heavens. This homage to Fulvia (composed by Ottavio Saracini), however, developed the story on yet another level, claiming that the beauty
of Fulvias hair simply encased her intellect and mind just as gold
encases precious gems, and golden vases hold relics. Nature enclosed
her head inside the most precious golden hair, because it knew that
no treasure had been produced in the world that could equal in value
her most purified soul.93 Her celestial future might be a constellation
of hair, but her immortal legacy, it seems, was defined by qualities of
intelletto, mente, and purgatissima anima.
In moralizing beauty, some of these fortunes attempt to explicitly
argue that the female essence trumps the male. This notably occurs
in the tribute to Sulpitia Pannilini de Placidi, whom Ottavio Saracini
enshrines as Hercules (Figure 4.3). He identifies Hercules as the traditional emblem of all the virtues because of his many conquests and
labours.94 Saracini asks: How then is it possible that a man, son of Jove,
illustrious for divine work, would give and cede his place to Lady Sulpitia?95 His answer, that Hercules was most worthy of the sky, but
102Parlour Games
Figure 4.3.Fortune for Sulpitia Pannilini de Placidi. From Giugurta Tomasi,

La Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati. BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 485v486r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
Lady Sulpitia is much worthier, is based in a Platonizing discourse.96

That is, although virtues are human and acquired through human
valour as Aristotle teaches, beauty is divine and is radiated by God to
his creatures and as a part of God, shines in beautiful bodies, and as
Good, radiating its essence, inclines minds and forces eyes to admiration, as Plato shows. Because the female good can thus triumph over
the male, even the consummate male hero will yield his place in the sky
to a woman.97
The manipulation of masculine images to a feminine key also occurs in the realm of animals. This is notably evident in the fortune
for Flavia Carli de Bellanti, written by Tomasi himself. This woman
presumably the same Flavia Bellanti earlier assigned a medal reverse
as Armed Minerva is enshrined as the constellation Leo (Figure 4.4).
Figure 4.4.Fortune for Flavia Carli de Bellanti. From Giugurta Tomasi, La

Ventura delli Accademici Travagliati. BCI, Y.II.23, 527v528r. (Courtesy of the
Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
Tomasi describes the lion as the symbol of strength of mind for the
emblem of King Admetus of Thessaly, as a traditional custodian of sacred things (and thus often depicted on the doors of temples), and as
the image appearing on the shield of Agamemnon as a symbol of terror.98 Tomasi transposes this hardy and fierce imagery to Flavia, whom
he hails as strong of mind, robust and beautiful in body, vigilant in
guarding all of her lovely gifts, terrible and frightful (terribile e spaventevole) to those who sink to vile intentions.99 Obviously in mock exaggeration, he implies that men shrink at her presence, as he describes the
severe charm whence she instils terror in us, whence with a nod alone
frightens worldly men.100 In appropriating such powerful, forbidding
qualities that would normally be associated with lions and kings who
embrace leonine images, Tomasi turns conventionally masculine terms
to female ends. And even where these fortunes bear some irony in their
104Parlour Games
excess and courtesy, such enshrinements oer a dierent type of public

identity and fame for women.
Tomasis 1572 illustrated star book of fortunes rendered the festive
Befana tradition into full artistic form. By compiling a book that joined
verse, prose, and visual treatments, he extended Scipione Bargaglis
1570 collection of medal reverses into a more elaborate and permanent form of female glory. And as Scipione explicitly sought to extend
the classical tradition of medals from public men to private women,
Tomasis book reveals its own attempt to change the public image of
women. Jove the seducer of women on earth becomes Jove the enshriner of women in the heavens women who are praised variously for
their musical and literary talent, for their steadfast marital fidelity and
private virtue, for their Herculean stature and leonine force. Later in
this same decade, Scipione reflected on some of these developments in
a theoretical treatment of emblems one in which he revealed how the
male construction of lasting female emblems came to be complemented
by those devised (or requested) by women themselves.
Emblems for Women
In 1578 Scipione Bargagli published the first part of his own massive
treatment of emblems, Dellimprese, later adding a second and third
part in 1594. Framed as a dialogue, this treatise accomplished for emblems what Girolamo Bargaglis Dialogo degiuochi achieved for games:
namely, it married theoretical discussions with examples. In treating
theories of emblematic representation, the speakers Scipione, Belisario Bulgarini, and Ippolito Agostini engage other theorists such as Girolamo Ruscelli and Paolo Giovio. Towards the end of Bk. 1, the topic
turns to the related genre of reverses of medals one of the nine categories Luca Contiles treatise includes in the general realm of emblems
and Scipione revisits the Befana celebration of 1570 discussed above.
Here the speakers defend the adaptation of the ancient medal tradition
to women and explain its sixteenth-century ludic context. Much as he
had done before in his unpublished account of the ceremony, Scipione
lays out how that Befana event transformed both ancient and modern
traditions. That is, in contrast to the classical precedents, it celebrated
women, not just men; moral qualities, not just accomplished deeds.101
In terms of modern practice, he argues that the Court of the Ferraiuoli did not devise the fortunes in the customary way, but assigned
the tasks to a smaller group who took some time to prepare them (and
although he does not state it, these were not random fortunes but
obviously commemorations of particular individuals).102 All of these

changes worked towards a more coherent semiology of public identity
and fame for Sienese women.
Scipiones treatment of medals for women set the stage for his major
treatment of female emblems per se in Bk. 2 of the Dellimprese of 1594.
Well into the discussion in this book, one of the interlocutors comments
that it is odd they have not yet mentioned any emblems devised by
women, given that such creations would enable them to enjoy also the
fruits of [womens] clear wits or to understand something of their singular thoughts.103 Such a statement recognizes that emblem culture was
in fact an opportunity for both creativity and self-expression and particularly in this latter sense it constituted for women a new vehicle for
self-fashioning. This launches a survey of emblems composed either by
or at the behest of women which signals a progression from the ludic
tradition that heretofore had only men composing fortunes or medals for them. The interlocutor oering this survey Ippolito Agostini
either truthfully or coyly indicates that he cannot remember whether
these emblems to be discussed were devised by women, or executed by
men at the request or command of women.104 This ambiguity points
up the elusive nature of these emblems as precise statements of female
creativity or sentiment and indicates the ongoing nature of male mediation in converting private women to public figures. How much of a
role did these women play in creating the emblems? Did they devise
completely on their own? Did they merely suggest the general themes
that a male acquaintance would then illustrate with an appropriate
image and motto? How much did men provide a filter in the execution of the mottoes and how much, in this dialogue, did male commentators embellish or alter the intended meanings in their explications
of the emblems and mottoes? Even given these porous boundaries between male and female involvement, Scipiones dialogue nonetheless
generally depicts the sentiments of some of these emblems as originating with women. And Scipione clearly sees this as a sixteenth-century
innovation.
The possibilities for dramatic declarations even if freighted with
ambiguous meanings are best seen in an emblem for una giovane
gentildonna (Figure 4.5). The image depicts a birdcage on top of which
perches a bird, with the motto Amica et Non Serva (Friend Yet Not
Servant). The emblem of a bird outside of the cage might well be the
emblem of any defiant young Everywoman of the day. And that defiance is likely one reason this emblem is of an unnamed young lady.
The metaphor of a woman as a caged bird had a prominent precedent
106Parlour Games
Figure 4.5.Emblem of an Unnamed Young Lady. From

Scipione Bargagli, Dellimprese alla prima parte, la seconda,
e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 432. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
in Jean de Meuns addition to the Roman de la Rose, in a section describing the unnaturalness of female confinement and the desire for sexual freedom.105 Equally pertinent to our image here is that printed texts
of the Roman included an illustration of the caged bird.106 But whereas
Jean de Meuns use of the trope had an exclusively licentious intention, non-sexual meanings were possible as well, as was the case in Boethiuss original use of the image in the Consolation of Philosophy, Bk. 3,
metre 2:1826.107 The angry or pathetic use of the metaphor of the bird
in reference to women had a resonance in Renaissance and early modern Italy. In the 1480s Laura Cereta complained of wives who behave
like little sparrows seeking the approval of their husbands,108 and
much later, in the seventeenth century, Arcangela Tarabotti (160452)
in her Paternal Tyranny used the image of the captured bird robbed of
precious liberty to describe fathers forced claustration of their daughters.109 Freeing the bird from the cage thus was almost certainly intended as a forceful feminist statement much as it remains one today.
Scipione indicates that this emblem was designed by his brother Girolamo, though at the pleasure of a no less discreet than noble and
charming woman of our city, she having conceived the subject on which
he ought to expand.110 According to Scipione and again, this may represent another filter of her meaning this woman wished her emblem
to express the paradox that women of her day faced in regard to achieving social distinction. That is, the only way to win a glorious name was
for a woman to appear shy and contemptuous of the amatory world,
for to openly demonstrate interest is to incur a bad name. How then
could a woman win distinction among her peers and yet retain a good
name? In a word, how could women achieve a reputation without having a reputation? According to Scipione, her emblem splits the dierence by indicating that she will follow love and yet not be subject to
love.111 Thus, she will be able to distinguish herself in the city without
abandoning a chaste reputation.112 Clearly, Scipione interprets this in
the tradition of courtly love, saying that the middle way will enable her
to achieve glory for her virtue of shrewdness (accortezza), charm, and
honest courtesy.113 Apparently, he reads the emblem to mean Friend
(to Love) and Yet Not Servant (to Love). And this conforms to his theory that the realm of love is the only route open to women to achieve
distinction. Through his interlocutors he even cites his own Trattenimenti, where he makes the point that all honourable avenues for distinction that men enjoy have been closed o to women, and that love is
the only realm in which they can excel. And Love here means, I think,
the entire culture of love, including the spirited parlour games where
108Parlour Games
they could show their wit.114 Scipione thus at third hand interprets an
emblem conceived by a woman and designed by his brother, and he
does so in terms that conform to his own theory that distinction for
women is limited to the amatory realm. Is this the intention of this unknown woman, or even of Girolamo Bargaglis image and motto? If so,
why then did it not say Friend and Yet Not Servant to Love? Was there
in fact a broader, more obvious meaning relating not just to social reputation but more broadly to social freedom?
In further elaborating the emblem Scipione certainly broaches this
wider and more consequential meaning. He says that the bird (of the
image) in springtime frequents the homes and places of men, conversing with all, building a nest, raising her young, and yet does not consent
ever to be deemed a permanent resident, nor ever stays calm or happy
whenever she would come into any confined or enclosed place; indeed,
through immense grief she inconsolably soon hastens to her death.115
Scipione then cites a line from Ariosto, who in his Third Satire casts
the image of the caged bird in terms of his own reluctance to become a
captive courtier at the papal court: Badly can the nightingale endure
the cage and the swallow in one day dies of madness.116 Clearly, then,
the emblem alludes to the problem of social and personal confinement
whether experienced by a male at court or a female in general society
(and, in fact, an analogue between male courtiers and women was one
that Mary Wollstonecraft would also develop centuries later, though her
focus was on their similar debilitating indulgence in frivolity).117
Even so, Scipione again shades the meaning to one more situated in
the courtly love tradition by saying that the analogy indicates a woman
who will take delight in all the conversations, parties, and clever discussions of love, but has firmly resolved that her mind and her will
not be bound nor imprisoned by anything less than a pure and suitable
love.118 But in his elaboration of this point, it is clear that his interpretation touches not merely on the metaphors of toying with or being
captive to love, but rather on the social dilemma that women face. The
entertainments of the ludic, amatory world are their only outlet for distinction and the excitements of polite love the only solace sweetening a constricted life. And yet, as a male writer, Scipione seems to be
aware of how this might sound to his patriarchal colleagues, so he is
quick to add that this licence for amatory and social freedom by no
means degrades a womans first obligation to domestic duties, devotion to husbands, child rearing, and so on. The problem, he argues, is
that acquiring a good name in these invisible ways takes so long given
that women are so confined to the home and see so few people and
would come to women only in old age. The amatory world is their opportunity for fame in the course of their life, not at the end. It is as well
an opportunity for a fully realized emotional life, without which all the
riches and comforts of the most luxurious life are meaningless to spiritose giovani donne.119 For Scipione, then, the bird on the top of the
cage is a symbol for the desire of women to escape the confines of maintaining a wholly chaste reputation, to defy Pericless ideal of invisibilty,
and to compensate for the emotionally empty shell of conventional (arranged) marriages. But was his interpretation correct? Was there more?
Towards the end of his lengthy exposition Scipione reflects on the
meanings of friendship and servitude, proclaiming the charms, utility, and joy of the one, and the brutalities, harms, and miseries of
the other.120 In arming that servitude is the adversary and mortal enemy of liberty, Scipione cites some lines on the preciousness of
dolce libert, including two from Dantes Purgatorio 1:712 referring
to the republican martyr Cato, who goes in search of liberty, which is
so dear / as anyone knows who has given his life for it.121 (These same
lines from Dante would later be invoked by Arcangela Tarabotti in her
attack on the involuntary confinement of daughters in convents in her
Paternal Tyranny of 1654.)122 It would seem, then, that in the closing of
his lengthy exposition on this female emblem Scipione appreciated the
full social implications of Amica et Non Serva as possibly something
more than a metaphorical freedom from love. Indeed, he follows the
Dante locus by proclaiming indeed how much is being free over oneself and lord of ones aairs something proper and natural to a human
being, as much as personally submitting oneself and leading ones life
bound in servitude is so averse and completely contrary.123 This reading certainly endows the emblem of an unknown woman with a literal
desire for freedom. Rather than a freedom from Love, it proclaims a
freedom from Men, or from Lover, or from Husband. Likewise, it suggests a friendship or companionability with all of the above rather
than a subservience to them. Scipione has harnessed male loci concerning freedom Ariostos freedom from the courtiers servility, and Catos
(via Dante) from tyrannical rule to apply them to a female call for
freedom. Precisely what idea did this unnamed woman propose to Girolamo Bargagli? How did he transform it, if he even did so? How did
Scipione Bargagli modify it to patriarchal concerns, presuming he followed through? We cannot know. And that in itself is a commentary on
the remaining limitations of female self-fashioning. And yet, the very
fact that his woman is not named suggests that the more radical interpretation was intended by her and concretized by Girolamo. Maybe
110Parlour Games
this bird on top of the cage and its motto were in fact intended to mean
what they readily suggest: an image of liberation and a slogan of gender equality.
Scipiones treatise also recorded female emblems of some named
women. And if these lacked any threatening interpretation of women
breaking out of their cages, they did in some cases express sentiments
of female self-suciency. One, conceived by Aurelia Petruccis daughter
Girolama, depicted flames being doused, with the motto Extinguere
Sueta (Extinguishing the Usual Things) (Figure 4.6). The explication
contends that she meant to express her resolve to vanquish all the various brush fires of Fortune, which included her having been widowed
with three young daughters to raise and marry.124 In the course of his
discussion of the emblems meaning, Scipione cites several loci on bearing misfortune bravely: Romuluss belief that miseries benefit us; King
Darius of Persias conviction that he was improved by harsh battles
and dicult circumstances; Diogenes the Cynics famous aphorism of
carrying all of his fortune on his person.125 All these precepts or exempla are imported to invest this female emblem with a rather male
sense of fortitude. Another emblem, conceived by Fulvia Spannocchi
de Sergardi, depicts a snail with the motto Omnia Mea Mecum ([I
Carry] All Things with Me) (Figure 4.7). This sentiment, which echoes
the previous one attributed to Diogenes, had a currency in the sixteenth
century. It was included in Alciatos Emblemata of 1551, and the saying,
as Scipione here relates, was associated especially with Bias of Priene.
When he and his fellow citizens were forced to flee their city and allowed to take only the provisions they could carry, Bias took only his
cane, saying that he was in possession of all of his goods. Scipione develops this example in reference to Fulvia to emphasize her contempt
for the goods of the body, or of the world, or of fortune, and her
embrace of the goods of the mind.126 He then reviews her moral qualities of chastity, faith, perseverance, and prudence. To those who would
question her lack of originality in choosing a motto attributed to Bias
and to the Megarian philosopher Stilbo (as mentioned in Senecas Ad
Lucilium 9:18), he suggests that she enlivened and deepened it with the
image of the snail, which carries all of its possessions on its back.127
Scipione thus takes pains to show Fulvias kindred spirit with ancient
philosophers and her originality in fashioning an emblem.
Not all of the female emblems assert female independence or selfsuciency. One celebrates at length conventional wifely attributes, and
perhaps it is no accident that this emblem belongs to Leonora Montalvi
Figure 4.6.Emblem of Girolama Petrucci. From Scipione

Bargagli, Dellimprese alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza
nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 440. (Courtesy of the
112Parlour Games
Figure 4.7.Emblem of Fulvia Spannocchi de Sergardi. From

Scipione Bargagli, Dellimprese alla prima parte, la seconda, e
la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 461. (Courtesy
of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
degli Agostini, the wife of one of the dialogues interlocutors, Ippolito

Agostini. This emblem (Figure 4.8) has a male sun and female moon
with the Spanish motto Por Ti Mi Resplandor (I Shine for You). And
indeed most of the exposition is a primer on the subordinate and submissive wife, in sometimes dramatically stark terms: her every coming
and going should be completely where, how, and with whom it delights and pleases her husband, and her speaking or silence, laughing or crying should conform to his will.128 But even this exposition
which seems at times to aim at being a manual for the ideal marriage also instructs the husband that his rule should be not tyrannical, not boorish, nor harsh, nor grave but compassionate, sweet,
dear, and jocund.129 In fact, Scipione cites a stanza from Ariostos Satire 5 (which gives marriage advice to a friend) that urges a husband to
strive to have his wife be a compagna rather than a serva.130 Indeed,
this sentiment implicitly serves as a conservative complement to the
bolder Amica Et Non Serva emblem of the unnamed woman (or bird)
freed from her cage. Like the earlier fortunes and medal reverses, then,
the emblems and their explications represent a ludic venue for didactically reinforcing or refining gender roles. That this most patriarchal
of the female emblems involves the wife of one of the interlocutors of
the Dellimprese bespeaks the social pressure and/or male psychological
need to arm conventional gender roles placing the non-patriarchal
emblems in even greater relief.
Scipiones treatment of female emblems also extended to those created by men for women. He recounts a Befana party (occurring at
some unspecified time) at the home of Conte Carlo dElci, and, working from memory, he presents a number of emblems resulting from
the game. Specific women are not attached to these emblems, and
thus they lack the lengthy explications and homages found in the personalized emblems discussed above. What these male constructions
of female identity show, however, is the range of ways in which female personality or circumstance could be made public in such ludic
settings. Many deal with the imposing or forbidding persona of a
woman in the social game of love: thus, one depicts a plant so bitter that no animal will eat it (Figure 4.9) with the motto Amaritudine Tutum (Through Bitterness, Safety);131 another portrays a fire
in the distance with the motto Bella da Lungi ma Mortal da Presso
(Beautiful from Afar but Deadly up Close), which connotes a woman
who is a fierce enemy if approached unworthily.132 Several of these,
however, deal not with such generic amatory tropes, but with the
114Parlour Games
Figure 4.8.Emblem of Leonora Montalvi degli Agostini.

From Scipione Bargagli, Dellimprese alla prima parte, la
seconda, e la terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 445.
(Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
Figure 4.9.Emblem for an Unnamed Woman. From Scipione

Bargagli, Dellimprese alla prima parte, la seconda, e la terza
nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 458. (Courtesy of the
116Parlour Games
specific circumstances of women. Some, using conventional floral imagery, describe womens marital status. One depicts a rose stem with
one bud open and another closed: this to indicate a mother with a
daughter (the closed bud) of marriageable age. Another, depicting a
rosebud half-opened, was designed for a new wife, very modest and
shy with the motto Quanto si Scuopre Men, Tanto Piu Bella (The
Less Exposed, the More Beautiful).133 Others depict women in various situations: one recovering from a recent illness or misfortune; another uncertain whether her husband was dead or alive; another of a
noble woman not nobly married.134 Most original was an emblem for
a widow, related to the mistress of the house, a lady in all ways, well
regarded and esteemed by polite lovers, who was found there that
evening, standing however somewhat apart as was her wont. Her emblem thus was displayed in an eclipsed moon, which, as you know,
yet also completely in the shadow where it is found enveloped, one
can yet discern its form and something of its splendor.135
So too this woman, who, although obscured by her widows status
and the widows veil, was, as her motto declared Conspicuus Tamen136
(Figure 4.10). This particular emblem can be taken as a meta-emblem
for the cultural phenomenon of these Befana games themselves, which
publicized the traditionally private world of women, whatever the archetype: the unmarried, the newlywed, the unapproachable, the poorly
married. Even a woman in mourning conventionally the most private
of women became conspicuous nevertheless in the world of the
Sienese parlour games.
***
One consequence of the closing of the Sienese academies in 1568
was the heightened pre-eminence of women in the lingering festive
life of the city. The Befana tradition of course had long been alive, but
now the distributed fortunes became less random and arbitrary, and
more personalized, prescriptive, and permanent. As the closed academies led to the opening of the court of the Ferraiuoli, the focus on celebrating women became even more concrete and more masculine in the
ritual and semiotic progression from fortunes, to reverses of medals,
to heavenly constellations, and emblems per se. And that last world
generally confined to men save for the rare Vittoria Colonna and royal
women now opened up somewhat to women. And it did so in such a
manner that self-consciously transformed the classical medal (from the
Figure 4.10.Emblem for an Unnamed Widow. From Scipione Bargagli, Dellimprese alla prima parte, la seconda, e la
terza nuovamente aggiunte (Venice, 1594), p. 460. (Courtesy of
the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
118Parlour Games
accomplished deeds of men to the character traits of women) and the

Befana tradition (from fanciful fortunes to sometimes serious legacies).
In the first part of his Dellimprese in 1578, Scipione Bargagli was likely
the first to theoretically treat the inclusion of women in this realm. In
the later parts of his treatise in 1594, he presented the most numerous
and extended explications to date of emblems by and/or about women
women who included the likes of the Petrucci and Spannocchi elite as
well as a nameless cohort who had now, if only for the duration of one
soire, been acknowledged as conspicuous nevertheless.
But this Sienese ludic setting yielded up something more than simply new symbols of and avenues for public female identity. The 1570
contest staged between the Ferraiuoli Knights and their foreign visitors
occasioned a substantive bout of the querelle des femmes. This debate on
female dignity led to an airing of an alternative history and culture of
women: one that redeems Helen by resurrecting Euripidess account;
clarifies that femmine may be mobile, but donne are not; and reminds that signora as much as signore is rooted in lordship. These
debates occurred as part of a parlour game that pitted male combatants
against one another discussing the status of women in front of an audience of women. In the following century, such ludic debates would incorporate women and even spawn a new social institution.
5The Birth of the Assicurate: Italys First

Female Academy (16541704)
In 1603 the Sienese academies reopened, notably the artisan Rozzi in

August and the elite Intronati in December.1 The latter occasion was
commemorated by an elaborate ceremony recorded in a 140-page Breve
descrittione del nuovo risorgimento dellAccademia degli Intronati di Siena
(Brief description of the new rebirth of the Academy of the Intronati in
Siena), and Scipione Bargaglis 100-page Oratione in lode dellaccademia
deglIntronati dello Schietto Intronato (Oration in praise of the Academy
of the Intronati).2 Both works seek to ingratiate the academy with the
Florentine Grand Duke Ferdinando de Medici, and the Oratione in particular gives Scipione the chance to reflect on the history of the Intronati
and its utility as a cultural institution. As in his general praise of academies of 1564,3 this praise of the Intronati aside from surveying the
academys history and theatrical and cultural productions discussed
the function of academies as nurturing a wider, more vibrant type of
public culture. This was a culture that encouraged a more creative interaction with literary tradition than that pursued by the expositors
in the universities, and it created a fruitful exchange with women who
simultaneously inspired and deepened this new public culture.4 This
synergy with women was described by a line (adapted from Petrarchs
characterization of his relationship with Laura in Rime 289) in which
the Intronati proclaimed of their association with women that noi gloria in loro, ed elle in noi virtute (we [foster] glory in them, and they
virtue in us).5 Scipione traces this involvement with women back to
Platos Academy, citing the role of Aspasia and Diotima (in Menexenus 235e249e and Symposium 201d212b respectively) and Athenaeuss comment (in the Deipnosophists 13.561de) that statues and rites
to Eros (love) in the Greek world could be found alongside those
120Parlour Games
to Athena (wisdom), Hermes (eloquence), and Hercules (strength).6

This citation of Athenaeus suggests some interesting parallels between
the ludic revels of his Hellenistic group in the second century and those
of the Intronati in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In both eras,
political circumstances provoked a particular focus on ludic and convivial culture, one that involved women in both cases though in strikingly dissimilar ways.
In her study of Athenaeuss Deipnosophists Bk. 13, which is devoted
to tales and speeches about women, Laura McClure suggests that this
book reflects a nostalgic desire on the part of a Greek culture dominated by the Roman state to create an idealized cultural past and to
stage a lively rhetorical display vis--vis their overlords.7 Bk. 13 includes many tales of learned and clever courtesans (hetaera) told by
learned and clever men who together constitute a Greek armation
of culture in the face of political impotence. Transpose this situation
to early modern Italy, and one finds that the powerless Sienese male
elite cultivate a distinctively ludic culture as a response to their Florentine masters. Writing to or speaking before the Florentine Grand Duke,
Scipione in 1603 tactfully avoids the issue of political domination, but
the subtext is there. In fact, when he speaks of the importance of academies, he cites the case of the Peloponnesian War, saying that the Spartans spared the Academy when they took Athens.8 Scipione praises the
role of the Intronati as a similarly stabilizing force in the period of chaos
in Italy, but he consciously or subconsciously deflects the story from actual warfare to the contests and battles the Intronati mounted against
similarly (rhetorically) armed sodalities in the city.9 He then urges that
the academy once again, newly armed under the same standard, will
engage in virtuous contests and glorious battles, conserving however
always pacific and courteous purposes in their hearts.10 The Sienese
men then will distinguish themselves in festive contests and displays,
rather than military ones.
Although the political emasculation of Athenaeuss Greece and the
Intronatis Siena may be similar, the role of women in these two ludic
cultures diers dramatically. The women in the Deipnosophists Bk. 13
are not present at the party, but rather are described by the male interlocutors. Even more telling, these women are courtesans, and thus
represent outliers to the ideal female archetype. In the Sienese setting,
the opposite is the case: the women at the parties are the cream of the
Sienese patriciate; they are players in the conversational game, not
Italys First Female Academy121
objects of it;11 they are part of a current reality, not a relic of an idealized past. In all three ways the Intronatis involvement with women is
actual not virtual, respectable not decadent, competitive not subjugating. In fact, in discussing the emergence of giuochi di spirito in Siena,
Scipione describes parties (often organized around the appearance of
a dignitary in the city) in which the principal ladies of the city were
present on account of their nobility, beauty, and wit (ingegno).12 Also
revealing is his statement that in this time the number of this (so to
speak) academic flock was reinvigorated by individuals female by nature, but through wisdom and science quite virile.13 His examples of
such women, whose literary accomplishments he praises, were two
non-Sienese figures, Laura Battiferra and Creusa Florida, the former of
whom was the first woman inducted into the Intronati, and the latter he
claims (perhaps erroneously) also to have been a member.14 The point
here is that women were incorporated fully into the festive contests of
the Intronati and, at times, were deemed so virile for their learning
and literary accomplishment as to warrant inclusion as full members
of the academy. Once again, it seems to be part of the social calculus of
early modern Siena that as the men were politically emasculated vis-vis their Florentine masters, women were culturally masculinized vis-vis the Intronati men.
Not everyone, however, accepted the Sienese embrace of women into
the male academy. In 1612, the year after Scipiones Oratione was published, the satirist Traiano Boccalini took aim at the custom. In the first
instalment of his Ragguagli di Parnasso (Reports from Parnassus), he
includes one entry entitled The Intronati Academicians, Having Admitted Into Their Academy the Main Poetesses of Parnassus, Apollo
Orders That These [Women] Be Removed.15 The report warrants citation in full, as it is a testimony of the Intronatis perceived feminism
against the backdrop of a pervasive misogyny:
Some months ago the most excellent Intronati gentlemen, against their
ancient policies, admitted into their academy the most virtuous Vittoria
Colonna, Veronica Gambera, Laura Terracina, and other more noteworthy poetesses of Parnassus and all with such great applause of the virtuous that the academicians, inflamed by the beauty of the ladies, not
only met very frequently in their literary excercises, but every day published poetry that stupefied the Muses themselves. But before long a certain very unpleasant odour reached the nose of His Majesty [Apollo],
122Parlour Games
because of which he commanded the Archintronato that in every way
he end this practice: because it was finally realized that the true poetry of women was the needle and spindle, and the literary exercises of
women with the virtuous [men] resembled tricks and games that dogs
play among themselves, who after a brief time all end up mounting each
others backs.16
Apollo, the god of poetry, thus orders the expulsion of female poets
who have newly encroached upon Parnassus and the male academy.
And the reasons not surprisingly turn to the patriarchal clichs that relegate women to the realm of sexual behaviour and the fibre arts.
The hostility towards women and controversies over female learning and status intensified in the first half of the seventeenth century.
In fact, it was a member of the Intronati, Francesco Buoninsegni, who
set o a heated debate with his satirical lecture on female vanity delivered before the Intronati (and the grand duke) and published in 1638.
This work, the Satira menippea control lusso donnesco (Menippean satire against female vanity), provoked the ire of the fiery Venetian feminist, Arcangela Tarabotti, who published her response, the Antisatira, in
1644, dedicating it to the grand dukes wife, Vittoria della Rovere, who
a decade later became the patron of the Assicurate.17 When the printer
of Tarabottis Antisatira fed sheets of her forthcoming treatise to an acquaintance of Buoninsegnis, Angelico Aprosio, the latter dashed o his
response to her response. Aprosios treatise was never published but
much of its content was channelled into a more moderate treatise, Lo
scudo di Rinaldo (1646), a general attack on female fashion and vanity.18
The assault on female displays (pompe donnesche) and luxury (lusso)
the latter readily equated by polemicists with lust (lussuria) was
a handy cudgel for misogynists to wield against women and often was
a surrogate for a more generalized assault on female character.19 It is
worth noting that the intensity of this misogyny was such that a Jesuit
acquaintance of Aprosio named Giovan Domenico Ottonelli in 1646
published in Florence a treatise entitled Della pericolosa conversatione con
le donne, poco modeste, ritirate, cantatrici, accademiche (On the dangerous conversation with women, either little chaste, or withdrawn, or
singers, or academy members).20 The existence of such a work makes it
all the more relevant that in Siena, three years later, a Dominican figure,
Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolini, published a treatise that not only praised
the Sienese parlour games that had enshrined female conversation
with men but also compiled a catalogue of notable Sienese women.
Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolinis Female Prosopography

In 1649 the Dominican theology professor Ugurgieri Azzolini published
a massive survey of Sienese culture entitled Le Pompe Sanesi, overo relazione delli huomini e donne illustri di Siena e suo stato (Sienese splendours,
or report of the illustrious men and women of Siena and its state). This
theology professor also had his foot in the door of secular culture, as
the title page of his work identifies him not only by his various clerical and theological oces but also as a member of the Academy of the
Filomati.21 This academy, dating from 1580, had somewhat supplanted
the Intronati for primacy among the elite, though within a few years
(in 1654) the two academies would unite and the grand duke would
even support them with revenues from the sale of playing cards.22 The
Filomati member Ugurgieri Azzolini was, however, certainly respectful of the Intronatis role in the cultural history of Siena this perhaps
partly due to the fact that the Bargagli brothers were from the Ugurgieri line on the their mothers side. In a section on inventions he dutifully rehearses Girolamo Bargaglis claims that the Sienese eectively
(re)discovered parlour games along the same lines that Columbus
discovered the New World despite the antecedents in, for instance,
the Courtier. He also lists all of the games catalogued in Bargaglis Dialogo de giuochi.23 Far more importantly, however, he extracts from Bargaglis Dialogo the prominent female game players and includes them
in a chapter devoted to outstanding Sienese women.
This chapter, entitled Illustrious and Memorable Sienese Women,
contains short sketches of 108 women. Such a female prosopography
certainly reifies the cultural elevation of women in the city, and it does
so in part by assigning distinction and lasting reputation to ludic personas. Such women in fact command a prominent place in the catalogue. Not surprisingly, the opening entry is devoted to Saint Catherine
of Siena, but by the fourth entry the game-playing women of Girolamos game book begin to appear and command a sizeable section: entries nos. 4 through 20 (with one exception) and no. 30.24 These women
are hailed variously for their spiritosi prowess, risposte argute, e
detti sentenziosi, vivezza dellingegno, and ingegnose proposte.25
Morevoer, #23 is devoted to Fulvia Spannocchi, dedicatee of Scipione
Bargaglis Trattenimenti, and cites at length Scipiones stated intention
that his games in some meagre way approximate the cleverness of her
giuochi di spirito.26 In a couple of instances, Ugurgieri Azzolini repeats
or extends notable stories of female learning and wit in these games.
124Parlour Games
Thus, in the sketch of Porzia Pecci, he cites the incident in the Dialogo
de giuochi in which she drew on her knowledge of the Amads de Gaula
novels to challenge (and, it turns out, discomfit) one of the learned
and erudite Intronati male players.27 In the biography of Iuditta Santi,
he reveals how the fame of these ludic exchanges apparently achieved
some lasting oral life. In his Dialogo Bargagli mentions the clever emblem created for a woman of the Santi family (the sixty-six or se santi
sei pun, discussed in chapter 3), but when Ugurgieri Azzolini repeats
the story, he includes her response, which was not found in Bargaglis
dialogue.28 Thus, this half of the story must have come down through
oral tradition, suggesting that the performances in these games could
have a long (in this case, an eighty-year) afterlife.
Ugurgieri Azzolinis catalogue of famous women of course also records distinctions other than those earned in the oral culture of the parlour games. He celebrates the literary achievements of various women,
such as Livia and Frasia Marzi, and even reveals that he has read unpublished manuscripts of the poetry of certain figures.29 Also noteworthy in the collection is his treatment of the women at the walls, whom
he clusters in a joint entry at #379. Because he assembled the accounts
of several historians of the event (such as Monluc, Ascanio Centorio, and others), he perhaps did more than any other single writer to
immortalize the actions of these three women of vivacity and such
masculine spirit.30 Moreover, he followed their story with one on the
young unnamed woman who replaced her brother for guard duty
during the siege.31
Ugurgieri Azzolini brings his compendium of notable women up
to the present day, hailing Lucrezia dAzzolini Cerretani, who in our
academies and parties had led spur-of-the-moment giuochi di spirito so
ingeniously in the presence of the most Serene [Grand Dukes] of Tuscany and other grand princes that she has amazed such [Royal] Highnesses how in a female head there could be such vivacity and wit.32
In the penultimate chapter of his collection, Ugurgieri Azzolini reflects
on the nature of the Sienese women of his time. He does so in a coda
to the putative subject of the entry, Ippolita Agostini, who has demonstrated her most elevated wit in various parlour games played in the
presence of the Tuscan court, she being the Dama dhonore of Maria
Maddalena, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Two points are noteworthy in
his eulogy of her: that her services to the grand duchess resulted in
her husbands appointment to many magistracies in Siena (thus implying that the prominence of the woman empowered the man)33 and that
now although advanced in age, nonetheless her liveliness is as rigorous as before (thus according distinction to an older woman clouded
by the years, the antithesis of the youthful woman prized in courtly
praise and flirtatious games).34 But there is an even more telling shift
of emphasis in the praise of Sienese women in general that Ugurgieri
Azzolini appends to her profile. He contends that as many the number of outstanding women in the past years of the city and in the days
when the Intronati reigned supreme, there are as many today: Thus
in these times, even in this year of 1648, they [Sienese women] have inspired the Sienese youth to gather more, and to convene more often
the flourishing Academy of Filomati, in which appears a certain desire
of virtuous pursuits, which by them [the women] are always exercised
on any occasion that presents itself, because there is not lacking in the
ranks of our modern ladies anyone who can compose perfectly in prose
and in verse, who has an understanding of more idioms, who exactly
possesses the moral virtues, and who could be most vivacious in our
witty games.35 Only after specifying these literary, moral, and social
talents does he describe other women who pursue feminine exercises
of needle and thread; some who excel in painting, dancing, riding,
hunting, music; and finally some who are scholarly and can probe the
reaches of theology and philosophy.36 This leads to his final chapter on
Margarita Biringucci, who although a young girl has often advanced
philosophical conclusions with the admiration and applause of all who
have heard her.37 Ugurgieri Azzolini thus characterizes the collective
of Sienese women not simply as the muses of (male) culture by inspiration, but as the instigators of culture by example. And his survey of
their talents begins and ends with the intellectual and cultural capacities, tucking (or submerging) the traditional female textile pursuits in
the middle. His catalogue of the 108 Sienese women certainly reveals
that the fame of women has gelled in civic panegyric, but it also shows
how the oral, ludic legacy has been incorporated with the literary, military, and scholarly ones even to the diminution of the conventionally
female ones.38
The Academy of the Assicurate
In 1654, five years after the publication of the Pompe sanesi, the Medici
governor of Siena authorized the fusion of Ugurgieri Azzolinis Filomati
and the Intronati. A parlour game played in the same year gave birth
to a female academy. Two manuscript books in Sienas Biblioteca
126Parlour Games
Comunale degli Intronati oer us an account of the circumstances behind the origin of the academy, a record of membership enrolments
until 1704, and most vitally detailed narratives of some of the games
played by members of this new academy in concert with their Intronati counterparts. What did this female academy signify in terms of the
public life of women in early modern Italy? What serious issues underlay the ludic exchanges in these encounters? How do the transcripts
of these games represent a unique genre the literary record of oral
culture that allows us to recover in some detail the workings of polite
society in this era?
The first of these manuscript books is the ocial academy book of
the Assicurate (the Assured), similar to those kept by the Intronati and
other academies to record the history, statutes, and membership of the
group.39 This book is entitled Origine dellAccademia dellAssicurate
di Siena, col ruolo di nomi, et imprese di quelli dame che si ascriveranno alla medesima (Origin of the Academy of the Assicurate of Siena,
with the role of names and emblems of those women who were enrolled in it) (Figure 5.1).40 It is adorned with the academys emblem, an
oak tree with the adjoining motto On this side the shade shields us, on
that it elucidates us(Figure 5.2).41 According to Girolamo Gigli, the emblem alluded to the academys patronage by the Grand Duchess Vittoria delle Rovere (whose name derives from oak):42 thus, the shade of
the oak simultaneously (or paradoxically) both shields them as a group
and elucidates or glorifies them to a wider public. Either way, these
women are thereby assured of patronage and of fame and more
generally, perhaps, assured of themselves as public figures. Their official academy book (hereinafter, Origin of the Assicurate) then proceeds to describe the major festive meetings of the group, at which
times new women were added to the original group of sixteen, usually after proving themselves worthy by their performance in a game.43
Once enrolled, they were given a nickname, emblem, and motto. The
opening ceremony, describing the 1654 founding (Figure 5.3), explains
the circumstances of the founding of the group and guidelines for its
continuation and expansion:
In 1654 there was erected in Siena an Academy of most virtuous women
in a giuoco di spirito, the theme of which was to remove the Governance of
the Kingdom of Love from the hands of the Knights and to transfer it to
the said women: which game was played in the home of Signore Niccol
Gori Pannelini, and they took the name of Assicurate, and for an emblem
Figure 5.1.Title Page of the Academy Book of the Assicurate.

BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 1r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale
degli Intronati, Siena.)
an oak, with the motto Qu ne difende, e qu nillustra lombra. These
[women] continued many times to play diverse giuochi di spirito, increasing always the number of most spirited Academy members, by giving
them names most appropriate to their qualities, and then emblems and
mottoes conforming to the same, as will be reported below.44
This female academy probably Europes first45 thus proceeds from

a parlour game simulating a transfer of power from men to women. To
128Parlour Games
Figure 5.2.Emblem of the Academy of the Assicurate. From

the Academy Book of the Assicurate. BCI, Y.II.22, Frontispiece.
some degree, this framework is a false one, as the Kingdom (or Court)
of Love, originating in Provenal courtly society, had always been one
essentially dominated by women. But in Siena, the festive lead had always been taken by the male academies, certainly in the case of public
and theatrical events. As the playing of this 1654 game and subsequent
ones (especially one in 1691) make clear, there is evinced a desire to
Figure 5.3.Founding of the Academy of the Assicurate.

From the Academy Book of the Assicurate. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 2r.
shift control if only symbolically from a male academy (which entertains women and orchestrates the festive life of the city) to a female
academy insistent upon freedom from male dominance and interference. And the ensuing prerogatives of public fame a discrete academic autonomy with academic nicknames, emblems, and mottoes
130Parlour Games
certainly reflect the full flowering of the Renaissance parlour games

that had long aimed to bring women into the public eye.
According to one of the two copies of the Assicurate academy book,
the Origin of the Assicurate, the record of the Assicurate celebrations
and membership was compiled by Francesco Piccolomini (16501720),
who together with his wife Caterina Gaetano Grioli, had hosted five
of the six games listed between 1680 and 1704 (and had orchestrated all
six).46 The brief descriptions of the Assicurate games reveal that they
occurred during Carnival (in two cases) or marked special occasions (a
marriage, the monachization of daughters, or the appearance of notable
personages in the city). The game themes in almost every case dealt
with the realm of love: for instance, preparing for Loves entry into the
city, finding a spouse for Love, the hunt for Love, and so on. The central
function of the game to enable women to distinguish themselves and
win enrolment in their new academy is plainly stated in the Carnival
celebration of 1691 in the home of Francesco Piccolomini, in which the
Prova di Gioco (Test of the Game) had players compete to identify
the best wife for Love.47
As for the distinctions and identities accorded the newly ascribed
members, these were presumably prepared in advance, in the same way
the medal reverses and fortunes had been in the Befana ceremonies of
the sixteenth century. The nicknames range from the traditionally female the Faithful, the Modest, and the Quiet48 to the more assertive
and bold the Resolute, the Intrepid, the Majestic, the Active, the Insuperable, and the Disinvolta (the Free and Easy, or Self-Possessed).49
The Insuperable was Caterina Savini Gori Pannelini, whose emblem
was the Pillars of Hercules with the motto Curb to Human Boldness,
implying that she is insuperable like the great unknown beyond the
Pillars of Hercules at the Straits of Gibraltar.50 As for Disinvolta, the
name assigned to Camilla Alberti Buonsignori, this term or its variant,
disinvoltura, appears time and again in reference to the behaviour of
women at these ludic festivities.51 This word seems to represent the female equivalent to the male courtiers artless ease (sprezzatura), praised
by Castiglione.52 The opposite of shy retreat, this term surfaces so often
as to make a claim on defining the new public virtue of the self-assured
woman or literally, the new Assicurate. In the case of the Camilla, the
accompanying emblem assigned her A Labyrinth with Thread of Ariadne and her motto was Escort of Hearts in Amorous Errors (Figure
5.4). Her emblem thus evoked the story in which a male hero (Theseus)
was rescued from the Minotaur through female agency, and suggested
Figure 5.4.Roster of Members of the Academy of the Assicurate. From the

Academy Book of the Assicurate. BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 2v3r. (Courtesy of the
that it is now Camilla who will rescue the lost with Ariadnes thread.
The turning of a traditionally female interest in the fibre arts to assertive ends can also be seen in the immediately preceding identity and
emblem assigned to Agnesa Piccolomini ne Piccolomini. Nicknamed
the Sucient, she was given as an emblem the silkworm with the rather
visceral motto From my guts I form the thread.53 This fabric metaphor for complete self-suciency recalls the sixteenth-century emblem
of Fulvia Spannocchi de Sergardi (the Snail), who carried All Things
with Me.54 Finally, a couple of the nicknames have an intellectual bent
one even linking to the scientific world of the seventeenth century: in
the Carnival game of 1690 Dorotea Piccolomini Bellanti was enrolled as
the Perspicacious, and her emblem as the Telescope of Galileo with the
motto I search my glory in other lights.55 Another one suggesting an
intellectual or literary personality is that assigned to Caterina Pannelini
Grassi, whose nickname was the Vigilant and her emblem the Lantern
of Cleanthes with the motto From my vigils others gain knowledge.56
132Parlour Games
One particularly triumphal nickname, not surprisingly, is assigned

to the wife of Francesco Piccolomini, Caterina Gaetana Grioli. Her
entry into the Assicurate took place in 1680 in the first of many games
held in her home over the next quarter century. Her nickname was
lImpareggiabile (the Incomparable), her emblem a ruby, and her
motto Ancor dal pensiero (Also from Thought).57 The ruby (carbonchio) likely connotes the incomparable gem that can emit brilliance (like
burning carbon); her motto might then be meant to suggest that she is
likewise emitting incomparable (intellectual) rays. Her grandiose name
and the tenor of all the Assicurate aliases raises the question of the
origin of these epithets. The Assicurate nicknames generally diered
from those of the Intronati, which, self-fashioned, tended to be comic,
ironic, or even lewd. The names of the Assicurate may also have been
in some cases self-fashioned, but it is more likely that they were conceived by already enrolled members for new members, or, in the case
of the 1654 game, conceived by the Intronati. This might account for the
flattering, never mocking nature of the names, emblems, and mottoes.
Whether self-fashioned or cohort-fashioned, however, they likely reflected the sentiments or personalities of the female members or such
qualities as perceived by their contemporaries.58 And the general elevation of the Assicurate women in conjunction with the general lowering
of the Intronati men via their respective nicknames enhanced the liminoid qualities of the games that altered patriarchal hierarchy.
As for the Incomparable herself, we can only guess as to her role
orchestrating the games at her home, which included five of the six
games between 1680 and 1704 as described in the Origin of the Assicurate.59 According to this book, in the game organized during Carnival of 1690, it was her husband Francesco Piccolomini who was the
causal force, wanting to put back on their feet these games lapsed for
ten years.60 Moreover, in the final four games recorded in the Origin
Pandolfo Spannocchi is identified as the figure guiding the games.
All of this suggests that the Intronati men were largely in control of the
festive life of the Assicurate and this may have been largely the case,
especially given the long-standing tradition in which the Intronati organized the Sienese games. Still, there was an attempt to attribute some
role (albeit a small one) to Piccolominis wife in the description of 1704:
here the description in the Origin departs from the usual to indicate
that the game took place in the house of Francesco Piccolomini and,
at the instigation of his consort Lady Caterina Gaetana Grioli, was directed
by Signore Pandolfo Spannocchi.61 Was this the only time she played
a role? Not according to another source on the games, to which we

now will turn. In this account, likely recorded by the Assicurate women
themselves, Caterina is similarly credited on three other occasions, and
Olimpia Chigi ne Gori on another: that is, the intrecciamento accademico (academic intermingling) or giuoco di spirito is described as
being directed by an Intronati member per comandamento of Caterina or Olimpia.62 As to her being noted in the Origin (a book supposedly compiled by Francesco Piccolomini himself) only in the 1704
game, this may be a result of the fact that a publication ensuing from
this game had listed her role, and Piccolomini may have felt compelled
to follow suit.63 Whatever the reason, her omission as the instigator of
any of the other games suggests that even the records of this female
academy were prey to gender contests for cultural control. As we shall
see, this battle for control would be played out even more explicitly in
the content of the games.
The Recording of Oral Culture
What exactly transpired at these games? Girolamo Bargaglis game book
only briefly describes game themes and only occasionally cites actual
anecdotes from games as actually played. Scipione Bargaglis Trattenimenti fully simulates how games might be played, but this is a literary
work with fictive characters. A compendium found in the Biblioteca
Comunale degli Intronati in Siena at C.VIII.26 oers a contemporary record of several games as played: not a retrospective, anecdotal account
as in Girolamos book, not a fictional account as in Scipiones. This is an
invaluable source for reconstructing in detail the ritual moment of polite society at play. This collection of narrative accounts is bound as a
manucript book of 308 folios and is entitled Relazioni dalcuni intrecciamenti Accademici sieno giuochi di spirito rappresentati in Siena
in diversi tempi (Accounts of Some Academic Interminglings or, As
It Were, Witty Games Performed in Siena At Various Times) (Figure
5.5). The book hereinafter, Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito records
lengthy descriptions of six parties, of which five are dated between 1664
and 1699 and the sixth is undated (but, according to an alternate manuscript in Florence, occurred during carnival of 1707/8).64 Five of the
six games overlap with those catalogued in the Origin of the Assicurate.65 The accounts are in dierent hands, and the recorders at times
comment that they cannot capture everything said at the gathering or
fully convey the cleverness afoot. Thus the opening of the account of
134Parlour Games
Figure 5.5.Title Page of Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito

Performed in Siena At Various Times. BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 1r.
a 1690 Carnival party apologizes: The memory of [the recorder] who

writes is not able to be so fluent in reporting all the splendours that
were extemporaneously proered by female nonchalance (disinvoltura).66 A preliminary comment in the record of a game during Carnival of 1691 shows how much this genre bespeaks a new literary type, a
hybrid of the oral and written in which the latter is but a poor conveyance of the former: the discretion of whoever will turn their eyes to
these pages will reflect well on the grand inequality that exists between
the pen and the tongue, the folio and the room, and the examination of
a desired memory and the real demonstration of an ingenious party.67
More than just the conventional disclaimer akin to that which Scipione
Bargagli presents in the preface to his fictional Trattenimenti that his
games could not possibly equal the conversational cleverness typical
of his dedicatee this statement speaks to the distinct qualities of this
genre, the written record of oral culture. But these two passages also
reveal the desire to emphasize the impromptu, extemporaneous nature
of oral encounters: potentially a type of quickness, spontaneity, and disinvoltura that trumps the artificial, laboured, written text. In a sense,
the cultural value of oral culture is consciously elevated, perhaps to
further create a worthy venue for achievement for those little prepared
or little inclined to produce or publish formal literary texts. But were
these games so fully extemporaneous expressions of natural, spontaneous wit? No, for as we shall see, there likely was preparation for the
motifs and verse presented at the gatherings. There were as well likely
literary embellishments made by the censors or recorders afterward.
These accounts reveal the porous boundaries between the oral and the
written, the spontaneous and the contrived. But for all that, perhaps because of that, they are a rare window onto the construction of culture in
a social setting and a unique window onto the smallest details of festive life and social ritual in this period.
The very creation of the Academy of the Assicurate was imputed to
a transfer of power from men to women in the game of 1654. Unfortunately, the details of the game are not extant, although there is evidence
of some anxiety for due credit for its conception. The brief description of the Origin of the Assicurate suggests that the Assicurate arose
spontaneously out of a parlour game in which the governance of the
Kingdom of Love shifted to female hands. As if to rectify any misconception that this society arose as an act of feminist spontaneous generation, an anonymous spokesman for the Intronati tried to set the record
straight. Among the Intronati papers in the Biblioteca Comunale degli
Intronati, an unnamed chronicler claims that Sienas fame is owing to
giuochi di spirito and that the Intronati have orchestrated all such games
since 1603.68 The historical role of the Intronati emphasized by the Bargagli brothers and repeated by Ugurgieri Azzolini is now continued by
this writer who lists a sequence of games from 1654 to 1699.69 But he
136Parlour Games
also expressly addresses the creation of the Assicurate, which appears

to have been established casually (occasionalmente) during a game in
1654, but which, he claims, in fact owes nothing to happenstance:
the aforementioned Academy of the Assicurate Ladies had its existence
and origin not unexpectedly or extemporaneously like other things of the
giuochi di spirito, but rather from a well-pondered and anticipated consideration made by the Intronati Academicians of that time, who fostered
it unanimously and made themselves the authors. These, in order not to
subject a matter of such importance to instantaneous determinations, before the game disposed and regulated [matters] as needed in order to establish it in every opportune circumstance and formal requisites and place
it in a state of good existence. And to this contributed more than anything
else, the application and particular thought given the matter by the
Archintronato Ugo Ugurgieri.70
This commentator thus wanted to make clear that the Intronati were
responsible for orchestrating the creation of the Assicurate and especially the Intronati head, Ugo Ugurgieri, whom, earlier in this document, he indicates as the director of the 1654 game.71 This same Ugo
Ugurgieri also led the 1664 game that further explored issues of organizing such an academy.72 That the Intronati head during this period
was named Ugurgieri only heightens the probability that the recent
(1649) publication of Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolinis prosopography of
Sienese women could have been a notable influence or causal factor in
the creation of the Assicurate.
Thus, it seems that the men want to take credit for the idea of the female academy, and the Intronati were indeed the likely originators of
the concept. But how did this notion play out in the games, and what
in general actually transpired in the next half-century of IntronatiAssicurate games? The events of 1654 are lost to us, but accounts starting
with the second game of 1664 have been recorded. In this, as in almost
all of the games, the overt topic is the Kingdom of Love: the Governance of the Kingdom, the passage of Love through Siena, the succour
of Love, the ideal wife for Love, the hunt for Love, and so on. This conforms to the courtly love tradition from which the games arose, and yet
within these topics another, truer topic is often being contested one
that makes tangible reference to the condition of women in society. Long
before, Scipione Bargagli had asserted that the realm of love was the
only arena in which women were allowed to compete. These games
certainly concretize this reality in literal terms, as the parlour games at

times stage forceful feminist battles with patriarchal culture.
In two of the games this battle plays out in terms of the structure or
organization of the new all-female academy against the long-standing
tradition of the Intronatis control over festive life and their female contemporaries. The game of 1664 warrants particular attention here, as it
is the first of the recorded games and one that appears to follow up on
some of the institutional issues ensuing from the 1654 creation of the
Assicurate (Figure 5.6). At the start of this lengthy (sixty-three-folio) account there is a list of the thirty-one Assicurate members replete with
nicknames, emblems, and mottoes and eleven Intronati, only seven of
whom as yet had been given their Academy nicknames.73 The listing of
nicknames is especially relevant, as the detailed exchanges in these festivities are recorded in these names: a reminder of the alternate realm
these parties constitute.74 At least in a symbolic sense, the tables have
already been turned, as the women far outnumber the men and the
parlour hosting the evenings entertainment was graced with the oaken
emblem of the Assicurate. Moreover, the Intronati director of the game,
Ugo Ugurgieri, pays homage to the glories of the [Assicurates] virtuous entertainments in past parties and says that he will resort for help
to the favourable aid of the ancient Academy of the Assicurate.75 Furthermore, the account of the game alludes to the 1654 game in which
the authority of the Kingdom of Love [was removed] from the hands
of the Knights to place it in the will (arbitrio) of the Ladies, who reducing the said aristocratic governance, deemed to re-establish it with new
laws, and among other decrees to erect (so that in it always will shine
the virtues) a new Academy under the name of the Assicurate.76 The
language here suggests fundamental change: from male autorit to
female arbitrio; from a traditional governo aristocratico to a dierent (i.e., non-patriarchal) regime; from a Kingdom of Love to an academy of virtues (i.e., talent). The implicit undertones of a new type of
governance in 1654 becomes more overt in the course of the evenings
encounters in 1664, when the women define their own positions in the
academy and work to keep the meddling men at bay.
One indication of political iconoclasm comes when the game director
Ugurgieri turns control of the Assicurate over to Lucrezia Bandinelli:
she accepts the rule of the group only on the condition that she not be
a completely sovereign figure, but rather share control with three other
women who would serve as secretaries and counsellors.77 Her pointed
aversion to any sovereignty might in part symbolize a rejection of
138Parlour Games
Figure 5.6.Party of 1664. From Accounts of Giuochi di

Spirito Performed in Siena At Various Times. BCI, C.VIII.26,
fol. 2r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati,
Siena.)
traditional forms of princely or patriarchal rule.78 But if these women

were loath to monopolize power individually, they were also anxious
to keep it collectively (from men). When various Intronati apply to be
beadle (bidello), the Assicurate fear male encroachment: they proclaim
that they are jealous in conserving that authority recently given

them.79 Their suspicion is particularly acute in the case of Ugo Ugurgieri, whom they duly recognize as being responsible for transferring
the Kingdom of Love to them but whom they nonetheless fear might
become a tiranno, given that his conversation is a continuous discourse of political maxims.80 Finally, they accede to his oer on the
condition that he not try to act as a maestro politico, that he not intrude on the aairs of the academy, and that he remember that any
good service in the first place requires silence.81 This last is a telling
reversal of the social order that has the traditionally silent women enforcing silence on the politically vocal man. Similarly, when another of
the Intronati applies to be the censor a common position in the male
academies charged with assuring literary quality in any production
the women bristle at this and parse his own petition as lacking in sufficient rhetorical colours and persuasion.82 Thus, although created out
of an Intronati parlour game, the Assicurate struggle for independence
from any male control. The men for their part keep up the fight by lobbing various conventional misogynist barbs into the fray: that when
women rule there is neither head nor tail;83 that, unlike male regimes
that wisely favour experience, female ones favour youth over age.84
Such challenges to female governance in this party centre on the issue
of whether women can competently orchestrate the civic event that is
the specific topic of this parlour game: namely, preparing for the passage of Love through the city.85 All of these exchanges reveal that this
1664 game was simultaneously a ludic experiment in matriarchy and a
staging ground for the querelle des femmes.
This is most pronounced in an oration delivered in the wake of these
challenges to female rule by Assicurate member Giulia Turamini, nicknamed la Saputa (Knowledge). Her academic lecture, entitled
Concerning the Excellence of Women Over Men, was introduced by
the above-mentioned Lucrezia Santi Bandinelli (now reigning as Principessa of the Assicurate) in a statement that might well be taken to be
the feminist manifesto of Sienese ludic culture:
Rejoice, Ladies of the Assicurate, that through pastime you can make war
on time, and through play you can acquire immortality. With the spirited
fearlessness of your wits this evening you can open up for yourselves a
passage to glory. Do not be frightened of the heroic majesty that, hidden
under the mantle of Royal kindliness [the della Rovere patronage], will
give you courage to make public those virtues that until now you have
kept hidden under the silence of a rigorous modesty and [will give you]
140Parlour Games
Figure 5.7.Party of October 1664. Lucrezia Santi Bendinellis Introduction

to Giulia Turaminis lecture Concerning the Excellence of Women Over Men
At a Party of June 1691. From Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito Performed in Siena At Various Times. BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 57v58r. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca
Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
indeed time to free the tongue, secure that your charming compositions
will be well received by the fortunate assistance of Love. And in order that
our academy may have its beginning from the highest guiding principle,
you, Saputa, commence to speak on the excellence of us other women over
men (Figure 5.7).86
Here truly is the proclamation that the games and displays of this female academy are the venue for acquiring glory, ending female silence,
and producing compositions (which in this and other parties included
poems, lectures, and ludic debates). La Saputas lecture would epitomize such a composition, but more importantly, it addressed all the
doubts about the plausibility of a female academy.
In the spirit of the playful battle of the sexes staged at these parties, Turamini opens with a mock-forceful indictment of the Intronatis
tradition of expecting the Sienese women to be a passive, silent audience (or target) of their revelries. She bemoans the great disgrace of
poor women, who often called by the Intronati to the their academies,
are placed for the most part immobile in a seat, as a fixed target for the
blows of their maledictions. When they enter their accademia although
this is a feminine noun nonetheless these ingenious ones swear mortal hostility to women.87 Today, however, she proclaims, the roles are
reversed: it is the Assicurate who will speak, and the men who will
remain silent. In fact, she insists that it would be pusillanimous if
they bore male slander with silence and failed to establish the superiority of their condition.88 Her lecture is a light-hearted combination
of often half-serious feminist interpretations of theology and etymology, and somewhat more sober citations of positivist evidence from history. She argues that God created the world in a linear progression:
from land to sky to light to animals to men and, finally, to women. The
rules of arithmetic progression make women thereby superior to all
else. The language of the natural world oers evidence of female preeminence, in that three of the elements Terra, Acqua, Aria are all
feminine; only Fuoco is masculine and it is destructive. The four parts
of the world are feminine Europa, Asia, Africa, America as are most
cities. Virt is feminine, while vizio (vice) predictably is masculine; the anima (soul) is feminine, the corpo masculine.89 Somewhat
more seriously, she considers the etymology of donna, a topic treated
in earlier defences of women by Moderata Fonte (Modesta da Pozzo)
and Arcangela Tarabotti.90 She proclaims that the word derives from
dominio, suggesting rule making all the more ironic the fact that
men have elevated themselves over others by taking on the title Don,
while generally scorning the name of women.91
Even more serious is the argument from history that Turamini presents. For exempla of learned women, she cites Pythagorass philosopher
daughter Damo, Platos female student Axiothea of Phlius, and Pericless female teacher Aspatia. From ancient authority, she cites Platos
brief in the Republic for the inclusion of women in the government and
alleges that Aristotle asserts that delicacy of body is the ideal personal attribute for the cultivation of the sciences and virtues.92 In
one argument she ventures an anthropological/historical explanation
for the male domination of women. She suggests that ancient women
ceded their place to men by accepting males argument that, because
142Parlour Games
women have a delicate nature and must protect their bodies, men exempted them from war. But then, because [the men] had weapons in
hand, they inimically issued decrees at their whim, as in a similar way
[but in reverse] happened to men in the most famous rule of the Amazons.93 Such an argument suggests that it is not nature that determines
gender power relations, but historical contingency and human agency.
Surely, the weight of evidence should provoke women to break out of
their chains. She ends her lecture, saying to her fellow Assicurate, If
through your origin, if through the sovereignty of name, if through the
comparison of virtues [to those of men], if through the constitution of
the body, if through the approval of the laws, if through the treatment
by great monarchs the woman is declared superior to men, why do we
not wish to return to our original dignity, oh Ladies, and take o just
once this vile leg-iron that has so unjustly been placed on us by men.94
The lecture of Saputa playful in some examples and serious in
others is a rich compendium of disciplines, including literature (with
quotations from Petrarch and Tasso), theology, philosophy, arithmetic,
etymology, and history. All this she mines to buttress the legitimacy of
a female academy and to weigh in on the querelle des femmes. Unlike the
case of the similar discussion in the 1570 Court of the Ferraiuoli, however, where men staged the debate before silent women, here a woman
academy member presents this address before a mixed audience that
includes Intronati men constrained to silence.
The institutional structure of the Assicurates academy, only vaguely
defined in the 1664 festivities, was taken up nearly thirty years later in a
game in 1691 at the home of Francesco Piccolomini and Caterina Gaetena
Grioli (the Incomparable). The game had for its title Nuova forma et
opportune costitutione stabilite per lAccademia delle Signore Assicurate,95 and like the 1664 game used the ludic sparring over the structure of the female academy as a metaphor for a more generalized contest
concerning the autonomy of the women and their right to fully control
their own cultural endeavours. The occasion for the party was likely the
clothing ritual for the entry of two of the daughters of Agostino Chigi,
Prince of Farnese, and Maria Virginia Borghese into the nunnery.96 Of the
seventeen children Chigi and Borghese bore from 1659 to 1681, thirteen
were girls, seven of whom they enrolled in the nunnery of S. Girolamo
in Campansi. The clothing ceremonies for taking the habit were usually
accompanied by music, though Colleen Reardon finds evidence in the
nunnery for such performances only in the case of the first three daughters entries between 1680 and 1684.97 It would seem that the celebration
was taken up by the Assicurate to celebrate the claustration of two of the
others. In attendance were ten Assicurate members and one non-Assicurate woman (who would be enrolled in the course of the evening), and
eleven Intronati members and one non-Intronati man.98 The game director, Pandolfo Spannocchi, indicates that he might not be able to launch
the game because women are so reluctant to engage in these games, especially the Assicurata named Guardinga (the Wary).99 And besides, as
one who is bound for religious life, he does not want to transgress the
limits of an observant seclusion.100 Guardinga tartly reminds him that
he was the go-between for Love and Modesty in a previous game, so he
should not be too reluctant to lead the festivities.101 This challenge from
Guardinga, aside from announcing her assertiveness, points up the porous boundaries between the sacred and the secular: an aspiring monk
need not remain aloof from secular festive life, and he certainly should
not pretend that his piety forbids it, if his behaviour has proven otherwise. But this blurring of realms applies to the game itself, which is a
secular celebration of a religious moment (entry into the convent). In fact,
the unifying link in this mixing of the sacred and the secular was female
solidarity. Caterina Gaetana Grioli was identified as the agent through
whose comandamento Spannocchi was to direct the parlour game,102
and she does so on the occasion of two womens rite of passage into religious vocation.
But there was another problem thwarting the launching of the game,
and that was the current lack of an Assicurate Principessa, so Guardinga suggests that one should be elected, since a majority of the Assicurate are present. And while they are at it, a new form and constitution
should be given to the academy. Far from the reluctant player Spannocchi accuses her of being, she becomes the motive force in this game of
reconstructing Sienas female academy.103 At her suggestion Spannocchi thus invites suggestions from the women and the men on forming
a proper constitution for the Assicurate. The debate over the constitution replays the Intronatis attempt to dominate the new academy in
the 1664 game. One man suggests that the two institutions have always
been linked like a marriage and should obey the same laws of such
a union. This argument is rejected by the Assicurate member Imperturbabile, who says neither academy should adapt to the others laws
and that this relationship is less a marriage (sponsalitio) than an alliance
(lega), in which two cities live by the same laws in regard to each other
but are self-governing internally. A male model grounded in (patriarchal) marriage is thus trumped by a female model grounded in politics.
The women are looking outside of marriage to define a new modus vivendi with men. And so on it goes. When the men want to be censors of
144Parlour Games
the Assicurate literary productions, the women demand autonomy for

control of their own creations.104 When an Intronati member suggests
that the Principessa of the Assicurate needs for assistance a lieutenant, along the model of the military, the women reject this attempt on
the part of the man who wants to confound military duties with the
exercises of peace and virtue.105 And one Assicurate member expressly
rejects the possibility that such a lieutenant be an Intronato, invoking
the pointed political argument that if women are not admitted to magistracies in the political world, then men will not be admitted to their
tribunals.106
The women lay claim as well to the economic world, in the process
of their electing a treasurer and hearing petitions for money. When an
Intronati member submits a petition for handling various matters on
behalf of the academy, the newly elected treasurer (the one non-Assicurate woman in the group, who is chosen for her neutrality) grills him on
his petition, questioning his motives, challenging his accounting practices, and observing that he does not oer suitable bonds and stipulate
obligations in good form.107 Ultimately she recommends Non altro
(nothing else) to his request for funds.108 In part because of her display
of zeal on behalf of the group, this woman, Onesta Vannoccio Biringucci ne Pecci who also displayed her skill that evening by presenting a sonnet was admitted to the group as an ocial member of the
Assicurate.109 In other words, her acumen in challenging a male over
financial matters was one proof of her merits that won her the right of
induction. In all these cases the womens rights to their own censors,
the freedom from a male military lieutenant, their besting a male over
funding issues the game plays out the Assicurates autonomy from or
ascendancy over men.
In one exchange in this game, however, the Intronati players posture
towards the Assicurate women is more complex for being a bit less adversarial and more supportive. When the process of choosing a proper
secretary for the academy is broached, an Intronati man says that he
would like to test which of the Assicurate women has a good hand, because he has no exposure to female letters. At this point, one of the Assicurate jokes that if they have to wait until the fellow receives a letter
from a woman, then they will never have a secretary playful barbs
such as this one are found throughout the games. But then the argument turns more serious as this same woman, la Mirabile (the Marvellous), turns the issue of female letters to a more metaphorical, literary
level, extolling the letters of Vittoria Colonna, Isabella Andreini, and
others rendered in print and praised by the whole world.110 The response from the Intronati interlocutor here is revealing: he says that he
desires to see letters of those from 1675 until now, though he knows all
the Assicurate women would be quite competent.111 This comment suggests that just as the women hark back to the Cinquecento for examples
of literary females, possibly the men also are using this part of the game
to urge women to revive their literary standing to its former glory. This
reinforces the argument of Diana Robin and others that men were sometimes collaborators not always enemies of female letters.112 And even
as this and other games oer a mock battle for cultural control, they reflect serious desires on the part of both women and men that women
achieve their cultural potential.
Aside from all of the negotiations in this game in terms of the institutional oces and structure of the Assicurate, there is an even more
important discussion of the purpose of the academy. And here the possibilites range from the too lowly (preparing a banquet) to the too lofty
(ruling on candidates seeking the laureate), but the pattern suggests
that the Assicurate generally aim for a higher role than the simply festive, ornamental, or traditionally female. Thus, when Intronati men
suggest, for instance, that the leader of the Assicurate (the Archiassicurata) should lay a table for twelve every evening at Carnival and that
she and her cohort should appear in masks during the season, the Insuperable (Caterina Savini Gori Pannelini) rejects both. The Assicurate
should oer nourishment for the spirit, not for the body; and as for
masks, she says that an academy, which has for its object virtue, ought
to abhor disguise, which is the follower of vice.113 These Intronati were
incapable of devising a duty befitting the Insuperables wise cleverness (sagace avvedimento), and she argues that the duty of the academy should instead be something more substantive, an exemplary
gravitas.114 She proposes that the duty of the Archiassicurata should
be to organize at least two giuochi di spirito a year and other virtuous
and private gatherings of their academy when the need would be made
known by her.115 This proposal by the Insuperable suggests a desire to
move beyond a strictly Carnival setting for festivities (conspicuously
not mentioned), giving the parlour games a more dignified, less sexualized context and that certainly conforms with the occasion of this
game, to celebrate the claustration of the two Chigi daughters.
But also key here was the emphasis on virtuous (i.e., literary) activities. In other vignettes in this account, the interlocutors debate what
should be the specific pursuits of the Assicurate. When painting is
146Parlour Games
mentioned, the Assicurate respondent dismisses it as dealing too much

with the realm of appearances, and the discourse echoes the opposition
between the corporeal and the spiritual (or cerebral). This dichotomy
is especially noteworthy when one of the men suggests that an ideal
pursuit of the women would be fashion. Intronati member Persio Savini urges their study of bizarre styles and new fashions in order to
seize in this way the glory from the splendours (pompe) of France, to
render vanity an ingenious thing and [make of] display a speculative
matter.116 Thus, the Assicurate ambition should be to steal the thunder of the French by making a science of fashion. The Assicurate secretary, named the Reserved, sees this pursuit as frivolous and superficial.
Rather than refining vanity and luxury and simply rendering virtuous these ornaments, the Assicurate should aim much higher.117 They
should apply themselves to all of those virtuous exercises that may
serve as ornamentation to the spirit, as in the reading and discussion of
istorie (stories or histories), in composing sonnets and madrigals, in
learning foreign languages, in the performance of music and song, in
staging dances, and other similarly virtuous occupations, in order to
make a good display (pompa) in all the gatherings that may follow from
time to time.118 The Sienese women should thus dedicate their academy to endeavours almost identical to those pursued in the male academies: not matters of fashion, not the hollow pomp of dress and luxury.
Instead, their worthy pompa or splendour should be rooted in cultural
creativity, learning, and skilful display.
This exchange was perhaps all the more charged with meaning owing to the heated exchanges earlier in the century on lusso,
pompe donnesche, and female vanity from the pens of Buoninsegni,
Tarabotti, and Aprosio. Moreover, when the Assicurate women reject
the insulting Intronati suggestion that they strive to top the French in
superficial pomp, they then demonstrate their talents in dance, song,
and poetic composition. For the display of poetry, the Reserved (Settimia Tolomei Marescotti) was the first to be invited from her seat to
make display (far pompa) of some fruit of her talent, since this woman
continually engages in similarly virtuous exercise.119 She then recited
a sonnet she had written a few days earlier in honour of the two Chigi
daughters, Maria Teresa and Maria Maddalena. The very notion of female pompa has thus been transformed from the pomp of fashion to
the pomp of talent and virtue. Earlier in the game an Intronati member
had sought to distinguish between the diering duties of the Assicurate and his academy, opining that the Intronati ought to practise the
acquisition of the virtues (virt) and the Lady Assicurate in making display (far pompa) of their perfect wit (spirito).120 Now, it seems that the
Assicurate have virtually conflated the male pursuit of virtue and the
female display of pomp, to argue for a non-gendered display of literary virt and other forms of talent.
The Reserved then presents her sonnet to the teenaged Chigi twins
who abandon the world and set out for the glory of a true perfection,
hailing the young women for their contempt of all worldly things.121
The intersection of the religious and secular and of the quite divergent opportunities for female glory becomes apparent in this poem,
in which ironically an Assicurate woman makes display (far pompa)
of her literary talent by praising the religious vocation of these women
who have chosen to seek their glory by scorning all manner of human
display (fasto) and worldly pomp (pompe terrene).122 Either choice, however, could end in female glory, and it suggests a degree of female solidarity in that the secular Assicurate find a way to render glorious a
vocation almost certainly forced upon these girls. As for literary performance, two other sonnets are also presented, one by Onesta Pecci, who
is displaying her merit for admission into the academy.123
These poems reveal how the parlour games of the Assicurate were in
part staged events meant to showcase literary compositions. For those
not possessing the talent of a Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Gambera, or
Laura Terracina or not aspiring to (or not finding access to) actual publication these games were their venue for literary performance. The
chroniclers of the games, moreover, gave their works a measure of immortality. The process of recording the banter, performances, and literary productions of the games brings us back to the oce of the censors,
who guaranteed the quality of the academys productions. As mentioned above, the Assicurate insisted on the right to have their own censors, discrete from the Intronati. When two of the men now suggest that
these ocials should be up to date on current standards of the moda
(fashion) to know how to correct any deficiencies, the Assicurate once
again object that their censors ought to serve to emend defects of the
mind and not those of dress.124 More precisely, Portia Bichi Gori Pannelini claims that the censors duties should consist in examining the
theme of giuochi di spirito, in emending those who do not rebut with
ecacy the arguments of the gentlemen, and also in carefully considering the sonnets that any Academic lady wishes to recite.125 The Assicurate censors, then, will apparently vet and correct the proceedings
of these games. This suggests that the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito
148Parlour Games
are a somewhat embellished record of events. While this obviously

compromises the oral authenticity of the games, it suggests that the
Assicurate wanted a proper literary legacy of their revels. If the Intronati censors revised and corrected the theatrical productions and publications of their academy, the Assicurate censors similarly wished to
edit their parties and attendant productions therein. This is a new type
of cultural production, collectively mounted by women ambiguously
fusing the oral and written realms. The duties of the censors outlined
above by Portia Pannelini would suggest that these ocials (probably
in conjunction with the secretary as recorder) might well have been the
compilers of the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito. If so, such a female
provenance of the Accounts would explain why women are named
as instigators in the titles of four of the six games, whereas they are not
so named in the descriptions of these same games in the Origin of the
Assicurate compiled by Francesco Piccolomini.
Because the June 1691 game on the new form and constitution of the
Assicurate celebrated the monastic vocation of the two Chigi women,
Love was not in the foreground, though it was in all of the other games.
A party during Carnival of 1691 reveals that the realm of Love could
simultaneously entail the actual social world of love and marriage as
well as the ludic world of parlour games, theatre, and festive events of
the Kingdom of Love. The details of this game, whose theme was the
Sindicato di Amore (the Tribunal of Love),126 reviews how well the
two genders are living up to their responsibilities in both the real and
festive worlds. This party in particular shows how the parlour game
could be not only an arena for cultural performance but also a vehicle
for social debate. This stylized game opens with the fantastical appearance (supposedly) of a bird carrying a letter addressed to the Assicurate and Intronati. After much speculation as to the likely content of the
letter, it is read aloud; the chronicler includes the text of the letter of
which I had the fortune of taking a copy.127 In it, the god Love thanks
the academies for having recently supplied him a wife (the topic of an
earlier game) and asks the two academies to select judges to assess how
well his interests are being served in his Kingdom: the Intronati judging
the women, the Assicurati the men. The ludic end is to correct all the
abuses in the Kingdom of Love, but the real game afoot is a battle of the
sexes waged in the terms of the current social world.
Two of the issues raised at the tribunal concern the demographic
and economic norms of contemporary marriage. When Love issues his
first grievance, the practice of delaying marriage so long, two of the
Intronati think that the charge is directed particularly at them. In response they present their brief for delayed marriage: for instance, that
the married lose the brio so pleasing to Love;128 that proper household management requires economy, whereas youth are inclined to
prodigality. This last point is challenged by Livia Forteguerri with the
riposte that if young men lack economia, it is to be found in their
consorts that is, women can handle these economic matters.129 From
the practical, the Intronati then turn to the cultural and social, invoking
the benefits of freedom, in eect praising the sanctity of those green
years unimpeded by a marriage. That is, they argue, when young men
marry they abandon letters and knightly practices, to the detriment
of Love; furthermore, Love is a youth and does not want young people to have their liberty restricted. Livia replies that the occupation of
spouses does not preclude other pursuits and because Love is a youth,
he wants young people in his court. This male/female exchange illustrates diering perceptions of the true realm of love: for men, the amatory world of flirtation and freedom; for women, the settled one of
marriage. The men claim that marriage is a yoke, that if taken up too
early could lead to regret and a desire for escape. Livia answers that
those advanced in years find it dicult to adapt, that souls joined early
develop more durable aections, and that earlier marriages would
result in fewer of the otiose in the world, who serve Love ill.130 At this
point the men yield: they declare themselves conquered by the talent
of such an eloquent woman, and confess their regret at not having yet
found companions.131 The female combatant here, Livia Forteguerri,
won this debate and she is one of the women newly enrolled at the end
of this game. And more broadly, the women win this round and do
so with arguments that ground love in the steadier realm of marriage,
long-cultivated love and companionability, rather than in the amatory
dalliances and delays of the green years.
A second debate on marital practices, however, goes to the men. In
another grievance Love proclaims that it is of greatest disgust to us that
custom which is commonly practised of dowering the woman, from
which results grave detriment to our empire.132 The particular target
here was Bernardino Palmieri, who admits to be interested in marriage
only for the dowry, a practice he defends as a just custom.133 One of
the Assicurate interlocutors chides that he should desire singular faculties accompanied by an exemplary virtue more than riches in a wise
spouse.134 Then why, he asks, did Cleopatra have to drink that enormously valuable pearl (dissolved in vinegar) to impress her lover Marc
150Parlour Games
Antony?135 Not impressed, she strikes back with a creative interpretation of the iconography of Cupid, who is depicted nude, to show that
love is divested of any interests.136 Then why, he rejoins, do we use
the imagery of diamonds and pearls to describe the beauty of women?
Such exchanges show the players eager to draw on the traditions of
mythology, iconography, and literary metaphor to wage this battle. In
the end, after the female interlocutor proclaims the wifes utility in the
home especially in regard to the rearing of children Palmieri cites
the expense of carriages and clothing that equal or outmatch the gain of
a dowry. He ends the debate with a sarcastic comment that she should
suspend judgment on the matter until she has a son of marriageable
age.137 This dowry debate recalls the one performed by the Ferraiuoli
court in 1570, only this time a woman participates rather than simply
listens. Even so, however, because Palmieri gets the last laugh, it would
seem he prevailed. The debate reveals that dowries were explicitly seen
by women to be demeaning of them and of marriage, and it oers an
opportunity to challenge the economic interests of patriarchal tradition
with an argument based on the character and utility of a wife.
Aside from these social criticisms, Love also posts festive complaints
in this tribunal: namely, that his worship has not been duly observed
in theatrical and musical spectacles.138 Addressing these grievances
provides a framework for participants to oer up a variety of performances: for instance, four women sing with the musical accompaniment of some Intronati; a man who has spent too much time hunting
is punished with performing a ballet before the women; two women
recite sonnets, one of which commemorates the death (i.e., end) of
the Carnival season.139 But beyond these performances, this section of
the game addresses issues of the obligation of men and women to perform publicly, a long-standing tradition of the Intronati in their theatrical productions. One of the Intronati members, Silvio Gori Pannelini,
claims that he is more than willing to perform in comedies until old
age, if some of the most gentle ladies, who this past year demonstrated their talent in song, to the end of making it public later in the
theatres, will have fulfilled their promise.140 The men thus are urging the women to become more public with their talent. In response
to this charge, Lady Schietta (the Frank) admits that she was one of
those, but says she sang only to obey, not to make proof of a virtue that
she did not possess.141 Clearly, the very public display of talent beyond that shown in quasi-public gatherings was a reluctant duty for
modest women. Pannelini further charges that some women were even
delinquent in participating in games, even though, he claims, in service

to Love they are obligated to join in. Caterina Bandini (the Cautious)
rebuts this criticism by reminding Pannelini that women are subject
to their husbands and to their discretionary wishes.142 She thus echoes
the enduring tension between women as free public agents and unfree
cloistered wives constrained by their husbands a problem Alessandro
Piccolomini had addressed in the previous century in his De la institutione, in which he implicitly cautioned that men be attentive to womens
need for a festive space.143 And when she argues that there is no written
mandate that women perform in these games, Pannelini invokes the
memory of Girolamo Bargagli to say that the masters of the Sienese
games prescribe as an inviolable law that none of the women present
at a party is exempt from taking part in such virtuous activities.144 The
exchange between Pannelini and Caterina thus addresses prominent issues concerning the public life of women that had been percolating in
the festive tradition for the last century and a half. The male player reminds the female of the ludic rules of the game that encouraged female
freedom and agency, while the female player reminds the male of the
ensconced real rules of patriarchal society.
As this game plays out, and following all these performances in
debate, song, and sonnets, the unenrolled women are awarded their
Assicurate membership nicknames, emblems, and mottoes. Thus, for
instance, Livia Corti Forteguerri, who won the debate on late marriage practices against the two Intronati men, becomes the Indierent, her emblem a thermometer, and her motto [Indierent] to Hot
and to Cold.145 This metamorphosis from Livia to the Indierent,
from private woman to nicknamed Assicurate, is indeed a metaphor for
what these games aim to accomplish in transforming identity: moving
women from the private sphere to public life.
As was the case in some of the games described in Girolamo Bargaglis game book of the previous century, many of the exchanges in these
games oer the opportunity for women (and men) to draw on a common store of mythology and literature to demonstrate their cultural
literacy and apply it in specific contests. Thus, in the common project
of building a Temple of Love in anticipation of Loves passage through
Siena in 1664, an Assicurate woman, la Briosa (the Spirited), displays
both classical and modern tastes. She refigures the ancient Roman
Gates of War to propose gates that are always open to virtue and always waging war on vice and recommends decorative scenes on, for
instance, the faithful lovers Sophronia and Olindo from the Jerusalem
152Parlour Games
Delivered 2.16.146 Another Assicurate, la Saputa (Knowledge), recommends placing in this Temple of Love the fire found in the temple of
the Vestal Virgins, oering up verses describing the flames of Amor
Platonico.147 Classical motifs thus blend with Renaissance vernacular poetry, as women cite and compose poetry. In some instances, the
games depict men and women vying to define the proper ludic activity,
with the men chronically proposing pursuits too lowbrow, which the
women reject for more elevated possibilities.148 Throughout, one finds a
pattern of cultural status inversion, whereby the men, their nicknames
(usually foolish), their interests, and their performances serve as foils to
the tastes and abilities of the women.
This contrast is nowhere better illustrated than in the last of the
gatherings described in the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito. This party
occurred during Carnival of 1707/8 at the home of Anna Maria and Lattanzio Finetti, and included thirty women and over sixty men.149 One
game played at this occasion signalled the equality of the sexes, but
a second dramatized female superiority. The first game was one catalogued in Girolamo Bargaglis game book from the 1560s: the Game
of the Amazons, which literally enacts the battle of the sexes.150 The
men, as knights, reveal what weapon they will use to conquer a woman
at the party, and she replies with the defence she will use. In one exchange, undoubtedly with lewd intent, the knight says that his weapon
will be a pocket pistol, while the opposing Amazon says that she will
use the shield of distance, in order that he not be able to reach her
with a weapon so short.151 One woman, Caterina Gori, draws upon her
own emblem in the Assicurate, although this is the only mention of the
Assicurate in the account. When her knight threatens to use the club of
Hercules because in order to conquer the Amazon enemy he did not
want anything less than the arms of a hero who symbolized strength
she chooses for her defence the Columns of Hercules, because these
were given as an emblem in the Academy of the Assicurate and because they cannot be conquered.152 This example is important as both
a feminist use of the Herculean trope and as a symbol of the power of
the Assicurate identity and emblem in combating men. At the end, the
judge of the game rules that the combat between the knights and the
Amazons is a draw, because there is strength on both sides.
But the next game of the evening decidedly subordinates the men to
the women and does so not in the fantastic world of military combat
but in the believable world of cultural achievement. In this game, to
erect a learned Parnassus more respectable than the one so praised by

poets because it is not legendary, Silvio Gori Pannelini assumes the role
of Apollo, who chooses nine women to assist him in judging applicants
to Parnassus.153 In all of the nine arts that the classical Muses represent,
the men audition to inferior or intentionally disastrous ends, and the
women appointed as Muses instruct or display how these arts should
truly be done. Whether in reciting a tragedy, performing a pantomime,
playing music, or composing poetry, the appointed Muses outperform
the men.154 The triumph of the women is certainly a ritualized victory, as
the mens incompetent performances and pratfalls were simply meant
to set up the female performances. As elsewhere in the Sienese games,
women are artificially elevated, though in this case they demonstrate
their superiority with actual performance in all the arts. But, as ever,
the boundaries between the purely fanciful and the socially possible (or
historically real) blur even in this game. The first aspirant to Parnassus
applies in the field of history. F. Gio. Bichi, who was nicknamed the
Historian among the Intronati, tells an entertaining story, but he is not
even allowed to finish, because he is not deemed worthy to ascend to
Parnassus where should be expounded not fables so extravagant but
only glorious deeds.155 Apollo then turns to Girolama de Vecci, who
has been chosen as the Muse Clio, and she tells the true story about the
young woman who took her brothers place standing guard during the
siege of Siena and won the highest praise from Monluc and Cornelio Bentivoglio, who wished to see her.156 The recorder of the story expressly indicates that Girolama drew this history from the account in Le
pompe sanesi.157 The legacy of heroic women during the siege, which became a part of Ugurgieri Azzolinis prosopography of famous women,
now finds its way into a parlour game as a recitation of true history and
as a nobler expression of love than Bichi mounted in his story. If parlour
games spurred female agency in the siege of Siena in the 1550s, now the
history of one such act is recycled as a truer, higher form of culture in
the parlour games of the early 1700s. This incident, in particular, in the
creation of a new court of Parnassus reveals that a ritual of cultural inversion was not simply an absurdist departure from reality, but a ludic
opportunity for reappraising reality. Certainly, this creation of a Parnassus, based on merit and smiling upon women, stands in contrast to
Boccalinis Ragguagli di Parnaso (Reports from Parnassus) 1.22 of 1612,
in which Apollo ordered that the Intronati expel the few women poets
that they had admitted to their literary elite.
154Parlour Games
An Assicurate Publication
The last recorded giuoco di spirito listed in the Origin of the Assicurate
is dated 1704.158 Although a record of the game is not found in the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito, some of its fruits are known through a publication of two poems written for the game. These poems appear in a brief,
nine-page publication from the Bonetti press, which to my knowledge is
the first publication in Europe from an all-female academy (Figure 5.8).
The title page indicates this to be a production of the Assicurate: Poesie
per musica fatte in congiuntura che le Signore Accademiche Assicurate di Siena
fanno un giuoco di spirito intitolato il Giardino dAmore allIllustrissimi, ed Eccellentissimi Signori Principi di Farnese e Duchi di Monterano in case del Signore Francesco Piccolomini a preghiere della Signora Caterina Gaetana Grioli
Piccolomini consorte del medesimo, fr dette Accademiche, detta LImpareggiabile
(Poems for music composed on the occasion in which the lady Assicurate
Academics of Siena held a giuoco di spirito entitled the garden of love, to
the most illustrious and excellent Princes of Farnese and Dukes of Monterano in the home of Signore Francesco Piccolomini at the request of
Lady Caterina Gaetana Grioli Piccolomini, consort of the same, among
the academy members called the Incomparable).159 It is noteworthy that
this is completely identified as an Assicurate aair: no mention is made
of the Intronati or of Intronati member Pandolfo Spannocchis leading the
game, as indicated in the description in the Origin of the Assicurate.160
Even more importantly, this title page bears the academy nickname of
Caterina Gaetana Grioli, a name she had received twenty-four years
earlier certainly suggesting that the Assicurate identity was enduring
and worthy of print.161
Like three of the earlier games (of 1664, 1680, and June 1691), this one
was occasioned by the presence of the Chigi family. This time the purpose seems to have been to invoke a pregnancy for Costanza Chigi, another of the daughters of Agostino Chigi and Maria Virginia Borghese
(two of whom were honoured in the game of June 1691). Costanza,
married to Emilio Altieri, Duke of Monterano, was enrolled as the first
new Assicurata in the 1704 game,162 and the first of the two poems in
the publication is an Augurio di nuova prole allEccellentissima Signora Duchessa di Monterano parlandosi sotto lallusione del Giardino
dAmore.163 She gave birth to one daughter in 1697, and now at thirtytwo apparently hoped for another child: eleven months after this occasion she gave birth to a second daughter, Maria Virginia Altieri.164
Once again, then, the Assicurate celebrate another type of female rite
Figure 5.8.Title Page of Sole Assicurate Publication, Poesie per

Musica (Siena, 1704). BCI, Misc. filol e polem. xxv, n. 7, fol. 1r.
of passage: this time, not a claustration ritual but rather a desired pregnancy. These ceremonies are clearly tributes to a prominent family, but
they also represent a departure from the normal tropes of the Kingdom of Love. In this case, Love comes into the garden finding a most
beautiful flower and is persuaded not to pick it, because it has a greater
purpose: il Destin promette / A questo Fior FECONDIT felice.165
Onest curbs ardour, and rather than pluck it, Love invokes a star, in
156Parlour Games
the shape of a bee, to make fecund the chaste flower: together with
the devout / band of lovely Assicurate spouses, / Love thus made to this
star a prayer: / Bee, that flies in the sky / in eternal April, / Drip on the
gentle flower / The pure humour of the sky. / Make fruitful the chaste
flower.166 This is a very dierent type of discourse for the Kingdom of
Love and parlour games that frequented the realm of romantic love and
seduction. Love has to be warned not to pick the most beautiful flower,
but to save it for a higher purpose (fertility). He is aided in this course
by the Assicurate spouses (i.e., not maidens). Pregnancy and childbirth
are not common tropes in the Kingdom of Love they are not to be
found in the games of Innocenzio Ringhieri and the Bargagli brothers.167
Now, in the Assicurate parlour game on the Garden of Love fertility is
elevated over the allures of beauty and desire. A second poem depicts
a dialogue between the honoured flower and Love, in which the flower
questions her entry into Loves garden. He defends her inclusion, saying that inside his garden there are many flowers, but few fruits.168
Like the earlier tribute to the monastic vocation of the other two Chigi
daughters, this one is also a tribute to the non-amatory, non-romantic
world of choice and dignity for women. In both cases, female purpose
and dignity are implicitly upheld, and in this one female destiny is defended against the shallower role of women as beautiful flowers and
prizes to be gathered in the gardens of love. This woman, Costanza, at
thirty-two was not young nor was her champion, the Assicurate matriarch Caterina Gaetana Grioli, who by now had been married for
thirty-two years. The Assicurate have taken the Kingdom of Love away
from men, from youth, from sexuality, from silence. This last game especially in the fact of its publication was a symbol of their triumph.169
The Origin of the Assicurate abruptly ends with the occasion of
1704: the record of the academy filled only seventeen folios, leaving the
majority of books pages empty.170 The legacy of the academy, however,
would continue in various ways, both in the idea of the institution itself
(as our next chapter will show) and in the pursuits of Sienese women
as authors. As for the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito, it apparently enjoyed some circulation. Twice in the papers of the academies there appears a copy of a poem that later was published in the early eighteenth
century.171 The poem was written by a Florentine woman named Maria
Buonaccorsi Alessandri, who was the last inductee of the Assicurate recorded in the Origin of the Assicurate in the list for the final game in
1704.172 In two manuscript versions, the poem is introduced as arising
from having read the book where are recorded the Sienese parties and
giuochi di spirito, which are undertaken there by these most noble ladies
and knights.173 The poem is a testament to the inspiring nature of the
Sienese games, and Alessandri praises these occasions as armations
of the female sex. Addressing Sienas river Arbia she says,
If I had power equal to the great desire,
Of the learned scues and erudite contests,
I would speak of your ladies, where one learns
With rays of talent to illuminate the nights.
But these your great women alone in the world
Raise so high the female sex,
That I do not have a pen that can fly so high.174
Maria thus immortalizes the games that raise so high the female
sex, illuminate the evenings, and challenge her own poetic talent in
describing them.175 But more than just a tribute to the games, this poem
might also be a sign of their inspiration to other women even those
outside of Siena. Alessandri herself, inducted as a member of the Roman
Arcadian Academy, published this piece along with ten other poems in
the Rime degli Arcadi a collection in which Assicurate member Emilia
Ballati Orlandini also published three poems.176 If the Assicurate did not
endure as a publishing academy, it launched at least some women into
other academies or venues in which they did publish or have a literary
identity.177 According to Carolina Scaglioso, aside from their absorption
into the Arcadians, some of the Assicurate joined the Intronati. Such
was the case with Settimia Tolomei Marescotti and Emilia Ballati Orlandini, who in 1710 were given Intronati rather Intronate nicknames.178
The emergence of the Academy of the Assicurate promoted female
agency and fame at several levels. It oered the possibility albeit not
the full reality of institutionalizing female cultural activity at a level
parallel to that of male academies. It regularized the earlier ludic developments of according women medals, emblems, and mottoes. It was a
staging ground for debating issues concerning the status and rights of
women. It oered opportunities to compose and present orations and
poems and to record these productions first in their detailed accounts
of their revels, and, in one case, in an academy publication. This last,
coming from the last dated game of 1704, would seem to be their swan
song. But the academys legacy, if not its formal activities, did persist
somewhat longer. In 1714 Pandolfo Spannocchi, the Intronati game director in the last four parties in the Origin of the Assicurate, dedicated
158Parlour Games
his translation of Horaces Ars poetica to the most illustrious and most
virtuous Assicurate ladies.179 But the greatest champion of their memory in the early eighteenth century was to be the Intronati memorialist
Girolamo Gigli, who sought to expand the Sienese template of a female
academy to a national level.
6Girolamo Gigli: The Legacy of the

Sienese Games and Sienese Women
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Intronati

memorialist Girolamo Gigli (16601722) enshrined the Sienese parlour
games and the Assicurate in a dramatic narrative of the past and a utopian blueprint for the future. As a chronicler of Sienese culture he was
the true successor to Ugurgieri Azzolini: his two-volume Diario sanese
(1722) is a compendium of Sienese institutions and rites that resembles
the Pompe sanesi of the previous century. But although he shared Ugurgieri Azzolinis philogynic views, his personal biography and his cultural agenda placed him in a far more controversial light both in Siena
itself and in Tuscany in general. His anti-Jesuit literary endeavours in
comedy ended in his ouster from a chair of eloquence at Sienas university. His project to construct a Sienese dictionary brought down the
wrath of the Florentine scholars of the Crusca Academy.1 His cultural
positions Italian over Latin, Sienese over Florentine speech, women
over men, lay over clerical culture at times converged to make him
an unusually full-throated reformer and satirist. As a tireless combatant in the culture wars of his day, his reliability as a historian perhaps
needs to be questioned at times, but even where he might have infused
history with mythology he nonetheless constructed a bold feminist interpretation of Sienese cultural and social history in the Renaissance
and the early modern era. In doing so, he clarified or, alternatively,
manipulated certain moments in Sienas ludic history that earlier figures such as Scipione Bargagli had kept vague. His reframing of such
moments in the past and his call for a renewal of female greatness in
the present represent the culmination of the Renaissance nexus of play
and female agency.
160Parlour Games
The Women at the Walls

Long before he began to get into trouble, Gigli wrote a history of the
Intronati that revealed his perspectives on the historical importance of
this academys festive life in Sienas past especially in regard to spurring the virile energies of the citys women. In his capacity as secretary of the Intronati in 1696, Gigli gathered various documents on
the academy into a collection that included a letter Dell Origine, e
Processo dellAntica Sanese Accademia that he wrote to the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi.2 In this history Gigli characterizes
the Intronatis virtuous parties, which included witty games with
women, as the unique and rare prize of this state that have passed
down to our times and to more distant countries.3 But most important
was his reconstruction of the intersection of the Sienese games with the
siege of Siena in the 1550s. During this crisis, characterized by a tragic
famine, the Intronati stepped up to oer much food for the mind and
to inspire an unusual heroism among the women:
Thus while the other citizens stood watch on the walls for the defence
of the liberty of the country, the Intronati stood watch for the defence of
the liberty of the mind, nurturing all the while a great virt in the hearts
of even the weakest of the Sienese women, who not as legendary Pallases [Athenas], simultaneously cultivated the olive with one hand and
brandished the spear with the other. Not only did our historians testify
to this event but so many others who speak with such praise of these
Amazons of ours, with whom, said a great captain [Monluc], he would
prefer to defend the walls of Rome than with Roman men.4
Gigli then directly connects the actions and insignias of the women
at the walls with the events of the games: Among the virtuous women
were the Captains La Forteguerri, La Piccolomini, and La Fausti, who
in raising each her own emblem conceived and displayed in the amorous parties, served sword-bound, replete with [these] more virile emblems. And so as not to omit what images these women displayed on
their standards, I make occasion to report them with the authority of
Ascanio Centorio.5 He then presents the emblems of the three women
and two of the mottoes, in whatever sense they perhaps intended them
[the mottoes], either as some particular amorous or honest thought, or
as some design of their mind conceived for the good of the country.6
The games emboldened Sienas own corps of Amazons, who
came to the defence of the city with the virile emblems and mottoes
conceived in the parlour games. For Gigli, then, Scipione Bargaglis
The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese Women161
depictions of the siege-time games in the Trattenimenti which included

as its first game the Game of Insignias and Banners was perhaps more
actual than fictive.7 He would suggest that the female Sienese captains carried their ludic emblems straight onto the ramparts to lead the
three thousand female troops they massed to rebuild the fortifications.
The vagueness of the mottoes defied interpretation, and Gigli allows
that their slogans could arise either from a purely amatory or moral
sentiment or a patriotic one. For him the activism of the women and the
semiotics of their agency were directly tied to the games. Over twenty
years later, in his satirical Del Collegio Petroniano (1719), to which we
will return later, Gigli heightened the link between the women players
and the women warriors. In a brief history of parlour games included
in this work, Gigli addresses the events of the siege: these Sienese heroines, who did not hesitate to cover their blonde tresses with a helmet, as Monluc wrote in his Commentaries, were of the number who in
similar virtuous exercises learned to transcend the condition of sex, equally as
spirited in nocturnal debates with their courteous friends as bold in conflicts
during the day with enemies of the state.8 For Gigli, then, the games were
an opportunity for these women to depart from or defy their gender
presumably because they were arenas for sparring which naturally
propelled them to defy their sex in manning the walls of the besieged
city.
In his account of the women at the walls Gigli drew on Monluc, Ascanio Centorio, and Ugurgieri Azzolini,9 yet he also went beyond them
in tying the three female leaders and their emblems to the games likely
played during the siege. Did Gigli here merely complete the history or
rather did he add a touch of mythology? One might think the latter, and
yet the same questions could be asked of Scipione Bargagli in reverse:
did he feel compelled to obscure some of the history (out of respect for
still-tender male Sienese pride and out of deference to the recent Florentine victors) and excessively fictionalize the Carnival games during
the siege? In writing his work in the 1560s, still fresh upon the Florentines ocial control of the city, there were reasons to downplay Sienas
failed opposition to the siege and to recast the event in primarily ludic
terms with fictive characters. The extent of rebellion per se was in the
female characters openly defying a decorum that dictated that game
playing during such a circumstance was inappropriate.10 Did Gigli
romanticize the closer connection between the games and the female
commanders of the three thousand? Or, rather, did the distance of time
simply give him the licence to heroize the women not only as defiant
162Parlour Games
game players (as Bargagli had done) but also as military champions of
the city? Could he say something that Scipione Bargagli could not say,
now without wounding male pride? It is worth noting that Giglis language in the letter to Magliabechi does bespeak a rhetoric of gender in
regard to male power (or powerlessness). Obviously, this is the case
when he speaks of the three female captains bedecked with swords and
more virile emblems.11 But also, shortly before the comments on the
siege, Gigli discusses a period in the 1530s, shortly after the founding
of the academy, when many of the leading figures, all of first flowers
of our Pumpkin [the Intronati], were lured away from Siena: as a result of this brain drain, through the lack of such masculine vigour, our
plant began to languish in its beginning.12 Such language suggests that
Gigli was consciously or unconsciously attuned to issues of masculinity
and this makes all the more relevant his glorifying the Sienese Amazons during the siege in a history that, after all, was putatively of the
male Intronati. Clearly, he did not shrink from heroizing the actions of
women in a period in which the men had failed.
Is he correct in drawing such a straight line from the parlour-game
emblems to those displayed by the captains Forteguerri, Piccolomini,
and Fausti? Perhaps not, especially since the three mottoes all had the
same opening of Purche, suggesting that they were designed of a
piece. But Gigli may be correct in generally hardening the likelihood of
a historical connection between women who might have played games
during the siege and the women at the walls a connection Scipione
Bargagli necessarily left vague. Regardless of Giglis reliability as the
historical arbiter here, however, he is nonetheless unquestionably valuable as an early modern cultural commentator. It is his perception and
interpretation of ludic culture that is vital here: the Sienese parlour
games taught women to transcend their sex (uscire fuora della condizione del sesso) and to battle by night in verbal sparring and by day
in military manoeuvres.
***
Giglis major eort as a cultural historian and Sienese panegyrist came
in his massive two-volume Diario sanese, which was published in 1722,
the year of his death. The bulk of this work is an almanac recording
Sienese festivals, institutions, and historical events day by day. Embedded within this treatise is the outline for what would have been
a far more massive compendium of local culture: a forty-five-volume
anthology of published and unpublished Sienese prose and poetry, religious works, historical and other scholarly writings, translations, festive literature, emblems, and even guild statutes.13 Unfortunately, the
project, which he expressly placed in the tradition of Ugurgieri Azzolini, never came to fruition, though he presents a volume-by-volume
listing of what would have been included at the end of a survey of
the Intronati and other academies.14 Among the projected volumes was
one entitled Giuochi, e Feste, which was to include the game books
of both Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli, the latters Medal Reverses
of the Befana Fortunes, and several other works.15 A subsequent volume of emblems was slated to include the unpublished Le imprese
dellAccademiche Assicurate presso Francesco Piccolomini, which is
the Origins of the Assicurate manuscript discussed in chapter 5.16
Certainly, Gigli had a keen interest in incorporating the by-products of
the festive and ludic world alongside the high literature of the academic, religious, poetic, and scholarly worlds.
We gain a glimpse of his eye for ritual life in his treatment of Carnival, in which both parlour games and the Assicurate play a dominant
role. Gigli clearly reifies the Assicurate as a Sienese institution with a
prominent festive function. More importantly, he presents a history
of parlour games which he virtually equates with the history of female assertion and brings this unique Sienese tradition up to the present day in rather urgent terms. When describing the various rites of
Carnival, such as the soccer game, the fist fight (pugna), and the comedy
staged by the Intronati, he spends most time on the giuochi di spirito:
On one of the last evenings of Carnevale the Assicurate Academy Ladies (these are the ladies most spirited, and most devoted to letters)
are accustomed to celebrate these games so renowned and called giuochi di spirito. These consist of improvisational dialogues on some moral
amatory subject with the quickest, most erudite gentlemen, oering occasions for respectful banter and gentle satire, mixing in stories, compositions, songs, and dances: an entertainment not previously found
elsewhere and by many writers mentioned to our particular credit.17
Then in a compressed history, he traces the tradition back to the female Kingdom of Love in medieval Provence, drawing on Giovanni
Mario Crescimbenis recent translation of Jean de Nostredames Lives
of the Most Celebrated Provenal Poets.18 He states that tradition credits
Mariano Sozzini the elder (d. 1467) for introducing the custom in Siena,
and suggests that its later development was charted in the books of
the Bargagli brothers.19 In speaking of the latter, it is noteworthy that
164Parlour Games
he once again focuses on the women at the walls and then suggests
that the full institutionalization of the games is to be credited to the
Assicurate:
Many of these [Sienese parties] can be read about in the books that Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli have published, where one sees that even
among the hardships of the siege of the state in 1554 [in fact, 1553] our
virtuous and gracious women knew to comfort the battered spirit of their
husbands and relatives in these pleasant nocturnal gatherings, after which
they went with these [men] in defence of the walls. But more than ever the
reputation [of these games] would increase when the custom became instituted in the womens establishment of an academy called the Assicurate
under the protection of the Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere.20
Although from the pen of an Intronati memorialist, this passage

would seem to minimize the role of the Intronati in establishing these
games and to maximize the role of the female academy in cementing
the reputation of these games in the festive life of the city. In fact, Gigli
arguably distorts the historical record in this account of the games, especially given that he elsewhere expressly credits the Intronati with the
invention of the games and given that the Assicurate Academy itself
grew out of an Intronati-sponsored game. But the point here concerns
Giglis mythology as much as it does his history: the women are depicted as the prime movers of the tradition in 1654, just as they are
hailed for joining their husbands in war in the siege in 1553.21
Gigli uses this setting the discussion of the role of the Assicurate
games in Carnival as a forum for female advocacy. After describing
the games from 1654 to the present, he launches into a discussion of the
Sienese women poets, citing their inclusion in Lodovico Domenichis
anthology of all-female poets in 1559. He says that he will update Domenichis work in his planned forty-five-volume anthology with a
compendium of the most recent and even still living [women], particularly of our elsewhere named Shepherdesses of Arcadi and will
place together with these the Latin orations of Battista Berti Petrucci
and of the celebrated Cecca Scotti from Siena.22 Automatically associating the literary women with military ones, he immediately adds, and
of the other various ladies who fight with the emblem in the shield, see
also the earlier [entry] for January 17, where he recounts yet again the
incident of the women at the walls.23 This planned anthology of poetry,
described earlier in his Diario, was to include the works of nineteen
women: some previously included in Domenichis anthology, some

(such as that of Fulvia Spannocchi, the dedicatee of Scipione Bargaglis
Trattenimenti) still only in manuscript.24 The allusion to the Arcadian
shepherdesses refers to Crescimbenis Roman Accademia degl Arcadi,
which had enrolled numerous women (such as Emilia Ballati Orlandini) and had become the outlet for female letters once the Assicurate
had eectively shut down. Part of Giglis agenda here and elsewhere
was clearly to revivify the Assicurate and the specifically Sienese tradition of female talent and in a sense to steal the mantle back from
the Arcadians. He mentions in this section that the emblems of the Assicurate were recorded by the beadle of the academy, Francesco Piccolomini (i.e., in the Origins of the Assicurate), and that he himself, in
the Collegio Petroniano of 1719, (fictively) extended the list of such Assicurate, providing the names and emblems of our illustrious Academy
members, chosen not only from among our [Sienese] women but also
from among [other] Italian women spirited and noteworthy through
high birth.25 In this same book, he reveals, he also portrayed a giuoco di
spirito. Both in extending the membership list and simulating a game,
Gigli evinces his desire to revive the flagging Assicurate tradition.
Giglis survey of the ritual role of the Assicurate ends on a note about
the current fate of Sienas female academy:
But to tell the truth (and pardon me, my virtuous female fellow citizens,
and President Spannocchi), I see falling little by little the branches of this
most noble Oak and the loss of the illustrious shade (lombra illustre) in
which the chorus of so many virtues took refuge there. [Here, Gigli is
playing upon the Assicurate emblem of the oak and the motto, which he
earlier cited, Qu ne difende, e qu ne illustra lombra.] Thus, it happens
that such praiseworthy gatherings, for which our city was pointed to in
wonder by all nations, have fallen into disuse. I do not wish for now to
determine who is to blame, but the truth is that other cities of Italy have
taken up the norm and the oracles of female wisdom (sapienza femminile),
which in Siena today are mute; elsewhere they [women] speak with that
concourse and credit with which once in Siena alone they spoke.26
Having spawned a tradition of illustrious games and female wisdom, Siena, now mute, has sadly ceded its distinction to other cities.
This likely is an allusion to the Arcadian Academy, which was based
in Rome (with colonies in other cities) and had taken in many women
as members. From Giglis perspective, it was the Sienese who gave the
166Parlour Games
first powerful voice to Sapienza femminile via their games and their
female academy. The current silence of the Sienese women he likens to
the hardiness of the winter rose. Given the traditional metaphors that
identify women as delicate flowers, this one somewhat like the metaphor of the fecund (vs. the simply beautiful) flower of the 1704 fertility game recasts the floral trope in starkly dierent terms, and, once
again, invokes the siege of Siena:
it seems to have befallen the [now silenced] Ladies of Siena that which
befalls the winter rose: just as these flowers preserve themselves greener
among the snow and cold, and in the blast of north winds flower more
beautifully and by contrast in the breezes of the Mediterranean winds
of April and in the fecund rays of the sun, reluctant do not open to adorn
with garland the temples of Flora so our ladies in the dreadful din of
enemy drums, and among the spectres of hunger and deaths that from all
sides surrounded the city in the cruel siege, cultivated in themselves every
flower and every fragrance of virtue, so that their fame passed to the ages
that followed. And now in the benign aspect of a more favourable light
than ever looked upon this state, when they ought to produce flowers and
fruits more beautiful and convey a scent always grander and more animated with their virtue, it seems that they are arid and almost devoid of
cultivation and of the beneficence of a mild planet.27
This better time alludes to Cosimo IIIs recent appointment of his

daughter-in-law Violante of Bavaria as governor of the city, an appointment that was celebrated with a lavish festival in April of 1717.28
This celebration included floats, the staging of a play that Gigli translated from the French, and other performances by the Intronati and the
Rozzi. In the accounts of the event, one by Rozzi member Giuseppe
Torrenti and one by Intronati member Crescenzio Vaselli, no mention
was made of the Assicurate.29 Thus, Giglis point about the silence of the
Assicurate even in a ritual in honour of a female governor was borne
out. But even in this negative, despairing statement about the current
state of aairs for women in the city, Gigli invokes a powerful image
of female hardiness, which like the winter rose persevered in Sienas
harshest winter of discontent. Why, then, can they not blossom in these
sunnier times?
He now turns to the new governor of the Siena, Violante, to whom
he dedicates the Diario sanese. Clearly, he wants her to take up the role
of Vittoria della Rovere as protector and matriarch of Sienese female
culture. He oers a fawning tribute and implicit appeal to the citys new
ruler, who has ushered in this more benevolent time:
Now, in the rule of Siena watches with her gracious light one of the most
cultured, wise, gracious, and amiable princesses of Europe, who is Princess of Bavaria, Grand Princess of Tuscany, who gathers to her maternal
breast every virtue, however abandoned it may be, or every good art;
now, I say, in the favour of this royal supervision productive of every good,
should every other thing renew among us, and yet the spirit of the Assicurate languish and diminish? As for myself, I believe that this Academic
Oak no longer hears the oracles of its doves, because these, bored of making nests in its ancient branches in which the venerable shade gave them
the more hidden mysteries of wisdom, have descended to frolic about for
brush.30
Giglis appeal to Violante then dips back into the Cinquecento, to

chart the emergence of the prominent female literati in the city. Even
though the Oak of the Assicurate did not materialize until 1654, he
anachronistically extends the metaphor back to the Intronati/female
alliances of a century before: the Sienese Doves, who nested among
the venerable shade of the ancient branches [of the oak] nested, were
Laudomia Forteguerri, who conferred with Alessandro Piccolomini;
Lucrezia Mignanelli, who from old Pandolfo Spannocchi learned the
rules of poetry; and Isifile Toscana [who learned them] from Marcantonio Cinuzzi; the [Frasia?] Marzi, whom Antonio Vignali, founder of
the Intronati, wished for his entertainer.31 The literary and intellectual
collaboration between men and women, on which Diana Robin has remarked, is clearly identified here as essential to the Sienese tradition of
learned women. And here Gigli oers up his theory of how and why
the social dynamics of heterosocial relationships have gone awry in his
own day. In this earlier period, he argues, the notable Sienese women
preferred the older, scholarly types as opposed to the younger, decadent set of Giglis day: they willingly loved leaning upon a wrinkled hand covered with the stain of ink and the dust of the [academic]
Chair, or smelling of the oil of the scholarly lantern.32 Not so, today;
and thus Gigli oers his prescriptions and warnings. If todays women
will not return to the ancient branches of the prophetic Oak, that is to
spend winter parties at the fireplace with some old frozen Intronato
then unfurl for them the master poets, as have done our Academy
members, who in Tuscan verse expounded some books of the Aeneid
168Parlour Games
for our ladies a translation that he planned to include in his fortyfive-volume collection.33 He then implicitly chides the ladies for rejecting the wise old men for the callow young ones: If [these women] do
not sooner fancy to converse in these erudite parties with a lettered
man, old and toothless, than with an ignorant youngster [with a]
face painted with a painters entire palette, they will do like those vines
that, in order to attach themselves to a new elm too weak and unfit for
the weight, fall to the ground before fruit can mature.34 In rejecting
womens preference for young men over old, Gigli has completely reversed the sexual overtones of Carnival games and this is especially
pertinent, given that this entire discussion of the Assicurate comes in a
discourse on Carnival. He even oers up an interpretation of the significance of the Intronati emblem that favours the old: And in order to
use the allegory of the Intronati pumpkin, the Lady Assicurate should
be advised that the pumpkins symbolic of wisdom are those dried and
cracked that reside near the fire and are filled with salt not those leafy
zucchinis that make a temporary shade and have no purpose at the
meal other than to disperse aromas.35 In contrast to the initial connotations of the Intronati emblem, in which the pestles crowning the pumpkin were likely intended as phalluses, Giglis exegesis here is quite the
opposite.36 This praise of the wizened old pumpkin (and man) shows
how much the social and cultural relationship between the Intronati
men and the Sienese women has shifted from the world of the flirtatious green years to that of the mentoring grey or white ones.
Furthermore, he ends his exhortation of a revival of female learning by urging a reawakening of the dormant female presence, which
Sienas current women should have inherited from their mothers and
should pass on to their daughters. Giglis closing shows how much his
discussion of the Assicurates role in Carnival had fully become a brief
for Sienese women to regain their voice:
Here then [the favouring of young men over old] is the reason for the
silence of the Assicurate; to whom I do not regret if I have brought up
the matter of their muteness, because, having proposed in this book of
mine to adduce all the good examples of our forebears to those who are
alive so that they may be emulators and renew them in themselves, [and]
thus wishing to recommend the good customs of our contemporaries to
those who will succeed them, I have thought it my obligations to reawaken the
dormant virtue of our ladies, so that by returning to their accustomed practices,
there may be revived in them and in the Intronati (in whom their light reflects

and encourages virtuous operations) the spirits that they inherited from their
mothers and ought to pass on to their daughters and daughters-in-law.37
Truly, Giglis account here is the first broad survey of the Sienese
games from their Provenal roots to the present. His survey suggests
that starting in 1654 the playing of these games, at least during Carnival, had passed to the purview of the female Assicurate (with male
assistance) rather than remain fully in the hands of the male Intronati
(with female participation). That the well-born Sienese women had laid
a proprietary claim on such games is evident in Giglis comment in a
succeeding discussion of the Carnival role of the artisan academy of
the Rozzi: The spirited women (Donne) of the Rozzi sometimes chattered privately in imitation of the Ladies (Gentildonne), and of the Intronati, but these [elite women and men], who claimed a monopoly
on such entertainments, did not allow such chanches to sing outside
the enclosure.38 But even more importantly, Giglis survey of the giuochi di spirito at Carnival confirmed that these games could be seen
as tantamount to feminist assertion: in the ways of female hardiness,
female military courage, and female learning and publication. Moreover, he connects parlour games to other aspects of female agency and
visibility. Tellingly, he mentions the women at the walls three times
in this discussion. He outlines his plan to augment Domenichis publication of female writers; to extend the roster of Assicurate found in
Origin of the Assicurate; to anthologize the literary translations dedicated to Sienese women. As for the current state of the games, he even
describes yet another imagined parlour game (in his Collegio Petroniano) that could implicitly reawaken this potent ritual that seemed to be
vanishing.
Giglis Parlour Game and National Academy of Assicurate
In the foregoing discussion of the Assicurate Carnival games, Gigli alludes to his treatise Del Collegio Petroniano delle balie latine, which extended the list of Assicurate to a national scale and simulated a parlour
game concerning a Seminario per leducazione degli Umani Aetti
dissoluti.39 In the Diario sanese, this work clearly represented his own
eort to resuscitate the flagging Assicurate. That purpose, however,
was joined with others in a treatise that attacked the Jesuits, linguistic
dogmatism, and educational tyranny. This work was simultaneously
a Carnival game, a libertine rebellion, an educational parody, and a
170Parlour Games
feminist utopia. The treatise supposedly depicted the celebratory opening of an all-Latin school in 1719 in Siena that inculcated the language in
youth via Latin-speaking nursemaids. The work was written two years
after Gigli began publishing his Vocabolario cateriniano, a dictionary of
Sienese dialect that incurred the wrath of the Florentine Academy of
the Crusca. By this point in his life, Gigli had suered two exiles: one
following the performance of his Don Pilone, and another after he had
begun publication of his Vocabolario. He oended the Jesuits in the first
case, and the Florentine literati and the grand duke in the second. He
takes on everybody in this facetious work, which, however, also has a
somewhat serious side in its promotion of women and first-ever publication of Assicurate emblems and mottoes.
In September of 1717 the Florentine Grand Duke Cosimo III ordered
a public burning of the remaining copies of Giglis Vocabolario and expelled him from Siena.40 Gigli repaired to Viterbo and then to Rome,
where he died in 1722. While in Rome he wrote the Collegio Petroniano, a
hoax that lampooned several birds with one stone. The work appeared
under the name Dottor Salvatore Tonci, first doctor of the said college, and described itself as a second edition in which are added accounts of the solemn festivities that were made in the following days of
Carnival, and particularly the Academy of Sienese Ladies with the new
admission of the most famous women of Italy in the same Academy.41
But this putative festive addition in a second edition commands
much of the treatise: indeed, the ludic (vs. the academic) festivities consume about half of the work.42 It is, of course, no accident that the opening ceremony for the school occurs during late February: the treatise
itself is one huge Carnival joke, a literary game that contains within it a
simulated parlour game. Gigli compounds the ludic moment.
The pretence of the treatise is to celebrate the launch of a school in
which Latin is taught to children at the earliest age. The Latin-speaking
nursemaids in the opening ceremony hold babies only a few days or
weeks old.43 The idea is to mock the Jesuit education that characterized the citys Collegio Tolomei, established in 1676.44 Giglis quarrels
with the Jesuits were long-standing, owing to his Don Pilone (c. 1707),
an adaptation of Molires Tartue that took aim at false religious bigotry and targeted a scandalous Sienese priest named Feliciati di Sarteano.45 The play energized the Jesuits to orchestrate Giglis ouster from
his university chair, and he decamped to Rome in 1708.46 On a return
visit to Siena he wrote a follow-up play performed by the Rozzi Academy during Carnival of 1713.47 This Sorellina di Don Pilone was an only
slightly veiled attack on his wife and her religious adviser, depicted as
a religious scam artist who attended to married women and widows.
Aside from reflecting Giglis own troubled marriage, arranged for him
when he was seventeen, the work deals with the crisis of women who
need dowries for their own marriages.48 The story concerns a servant, a
widow in the employ of Egidia (a figure representing Giglis wife), who
needs a dowry to remarry. In order to receive support from a charitable organization for fallen women, she has to enrol herself in the list of
prostitutes to receive help. The religious director and hypocrite in the
story, Don Pilogio, who had helped Egidia embezzle all manner of
household valuables, ran a scandalous bottega that collected young
rescued girls and wives separated from their husbands. In the end, this
figure gets his comeuppance: the poor women in his charge are freed
and his store of spiritual larcenies is divided up among them for their
dowries.49 Irony of ironies (or filial revenge), one of Giglis twelve children, Germanico, became a Jesuit and attended him on his deathbed.50
Giglis assault on the Jesuits in the Collegio Petroniano focused chiefly
on the all-Latin religious curriculum of the Jesuits ratio studiorum.51 In
Giglis story, the college, supposedly the idea of the (actual) fourteenthcentury Cardinal Riccardo Petroni (d. 1314), has imported twenty-four
learned ultramontane Latin-speaking nursemaids (from Germany,
Hungary, Poland, etc.) to care for children from infancy up to twenty
years of age; these are joined by fourteen Sienese nursemaids. Twelve
of the foreign balie are attended by two Assicurate each, who serve as
educational assistants and also guardians assuring that the nursemaids
do not read any forbidden books.52 The curriculum, the Ratio Studiorum Collegii Petroniani, is predictably a mixture of classical, biblical,
patristic, and scholastic studies complemented with a strict spiritual
regime of sacraments, prayer with little or no variation from the exercises of the most disciplined seminaries of the Society of Jesus.53 But
most importantly, Latin only is to be spoken, and there must be no Italian.54 This stricture occasions a debate in the opening festivities between
two members of Florences Academy of the Crusca, which was in reality a society staking out the dogmatic position that the Florentine dialect was the only proper Italian. One disputant in the story wants to
uphold the Collegio Petronianos position that only Latin be spoken in
its preserve; another, Uberto Benvoglienti, argues the case for Italian
and both are so intransigent in their linguistic convictions that the
former speaks only Latin in their exchange, and the latter only Italian.
At the end of the discussion, allusion is made to the division between
172Parlour Games
Florentine and Sienese, and the Latin proponent suggests that

peace could be restored if both states would only default to Latin. But
the Intronati members present fight this and one of them asks a Signor
Canonoico Provenzano Gigli to weigh in, but as a spiritual person he
judged it better to refrain in the humility of silence.55 Here, Gigli even
created an absurd religious alter ego for himself. Clearly, the Collegio
Petronianos all-Latin rule was meant to mirror the Cruscas insistence
on Florentine dialect only, a controvery that just two years earlier had
led to the burning of Giglis Vocabolario.56
But there are larger subversive forces at work in the treatise as well.
For one, the entire fictive college is essentially a female bastion a particular irony for an institution built on clerical and even Jesuit principles. The Latin-speaking nursemaids and their Assicurate assistants are
obviously all women and the rector of the college is to be an Archimagistra, who has to be a widow.57 Moreover, in the opening ceremonies the two speeches presented (both, of course, in Latin) are given by
women. The first, by the inaugural Archimagistra, Veronica Sergardi,
includes comments addressed principally to the matrons who constituted the college.58 Gigli uses this speech to once again praise the traditions of female learning and female heroism in Siena. His fictive rector
says that she sees in them the legacy of the Sienese women: for not
dimly I seem to discern in you that outstanding ardour, in which once
so many Sienese women, inflamed by the cult of letters, vied happily
for the goal of glory. She then enumerates Battista Berti, Francesca
Scotti, Lucrezia Mignanelli, Laudomia Forteguerri, Virginia Martini,
Pia Bichi, Piera Cervini, and Aurelia Petrucci.59 But it is not just the literary notables she cites, but also the military ones: In some of you also
I see that noble quickness, in that you laudably wish to imitate our heroines Piccolomina, Forteguerra, and Fausta, who weary of the weakness of sex, armed and helmeted endeavoured to take up the sword
against the enemy of the state and strenuously to defend it, winning
immortal fame for themselves.60 These women at the walls, she continues, were hailed by Monluc, who declared that he would rather defend a besieged Rome, with the aid of a few Sienese Viragoes, than
with a Roman army.61 Gigli himself then reveals how his fictive college
of nursemaids can be read as another statement of female intellect and
might. He thereby simultaneously insults the Jesuits and glorifies the
traditions of Sienese feminism.
The nature of Giglis hoax is such that the boundary between real and
fictive characters is constantly blurred. As far as I can determine, none
of the ultramontane balie or Assicurate assistants in this section are real

personages, though the Sienese women are all graced with the familiar
(elite) Sienese surnames. And yet, some of the women cited in this section of the treatise were real. In describing a ceremonial procession, he
identified five women as Arcadian shepherdesses, including the famous Assicurate matriarch Caterina Gaetana Grioli and Emilia Ballati
Orlandini.62 One of these Arcardian literati, Lucrezia Sergardi who is
described as the nipote (probably granddaughter) of the Archimagistra
Veronica Sergardi delivers an oration.63 Gigli thus uses the treatise to
celebrate the fame of some of the Sienese women who have earned entrance into this now leading literary academy based in Rome.
The agency of women is also notably evident in their hacking the
ceremony and the treatise in an Assicurate giuoco di spirito and induction ceremony. At the end of the elaborate descriptions of the Collegio Petroniano, its galleries, library, rooms, gardens, Latin inscriptions
and curriculum, and after the inaugural orations and a Latin lullaby to
put the infants to sleep, the evening turns to entertainment. Here the
ludic, the vernacular, and the female all conspire to trump the sober,
the Latin, and the academic. The Archimagistra invites a performance of
improvisational poetry from Emilia Ballati Orlandini, who could oer
up a song in Latin metre. Because, however, there is no one to accompany her, she is relieved of this duty, and then Francesco Piccolomini,
long-time beadle of the Assicurate, suggests an improvised giuoco di
spirito. By juxtaposing the plan for a poetry performance allimproviso
with a parlour game allimproviso, Gigli reinforces the link between
these forms of cultural performance.64 And, in fact, Emilia Ballati Orlandini was a good example of how these two realms interacted, as she
was known as an improvisational poet and was depicted in a game
recorded in the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito as the Muse Calliope,
who wrote and performed a madrigal.65 On this occasion, however, the
Archimagistra vetoes the idea of a giuoco di spirito, because it would
entail participation of many men and women who could not speak in
Latin: a violation of the Collegios rules. Two women then oer to host
the game at their homes. Gigli here injects a bit of monastic satire, as
he has an abbot, the resident preacher and house moral consultant
(Consultor Morale di Casa), oer up a playful bit of casuistry. Just as
monastic rules forbidding meat in the refectory can be broken to accommodate the sick or visitors, so also the circumstances of pregnancy
of the female sta of the Collegio might need accommodation: nauseated by the ordinary food of the erudite banquet of Athenaeus or the
174Parlour Games
symposia of Plutarch, they have an appetite for some of the dishes of

Ariosto or Boccaccio.66 In a facetious allegory conforming to the
Carnival season, he recommends that there be declared a Grammatical Infirmary. While the Archimagistra and her counsellors ponder this
in private quarters, Lucrezia Sergardi steps forward and recites an Italian poem, tak[ing] the anticipated licence to speak Italian. She preempts the ocial permission for a grammatical respite, soon granted
by the Archimagistra, and the treatise then recounts the ensuing festivities in a chapter entitled Of the literary party in the custom of the celebrated Sienese parties or giuochi di spirito, which was celebrated in the
Collegio by the Assicurate Academicians with the Intronati.67
This chapter in the Collegio Petroniano occasions Gigli to present yet
another history of the tradition of the parlour games from their origin in Provence, to the Sozzini villa outside of Siena, to the Intronati,
to the period of the siege. And in this last phase, as we saw earlier, he
presents his most robust argument about the women at the walls, who
must have been among those who in similar virtuous exercises [in the
parlour games] learned to transcend the condition of their sex, equally
spirited in nocturnal debates with their courteous friends, as bold in
conflicts during the day with enemies of the state.68 He cites as well
the literary tributes to the Sienese games, including Giovanni Mauros
praise of the illustrious women: la Spannocchia, e Saracina, / La Silvia,
la Ventura, e Fortiguerra.69 As ever, then, the games signify for Gigli
opportunities for and evidence of female agency (even of a military
stripe) and public fame. In the Collegio Petroniano the parlour game provides an opportunity to overturn the strictures of Latinate culture and
Jesuit education. Indeed, the game itself focuses on education. When
the Assicurate beadle Francesco Piccolomini calls for a game theme,
Monsignor Niccol Forteguerri suggests a topic drawn from a poem
written by one Girolamo Gigli entitled The seminar of the undisciplined human aects, which the gods want to establish in the world for
education and the correction of the same.70 Gigli in fact wrote such a
poem, which, appearing under the slightly dierent title Il seminario
degli aetti ovvero lipocrisia, was an attack on the hypocrisy of Jesuit
education. In this poem, all of the innate instincts of the youth Amore
the love of the beautiful, of country, of glory, of fame are corrupted by
the soft realms of the bed, the gluttonous, and corrupt desire.71 Indeed, he proclaims the hypocrisy he finds in this seminary (really the
Jesuit-run Collegio Tolomei) to be the Tuscan malady, just as syphilis
earned its reputation as the French malady.72 And he attacks in this
work the bacchettonesimo (religious bigotry) just as he depicted the

bacchettone falso and finto bacchettone in the Don Pilone and Sorellina di Don Pilone.73
Giglis resurrection of his poem in the setting of the parlour game in
the Collegio Petroniano takes on a more playful, less polemical tone. As
entitled here, the game does not deal with hypocrisy but with the entire
realm of the human aects. In this sense, it is a fittingly benign theme for
an occasion that traditionally dealt with the realm of love. The pretext
here is that Mercury, as secretary to Jove, has sent a letter to the queens
of the earth and erudite princesses reporting that Queen Reason has appeared before the Divine Senate to lay out the complaints of all humanity
against the insupportable insolence of the human Aects, undisciplined
children who disrupt the entire kingdom of her Reasonable Majesty.74
This launches a lengthy discussion of all the passions both positive and
negative including whether there should a Seminario Irascibile and a
Seminario Concupiscibile.75 Not unlike Erasmuss Praise of Folly, Giglis
elaboration of the passions at times embraces both the satirical and the
serious.76 Thus, the clergy quickly comes under his attack when Queen
Reason says that the most dissolute Aects do not pardon her in Holy
Walls, in which there enters such great Hatred accompanied by Discord,
and the Despair to subvert hearts dedicated to the gods; and intemperately disordered Happiness is introduced in the banquets of the priests,
where there are prepared the meats of victims sacrificed to the idols, and
in the cups of wine it makes them drink the forgetfulness of the priestly
oce.77 At other times, however, the passions seem to connote positive
attributes, as evident in one instance in which Gigli invokes yet again the
women at the walls. He cites the Spirit of the Sienese women, and
their good regime sustained by Love, and other Aects as happened in
the Forteguerri, in the Piccolomini, and in the Fausti, who, Siena being
besieged, had with such great praise regulated their Courage.78 Though
posed as a praiseworthy regulation of Courage, the presence of this affect obviously bespeaks a more serious and positive view of the force of
the passions. In this regard, perhaps the entire theme of this game the
realm of the aects subverts the repressive, ascetic, and intellectualized
setting of the fictional Collegio Petroniano (and the real Collegio Tolomei). Indeed, mirrors, not allowed in the Collegio Tolomei, were to be allowed in this seminary so that, by reasoning of Lady Leonora Bichi, those
aicted by monstrous passions can see themselves as they really are.
This clever comment defends the possession of mirrors, the metonymy
of vanity, but it does so for a putatively corrective purpose.79
176Parlour Games
The theme of the aects resurfaces at the end of the treatise, on

the second of the two days of Carnival celebrations that follow the Collegios opening ceremony. On this Tuesday (presumably Mardi Gras)
there is a banquet at a villa outside the city, and Lucrezia Sergardi suggests that the meal should match the theme of the giuoco di spirito played
two days earlier: namely, each of the courses should represent one of
the human passions. Thus, Gigli lays out a multi-course meal with the
first course representing Love, the minestrone Pleasure, the roast Grief,
the stew Marital Love, the fish Hate, the salad Hope, the cheese and
sweetmeat Envy, and so on.80 Clearly, Gigli is equating the voluptuary
and the aective, and opposing both in a game and as a meal to the
sterile and ascetic world of the all-Latin academy.81 Moreover, to this
pairing of the sensual realm was added a third leg of the stool, the sexual. The evening before the passionate meal, a Latin comedy is performed that scandalizes the collegians and Latin nursemaids. Aretafila
Savini ne Rossi has made a Latin translation of Bernardo Dovizis (Bibbiena) the racy Calandra by Bernardo Dovizi (Bibbiena). Gigli reports
that Aretifila, one of the notable female members of the Arcadian Academy, did not suciently excise the licentious scenes, as certain monks
did in the performance of Giglis own Don Pilone. This oversight mortifies the Archimagistra (for not having been a better censor) and embarrasses the very proper audience.82
Giglis simulated game, like the meal of passions, and like the lewd
Calandra, is thus one part of his aective revolt against the putative
purpose of his treatise: to celebrate a restrictive, intellectual school. The
details of the game are not germane here, but it is relevant to note that
Giglis simulation of the game conforms to the Assicurate tradition of
the game as public stage and debating arena for women. Many women
are featured, but one in particular bears special notice: Giglis daughter Geneviefa Gigli ne Borghesi. In a discussion of Jealousy, she oers
up a sonnet that her father Girolamo Gigli composed once at a similar
erudite party.83 Aside from oering Gigli a chance to recycle some of
his own poetry,84 his inclusion of his daughter suggests that this world
of women was for him close to home. Indeed, his call for a renewal of
the Assicurate tradition may have been driven by his desire for his own
married daughter to have such a realm of female culture. Moreover, it is
not merely a daughter he incorporates into his fictive social gathering;
he even places a four-year-old child on the knee of Marchese Agnese
Chigi Piccolomini, identified as the childs aunt.85 Children, or their depiction, were not to be found in such gatherings, and it is a measure of
Giglis embrace of a range women as family rather than women as romantic idols in his festive social world.
When the game ends, there follows a dance allusive to the giuoco
di spirito (designed by Maria Tommasi Bulgarini) and representing
the passions of the four nations of Europe, which are Italy, Germany,
France, and Spain.86 In dance, in food, and in debate the Assicurate
parlour game was a unified celebration of the aective. But the most
important and dominant part of the treatise is the enrolment of
new Assicurate members.87 The vice-secretary Livia Nerli Ballati arose
to say, [It is] the custom of the Academy of Sienese Women to register in their records further local ladies eminent in virtue over others,
as well as matrons of Italy most illustrious through birth, moral virtues, and letters, and principally the Roman princesses and others. Of
this group, which among the Shepherdesses of Arcadia many did not
disdain being counted, there ought to be read this evening the list of
the most noble and virtuous Academy members acclaimed for the last
three years, namely since the last celebrated Academy [meeting].88
Two things are noteworthy about this announcement: the roster of
Assicurate members is being extended to a national level, and many
of the female Arcadian members are included in it. Both of these
points imply that Gigli was seeking to revivify the Assicurate in such
a way as to compete with the national Arcadian Academy, which had
recently absorbed some of the Sienese women.89 Aside from shifting
the locus of culture from Rome back to Siena, Giglis vision of a national academy diered distinctly from that of Arcadia: it was an allfemale academy. During the tenure of Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni
from 1690 to 1728 the Arcadian Academy enrolled 74 women among
its 2,619 members. While certainly impressive in incorporating numerous women, this constituted less than 3 per cent of the academy,
whereas Giglis national Assicurate academy was 100 per cent female.90 Clearly, Gigli hoped that his treatise could resurrect Sienas
distinctive academy, which had recently fallen into neglect. His vicesecretary Livia Nerli Ballatis statement suggests that the academy last
met three years back (1716). There is, however, to my knowledge no
list of Assicurate enrolments after 1704, although that does not mean
that there were not some gatherings and possibly unrecorded enrolments.91 Gigli acknowledged Francesco Piccolomini and Pandolfo
Spannocchi as still having leadership roles,92 and it would appear that
Giglis fictive game and enrolment was his attempt to sustain the Assicurate festive tradition.
178Parlour Games
But it was also his desire to perpetuate female fame. By including the
emblems of the newly enrolled women emblems he claims were devised by the Intronati he hopes to represent some excellence of their
singular reputation in order to transmit their memory to posterity.93 The
next seventy-two pages of the treatise record this list of Heroines of our
century and represent the first time that Assicurate emblems actually
made it into print. Francesco Piccolominis Origins of the Assicurate
was never published, though Gigli planned to include it in his fortyfive-volume anthology of Sienese culture. As we saw in chapter 4, Scipione Bargagli included a few female emblems in his Dellimprese of 1594.
Giglis list caps a Renaissance tradition of the female semiotics of glory
that percolated through the fortunes, medal reverses, constellations, and
academy emblems of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The new Assicurate roster records 219 women, the plurality of whom
are Sienese (about one-quarter of them), but also includes women
from Florence, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Modena, Parma, Lucca, Perugia, Padua, Naples, Pistoia, Milan, Pisa, Mantua, Bologna, Palermo,
Arezzo, Vicenza, and Ferrara. Gigli ventured to expand the net of female glory throughout Italy. The five Sienese Arcadian women whom
he mentioned early in the treatise are re-enrolled as Assicurate. Caterina Gaetana Grioli Piccolomini, matriarch of the Assicurate for
nearly forty years, is readmitted, but under a new name. Inducted in
1680 as the Incomparable, she is resurrected as the Predominant.94
The improvisational poet Emilia Ballati Orlandini, originally enrolled
in 1704 as la Studiosa, is re-enrolled under a name more expressive
of her true talent, lImprovisa.95 In the Assicurate tradition, members
usually kept their nickname, so it is perhaps an indication that the Assicurate had indeed eectively dissolved by 1719 that Gigli felt free to
rename these former members with new epithets. He also reclaimed
three other Sienese Arcadian women back to the Assicurate fold: Lisabetta Credi Fortini, Maria Antonia Bizzarini ne Tondi, and Lucrezia
Sergardi Buonsignori.96 As was the case with Accounts of Giuochi di
Spirito, several of Giglis newly inscribed Assicurate had figured in
the simulated game of the Seminary of the Passions: Agnese Cosatti
Spannocchi, Eleonora Agostini Bichi, Agnese Chigi Piccolomini, Verginia Bandini Bichi, Verginia Chigi Buoninsegni, and Giuditta Perfetti
Agazzari were all enrolled.97 Among those who spoke up at the game
was Giglis daughter Geneviefa, who was enrolled as lIngenua (the
Candid)98 (Figure 6.1). As ever, the parlour game was envisioned as the
testing ground for intellectual distinction and public recognition.
Finally, Giglis list includes a woman, Girolama Accarigi Bandinelli,

whom he identifies as once Principessa of the Assicurate and nicknames lInsuperable99 (again, see figure 6.1). The 1690 roster of Assicurate in the Origins of the Assicurate lists Bandinelli as a new
member with the nickname lImperturbabile, and it is under this
name that Gigli dedicated his play Lamor dottorato to her and to the Assicurate in Carnival of 1692.100 Thus, in yet another case, Gigli rechristens a former Assicurate leader dating back nineteen years with a
new nickname.
These re-enrolments under new epithets simultaneously reveal that
the Assicurate Academy had lapsed and that Gigli wanted to spark a revival. Indeed, this positive agenda in the Collegio Petroniano is as prominent as the negative agenda to mock the Jesuits, Latin learning, and
linguistic dogmatism. In a sense, of course, the celebration of women in
the treatise is yet another dimension of the attack on patriarchal, male,
and clerical culture. But the lengthy catalogue of 219 Assicurate women
is obviously meant to serve a function other than just satire. This is
where Giglis hoax signals a rare mix of ludic parody and serious purpose. And whichever agenda may have been Giglis chief end, the work
depicts many aspects of a female utopia.101 Women lead and largely
sta the school. Women present the two Latin inaugural orations. A
female academy, the Assicurate, hosted (albeit with male assistance)
the giuoco di spirito played in Italian in the Grammatical Infirmary.
A woman was the first to break the all-Latin rule. A seventy-two-page
roster of female names, epithets, emblems, and mottoes is by far the
pre-eminent chapter of the book. A woman prepares a scandalously
frank Latin translation of a lewd comedy. Women design the dance of
passions and the dinner of aects.
The feminist agenda in Giglis Collegio Petroniano bears out sentiments found elsewhere in his serious treatments of Sienese history and
culture. It is Gigli who constructs an unambiguous link between the
agency of women in the Sienese parlour games and the defence of the
city in the siege of 1550s. Time and again in the letter to Magliabechi
on the history of the Intronati, in the discussion of Carnival in the Diario
sanese, in the Collegio Petroniano he hails the Sienese Amazons, the
heroines Forteguerri, Piccolomini, and Fausti, who mobilized the three
thousand women to defend the walls. And whether as history (which
he is free to reveal at some distance) or mythology (which he is eager to
embellish), the womens transcendence of their sex in parlour games
is causally identified with their taking up arms and insignia during the
180Parlour Games
Figure 6.1.Roster of Assicurate Members. From Girolamo Gigli, Del Collegio

Petroniano delle balie latine e del solenne suo aprimento in questAnno 1719 (Siena,
1719), pp. 1567. (Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena.)
siege. Scipione Bargagli only hints (and perhaps can only hint) at the
connection in his Trattenimenti. Gigli draws a straight line from battles
of wit to battles of arms, including the womens use of parlour-game
insignias as their military standards at the walls. This likely was not the
case especially since the mottoes were of a syntatical piece but certainly the game of insegne o bandiere that Bargagli simulated in his
Trattenimenti could have occurred in some form during the siege and
could have emboldened these women to act.
More importantly, Gigli oers the first full history of the origin and
social significance of the Sienese parlour games. He does so in the vein
of a cultural history of Carnival in his Diario sanese. Here he charts the
rise of these games almost completely in female terms ironically (for
an Intronati ocial) eclipsing the Intronatis role working backwards
from the fact that the Assicurate Academy normally staged a giuoco di
spirito during the season. In this cultural history, it is the women who
succour their dejected husbands during the siege by engaging them
in games, women who then follow them to the battlements, women
who complete the institutionalization of the games with the founding of the Assicurate. But for Gigli, history is a form of advocacy and
nostalgic complaint. He laments the silence of the Sienese women. He
longs for a return of the heyday of their literary presence, especially
in the Cinquecento. He yearns for a revival of the Sienese female voice
that has yielded its fame to others perhaps notably the Arcadians in
Rome and elsewhere. Women should strive again to respect the older
Intronati men, rather than the youthful gadflies. If the ludic moment
may have initially arisen in the flirtations of the Kingdom of Love, Gigli
shows how it has been transformed into a feminist moment. His history
of the games of Carnival bespeak a matrix of female games, female literary presence, and female agency as all being part and parcel of one
historical development. The women of Siena exhibited the hardiness of
the winter rose during the citys worst times. They need now to flower
even more brilliantly under the leadership of a new female governor of
the city, Violante of Bavaria. The ending of his history of the Assicurate
games of Carnival sounds a note of female agency. The women of Siena
need to take up the mantle passed to them by their forebears, reviving
the spirits which they inherited from their mothers and which they
ought to pass on to their daughters and granddaughters.102
Conclusion
Passing through Siena in 1532, the Friulian poet Giovanni Mauro recounted that he witnessed certain games in the Sienese style, / men
and women mixed.1 With no dancing or music, the festivities seemed
almost mute and slow, and in one game, players quietly reasoned
as an object (presumably the mestola) was passed around. Indeed, it
was a game of melancholy / in appearance, but it was in fact a game
to hoist (rizzar) the imagination.2 It continued through the night until
morning, and what Mauro chose especially to marvel at is telling:
And I saw the Spannocchia, and Saracina, / The Silvia, and the Ventura, and Forteguerra, / Whom to witness seemed a divine thing.3
This odd game of quiet discourse clearly struck Mauro as a dierent type of entertainment. More importantly, the signal participants
at this public game were women. Much dierent from the romanticized, silent, first-named women of love poetry Beatrice and Laura
praised here are very real, vocal, surnamed women, who have distinguished themselves through play to this outside observer. What
larger contexts frame this emblematic incident in the history of Renaissance parlour games? How did the ludic realm both as a theoretical literary space and as a lived, inhabited space reflect or alter
the experience of women in Renaissance and early modern Italy? Or,
more broadly, how did the liminoid realm of polite play mirror or orchestrate social and cultural change?
Certainly, the realm of the game in general represented an arena
for competition that could redefine the interactions between men and
women. Margherita Bentivoglio, the female participant in Tassos card
game (in the Romeo and the Gonzaga secondo) wanted actually to compete
and win as did Beatrice Gambara in Ascanio Moris Giuoco piacevole.
Conclusion183
These male writers clearly saw the game world as a reflection of the
patriarchal and patronizing patterns of mens treatment of women
and both reveal that the game world was a place to negotiate change
in gender relations. And for Tasso, women could want to compete and
win at primiera, just as they could decisively act (as donne, rather than
femminile) in the public realm. When the game involved conversation
and verbal combat, namely, in the giuochi di spirito, the link between
the ludic and the real world was even more charged with social relevance. Some writers, such as Innocenzio Ringhieri and Bartolomeo
Arnigio, saw the parlour game largely as a tool for edification and reinforcement of social norms. Others, such as Girolamo and Scipione
Bargagli, saw it as an opportunity for social inversion and experimentation: for profession-bound men and home-bound women a time to depart from the conventional social roles. For women, this meant an even
obligatory departure from the canons of silence, restraint, and invisibility. In fact, the interlocutors in Girolamo Bargaglis Dialogo de giuochi
castigated women who refused to play with the excuse of honouring
female onest. They, like the men, were to exhibit a baldanza danimo.
This was a far cry from the prescriptions for wifely behaviour advanced by Francesco Barbaro in a treatise titled On Wifely Duties, written
in the second decade of the fifteenth century. Here, a womans movements, laughter, and speech in public were to be carefully restrained.
In fact, Barbaro prescribed for wives an eloquent and dignified
silence and proclaimed that the speech of women should never be
made public, for the speech of a noble woman can be no less dangerous
than the nakedness of her limbs.4 And even by the following century,
in the model of polite comportment, Castigliones Courtier, the female
architects of the game to define the ideal courtier were largely silent
participants listening to the men. The Intronatis games, however, drew
women out of their silence, to do battle in literary debates over vernacular literature, in flirtatious duels in the battle of the sexes, and in serious
bouts concerning the querelle des femmes. The result, Girolamo Bargagli
claimed (echoing Mauro), was an eterno grido for such women as la
Saracina, la Forteguerra, la Toscana and others whose reputations as
players and even at times whose quips were enshrined in Ugurgieri
Azzolinis female prosopography of the mid-Seicento.5 Such fame certainly countermanded the Periclean mot, very much alive at the time,
that the ideal wife is one who is so cloistered as to have no reputation
at all. In the course of that century, moreover, a new ideal for female
public behaviour had emerged: the quality of disinvoltura, a confident
184Parlour Games
ease of manner complementing the sprezzatura of Castigliones male

courtier.
The giuochi di spirito, however, were important for reasons other
than public performance. They were venues for personal expression
and public recognition. The games of emblems in particular allowed
rather required symbols and mottoes that were meant to express
ones particular thoughts.6 Thus, Girolamo Bargaglis game book records an unnamed woman lamenting the burden of married life with
the symbol of a powerful bull immobilized by a necklace of fig leaves
and declaring that she is Changed by That while another, more
defiant, woman declared herself Unburnable with a piece of nonflammable Indian linen as her icon.7 Such statements became ever more
public when Scipione Bargagli published some female emblems in his
On Emblems of 1594 including one of Fulvia Spannocchi (dedicatee of
his earlier game book), whose emblem was a fully self-contained snail
with the motto Carries All Things with Me.8 In some cases, the games
oered opportunities for men to publicly recognize or characterize the
women in their midst with fortunes, constellations, medal reverses, and
emblems. And here the semiotics of female identity at times notably
turned to more customarily masculine images such as Hercules or the
lion. Even tropes that were traditionally female flowers or birds underwent some transformation in the course of the period. The motif
of women as beautiful, delicate flowers to be admired and/or (sexually) picked, of course, had a long history including that found in the
controversial Roman de la Rose; and, in our period, in Ringhieris Cento
giuochi of the mid-sixteenth century, his Game of Garlands and Flowers compared the beauty of young women to flowers (that will fade).9
Such purely sexualized and vulnerable images of women were somewhat challenged or reshaped over the course of Renaissance emblems,
games, and characterizations, as women became now a forbidding
plant (Safe through Its Bitterness); now a rose girded with thorns (for
a woman nicknamed Severe);10 now a fecund flower protected from
Loves amatory plucking and reserved for marital procreative purpose;
and, finally, in Girolamo Giglis case, a hardy winter rose capable of enduring all hardships. The motif of the caged bird, also with sexualized
roots in the Romance of the Rose, had a resonance in our period as well,
but with broader connotations of unhappy submissiveness or, in the
case of Arcangela Tarabotti, fathers forced claustration of their daughters. And in the emblem of the unnamed young lady in Scipione
Conclusion185
Bargaglis emblem book, the bird was defiantly uncaged, proclaiming

herself to be Friend Yet Not Servant.
If public performances and public identity for women were both enhanced by parlour games, did this translate into other more general
or enduring forms of female agency or female presence in the period?
Tasso may have thought it possible, as he linked Margherita Bentivoglios desire to compete in a card game to the presence of some assertive women of the day one of whom, in fact, Barbara Sanseverino,
was an energetic reveller who later orchestrated a conspiracy that led
to her execution. And in his praise of heroic donne (versus traditional
femminile) in his Discourse on Feminine and Womanly Virtue, he likely
hoped that the Duchess Leonora of Mantua would exercise her agency
to free him from imprisonment. But in Siena, where the Intronatis
games had given women a prominent opportunity for self-assertion,
the link between parlour games and female agency may have been even
more concrete, in the incident of the womens brigade during the siege
of Siena. Giglis assertion that the women of the games directly led
to the women at the walls cannot be absolutely verified, but it can
be reasonably assumed. Both Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli include
games of emblems or insignias in their game books of the 1560s, which
depict dialogues or encounters set in the 1550s either during or shortly
after the siege of Siena.11 Three female captains, each bearing an insignia
with a motto, led a force of three thousand women to fortify the walls
on 17 January 1553. Scipione Bargagli set his games during the siege,
and depicted these revels as an assertive act of women who would
play in defiance of the citys enemies. Yes, he fictionalized the players
of these games, and yet he did not shrink from dedicating the book to
the very real Fulvia Spannocchi. Moreover, he filled the preface to Bk. 1
with myriad details of the siege (including an allusion to the participation of the women in the defence of the city) and informed the preface
to Bk. 2 with declarations that the ludic realm was a vital opportunity
for female assertion and glory. Two possibilities present themselves in
Scipiones literary treatment of the siege. One is that actual Carnival
games were played during the siege and may have inspired women to
venture forth and indeed January 17, following close upon Epipany
(with its Befana ritual), does fall within the Carnival season. In this scenario he fictionalized the characters and minimized the actual historical moment of the women at the walls out of political necessity, given
Sienas recent capitulation to Florence.12 A second possibility is that no
186Parlour Games
games were in fact played during the siege, and he used the historical moment of the female brigade to inform his fiction, using his game
book as an exhortation to greater female agency both in the staging and
the conduct of his fictive games and, by implication, in real life. In either case, the ludic setting as historical fact or literary fiction was a
vital setting for social change. Gigli, writing much later, either was free
to concretize the historical connection of the games and the siege or he
too used the idea of a connection to buttress his own forceful vision of
the role of female assertion in the ritual, cultural, and social life of Renaissance and early modern Siena.
The role of game culture in enhancing the public life of women was,
of course, also evident in the birth of a female academy. In this case, a
parlour game created the institution by enacting the transfer of power
in the Kingdom of Love from men to women. Though male Intronati members perhaps rightly claimed credit for this motif, it led to
a fifty-year run of a female academy, mirroring the structure of male
academies: admission via public display of talent; assumption of nicknames, emblems, and mottoes; recording and vetting of all cultural production by secretaries or censors; and eventually a publication in the
name of the academy. The games and debates staged by the Assicurate in conjunction with the Intronati at times turned on issues of female rule and control in the face of male interference, as the Assicurate
women resisted attempts by the Intronati men to encroach on their female academy. This ludic contest enacted and clarified the real issues
in the struggle of women to carve out a larger zone of cultural and social autonomy. The very records of this female academy an ocial
version compiled by men and an unocial transcript apparently kept
by women reflected the contest for control. As evident in these accounts rare records of oral culture certain women took advantage of
the games to vaunt their new public ambitions and prerogatives. Thus,
the Assicurate Principessa, Lucrezia Santi Bandinelli, in a 1664 game
proclaimed to her fellow members that with the spirited fearlessness
of your wits this evening you can open up for yourselves a passage to
glory this in her introduction to an oration entitled Concerning the
Excellence of Women over Men by Giulia Turamini. And Turamini in
turn proclaimed that the habit of women sitting silent to endure the
maledictions of men would cease, and it was the turn of the men to sit
silent before her speech. And, of course, her polemical oration was simultaneously playful and not so playful as she oered a historical explanation for how men unfairly came to control women and urged that
Conclusion187
women finally take o just once this vile leg iron that has so unjustly
been placed on us by men.13
But despite these calls for matriarchy and these assaults on men, men
were also instrumental in the process of drawing women out. And here
the ludic realm is an invaluable window onto the complexity and gradualism inherent in social change. As Virginia Cox and Elisabetta Graziosi
have argued, female patrons were certainly critical in promoting female letters as exemplified by the examples of Maria Vittoria della Rovere (sponsor of the Assicurate), Queen Christina of Sweden (sponsor
of the Arcadians in Rome), and Violante of Bavaria (governess of Siena
and Giglis dedicactee in his Diario sanese)14 but male advocates played
a role as well. As Diana Robin, Meredith Ray, and Lynn Lara Westwater have contended, men were partners and collaborators of women in
their quest to be published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.15
This collaboration also extended to the more intangible realms of ritual
life and public presence. Alessandro Piccolomini was a seminal figure
in this regard, as he was one of the original Intronati who teased and
entertained women in the Sacrificio and the Ingannati in early 1532. But
this ludic, festive overture led to a more serious, cultural engagement
with women, as evident in Piccolominis 1541 lecture to a Paduan academy on a sonnet written by Laudomia Forteguerri; in his praise for her
in his Institutione; in his dedication of scientific translations to her; in
his Oratione in lode delle donne; and in his funeral oration for Aurelia Petrucci (whom he praised for her potent intellect and political acumen).
Alessandros cousin, Marcantonio Piccolomini, similarly hailed the intellectualism of Laudomia Forteguerri and other women in his Ragionamento of 1538, and in his lengthy biography of Frasia Marzi he praised
her facility in debate and lamented that the iniquity of the times16
had prevented her fuller involvement in the political world. Indeed,
both Piccolominis decried the suppression of women and urged their
admission to the public realm. Thus, in regard to women, the movement from the ludic to the serious in Siena in the second quarter of the
sixteenth century followed a trajectory from ritual Befana fortunes and
comic performances to philosophical dialogues, academic lectures, funeral orations, biographies, and treatises in praise of women.
In fact, the transition from the purely ritual to the serious could be
seen even within the realm of comedy itself. Alessandro Piccolominis early Raaelle depicted the solution for a woman bound in a loveless marriage to be adultery. By the time of the Intronati composition
of the Ingannati, in which Alessandro had a hand, the solution for a
188Parlour Games
victimized young woman would be comic disguise (as a boy) and an

assertive outcome (in a story that eventually became Violas in Twelfth
Night).17 Such resolution by deception obviously moved the template of
social freedom from the illegitimate to the legitimate sphere, creating
in the literary realm worthy and inventive women rather than adulteresses. As for the actual realm of parties and disguises, which were a
staging area for adulterous trysts in the Raaelle, Alessandro Piccolomini likewise tamed these social gatherings in his Institutione as spaces
in which women could be temporarily relieved of their claustration. In
a word, the ludic festive realm whether in comedy or in actual life
was being transformed from a place of marital transgression to one of
social respite from confinement.
As the Bargagli brothers reveal in their game books, this festive realm
was also to be an opportunity for self-assertion and social distinction.
Girolamos Dialogo de giuochi recounts an incident in which the men
coached women in themes and ripostes for games to be held before
visiting dignitaries. He claims that the women with that little bit of
help said marvellous things [and] from these first aids began to make a
habit of improvisation, which won for many of them eternal fame.18
Scipione further emphasized this ludic realm as a potential proving
ground for female fame in a world in which professions were generally
closed to women. Ugo Ugurgieri later asserted that the very idea of creating the Assicurate came from an Intronati game of 1654. And finally
in the early eighteenth century Girolamo Gigli exhorted the Sienese
women to reclaim their vibrant cultural role in the city: a role that, for
him, revealed over time a seamless web of female agency that included
the parlour games, the women at the walls, the creation of the Assicurate, and the intellectual and literary relationships with male literati.
A figure such as Laudomia Forteguerri exemplified that, whatever
the role of male prodding, female assertion assuredly triumphed. Laudomia, almost certainly the Forteguerri who was one of the female captains of the women at the walls, was emblematic of the connections
between female agency in the games and elsewhere in public life. Visible in giuochi di spirito as early as 1532 (and thus when she was only
seventeen years old), she was praised by Alessandro Piccolomini in his
Institutione of 1545 as an exemplar in chapters on urbanity (for her
subtlest and most ingenious witticisms)19 and on heroic virtue
in fact, he was inspired to write the entire treatise by a gloss Laudomia presented on Dantes Paradiso 31. Marcantonio Piccolomini in his
Ragionamento of 1538 depicted her (then, as a twenty-five-year old) as
Conclusion189
engaging in a philosophical battle in which she doubted her opponent could muster any arms capable of defending the contrary of my
view, as she revealed her controversial pro-Protestant leanings on predestination.20 It was Laudomia who sought Alessandro Piccolominis
help in publishing her poetry. It was she whom Giuseppe Betussi hailed
in 1556 as an imposing defender of Siena during its siege.21 In Laudomia the boundary between a liminoid ludic world and the real world
of culture, debate, and even warfare seems to have collapsed.
From Ludic Laughter to Civil Conversation
The potential collapsing of the ludic and the real may have been the
way forward for women seeking a greater presence in public life and
continuous social interaction with men. But the resistance to this type
of gender integration was persistent, even at times from writers within
the world of game culture. This desire to maintain that division reinforces the theory among anthropologists and social historians that
there are two possible functions of liminal or liminoid activity: namely,
that social inversions and marginal activities that can exist during the
time of, say, Carnival, largely reinforce a hierarchy that has been only
temporarily suspended; or that these status inversions may be a laboratory for social change.22 As Victor Turner argues, breaking the rules
is one of the rules of the liminal realm of tribal society.23 Girolamo Bargaglis rules of the game in his Dialogo de giuochi suggest that departing from the norm would also be a requirement in the liminoid realm
of his parlour games. The question is whether such a subversion of the
traditional hierarchy of polite society was absurd and temporary, or potentially serious and lasting. For some Renaissance and early modern
commentators, parlour games appear to have ritualized and delimited
male/female contact and ultimately reinforced gender roles. For others,
they were viewed as an avenue for or provocation to change.
First, to take the prevailing traditionalist view. The inclination towards gender separation is tersely epitomized in a seventeenth-century
epigram by the Welsh poet John Owen: Nocturnum imperium muliebre, virile diurnum est; / Regnat enim noctu Cynthia, solque diu (The
night-time rule is feminine, the daytime one is masculine, / For Cynthia
[the moon] rules by night and the sun by day).24 This epigram simultaneously proclaims two distinct realms of private and public life and,
with the sun/moon analogy, makes it clear which is superior. This epigram was taken up by Angelico Aprosio in his misogynistic Lo scudo di
190Parlour Games
Rinaldo overo la specchio del disinganno (1654), in which he assails female

vanity and fashion.25 And it was, moreover, a Jesuit acquaintance of
Aprosios, Giovanni Ottonelli, who dramatized the dangers of free exchange between men and women. His 1646 Della pericolosa conversatione
con le donne, poco modeste, ritirate, cantatrici, accademiche (On the
dangerous conversation with women, either little chaste, or secluded,
or singers, or academicians) is a massive (579-page) treatise on the casuistry of social encounters with women. As his subtitle indicates, it
assembles many cases of conscience and responds to the many objections of those who little regard the dangers of such conversations.26
Although allowing that, for instance, visiting the home of a lewd actress or a public prostitute is not necessarily a sin, in the main Ottonelli
warns that conversation with women presents constant perils to men
and partly so because of the weakness of men to resist the allure of
women. Indeed, this peril exists even in situations in which men listened to a learned academic womans discourse, an event questionable both because, as St Paul advises, women should not teach, and
because of the dangers inherent in listening to and beholding women
for any length of time: in the end, the Woman is Woman, although
learned and chaste; and nearness to her and her conversation can cause
temptation and danger of sinning, at least in thought.27 As for parties
in a womans home where games are played, Ottonelli suggests that
such events occasion endless oences to God. He presents a duly censorious, yet almost wistful, view of a social world he necessarily must
reject, writing of the
conversation of many who, having arrived as a group or separately, are
found united to converse in the house of such a [little chaste] woman, and
there receive sweet entertainment either from her erudite and eloquent
discourse, or from her most sweet singing or her most amiable music, or
from the variety of games maintained by her, or by collations or meals
made with the most sumptuous excellence and abundance of finest food
and generous wine, or by the courting and chatting with other women
who live under her roof with the title of daughters, granddaughters, relatives, or even servants of the main woman, or from other customs that, to
give delight, are not lacking in a house of similar delights, and where the
Lady, as an artful Enchantress of Love, entertains with amorous conversations all the assembled [guests]. Now from all these said activities truly
derive multiple occasions to multiply by a hundred and by a thousand
ways oence to God.28
Conclusion191
This parlour-game setting, apparently a bit too tempting for this Jesuit,
obviously poses one of the greatest dangers of the conversation with
women.
Ironically, Ottonelli drew some of his ammunition against socializing
with women from Stefano Guazzos La civil conversatione of 1574, which
depicted a game meant to control and order the appetites. Whereas Ottonelli forbade games, Guazzo thus admitted them to the realm of civil
conversation, albeit it with an eye to their moderating the excesses of
eating, drunkenness, and lewdness. Elsewhere in the treatise Guazzo
devoted a section to the proper conversation with women, in which he
commends their silence, advises restraint in all their social behaviour,
and warns against their acting as boldly as men in social settings. Guazzos interlocutors introduce this traditionalist assessment of women,
furthermore, by discussing the dangers of talking to women, who, because of the frailty of men, pose an ongoing moral threat. Thus, he argued, it is more dangerous for a man to converse with a good woman
than to consort with wicked men, because a woman will more likely
tempt him. Ottonelli, in turn, later included this argument as one of
his testaments of the perils of male contact with women.29 Guazzo allowed that encounters with women are legitimate in social gatherings
which, he argued, would suer greatly by the absence of women
but still he cautioned against too much contact. Indeed, he warned that
continuous conversation threatens to make men eeminate and that
there should be proper boundaries (dovuti termini).30 In a word, Guazzos vision of civil conversation with women was quite confined, generally patriarchal, and clearly delimited in extent, just as his vision of
parlour games largely emphasized the controlled and the didactic. In
that sense, he viewed the parlour game as a reinforcer rather than a
subverter of traditional gender roles. For Ottonelli, obviously, even this
temporary festive contact with women was fraught with spiritual dangers, and his mammoth work shows one extreme of the continuum of
views of heterosocial contact.
If Ottonelli favoured virtually no extended conversations with
women and Guazzo only temporary, controlled ones, the Intronati represented the other extreme: one that envisioned continual conversations with women and an enduring integration of the sexes. Certainly,
their games and promotion of women bespoke changed social assumptions in the Sienese world. Indeed, the womens inroads into the Intronati realm clearly prompted a misogynistic response by Traiano
Boccalini. In his Ragguagli di Parnaso of 1612, Apollo requests that the
192Parlour Games
Archintronato remove the new female interlopers who have, with their
male colleagues, created a climate akin to dogs mounting each other.31
This opposition to the Intronatis feminist nod to inclusion ironically
confirms that social change was under way, just as Giglis later lament
that the womens public presence had died out likewise arms the legacy of social change. Just a few years after Giglis death in 1722 an Intronati document reveals that some of his successors envisioned the full
social integration of the sexes as the logical future of civil conversation.
This manuscript in Sienas Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati presents a dialogue on the topic of public conversation that supposedly
took place at the Intronati Academy in the presence of women. Entitled
Dialogo del Signore Cosimo Finetti intorno alluso del conversare recitato nellAccademia Intronati; Alla presenza delle Dame al di 22 Febbraio 1725 [or 1726, new style], it depicts a dialogue between Finetti
and the physician Crescenzio Vaselli.32 Presumably, this Cosimo Finetti
was related to the Lattanzio Finetti who hosted the last of the parties in
the Accounts of the Giuochi di Spirito during Carnival of 1707 [or 1708,
new style].33 In essence, the physician questions the current practice
of too much conversation between men and women, and Finetti challenges his conservative position. Vaselli believes that men and women
innately inhabit dierent zones and that too much frequency renders
[men and women] less suited to their own necessary functions.34 When
the doctor pines for an earlier golden age, Finetti suggests that the sixteenth century was such an age and that in that age there was great frequency of contact between the sexes. He recounts the early contacts of
the Intronati with women and their testimony to this in the prologue
to their comedy, the Ortensio of the early 1560s.35 Such contacts, he argues, gave rise to an honest and virtuous conversation that continuously was introduced and lasted for a long time among the young men
and women of that most flourishing age. From that was born those jocund, witty games that were the delight of learned Italy.36 Finetti then
goes on to hail the fruits of this continuous conversation that nurtured the rise of noted female writers such as Veronica Gambera, Tullia dAragona, Laura Terracini, and Vittoria Colonna.37 But why go two
centuries back to cite such games, the doctor asks: how about the more
recent elaborate giuochi di spirito staged with such magnificence? Finetti
counters that, in comparison to the older games, these latter-day games
are too planned and too stylized and lack true improvisational spontaneity.38 Even if that is so, the doctor argues, the conversations in Finettis earlier, ideal games did not long outlast the games and penetrate
Conclusion193
the real social world, since too much contact, he argues, inevitably
leads to boredom.39
The dialogue here seems momentarily to derail from its larger theme
and debate the relative merits of the older, more improvisational games
and the more recent, artificial ones. But here an important point arises:
in his defence of the more recent games, the physician makes the argument that even such staged games have encouraged women to respond
spontaneously with vivacity of spirit and according to the opportunity
also to sting with gentleness.40 Now the two speakers come close to
an accord, as Finetti then makes the crucial point that if the talent of
these spirited women had been exercised by continuous conversation, so
much more [that talent] would have distinguished itself on [other] occasions, for nothing confers more to the propriety and quickness of our
thoughts and to what we call disinvoltura than having heard much and
having dealt with many people.41 For Finetti, the extension of conversation of the parlour games into real life can lead to a general elevation
of and naturalness in the relations between men and women. And he
argues that the ridiculous severity of men and women living apart is
owing not to innate social forces but to something else.42 He dates the
interruption of normal social intercourse in Italy to the chaos resulting
from the Sack of Rome in 1527 and the ensuing occupation of foreigners
and later to the climate of discord and factionalism in Siena.43 Finetti
thus assigns a historical, circumstantial cause to the segregation of the
sexes, ultimately defeating the physicians position that there is something inevitable in the sexual divide. Moreover, his dialogue implicitly
suggests that the conversational contacts orchestrated by the Intronatis
parlour games provided a template for female cultural notoriety and
for a general social disinvoltura that would be wrought by a continual conversation. In the end, the physician capitulates and Finetti has the
last word in promoting a moral science of conversation and here he
is proposing a sociology of discourse that has the force to inspire in
whoever it may be, and much more in noble minds, a mutual friendship and esteem; a much more just idea of things, of circumstances,
and of that which convenes to each one according to ones age and station; a greater consideration in familiar discourses; and a strong, lively
desire to embellish our minds and act with ingenuity and decorum.44
Finettis civil conversation may thus vary by age and station, but not, it
seems, by sex.
Presenting and then refuting patriarchal assumptions, this dialogue
simultaneously arms the benevolent social role of Sienese parlour
194Parlour Games
games and explains the hostile role of historical forces (war and civil
unrest) that aect male/female interactions. This Intronati treatise
marks an attempt to fully transform the ludic moment to an enduring
social reality: to transform the liminoid encounters of the parlour game
to the continuous conversations possible within a sexually integrated
society. Certainly, Finetti presents the heterosocial opposite to Ottonellis homosocial extreme and his treatise suggests that the ludic may
indeed have promoted change rather than reinforced hierarchy.45
***
The social ideal of a Gigli or a Finetti is one thing; the social reality is
another. Where do parlour games fit into the larger social history of
women in the early modern period? How enduring a change did they
spark? Certainly, the Assicurate Academy was short-lived, disappearing the decade following its sole publication of 1704. And yet, the energies of the academy may well have influenced and certainly fed into
the Arcadian Academy in Rome. Indeed, the Florentine poet Maria
Buonaccorsi Alessandri, enrolled in the Assicurate in 1704, became one
of the Arcadian poets, publishing eleven poems in the 1717 volume of
the Rime degli Arcadi.46 One of these poems was devoted to the Sienese
parties where the learned brawls and erudite competition / Of [the
Sienese] ladies teach with rays of light to illuminate the night and
lift the female sex so high in the world.47 Another Assicurate member,
the improvisational poet Emilia Ballati Orlandini who had a part in a
game during the last party recorded in the Accounts of the Giuochi di
Spirito as the muse Calliope also became an Arcadian poet. In both
instances, moreover, these womens Arcadian poems reflect how their
inspiration in ludic settings could nonetheless lead to serious forms of
personal expression. In Alessandris case, one poem on her continual
misfortunes is a lengthy lament declaring that Ogni cosa qu mutabile: / Il mio duolo sempre stabile (Every thing here is mutable / my
grief is always enduring).48 In Orlandinis case, she oers a more traditional poem of the lovelorn, declaring herself in the sea of a tempestuous love, / [a] poor and unhappy vessel.49 The verbal jousts and poetic
contests of the Sienese games thus clearly helped propel some women
into a public life of publishing.
But what of the larger currents of the public life of women in the
early modern period? Indeed, the progress of Italian women in the later
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries prompted Rebecca Messbarger
Conclusion195
to agree with the playwright Pietro Chiari (171285), who called his
eighteenth century the century of women, as they made inroads into
universities (earning doctorates and university chairs), translating scientific works, launching literary journals, and founding scientific academies.50 In fact, the absence of a strong female salon culture in Italy
relative to France may have been partly owing to the mainstreaming of women, who gained access to universities and literary academies.51 As for the filtering of Italian games or Italian feminism north
of the Alps, the possible influence began as early as Ringhieris dedication of his Cento giuochi to Catherine de Medici and her court in 1551.
Later, Marie de Medici, Henry IVs second wife, invited to Paris Giambattista Marino, whose praise of the Sienese games in his Adone (1623)
Gigli cited time and again. In fact, Marino did eventually spend many
years in France (161523), and he exercised a notable cultural presence
at the royal court and in the salons.52 It may be telling that the first
notable French salon was that of Madame de Rambouillet (Catherine
de Vivonne) the daughter of the French ambassador to Rome and
his Roman wife, Giulia Savelli who spent her early years in Rome
and who had a taste for intellectual, witty games and riddles.53 Charles
Sorel attested to the currency of Italian games in mid-seventeenthcentury France in his massive La maison des jeux (The house of games)
of 1642, which drew on both Ringhieris and Girolamo Bargaglis game
books.54 It is worth noting, however, that Sorel characterized Ringhieris games as being often too learned (especially for women) and the
Sienese games as being too licentious at both extremes, then, implicitly criticizing features of the Italian games that overestimated womens
intellect on the one hand, or overindulged their sexual freedom on the
other.55 His glosses on Castiglione and Stefano Guazzo would suggest
that he was more approving of the discussions of games found in the
Courtier and the Civil Conversation, templates that depicted the female
persona in more traditional, courtly terms.56
But Sorels was a male view, and early modern French women may
have found in their Italian predecessors another, bolder model. In fact,
the most famous and most radical woman of the French salons, Madame de Stal, modelled her novel Corinne ou Italie (1807) on the Italian improvisational poet Maria Maddalena Morelli of Pistoia, who in
1750 was inducted into the Arcadian Academy as Corilla Olimpica.57
This Corilla achieved fame as the only woman to be crowned poet laureate on the Capitoline Hill in Rome (in 1776). She thus became the female counterpart to the earlier male improvisational poet, Bernardino
196Parlour Games
Perfetti, who was so crowned in 1725.58 The Sienese Perfetti and his female associate and Assicurate member Emilia Ballati Orlandini were
both present at the 1707/8 parlour-game event at the Finetti household,
where Orlandini performed a madrigal.59 Indeed, the setting of the giuochi di spirito was likely a common venue for such compositions. Elisabetta Graziosi suggests that the improvisational poetry of the Arcadian
women Faustina Maratti Zappi and Petronilla Paolini Massimi in Rome
was often connected with the parlour game called Sybil60 and the Arcadians staged periodic Olympic Games that could be (contested)
venues for female poets.61 One wonders if Corilla Olimpicas Arcadian name itself may have reflected these Giuochi olimpici. In any case,
praised for declaiming with unaria disinvolta, she perhaps represents the culmination of the tradition of such a female performer.62 Madame de Stals Corinne, half-Italian and half-English, professed that
her improvisational poetry was akin to lively conversation and, in
fact, declared that she returned to Italy from the England of her adolescence because she could not abide the social segregation and submission of women.63 Returning to Italy as a free spirit and with a single
name lacking a patronymic she won renown and a Roman crowning.64 For Madame de Stal, twice exiled from France by Napoleon, her
fiercely independent character Corinne obviously drew on the legacy
of Corilla, who in turn was herself likely in part the heir of the performance culture of the Italian parlour games.65
Did Italian women, then, have a Renaissance? The story of Corilla
Olimpica certainly illustrates that in one notable way they did. If Petrarchs crowning in 1341 on the Capitoline Hill was a symbolic beginning of the Italian Renaissance, Corillas crowning could be seen as the
belated female end. Game culture as part reflection of social reality
and as part engine of social change was an important, if neglected, dimension of the shifts in female status in the period. The parlour game
in particular aorded a transition from private to more public life, just
as the parlour was a literal and metaphorical space mediating between
the private world of the family and the public world of conversation,
competition, and fame. And play in general became a realm for renegotiating gender relations.66 Tassos Margherita wanted to authentically
win at primiera, not be humoured. The Assicurate women wanted to
declaim assertively in front of the Intronati men, not be silent listeners.
The social dynamics of the ludic setting had changed both from the ancient to the Renaissance eras and within the period of the Renaissance
itself. The women depicted in Athenaeuss banqueting Deipnosophists
Conclusion197
were (absent) prostitutes. The women in Renaissance parlour games

extending a courtly tradition of female literati that dated back to medieval Provence were proper women with a place at the table. And
within the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
presence of these women became more pronounced. The women orchestrating the games in Castigliones Courtier said little as the men
expounded. The clever women in Sienas parlour games and beyond
claimed an increasingly assertive role in the festivities, as they did as
well at the walls, in the emblems, in the academies, in the press and
in the conversation.
Notes
1. The Renaissance Theory of Play

1 On this list of games in Bk. 1.22 see Rabelais, 98105; Bakhtin, 2319; Mehl
1990, 23, 4935. As to whether all these games are real (or some fanciful,
as one might suspect from Rabelais), Psichari (12) argues that although
he has not been able to verify all of the games, la proportion de ceux qui
ont t claircis autorise imputer les autres notre ignorance, plutt
qu la fantaisie de Rabelais (ibid., 2). On the general theory of play, see
Huizingas remarkable Homo Ludens; Caillois; Turner; Sutton-Smith. On
leisure, see Veblen; De Grazia. On play and games in the medieval period, see Mehl 1990; Mehl 2010; in the Renaissance, see the wide-ranging
conference proceedings in Les jeux la Renaissance and in Passare il tempo.
2 As for games in encyclopedic works see, e.g., Raaele Maeis brief chapter De ludo diverso quo summi viri quandoque occupati fuerunt in his
Commentariorum urbanorum libri octo et trigenta (1506) at Maei, 6934.
3 Garzoni, 903: The game, which by Torquato Tasso in his Gonzaga is defined as being a contest of fortune and skill among two or more. Another
reason Garzoni may have cited Tasso here could be that Tassos patron,
Alfonso II dEste, was the dedicatee of the Piazza.
4 For the Capitolo and Commento, see Berni, 804, 20564; on Bernis assault
of high culture, see Reynolds.
5 Aretino, esp. 2902, 364, 375.
6 Solerti 1895, 1:323, dates the composition of the work to the second half of
1580.
7 It is the usually private, sometimes public middle realm of polite play
che molte fiate nelle domestiche camere si suole usare, tutto chalcuna
volta in publico si faccia (that often occurs in private quarters, although
200Notes to pages 56
10
11
12
somes takes place in public) (T. Tasso 1996, 46) on which the discussion
will focus.
On the ludic character of Alfonso IIs court, his Saletta dei Giuochi and
Salone dei Giuochi (rooms frescoed with images of games), and the influence on Tasso of a chess treatise written (probably by Annibale Romei) for
Alfonsos sister Leonora dEste, see G. McClure 2008.
For instance, the history of games confined to a history of chess in
the Romeo swells into a survey of classical Greek and Roman public
games, with comments on their origins (e.g., obsequies) and larger public functions (e.g., honouring the gods, imitating war). The discussion
of the origin of chess, which appears in both treatises, shows Tassos interest in applying a critical historical eye to theories that assign chesss
invention to the era of the Trojan War: he has Margherita (based on her
reading of Homer in translation) challenge anachronisms that would
place Palamedes and the Amazons at Troy in the same period, or that
would suggest that rooks as symbols of elephants (not in use in the
war) were introduced to the game in that period (T. Tasso 1996, 445;
T. Tasso 1959a, 2323). From the vantage point of gender, it is worth
noting that the discussion of the Amazons in the Romeo comes in relation to Margheritas asking why the queen has so much power in the
game and the king so little (T. Tasso 1996, 44), on which issue in relation
to the power of women rulers see Yalom, who ties this development to
the reign of Queen Isabella of Spain; Mehl 2010, 3301.
Ibid., 2356.
Cf. T. Tasso 1996, 47; T. Tasso 1959a, 23743.
In his De remediis utriusque fortune Petrarch not only generally counsels
Stoic remove from the spes and gaudium of good fortune and the metus
and dolor of bad (on which see G. McClure 1991, 4672), but also (in De
rem. 1, chaps. 257, 29) reveals a general scepticism concerning games
(such as ball playing, dice and board games, gambling, and wrestling)
that lead to any loss of control or that emphasize too much the physical
over the intellectual; he even rejects play as an antidote for work, suggesting that classical exemplars (such as Quintus Mucius Scaevola and
Augustus) who played dice and/or board games to relax should not be
emulated. The only game he seems to approve is a cerebral one his
own moral adaptation of a logic game drawn from Aulus Gelliuss Attic
Nights 18.13, in which intellectuals gamble to fund their dinner by posing competing bon mots (Petrarch 1991 1:7883, 8590; 2:1412; cf. Huizinga, 196).
Notes to pages 67201

13 In the Gonzaga secondo, this issue is tied to a related question of whether a
player should allow himself to be deceived by a woman (T. Tasso 1959a,
225, 242).
14 T. Tasso 1996, 478: Chi con esso voi giocasse, graziosa signora, potrebbe
ragionevolmente por la vittoria nel perdere e a bellarte lasciarsi vincere,
come fanno alcuni cortesi, i quali, giuocando con le dame, si lasciano vincere a bello studio Ma s come creanza e cortesia il lasciarsi vincere
dalle donne, cos sciocchezza sarebbe quella di colui che da gli uomini
volontariamente vincer si lasciasse, perch ciascuno dee procurare desser
altrui superiore ne le cose oneste e lodevoli; ma onestissima e lodevolissima la vittoria.
15 Ibid., 48: da voi chiamata creanza e cortesia, da me stimata inganno
et artificio: perch, come poco anzi diceste, non [si] lascian vincere se non
per vincere.
16 Ibid., 48: Non nego chalcuni non ce ne siano che per disegno si lascin
vincere o damore o daltro che si sia; ma molti ancora il fanno semplicemente per creanza.
17 T. Tasso 1996, 48, emphasis added: Ma forse questo nome di fortuna
un nome vano, a cui niuna cosa corrisponde; onde, se noi cediamo di
fortuna, questo avviene perch cediamo di forze, tutto che dingegno
siamo eguali: e la violenza de gli uomini fabricatrice di questa fortuna,
che, se pur alcuna cosa (chio ne dubito), altro non cheetto della lor
tirannide.
18 Ibid., 48: Io crederei pi tosto che la bellezza della donna fosse fabricatrice della fortuna de gli uomini, perch, sin alcuna cosa ha forza la fortuna, lha ella nel giuoco e nellamore.
19 Ibid., 48: Ma nel regno dAmore signoreggia la fortuna feminile: percioch la donna, in quanto amata, sempre superiore allamante, se bene, in
quanto moglie, inferiore al marito.
20 Ibid., 49: In tutti gli altri uci della vita nascono alluomo inferiori: solo
amor forse quel chagguagliando le lor disagguaglianze, rende le donne
eguali a gli uomini. The conversation then sheers o into an abstract discussion of fortunes sway in human aairs, arts, and games.
21 Even at the end of the dialogue, Pocaterra compares the hopes and fears that
players have awaiting the outcome of a game to those experienced by lovers,
arguing that successful players may resemble successful lovers who, cheerfully serving their ladies are nonetheless not able to ask themselves whether
they are happy until they possess their desired end (ibid., 54).
22 See C. Ossola and S. Prandi in T. Tasso 1996, 34.
23 The passage reads: s cha me pare che pi tosto di fortuna che dingegno
voi debbiate cedere a gli uomini, poich da la vostra [fortuna?] non v
conceduto molte fiate dimostrar il vostro ingegno (T. Tasso 1959a, 245,
emphasis added).
24 Ibid., 225, emphasis added: una sola ne avete lasciata a dietro, come
debba giuocare chi desidera di vincere.
25 Gonzaga comments, ben vorrei, se in alcun modo possibile fosse,
chinsegnassimo a la signora Margherita di vincere, comella desidera (T.
Tasso 1959a, 252) and, more precisely, proposes that if we are not able
to teach Signora Margherita to win assuredly, let us at least try to teach
her how she can aspire to victory by making some pacts (accordi) (ibid.,
252).
26 See for example, a specific scenario from primiera that he constructs in
which Margherita might have 39 of clubs without any hope of a new
point, and Signor Giulio Cesare holding 35 of diamonds and cups and can
win with two cards, and I, bidding primiera, can win with only one card,
then (ibid., 2545; on primiera see Dossena, 2:94850; Ore, 11318, 1726,
20614).
27 When Gonzaga questions, ought then the player not consider in any
way the quality of the person in the distributions? and Pocaterra says
no, Gonzaga presses the point: And the same distribution ought to be
made to a woman with whom he plays as would be made to a merchant,
if he played with a merchant? To which Pocaterra answers, The same
(T. Tasso 1959a, 255).
28 Ibid., 255: Poco cortese dunque sar, o signor Annibale, questo vostro giuocatore, e poco meritevole di giuocare con le donne gentili.
29 Pocaterra comments, however, if I should hold forth on something in
which I have never made profession, and discuss it in the presence of Signora Margherita, I would resemble that philosopher or sophist (whichever it was), who reasoned on the art of war so ardently in the presence
of Hannibal (ibid., 219; and see E. Mazzalis comment at note 3 there). It
is also worth noting that at one point, when Pocaterra introduces an amatory example, Margherita rather condescendingly acknowledges his preoccupation with love, saying Conveniently enough, Signor Annibal finds
the occasion to mix discussions of love in this proposition (ibid., 246),
before she directs attention back to the intellectual issue at hand. Thus,
the one vestige of amatory culture in this dialogue (in comparison to the
Romeo) is introduced only to be mocked.
30 Ibid., 2445.
Notes to page 9203

31 For Gibertos comment and a very helpful account of Claudias marriage
and separation (including some of her unedited letters), see Odoardo
Rombaldis Contro corrente: Claudia Rangoni in Rombaldi, 14650,
here 146; on her life (including some of her letters), also see Tiraboschi,
4:26077.
32 Fulvia earned praise for her rule from the likes of Francesco Sansovino
and the poet Muzio Manfredi, who hailed her as a latter-day Dido as
widow/ruler (Ceretti; A. Ghidini in DBI 29:4346).
33 Several princes including the duke of Parma, Duke Alfonso II, and
Prince Vincenzo of Mantua were apparently infatuated with her, and
Tasso and a competing poet at the Este court clashed over her. Tasso first
met her when he was in Rome in late 1572 and early1573 and wrote a sonnet about her, but it would be her visits to Ferrara in 1576 and 1577 that
made a dramatic impression on observers. For this discussion of Barbara
I am indebted to Solertis portrait of her, which includes lengthy excerpts
from Canigianis letters (see Solerti 1891, cxicxxv); on Tasso and Barbara,
also see Solerti 1895, 1:180, 221, 2567.
34 So she was characterized by the Florentine ambassador to Ferrara, Bernardo Canigiani, who had been charged with reporting closely on the
aairs of the court (Solerti 1891, cxxii). Canigiani depicts Barbara as the
tyrannical taskmaster of the revelries: But indeed the boss (padrona)
and she who is the reason for the expenses and hardships of everyone
appears to be the Contessa di Sala: at the will of whom one goes, one
stays, one rises, one eats, one plays, and so forth. I hear that she has organized there a game of calcio comprising eight women and sixteen men per
side and they have sent here for the balls (ibid., cxxi).
35 According to one contemporary account, it was she who, using the festive
setting with various artifices of private parties, banquets, evening discussions, and games, sought to gather in her palace relatives and friends,
constituting herself almost as ringleader; and it was she who at one
meeting passed around a document swearing the conspirators to silence,
signing it first herself. For the citation of this unpublished contemporary
account of Vittorio Siri, Della congiura dei cavalieri di Parma contro il
loro Principe, di lui famiglia e Stato, see Odorici, 25n2, 26. On the conspiracy, see Odorici; also Bazzi and Benassi, 199210.
36 In a variant edition of the Gonzaga secondo, Tasso added a fifth woman
to the list, Ermelina Canigiani, likely some relation to Bernardo Canigiani mentioned above, and has Margherita say these five women I
have known [to be] of intelligence (ingegno) so quick and vivacious that I
204Notes to page 10
37
38
39
40
41
42
would have had greater fear of contending in speaking with any of them
than in finding myself facing an armed knight (T. Tasso 1958, 485, n. 2).
Tasso spent time with Speroni while a student at Padua and, later, when
he again came in contact with Speroni in Rome in 1575, read him his Jerusalem Delivered. Speroni oered his criticism and advice and became
one of Tassos many consultants for his revision of the work (Solerti 1895,
1:53, 556, 166n2, 2056n3, 216, 2278).
Speroni, 1:25765. Speroni also wrote several other short pieces on games.
In his Avvertimenti a messer Ascanio Bolognetti, in which he discusses
various types of games, he warns against gambling and cautions that
his friend should not defeat superiors (in age or rank) out of courtesy,
but take care that it is known that you yield to them through courtesy,
not through unworthiness or impotence (Speroni, 3:474). Thus, he illustrates how the etiquette of winning and losing extended to men of unequal standing. In a brief Del gioco in his Trattatelli di vario argumento
he praises ball games and chess, but is quite censorious of card playing,
which he calls a diabolical invention (Speroni, 5:4412), though in an
unfinished work, Della fortuna: sogno, cards are depicted more favourably, as Fortuna, an angel of God, explains that card playing is perhaps
the only legitimate vehicle for gaining or losing the goods of fortune
(riches) (Speroni, 3:3515). Whatever his true position on cards, Speroni
was praised as a model card player by Aretino, who with the customary
dash of burlesque asserted that he who wishes to hear and see Plato in
the colloquy, observe and listen to Speroni at play (Aretino, 242).
On the intersection of courtship and chess playing, see Yalom, 12347;
on the relationship between board games and women rulers (such as Leonora of France or Mary of Hungary) who were sometimes themselves
depicted on game pieces, see Wilson-Chevalier.
After being freed from SantAnna in 1586, Tasso would come into contact
with Mori upon his coming to Mantua (T. Tasso 1959b, 255, n. 3). Mori
gave Tasso a copy of his Giuoco piacevole in c. 1586 (which Tasso acknowledged in T. Tasso 18525, 3:20), and Tasso wrote consolatory sonnets for
Mori on the death of his son in 1586 (Solerti 1895, 1:5024; T. Tasso 1852
5, 3:278) and addressed numerous letters to him in the course of that
year (see, aside from those cited above, ibid., 3:324, 369, 41, 57, 60, 756,
7980).
Mori, 139.
Mori, 140: Non la piglio in quel taglio replic ella ch non volgio essere di cattivo essempio agli altri, n voglio trionfare senza vittoria.

43 There is of course the possibility that Moris treatise, dated to 1575 in its
dedication, was influential on Tassos Romeo of 1581, and on the Gonzaga
secondo of 1582 or its revision in 1587 (on which see Solerti 1895, 1:5212).
44 In turn, softening the portrait of Margherita may have been calculated to
cultivate further her help or that of her father Cornelio, to whom he later
(in early 1585) appealed for help (see Solerti 1895, 1:393; T. Tasso 18525,
2:3067).
45 On Tassos service at the Este court (first under Cardinal Luigi dEste and
then under Alfonso II), his fragile mental condition, his doubts about his
religious orthodoxy, his attacking a servant of the duchess with a knife,
and finally his rages at his patrons in March 1579 that led to his subsequent confinement in the hospital of SantAnna until 1586, see Solerti
1895, 1:103495; Brand, 1126. As for Tassos own perception of his mental condition, his comments in a letter to Maurizio Cataneo of 1581 (the
same year in which the Romeo was published) are dramatically illustrative; he complains of human and diabolical disturbances, including
the cries of men and particularly women and children, laughter full of
scorn, and various voices of animals that are stirred up by men for my
distress and the noise of inanimate things that are prompted by the hands
of men (T. Tasso 1959a, 888.) He then discusses how some of his writings are produced in a troubled state: Not only letters written by me,
but other compositions as well have been written with the same mental
disturbance (ibid., 889). On Tassos comment, however, in another letter
that he feigned madness as a ploy to return to Alfonsos good graces, see
the remarks of his acquaintance and contemporary biographer Giovan
Battista Manso (see Manso, 11221; on dissimulation in Tasso, also see
Cavallo, 2258). As for Tassos religious doubts, these plagued him not
only in regard to the Jerusalem Delivered but also in regard to certain passages on fortune and classical philosophers in the Romeo and the Gonzaga
secondo (on his amending or excising certain such passages between the
former and the latter and in unpublished revisions made to the latter in
1587, see Prandi 1999, 295, 311; Prandi 1997, 4337, 44150).
46 Giulio Cesare and his brother, the future cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, one
of Tassos consultants on the revision of the Jerusalem Delivered (see T.
Tasso 1959a, 763n1) were two of the children of Carlo, marchese of Gazzuolo, and Emilia Cauzzi. When their father died in 1555, they and their
brothers were entrusted to the care of, among others, Cardinal Ercole
Gonzaga and his nephew Duke Guglielmo of the Mantuan court. Giulio
Cesare took control of the Mantuan territory of Pomponesco in 1578, and
206Notes to page 11
Scipione would be elevated to cardinal in 1587 (R. Tamalio in DBI 57:787;
G. Benzoni in DBI 57:843, 852).
47 As for the composition of this work, Doglio, 505, 513, dates it between
September and November 1580, and thus around the same period in
which Tasso wrote the very patriarchal Il padre di famiglia (which he sent
to Scipione Gonzaga in late September), in which he argued that men
and women have distinctly dierent virtues (men cultivating prudenza,
fortezza, and liberalit; women modestia and pudicizia), that women are
meant to obey men, and that women are subordinate to men in the
same way that cupidity is to intellect (T. Tasso 1998, 409). It is unclear
whether Tasso composed the more feminist Discorso before or after Il
padre though I would guess it was after, since its dual argument is more
compatible with Il padre than the latters strictly patriarchal argument, if
appearing later, would be compatible with the Discorso. If, as is likely, it
was written between the Romeo (dated by Solerti to the summer or fall
of 1580) and the more feminist Gonzaga secondo (written in 1581 prior to
Margheritas death on September 18), it may have laid the groundwork
for the changed assumptions in the latter (on the dating of the composition of the Romeo and Gonzaga secondo, see Solerti 1895, 1:3223; also T.
Tasso 1996, 34). It is worth noting that Giulio Cesare and Scipione themselves witnessed the vulnerability of widows in the case of their own
mother Emilia Cauzzi, who after the death of her husband lost control of
Commessaggio owing to the aggression of her late husbands cousin Vespasiano Gonzaga, a conflict Scipione described in his Commentarii, (see
Gonzaga, 107, 10911, 115; G. Benzoni in DBI 57:844).
48 T. Tasso 1997, 5467. See Thucydidess account of Pericless funeral oration in the History of the Peloponnesian War 2.45 in which Pericles states
that the greatest virtue of a woman is that she not be pubicly spoken of
(positively or negatively), and Plutarchs explicit refutation of that position in his Bravery of Women in the Moralia 242e263c. On Platos view that
women can have the same qualities and virtues as men, see the Republic
5.451d466d and 7.540c; on Aristotles diering views, see the Politics 1.13
(1259b1260a) and the Ps.-Aristotelian Economics 1.3 (1344a). On Tassos
Discorso, see Doglio; Kelso, 2768; Jordan, 1479; Cox 2008, 16872. As for
arguments for the equality of women, in the fifth day of discussions in his
Discorsi, Annibale Romei examines women in terms of the days topic On
Nobility. Here, against the Greek scholar Antonio Barisano, who asserts
the inferiority of women (drawing upon Aristotle), he has Ercole Varano
come to their defence (drawing upon Plato and Plutarch) (Solerti 1891,
22433).

49 T. Tasso 1997, 67: alla virt donnesca ritornando, dico chella nelle donne
eroiche virt eroica che con la virt eroica delluomo contende, e delle
donne dotate di questa virt non pi la pudicizia che la fortezza o che la
prudenza propria. N alcuna distinzione dopere e duci fra loro e gli
uomini eroici si ritrova.
50 T. Tasso 1996, 49.
51 Among the ladies at court, he might have been particularly hopeful in
regard to Lucrezia dEste, the duchess of Urbino, as he adds a fulsome
praise of her in this treatise: after Margherita presents her list of women
of ingegno, Gonzaga praises the ladies at court and singles out Lucrezia, known not only for her beauty but also for her accortezza,
gravit, and modestia (T. Tasso 1959a, 245).
52 For this letter to Angelo Grillo, see T. Tasso 18525, 2:310. For the full
story of release and Grillos role, see G. McClure 2008.
53 And given the fact that Tasso later appealed to Margheritas father Cornelio for help, he may even have envisioned her as a potential advocate and
mediator via her father. Alternatively or simultaneously, of course, Tasso
could have been featuring Margherita in the dialogue to flatter her father
and thereby directly enlist his support. For Tassos appeal to Cornelio
Bentivoglio in 1585, see T. Tasso 18525, 2:306; Manso, 97, 113.
54 See King, 176239; Kelso; on women in general in Italy, see Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society. In fact, Tassos treatise provoked a response from a female participant in the querelle. In a second (1601) edition
of her La nobilt et eccellenza delle donne, et mancamenti de gli uomini (orig.
1600), Lucrezia Marinelli adds sections rebutting various other male writers (in addition to her initial target, Giuseppe Passi, who wrote a Donneschi difetti in 1599). In a section on Tasso she charges him with restricting
non-gendered virtue to queens, princesses, and those whom he calls
heroic ladies (trans. in Marinella, 139; Benedetti, 456). If Tasso disappoints Marinella in his equivocal postion, this is perhaps partly because
she sees the glass as half empty rather than half full, given Tassos emphasis on and list of prominent women in the treatise. That others saw
Tasso to have presented a flattering view of women in the treatise is suggested by his cousin Ercole, who in 1593 wrote a dialogue on marriage
(Dellammogliarsi: Piacevole contesa fr i due moderni Tassi, Hercole, cio, e
Torquato) in which Torquato defends women and the estate of marriage
against Ercoles attack. Indeed, at one point Torquato raises the issue
found in the Discorso concerning Platos and Aristotles opposing views as
to whether woman have the same or diering kinds of virtue and cites as
authoritative Basil the Greats judgment that their virtue was one and the
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
same (E. Tasso, K1vK2r). In this sense, then, Tassos cousin placed him
on the feminist side of this particular issue in the querelle des femmes.
In a rebuttal of Ercoles treatise in her Nobility and Excellence of Women,
Marinella addresses only Ercoles attack on women, not Torquatos
defence of them just as she largely ignores Tassos more positive comments on heroic women in his Discorso and his Stanze in difesa de le donne,
the latter a response to Antonio de Pazzis verse attack on them (Marinella, 1326, 13941; Doglio, 5201). On Marinella, also see Jordan, 257
61; Malpezzi Price and Ristaino, esp. 10519; Ross, 28699.
See T. Tasso 1997, 62, 679.
See T. Tasso, 1961.
Tassos citing of such women suggests that those who, based on his epic
poetry alone, would characterize him as misogynistic relative to Ariostos
more positive treatment of women, might gain a more rounded view by
considering the Gonzaga secondo and the Discorso della virt feminile e donnesca. As for Tassos depiction of women in the Jerusalem Delivered, John
McLucas argues that, compared to the portrayals of women in Castiglione and Ariosto, Tassos major female characters (Clorinda, Erminia,
and Arminia) all in the end reflect a submissiveness and that it is futile
to seek feminist sensibility in so nervously misogynist a poet as Tasso
(McLucas, 52; for a reaction to this view, see Migiel, 57). McLucas attributes this to the repressive Counter-Reformation climate in which Tasso
wrote. And whereas he would see Armidas eventual union with Rinaldo
as an example of submission, Jo Ann Cavallo sees this ending (which defiantly legitimizes a Circe-like temptress) as part of Tassos literary revolt
against Counter-Reformation constraints (Cavallo, 186228). In any case,
Tassos prose writings need to be more fully integrated with his epics to
assess his overall or changing attitude towards female agency.
Thus, in an alternate version of the Gonzaga secondo, he has Margherita
characterize these three women and Felice della Rovere (likely not Julius
IIs daughter, who died in 1536) and Ermelina Canigiani (T. Tasso 1958,
485n2; cf. n. 36 above).
On Athenaeus, see L. McClure.
See the women named in the biography of the twelfth-century troubadour Jaufre Rudel in Nostredame, 1519; and for a biography of one of
them, the Countess of Dia (Beatriz di Dia), see ibid., 313; for the poetry
of the Countess of Dia and other women troubadours, see Bogin, esp. at
8291. For an argument that the medieval courtly love tradition was empowering for women, see Kelly, 1418.
Boccaccio 1952, 1523.

62 Boccaccio 1985, 24499.
63 Castiglione, 1824; Greene; Cox 2000. In her pessimistic assessment of Renaissance women, Kelly grounds much of her argument in the Courtier. If,
however, one moves ahead in time into the late Renaissance, as my study
does, and uses the Courtier as a starting point for parlour games, the picture dramatically changes as women are depicted in an increasingly positive and activist light.
64 Following the 1551 first edition, the Cento giuochi was reprinted in Venice in 1553 and in Bologna in 1580, and it appeared in an abridged French
translation in Lyons in 1555. On Ringhieri, see Crane, 28590; G. McClure
2004, 5160.
65 Ringhieri, 157v. If he was at all influenced by the earlier tradition of
games in Siena, he does not own up to it. Given the fact, however, that
he cites Claudio Tolomei in his book (ibid., 67), Sienese influence is possible. Tolomei was among the members of the Grande Academy that preceded the Intronati and, according to Girolamo Bargagli, did experiment
somewhat with games early in the century (G. Bargagli 1982, 58, 67). On
Tolomei, see Sbaragli 1939; on his invention of a card game, see Aretino,
31112.
66 For the view that Ringhieris hyperbole encomiastique of women in
fact compromises a true feminist idea, see Lecercle, 1945.
67 Catherine would bear ten children within twelve years (Hritier, 48). As
for the intersection of games and Catherines reality, eight years after
Ringhieri sent his book (in which he remarks on the French proclivity for
the joust as a game), her husband Henry II died from a jousting accident,
and Catherine herself, arguably a good illustration of the powerful chess
queen (see Yalom), had to play Catholic versus Protestant forces against
each other for many years. Some scholars have argued that she may have
used court masques and mock jousts between warring religious parties in
the 1560s and 1570s to sublimate tensions (Yates 1947, 2519).
68 Ringhieri, 111v.
69 In fact, Roberta Novelli (esp. 6979) argues that the work in many places
recasts a set of dialogues Ringhieri published the previous year (1550) entitled Dialoghi della vita e della morte.
70 Ibid., 157. One of the more interesting didactic games, Maxims and Signs,
is a primer on semiotics in which he oers a list of images with their associated meaning: e.g., Sardanapalus signifies magnifi[cence] of body,
impruden[ce] of mind; and a deer who, fleeing a dog falls into the jaws
of a lion signifies that he who attempts to flee an evil, sometimes falls
into something worse (ibid., 89v90). In some cases, Ringhieri uses the
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
games to incorporate literature, as in the Game of Beauty, which uses

verses from Petrarch (ibid., 129rv; Lecercle).
Ringhieri, 2rv.
cercai de fieri morsi indegnamente tratte, le honeste Donne a suoi
primieri pregi ridurre (Ringhieri, unpaginated dedication to Catherine
de Medici).
Ibid., 1v.
Ibid., 9v.
Ibid., 48v49r.
Ibid., 49r.
Ibid., 49r. On Diotima, who purportedly taught Socrates the Socratic
method, see Platos Symposium 291d212b; on Pericles mistress Aspasia, whose rhetorical skill Socrates cites and whose funeral oration he
recounts, see the Mexenemus 236b249e. On Vittoria Colonna, the first
woman to publish a volume of poetry (1538), see Robin, xviii and passim;
on Veronica Gambera, twenty-one of whose poems would be published
in Lodovico Domenichis volume of all-female poetry (1559), see ibid., 72.
For another defence of womens intellectual capacities, see Ringhieri, 11r.
Ibid., 137v. Laura Terrracina published several volumes of poetry and
criticism from the late 1540s through the early 1560s; see Robin, xviii, 107,
334; on the learned Cassandra Fedele,whom Poliziano compared to Pico
della Mirandola, see Fedele; King, 198201.
Ringhieri, 127r.
In the Game of the Triumph, Ringhieri relates the Roman tradition of the
military triumphal procession to the triumph of female Chastity over voglie ardenti, & insane, and gli empetuosi desideri (ibid., 161r). The Game
of the Husband and Wife cites, among the many things a husband expects from his wife, la vostra fidelt, virginit, purit (ibid., 72r).
Ibid., 99.
Ibid., 99v; Boccaccio 1975.
Ringhieri, 99r102r.
As for cautionary tales of the amatory world, Ringhieri reveals a sympathy for the travails of women due to the jealous behaviour of husbands. He implies that his game is addressed in part to men, so that they
end their jealous ways, in order that women may live a freer life (ibid.,
117v118r).
Ringhieri, unpaginated dedication.
Ibid., 50r; on proverbs, see, e.g., 85r.
As for social issues, see the debate topics appended to the longest of the
games, the Game of Ceremonies, or of the Sacrifice of Venus and Love
88
89
90
91
(an elaborate ceremony in which lovers make sacrifices at the altars of

the gods Venus and her son Cupid). Eight of the ten questions attached
to this game have a somewhat sceptical or critical tone concerning the
role of ceremonies in the social, political, and even religious realm: e.g.,
if it is true that men and women are less pleasant the more they are ceremonious; why so many ceremonies are used at court; and even one
religious topic with reform or Protestant overtones, whether for a Christian it is necessary to be ceremonious (ibid., 70v). On political issues, see
those appended to the Game of the King Drawn from the Game of Cards,
such as why it is said that the evil teacher corrupts the student the same
way that a King of perverse and impious nature does the people (ibid.,
133v).
After incorporating fifty of Ringhieris games and discussing games that
require a knowledge of the Greek or Latin lanugage and an understanding of various works of poets, Sorel observes: Il en est de mesme de la
pluspart des autres Ieux de Rhinghier qui ne sont entendus que par es
personnes qui ayent un peu estudi, au lieu que les Ieux se partiquent
dordinaire parmy de jeunes gens soit de la Cour soit de la Ville, qui enfine sont tous gens du mondi & de conversation vulgaire, sans avoir une
grande aplication aut lettres. Cela ne se fait point aussi sans quil y ayt
des femmes, qui la pluspart nayant pas faict grande lecture, ignorent
beaucoup de choses que lon ne peut savoir sans avoir est au College
(Sorel 1657, Seconde journe, 2945; Sorel 1977, iv). Also, cf. his comment
in his Avertissement aux Lecteurs that among the Italians some have
relied trop de mots de science ou de Posie retenir pour ceux qui nont
pas estudi; Cela est rendu trop pedantesque, pour estre exerc parmy les
gens le Cour, & parmy des femmes (Sorel 1977, a7v).
More lays out the moral function of the game in some detail: wherin
vices fyghte wyth vertues, as it were in battell array, or a set fyld. In the
which game is verye properlye shewed bothe the strie and discorde that
vices haue amonge themselfes, and agayne theire unitye and concorde
againste vertues; and also what vices be repugnaunt to what vertues;
with what powre and strenght they assaile them openlye; by what wieles
and subteltye they assaute them secretelye; with what helpe and aide the
virtues resiste, and overcome the puissaunce of the vices; by what craft
they frustate their purposes; and finally by what sleight or meanes the
one getteth the victory (More, 61).
Guazzo 1590, 283v.
Guazzos ideal would teach how a gustare i cibi con temperanza, &
da essercitare la lingua senza vanit, il giuoco senza lascivia, la concordia

senza rispetto, la dottrina senza vanagloria, la cortesia zenza macchia
(Guazzo 1590, 284r, emphasis added). The work went through ten Italian
editions by 1621, and would be translated into English, French, and Latin
(see Edward Sullivans introduction in Guazzo 1925, 1:xv). Also see Jeanneret, esp. 469.
92 On Arnigio, see S. Carando in DBI 4:2534; for a 1575 treatise on the fear
of death, which he presented to the Paduan Academy of the Animosi, see
Arnigio 1575; Tenenti, 31617.
93 Arnigio, 35972.
94 Ibid., 370.
95 Ibid., 361.
96 Ibid., 370.
97 Ma come la scuola de Giovanetti Ludo da latini si dimandava, & da noi
Giuoco; cosi Giuochi dimandare si ponno gli honesti, & virtuosi trattenimenti, che nelle Accademie si fanno da sublimi & anatissimi Ingegni,
ne quali oltre il trattenimento soave della Musica, per canne, per
corde, per voci, per tutte insieme, che della Storia, chi della Philosophia, chi della Poesia, chi dellAstronomia, chi dellEloquenza, & chi della
sagra Disciplina, altramente di scorrendo, & bellissime poesie tessendo,
com per scherzo & diporto, traduce bene & con gloria sua il tempo, tra le
quali quella de gli Intronati di Siena, quellaltra de gli Adati di Pavia
(ibid., 370). On the link between leisure (schole) and contemplation/education (and, thus, school), see De Grazia, 321; Turner 1982, 36.
98 The title of this veglia of Bk. 10 is Nella quale si tratta del Trattenimento,
& della virt in universale (ibid., 616700).
99 non essendo cosa pi cara, & dilettevole a civili huomini, che da negotii
disoccupati siano, dun vago & gentile trattenimento, il cui piacere nel ragionar & conversar convenevole con altri consistendo, f che sia parte di
quella vita, che attiva & civile chiamiamo (ibid., 626).
100Ibid., 635.
101 Ibid., 646.
102 Ibid., 2267, 240, 2436.
103 After the character Persio delivers this speech, Arnigio says: Poi che
si tacque Perseo, il cui ragionamento prima con un poco di rossore havea
punto gli animi delle Donne, sentendosi elle biasimar il lor sesso di leggierezza, e tor di mano la maggioranza, che savisavan dhavere a petto
al virile: e dop conciliato con tener grado della lor Dignit, Hortensio
& Lucillo voltatosi, a cui toccato era ultimamente di tutti a parlare, impose, che seguitasse trattando della cura della famiglia, & dellallevar &
crear i figliuoli (ibid., 247). The rebuttal by Hortensio comes in Bk. 6,
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
which deals chiefly with educating youth and safeguarding them from
vice. Although this defence does briefly address, e.g., social constraints on
women and Platos inclusion of them in the political and military realm
in the Republic, it relies rather much on theological themes and reinforces
chiefly traditional female virtues (e.g., temperance, compassion, patience,
continence) (ibid., 2812). As for Arnigios own view of women, his position likely is closer to Perseos than Hortensios, because even though
Persios attack contains some extreme statements it also at times acknowledges the presence of educated women Veronica Gambera and Laura
Cereta (244) and warns against husbands severity in dealing with
wives and cites some model marriages (ibid., 228, 246). For a brief praise
and blame of women, also see the end of Bk. 1, though here the vices of
women are rather too detailed (ibid., 4951) and there is found a lengthy
verse normative statement on the ideal married woman (515).
On Arnigios background and career, see S. Carando in DBI 4:2534.
On G. Bargagli and the Intronati see Crane, 26385, 297308; Maylender,
3:35062; Cochrane, 3, 31; R. Bruscaglis Introduzione: nel salotto degli
Intronati, in G. Bargagli 1982, 939; Iacometti; Seragnoli; Ricc 1993;
Ricc 1993a; Bruscagli; Marchetti 1982; G. McClure 2004, 52, 609.
G. Bargagli 1982, 1245.
Ringhieri, 9v and above. Nowhere does G. Bargagli explictly acknowledge Ringhieris book, just as Ringhieri does not recognize the existence
of the Sienese parlour games, which certainly predate his book.
G. Bargagli 1982, 127.
See Tutti i trionfi; Trionfi e canti; G. McClure 2004, 4051.
G. Bargagli 1982, 201. See the Canto degli spazzacamini in Grazzinis
collection (Tu i trionfi, 102). On this practice, Tomaso Garzoni in his Piazza universale observes that during Carnevale young men sometimes
dress up as chimneysweeps, shouting Belle madonne chi vuol spazza
camino? (Garzoni 1996, 976; G. McClure 2004, 92).
He adds that if one must wear a mask it should not be crude or ugly. The
elder figure in the dialogue, Sodo (Marcantonio Piccolomini), says: E
se occorresse il comparire in maschera, come al mio tempo si usava assai
e oggi intendo essersi quasi dismesso, loderei il farsi sempre vedere con
nuova invenzione di maschera a guardandosi da maschera di schifa o di
brutta figura o da abito disprezzabile (G. Bargagli, 1982 145).
Ibid., 147.
Again, then, Bargagli draws on the analogy of Carnival, transforming
the literary masking princes were known to do into the metaphorical
masking of the game: E s come in un mascherata se bene si conosce il
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
principe a maschera, non di meno si finge di non conoscerlo e come laltre

maschere si tratta, cos quando un signore si ritrova in vegghia, quasi
coperto dalla maschera del giuoco, in quel atto per signore non si riconosce (ibid., 199).
Ibid., 1412.
Egli ben vero, chio non perci intendo che le donne diventino scotte,
n gli uomini buoni, ma desidero che una certa baldanza danimo vadano mostrando, or maggiore o minore, secondo che pi o meno sieno
stati naturalmente al riso prodotti (ibid., 142).
Barberino, 92, draws this list from a work by a Monas dEgitto (who was
possibly the early thirteenth-century Provenal woman Gidas di Mondas); on dating the final version of this treatise to 131416, see ibid., 300;
Brard, 505.
Ben vero che in un ristretto domestico io loderei che la donna ancora
un giuoco facesse e a pi duna ho io qualche giuochetto veduto fare, perci che come cosa che has del libero e de linsolito, arreca seco molto diletto (G. Bargagli 1982, 86).
Ibid., 61. He cites Suetoniuss brief description of Saturnalia in Augustus
75.
Ibid., 612.
Cited in Burke, 209.
On the influence of the Spanish (who had a strong presence in the city
starting in the 1530s), see Bargaglis comment at ibid., 147; on the Spanish in Siena, see Schevill, 40420. For biographies of Provenal poets and
gatherings of men and women in the Cour dAmour discussing amatory questions, see Nostredame, esp. at 17.
Ibid., 72. I settled on intellect for spirito here, because Bargagli emphasizes the quality of invention rather than humour in his distinction:
Perci che questi e simili altri giuochi si chiamano di spirito, perch sono
da spiriti svegliati e dilettano pi per la variet delle invenzioni che si dicono, che per lo riso che muovano. Giuochi di scherzo si chiamano quelli
che allegrezza pi tosto apportano, che spiritosi concetti mostrino (ibid.,
723.) The games of gravitas and intellect were usually to be played before dinner and in public and grand gatherings; the ridiculous ones
after dinner (i.e., when presumably everyone is a bit tipsy) and in smaller
domestic settings (ibid., 86). Finally, he explains that giuochi di spirito may
also have a forfeit (pegno) and/or judge.
See the table of games in the 1592 Venice edition.

126 Ibid., 1034. And he oers a template for inventing games based on professions/arts and human qualities.
127 Ibid., 2056.
128 Ibid., 208. On the Filocolo and questions of love, a common parlourgame theme, see above. On novelty or the appearance of novelty in storytelling, cf. G. Bargagli 1982, 224.
129 S. Bargagli 1989, 2623, emphasis added.
130 G. Bargagli 1982, 109.
131 For his phrase indice de giuochi proibiti, see ibid., 84.
132 See ibid., 7985. He also includes among these one game, the Tinted,
which is condemned for being too dclass, more suited to the rural ville
fra contadini, che nella citt fra persone nobili convenienti (80); cf. Ricc
1993, 3805.
133 For instance, the forbidden game of the Temple of Venus (ibid., 83) is discussed without criticism elsewhere at ibid., 119, 157, 188, and 194.
134 Ibid., 82, emphasis added. Bargagli seems to show how some players
used the games to mock the dire consequences of erroneous theological
opinions in the Reformation controversies over justification.
135 Ibid., 11213.
136 Ibid., 114.
137 See ibid., 158; and for a troppo licenzioso comment made by a woman
at a game, see 183.
138 Ibid., 157.
139 Ibid., 142.
140 Ibid., 1423.
141 On the theme of the anonymous identity and masking, especially in the
context of publishing, see Gagliardi. Ludic identity should be more fully
explored for its role in the Renaissance emergence of the authentic self,
complementing John Martins stress on humanist notions of prudence
(which distinguished between outward show and inward self) and Protestant emotionalism (Martin). On Renaissance and early modern notions
of dissmulation, see Torquato Accettos Della dissimulazione onesta of 1641;
Zagorin; G. McClure 2008, 78183.
142 Ibid., 199200.
143 Ibid., 140. The interlocutors here even suggest, by way of analogy, that
some women have feigned interest in poetry or music in order not to
look boorish or to win praise and reputation through such pursuits undertaken on their behalf by their male admirers. Like princes, women
then can inspire culture even when they may not naturally appreciate it:
onde quando anche sinducessero a ci pi per apparenza del mondo

che per loro naturale istinto, essendo cagione di lodevoli eetti, son degni
anchessi di lode (141). Thus, in this case Bargagli argues for favouring
social appearance over natural instinct all in the cause of pressuring
women to engage these games. And even while he allows that women
may have to force their involvement, he goes on to say that they should
not thereby participate only half-heartedly or distractedly, as Caesar was
criticized for doing when he read papers during the performance of tragedies (141).
144 In his Carte parlanti of 1543, Aretino depicts some female card players
(including several of his lovers and Duke Cosimo de Medicis wife, Eleonora di Toledo) (Aretino, 18995, 217, 24950).
2. The Academy of the Intronati and Sienese Women (15251555)
1 G. Bargagli 1982, 58.
2 BCI, Y. I.1, fol. 1r; and Y.I.1. fol. 44v.; Mazzi 1882, 2:38590; Maylender,
3:354.
3 These statutes open the forty-nine volumes of papers of the Intronati in
Sienas Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati (BCI). The opening chapter of
these statutes, entitled Del origine de li Intronati, addresses the political
chaos in the opening line: In quel tempo che le Armi de barbari chiamate
de la discordia de nostri principi per infin dalle extreme parti doccidente
intrate nella santa casa di Dio, havevano non pur di Toscana ma di tutte
le parti dItalia cacciato ogni altro pensiero che quel de la guerra & interrotti & guasti tutti li exercitii de le lettere (BCI, Y. I.1, fol. 1v). The Intronati laid claim as the oldest academy, though they have some competition
from the Rozzi, an artisan academy whose initial statutes are dated 1531
(Mazzi 1882, 1:34279). For rosters of Intronati members for 1525 and
thereafter, see Sbaragli 1942; on Intronati, also see Maylender, 3:35062;
Iacometti; R. Bruscaglis Introduzione in G. Bargagli 1982, 739.
4 In their history Del Origine de li Intronati they indicate E da un fermo
loro proponimento di fingere di non intendere e non curarsi di nissuna
altra coso del mondo, lo (loro) piacque di pigliar nome dIntronati, e che
questa loro adunazione si chiamasse la compagnia delli Intronati (this is
the transcription found in Mazzi 1882, 2:390; I believe Mazzi is correct in
amending here intedere [in BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 1v] to intendere). For another theory that their name was facetiously given to them by women at
a social gathering, who noted that the men appeared stupefied at social
gatherings (to which the men replied that the women were the cause of
their condition), see comments of Scipione Bargagli cited in Fahy 2000, 440.

5 Cochrane, 134; Samuels, 599.
6 si dessi opera alli exercitii delle lettere cosi volgari come greche & latine
leggendo, disputando, compenendo [read componendo], interpretando,
scrivendo, & per darle in uno facendo tutto che per imparare far si suole,
ne pur solo. Ivi fusse scuola di philosofia ma di humanita, di legge, di
musica, di poesia, darismetica [read aritmetica], & universalmente di tutte
le discipline & di tutte le arti liberali & gentili, dando liberta a ciascuno
di detta congregatione di potere per exercitatione maggiormente del ingegno prepor conclusioni, motti, gergli, imprese, nuove lingue, & qual
si sia altra spetie diinvensioni intorno a li studii litterali (BCI, Y.I.1, fol.
1v).
7 The others were Orare (or in the later set of statutes, Deum colere),
Neminem laedere, Studere, and Nemini credere (or in the later
version, Non temere credere) (BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 2v and ibid., fol. 45r). As
for the precept of praying or cultivating God, I do not see much evidence of this, though this might be something of a confraternal fig leaf for
the group.
8 See the first set of statutes in BCI, Y.I.1, at fol. 9v and a later set of statutes
(from the early eighteenth century) in BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 57v.
9 See Chapt. XV Della pena di chi parlassi di stati (BCI, Y.I.1, fol. 8r).
10 BCI, Y.I.1, fols. 59v63r. This document appears to be in the hand of Girolamo Gigli and contains marginal citations from as late as 1703/4, which
would thus be the terminus a quo for these undated statutes. The Intronati
and the Rozzi were the principal producers of comedy in Siena. A letter of
Uberto Benvoglienti of 12 March 1711/12 oers a history of comedy and
lists seventy-nine plays in the sixteenth century from various groups (e.g.,
the Rozzi, the Intronati, and the Desiosi) and individuals (BCI, C.IV.27,
pp. 41740 [alternate pagination, fols. 210r221v]). Also see Intronati 1611;
Mazzi 1882; Seragnoli; Borsellino.
11 G. Bargargli 1982, 134.
12 See, for instance, the Comedia del Sacrificio de gli Intronati, performed during Carnival in 1532 (old style, 1531) in which academy members, discouraged by the didence of the Sienese women, sacrifice various tokens
of these women on the altar of love. In doing so, they lament that they
have lost the flower of their green years pursuing these women, who
themselves are also in their piu verdanni (Intronati 1559, fols. 3v, 5r).
13 G. Bargagli 1982, 135.
14 G. Bargagli 1982, 136.
15 BCI, P. IV. 27, no. 13, 2122v; Marchetti 1969, 89. As for other comments
on the law or letters to his law professors Girolamo Benvoglienti and
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Giovanni Biringucci (the latter also a member of the Intronati), see BCI, P.
IV. 27 no. 13, fols. 10v, 11v, 26v, 27r, 28r, v, 31v, 33r; Marchetti 1969, 889.
On Sozzini, see Marchetti 1969; Cantimori, 3469; Cant, 2:4918. On his
fleeing the city by September of 1560, see Marchetti 1975, 221.
et io [trovo occupato intor, cancelled] son dato ad perpetuam cartarum
revolutionem, che cos fu ben chiamato da qual galantehuomo lo studio
dele leggi nele quali mi sono ingolfato per essertation [read essortation],
e per [content , cancelled] satisfatione de miei (BCI, P.IV.27, no. 13, fol.
28rv).
Ibid., fol. 28v; Bruscaglis Nel salotto degli Intronati, in G. Bargagli
1982, 16. Elsewhere he also cites the case of another figure similarly ingolfato neli studi legali, et risoluto il seguitarli come si ssortato da tutti
i suoi (ibid., fol. 40v).
Erikson, 1558; Turner 1982, 545.
G. Bargagli 1982, 137. On the confraternity as model for Ficinos Platonic
Academy in the fifteenth century, see Kristeller.
Van Gennep, 1012.
See N. Newbigins comment in Intronati 1996, 252.
See Vignali, and Ian F. Moultons introduction therein, which dicusses
both political and homoerotic subtexts of the dialogue between the author and Marcantonio Piccolomini, whose nickname Sodo (solid), as
Moulton suggests, probably has another meaning as well (Vignali, 165n3).
On such groups in early modern France, see Davis, 97123.
Van Gennep, 1701.
On the erotic function of flagellation, whipping, and striking, see van
Gennep, 1745.
In 1444 such young people who aged out of the youth confraternities at
24 were forbidden to join adult confraternities until fully enfranchised
politically at age 2930; in 1455 this age was lowered to 20. Thus for a decade these youth in their twenties were cut adrift, were prone to sexual
libertinism and largely served a function of performing in festive settings
(Trexler, 38799; Eisenbichler 1998, 1920). On the Venetian states ritual
incorporation of the occasionally boisterous, liminoid young men (in
their twenties) into the political establishment, see Chojnacki.
Trexler, 388.
Intronati 1559, esp. fol. 5r.
Maylender, 3:358; Belladonna 1992, 489.
The liminal phases of tribal society invert but do not usually subvert the
status quo, the structural form of society; reversal underlines to members
of a community that chaos is the alternative to cosmos, so theyd better
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
stick to cosmos, i.e., the traditional order of culture, though they can for
a brief while have a whale of a good time being chaotic, in some saturnalian or lupercalian revelry, some charivari, or institutionalized orgy
(Turner 1982, 41). For an analysis that these liminal rites could in fact be
transformative, see Davis, 12451.
Liminoid phenomena develop apart from the central economic and political processes, along the margins, in the interfaces and interstices of
central and servicing institutions they are plural, fragmentary, and experimental in character (Turner 1982, 54). They can often be found in
particular groups schools, circles, and coteries [and] they have to
compete with one another for general recognition and are thought of at
first as ludic oerings placed for sale on the free market (ibid., 54). Furthermore, they are often parts of social critiques or even revolutionary
manifestos books, plays, paintings, films, etc., exposing the injustices,
ineciencies, and immoralities of the mainstream economic and political
structures and organizations (ibid., 545).
For a brief and, in the case of the Intronati, unpersuasive revisionist argument that there was no liberal attitude towards women in
Cinquecento literary academies, see Fahy 2000 (here, at 438), who generally minimizes the Intronatis promotion of women, even in the face
of Alessandro Piccolominis intellectual engagement with them (ibid.,
443).
Ceretta, 6, 73, 969.
On Piccolominis vernacular scientific works, commentaries (on Aristotles Rhetoric and Poetics), and translations (e.g., of these two works and
Xenophons Economics, which he dedicated to Frasia Placidi de Venturi),
see Cerreta, 12, 3541, 6771, 17396; R. Belladonnas introduction in Piccolomini 1984, 57. On the popular press, see Grendler 1969, 319; Burke
1987, 712; Quondam; G. McClure 2004, 279.
On Laudomia and praises of her by Benedetto Varchi, Bernardo Tasso,
and Giuseppe Betussi, see C. Zarrilli in DBI 49:1535; A. Lisini in Forteguerri, 67. On Piccolomini and Laudomia, also see the excellent discussion in Robin, 13658.
The work, dated 1538, and thus composed when Alessandro was thirty,
was published eleven times in the sixteenth century (Cerreta, 175). On the
ludic context of the work, see Baldi.
le mogli e i mariti si pigliono a la cieca senza aversi mai veduti, e gran
ventura sarebbe, samasser di cuore e non per ceremonia e per obligo, o
vogliamo dir per forza (A. Piccolomini 2001, 108; John Nevinsons afterword in A. Piccolomini 1968, 99).

39 Io vi confesso bene, poich gli uomini fuori di ogni ragione tirannicamente hanno ordinato leggi, volendo che una medesima cosa a le donne
sia vituperosissima e a loro sia onore e grandezza, poichegli cos, vi
confesso e dico che quando una donna pensasse di guidare un amore con
poco saviezza, in maniera che navesse da nascere un minimo sospetuzzo,
farebbe grandissimo errore, e io pi che altri ne lanimo mio la biasmarei:
perch io conosco benissimo che a le donne importa il tutto questa cosa.
Ma se, da laltro canto, donne mie, voi sarete piena di tanta prudenza e
accortezza e temperanza, che voi sappiate mantenervi e godervi lamante
vostra, elletto che ve lavete, fin che durano gli anni vostri cos nascosamente, che n laria, n il cielo ne possa suspicar mai, in questo caso dico
e vi giuro che non potete far cosa di maggior contento e pi degna di una
gentildonna che questa (A. Piccolomini 2001, 301, emphasis added).
Also see Piccolominis earlier comment that fra le altre buone parti chio
dico convenirsi a una gentildonna, intendo esser convenevolissimo chella
con gran destrezza si ellegga uo amante unico in questo mondo e insieme
con esso goda segretissimamente il fin de lamor suo (ibid., 30).
40 A. Piccolomini 2001, 723.
41 In his Orazione in morte di Monsignor Alessandro Piccolomini, Arcivescovo
di Patrasso, & eletto di Siena (1579), Scipione Bargagli does not refer to the
Raaella directly but only to Alessandros dialogues (S. Bargagli 1594,
54674). As for Piccolominis own renunciations of the work, see his comments in the Institutione at A. Piccolomini 1545, fols. 5v, 230r, 231rv.
42 On the contradictions among these three works, see Pijus 1993; and
Rita Belladonna calls the Raaella and the Orazione in lode delle donne antithetical works (A. Piccolomini 1984, 5).
43 A. Piccolomini 2001, 29.
44 On Laudomias marriages and children, see C. Zarrilli in DBI 49:153. On
Benedetto Varchis observation that she was Piccolominis Laura, see
ibid., 154; Robin, 136.
45 See A. Piccolomini 2001, 301, cited above.
46 A. Piccolomini 1545, fol. 4r. Piccolomini gave public lectures on Aristotles Ethics at the Academy of the Infiammati while he was studying in
Padua between 1538 and 1542 (Ceretta, 1948; Samuels, 61011, 614), and
while it is possible that Laudomias discourse on happiness also inspired
both the Institutione and these lectures, it is more likely that he is elevating her in these philosophical issues rather than she him.
47 Addressing young Alessandro, Piccolomini refers to a commentary he
previously made on Laudomias twelve divine stanze, composte da la
honestissima e virtuossima vostra madre Mad. Laudomia, in lode de la
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
virtu, e in dispregio insiememente de la Fortuna, dove, si come ne gli altri

suoi componimenti, appar palese lingegno di si gran donna (A. Piccolomini 1545, fol. 236r). On the lecture on her sonnet Hora ten va superbo,
see Robin, 148, who suggests it was perhaps the first critical essay ever
presented at an Italian literary academy on a womans poetry; also see
Cox 2008, 1068. For the sonnet itself, addressed to Margherita dAustria,
see Robin, 153; Forteguerri, 18. On her poetry and on the possibly homoerotic currents and possibly (and, I think, more likely) political motives in
her sonnets to Margherita, daugher of Charles V and wife of Alessandro
de Medici, see Robin, 14859; Eisenbichler 2001; Cox 2008, 1068.
A. Piccolomini 1545, fol. 120r.
Ibid., fol. 121r.
Ibid., fol. 122v.
Ibid., fol. 181r.
Ibid., fol. 153r.
Ibid., fol. 153rv. And this is especially the case when there comes along
someone non come Donna, ma come cosa non mortale like Alessandros mother Laudomia (ibid., fol. 153v).
Ibid., fol. 238r. Although this chapter generally deals with destiny via
natural forces, this passage obviously broaches social ones.
Robin, 1437.
A. Piccolomini 1545, fols. 195v, 263v, 266r.
On these two versions of the treatise and on Piccolominis plagiarism of
Sperone Speronis Dialogo de amore, see Fahy 1962, esp. 123, 12831; Cerreta, 81 (I have not seen the 1560 revised edition). On Piccolomini and
views on marriage in general in sixteenth-century Italy, see Richardson.
A. Piccolomini 1771, 19.
Era la belt di quel viso, Popol Sanese, non languida, e morta, ma piena
di spirito, non molle, or caduca, ma dun non so che daer virile (ibid.,
16).
Ibid., 16. Piccolominis leading o with the quality of veemenza here
is perhaps noteworthy, as this would seem to be a particularly unusual
quality to ascribe to female demeanour. As for Brunis view that women
should not concern themselves with the public realm of rhetoric, see his
letter to Battista Malatesta in Bruni, 244.
A. Piccolomini 1771, 17. As for festive occasions, he returns to this theme
later, citing her involvement nei sollazzi, e ricreazioni dellanimo, che
a chi vuol vivere son necessarj, saying that she did not overindulge but
appropriately exercised moderation (ibid., 22).
Ibid., 1819.
222Notes to page 41
63 Ibid., 19. And he later returns to the theme of her forced political disenfranchisement, when he praises her sense of justice, which at first glance
via virt, che pi alluomo, che ala Donna appartenga, nondimeno Ella
non solo nelle azioni sue particolari faceva sempre conoscere, e trasparire,
quanto amica del gusto fosse: ma delle pubbliche azioni ancora, sebben ella
con danno della Citt vostra non interveniva, nondimeno a questo si conosceva la giustissima mente sua, che con gran sua noja udiva quelle cose,
che ingiustamente su fossero fatte, e non senza infinito contento danimo
godeva di tutto quel, che giustamente intendeva, che si operasse (ibid., 24.)
64 Domenichi, 1559, 9. And the poem closes: Cosi temIo, anzi veggIo,
chin duolo/Verrai misera ognhor, piena di lutti;/ Che cosi avvien, dove
discordia regna (ibid.). On Domenichis collection, see Robin, xviii, xxi
ii, 501, 5978. On the political turmoil in Siena in the later fifteenth and
the first half of the sixteenth century, see Schevill, 398422. On Petruccis
poem, see Eisenbichler 2003, 945. On Piccolominis 1543 treatise of civic
concord, see Cerreta, 501; Pijus, 526n9.
65 Eisenbichler 2003, 95, suggests that Aurelia lived in Rome from the time
the Petrucci faction was driven out of power in 1524 (when she would
have been thirteen), but Piccolominis funeral oration of her suggests
a strong Sienese presence in various contexts: for instance, her circle of
close friends in the city (A. Piccolomini 1771, 1213); her public visibility
in the city (ibid., 23); the impression she made on visiting dignitaries to
the city: Quante volte, comognun sa, essendo occorso passar per Siena
Principi, Marchesi, Duchi, Duchesse, e gran Signori nelle occasioni che
venivano, secondo il decoro, che sapparteneva, parl seco lungamente
questa Donna con stupore, e maraviglia di che si voglia? (ibid., 1718);
and her death in Siena, concerning which Piccolomini describes Aurelias mother hearing news of her illness in Rome and hurrying to Siena
to attend to her (ibid., 30). Whatever the details of Aurelias permanent
domicile, Piccolominis funeral oration certainly suggests that she spent
considerable time in the city. Other details on her life are sparse, other
than the fact that she married Jacopo di Francesco Petrucci and, after his
death, Camillo Venturi, and that children issued from both marriages
(Nelson Novoa, 534). As for other literary ties, Mariano Lenzi dedicated
his 1535 edition of Leone Ebreos Dialoghi damore to Aurelia, comparing
her to Mercury as a beacon of wisdom (Ebreo, 7, 234); and Antonio Vignale, one of the founders of the Intronati and author of La Cazzaria, dedicated an unpublished dialogue to her (ibid., 5404).
66 Cerreta (16) and Pijus (524) following him suggest that the Orazione may
have preceded the Raaella. Their evidence for this a vague reference in
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
the Raaella that Stordito has many times argued that God gave women
to make the miseries of the world more bearable is not convincing. A
slightly more plausible argument for this dating is found in Marcantonio
Piccolominis Ragionamento, in which the interlocutors allude to Alessandros debating at a party in 1537 with a woman si dolesse de la natura
essendo nata donna; et sappiate non solo in questo, ma sempre che gli
occorre intendo che parla molto in benefizio de le donne; ancor che gi
si credesse il contrario et certo a gran torto (Belladonna, 74). Although I
agree that the closing phrase alludes to the Raaella I am not persuaded
that the preceding one refers to the Orazione (cf. ibid., 74n28). Given the
language Alessandro uses in his Orazione on the eccellenza e divinit
delle donne (Pijus, 546), the timing of the publication of the work the
year after the first Italian translation of Agrippas On the Excellence and
Nobility of Women, and his address to women in the prologue of his play
Alessandro in 1544 (on which see below), I think 15445 is, by the logic of
Occams razor, a far more plausible dating.
See the edition in Pijus, 546, 548.
Ibid., 550.
Ibid., 550.
Ibid., 549.
On Piccolominis earlier comedy, Lamor constante written (but apparently not actually performed) for Charles Vs entry into Siena in 1536
and on Piccolomini as a dramatist and on theories of character types,
see Seragnoli, 1931, 4666, 93134; Andrews 1993, 89108; Clubb,
689.
A. Piccolomini 1984, 45; I am using the translation of Rita Belladonna
therein.
Ibid., 212. The character Alessandro in the play makes the same complaint about the bastardized tastes of contemporary women relative to an
earlier era of more refined behavior (ibid., 5960).
Belladonnas translation at ibid., 23.
On the intermediary texts likely linking Twelfth Night to the Ingannati,
see N. Newbigins introduction to her translation of the play in Intronati
1996, 2845; Andrews 1993, 93100; on Shakespeare and Italian comedy,
see Clubb 1989, 6589. On the Ingannatis likely influence by an earlier
play, Parthenio (performed in Siena in 1517 [new style] and published
there in 1520) by the Aretine exile Giovanni Lappoli (or Pollastra), see
Clubb 2010, 156. She argues that the heroine Galicella in the Parthenio
prefigures Lelia in the Ingannati.
Giannetti, 4956; Shepard; Gnsberg, 345, 802.

77 See the edition in Belladonna, 5990 at 5960; on the dialogue, see Belladonna, 4858; Robin, 1307.
78 On the recent publication of Palearios De animorum immortalitate and his
staying at the home of Girolama Carli de Piccolomini, and on Agostino
Museos preaching in Siena in 1537, see Belladonna, 55.
79 Ibid., 70, 834.
80 Ibid., 63, 73.
81 Ibid., 74. The first three of these five women are named by Girolamo
Bargagli as among those women who won fame as great parlour game
players in his Dialogo de giuochi (G. Bargagli 1982, 92). In a 1542 literary
embellishment of a Sienese party, the Sienese ambassador Marcello Landucci assigns two of these women, Atalanta [Donati, presumably] and Isifile Toscana, as having prominent roles in festivities that included a game
of Questions [of Love] and a game of Versifying, both found among Girolamo Bargaglis later catalogue of games (Glnisson-Delanne; G. Bargagli 1982, 95102, 1503).
82 When Laudomia says Uno deglIntronati sentii lanno passato, che con
molte et vere ragioni parl in una veglia in favor de le donne, intorno a
questa materia, Girolama responds: Credo intender di chi voi dite et
fu in casa di Madonna Atalanta Donati, ove egli mostr con belle et dotte
ragioni alla nobilissima et gentile Mad. Contessa dElci (con la quale disputava) quanto poco a ragione ella si dolesse de la natura essendo nata
donna; et sappiate che non solo in questo, ma sempre che gli occorre intendo che parla molto in benefizio de le donne; ancor che gi si credesse
il contrario et certo a gran torto (Belladonna, 74). Belladonna (74n28) argues that the last comment refers to the Raaella, which she suggests may
have been floating in ms. before its dedication date of Oct. 1538.
83 While I agree with Belladonna that this refers to Piccolomini and another
comment in this section to the Raaella, I do not agree that the allusion to
the defence of women at the party at Donatis home refers to the Orazione,
as that address was identified as being presented to the Intronati and no
reference is made to this context of a debate with the Contessa dElci.
84 Belladonna, 62.
85 Ibid., 62.
86 A testimony by the visiting poet Giovanni Mauro, who passed through
Siena in 1532, suggests that the women were actively involved in the
games by that year (see the conclusion and n. 1 therein below).
87 Ibid., 64.
88 Ibid., 79.

89 Belladonna, 55; Robin, 1306; on Agostino Museo, see Marchetti 1975,
1824.
90 Belladonna, 8590.
91 BCI, P.V. 15, fol. 161v. The undated biography was written after the 1538
Ragionamento, because Piccolomini refers to the dialogue in the biography
(ibid., fol. 162r). The ms. (no. 7 in P.V.15, fols. 147r171v) contains edits
in the same hand and thus appears to be an autograph (though it is not
signed).
92 Ibid., fols. 148v149v.
93 Ibid., fol. 156v.
94 Doppo la sua morte poi essendo voi anchor fanciuilla, & non havendo
chi devesse esser herede de la virt, & nobil sembranze vostre, volse
vostro padre rimaritarvi, & voi come obendientissima [read obbedientissima] lo contentaste (ibid., fol. 157r).
95 l maturo discorso, il saldo giuditio, il savio consiglio, il suave ragionar,
le saggie parole, che van sempre giocando intorno mille vaghezze,
le belle & dotte materie illustrati dallaccesi fiaccole de le vostre parole
(ibid., fols. 165v166r).
96 Accenner dunque solamente parte de le cortesi & accorte [parole cancelled] maniere, che tenete nel vivere: non gia chio dica le perigliose
guerre, le vittoriose imprese di esserciti, di cittadi, &di provincie, & la giustitia, & la providentia nel reggiere i sudditi, & tenere inpace i cittadini,
com gli imperadori sappartiene: non che voi cosi donna non sapesse
reggere & governare qual si vogl[?]imperio, che purin Macedonia, in Egitto, in Lacedemonia, in Siria, in Scithia, molte donne si trovarono di maggior authorit ch i Re propri, & molte anchora ne furono che si gran peso
con le femminili spalle sole sostennero, & si gagliardamenti, che gli huomini & di virt & di valore passorno [read passarono?] di molto (ibid.,
fol. 165v).
97 Ibid., fols. 165v166r. Both of these figures are included in Boccaccios De
mulieribus claris (Boccaccio 2001, 1725, 199203).
98 non sembrate voi, non dico desser discesa da Marte, ma lo stesso
Marte? Qualhora unanimoso destrier volgete in mille giri da prodo cavaliere (BCI, P.V.15, fol. 166r).
99 Si che poi che liniquit del tempo seguendo loppinion di Thucidide
il quale non voleva che pur l nome de le donne uscisse de le camare, &
non mancamento di valore, f che voi non potete mostrare quanto la vostra virt potesse volare alto (ibid., fol. 166rv, emphasis added).
100 Ibid., fols. 168v169r.

101 Ornate anchora, per seguire listoria, i vostri belli & dotti ragionamenti
con tanta vaghezza de leggiadri motti, chegli par un miracolo a le persone che lintendono, [tal che cancelled] con questa maravigli fate che
men si maravigliano di quel che prima gli faceva stupire & non sete
men presta nel ribatter i colpi che venisser per oendersi, che pronta
nellassalire, & con tanta leggiadria, & si mirabil destrezza, ch voi non fate
mai alcuna oesa (ibid., fol. 168v).
102 io f argumento che la maestra natura non possi esser immitata dallarte
in tutte le cose, & accordomi con glialtri che vogliono che la prontezza
dellingegno sia propria dote dela natura, & che in ci non ha hauta [read
havuta?]la natura liberale, indarno saadiga con larte per aqquistarne,
& la gratia de motti non vin da altro che da la prontezza dellingegno
(ibid., fol. 169r).
103 Et per questo io havrei gran desiderio dornar questistoria de vostri bei
detti, & motti leggiadri cosi nel rispondere come nel dire, ma io mi son
disposto di lassargli per hora, & non v dirne la cagione (ibid., fol. 169r).
104 Aside from this social presence, Marcantonio does not mention any publication by Marzi, although he does record her having written a selfconsolatory sonnet on the death of her brother and consolatory verse to
Girolama Carli de Piccolomini (her disputant in the Ragionamento) (ibid.,
fol. 157rv). He does not mention that she composed a poem in honour of
Alessandro Piccolominis 1540 pilgrimage to the grave of Petrarch and
this suggests that his biography was written between the 1538 Ragionamento (which is mentioned) and this 1540 poem (which is not). For the
poem she wrote on Alessandros pilgrimage, see Cerreta, 242. In his brief
sketch of her in his biographies of Sienese women in his Pompe sanesi of
1649, Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolini comments that she was interested in poetry and that he has seen many of her compositions in manuscript (Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:399).
105 Schevill, 398420; on the siege also see Pepper.
106 Cantagalli (50) dates the beginning of the project to build the fortification to 28 December 1552. He also cites the argument of P. Courteault that
Monluc draws his account from Guillaume Paradin (ibid., 81n173). For
side-by-side texts of the passages from Paradins Continuation de lhistoire
de nostre temps jusques lan mille cinq-cens cinquante-six (Lyon, 1556) and
Monlucs Commentaires, see Courteault, 79. Courteault (79n1) argues that
Paradin, in turn, (and Ascanio Centorio) drew their accounts from Marco
Guazzos initial account in his Cronica of 1553. There are discrepancies
in the dating of this event. It is dated to 1554 in Gigli, 1854, 1:418; Robin,
126; Forteguerri, 13 (by A. Lisini); Sozzini, 27980, dates it to August 1554.
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
I shall follow Centorios date of 15 January 1553, because this conforms

with Cantagallis account of the war (Cantagalli, 50; also C. Zarrilli in DBI
49:154). Monluc confesses to not being an eyewitness to the event, as he
did not enter the city until July 1554 (Cantagalli, 281, 2867) and says that
he had heard of it many times from the French marshal Paul de Thermes,
who since August of 1552 had headed up the French forces prior to Monlucs arrival (Cantagalli, 35). Furthermore, in reporting de Thermess
account of the incident, Monluc says that he placed the event near the
beginning of the siege: Au commencement de la belle resolution que ce
peuple fit de deendre sa libert, toutes les dames de la ville de Sienne se
despartirent in trois bandes (Monluc, 306).
Il ne sera jamais, dames siennoises, que je nimmortalize vostre nom
tant que le livre di Monluc vivra; car, la verit, vous estes dignes
dimmortelle loange, si jamais femmes le furent (Monluc, 306).
Monluc, 3067. On this lost song and on other patriotic female poetry at
the time, such as Virginia Martini Salvis specific appeals to Henry IIs
wife, Catherine de Medici, see Eisenbichler 2003; Lisini, 1898. Lisini,
ibid., 38, contends, however, that the lost song was not written by Salvi,
but by Laura Civoli.
Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:4078; Monluc, 3712. On the currency of Monlucs
account of the siege, its citation by Alessandro Sozzini (in his Diario delle
cose avvenute in Siena dal 20 Luglio 1550 al 28 Giugno 1555), and its translation into English, see Robin, 127, 305n10; Sozzini, 27980, who dates the
event (incorrectly, I believe) to August 1554.
Centorio, 6. P. Courteault (7980n1) suggests that Centorio repeats Guazzos account (which I have not been able to see).
Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:403, 4068.
The first such identification that I have found is from the eighteenth century in Guglielmo della Valle, 3:38; also see A. Lisini in Forteguerri, 13; C.
Zarrilli in DBI, 49:154; Robin, 1267.
Betussi, 745.
Ibid., 76: Non creder mai, che spirito alcuno fosse stato si barbaro, &
duro verso la libert della sua patria sua; il quale una sola volta havesse
sentito lei a pigliare la protettione di quella; che non si fosse piegato, humiliato, & rimosso: tanta la maest dellaspetto, tanta la facondia del
dire, & tanta la prontezza delle ragioni (Robin, 1256).
C. Zarrilli in DBI 49:162; Cantagalli, 395, 4278, 44950.
Citing Centorio, Ugurgieri Azzolini (2:408) repeats these mottoes in his
biography of the three women. One can only speculate about the meaning of these mottoes. Given Forteguerris name, perhaps her motto Pur
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
che sia vero (Indeed, that it be true) alluded to the hope that her name
be true and that she wage a strong war (forte guerra). Faustas Pur chio
lhabbia (Indeed, that I may have it) might express hope that she truly
obtain the peace symbolized by the olive branch on her standard. These
are, however, simply speculations.
He relates that the captains of the women were La Forteguerra, la Piccolomini, e la Fausti, quai in alzando ciascuna la propria impresa concepita, esplicata nelle veglie amorose, servirono vestite dacciaro fino
allimprese pi virile (BCI, Y.I.3, fols. 128r129r). This letter is found in
a collection of material on the Academy of the Intronati entitled Zucchino
de glIntronati, o sia guarda memorie dellantichissima Accademia Intronata and
dated 1696. As we shall see in chapter 6, Gigli could be somewhat imprecise and/or possibly imaginative in his reconstruction of the early history.
Centorio, 6.
Ibid., 67.
Israls, 3701.
Monluc, 307.
Two other events of the siege were similarly commemorated in verse:
the arrival of Piero Strozzi to aid in the Sienese cause and the expulsion
of the useless mouths (on which poems, see Vanni, 1890). On the arrival in January of 1554 of Strozzi, a Florentine exile aiding the Sienese
cause against Duke Cosimo I, see Cantagalli, 153. On the policy formulated in August of 1554 of expelling the bocche disutili (in Strozzis intention to number 6,0007,000 of the citys 24,000 as useless mouths,
including those from the contado who had sought refuge in the city), see
Cantagalli, 326, 3336; also see account in Scipione Bargaglis Trattenimenti
at S. Bargagli, 1989, 1926.
Vanni 1890, 1112: A letto te! A me la spada e il giaco. / Eh, via, che
dici? Tu me sei impazzita. / Non vedi? Alla statura io ti assomiglio. /
Se sei scoperta, oh Dio! Che ti faranno? / Di che temer? Non poi mala
azione. / No, veh! Coraggio di Fontebrandese.
Ibid., 12: Mhan fatto festa, e dette tante cose./ E pi di tutti il capitan
di Franza./ Parlava, e aveva i lucciconi agli occhi./ Ha aperto u libro e il
nome mha segnato./ Poi borbott non so di che memorie
Following Monluc, who included the incident immediately after his account of the women at the walls, Ugurgieri Azzolini (2:408) devotes a
chapter to this Giovane Sanese innominata following his linked chapters on the three squadron leaders. As for the appearance of this incident
in a parlour game of 1707/8, see BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 281rv; Mazzi 1919;
and chapter 5 below.

126 On the rituals of cross-dressing, see Davis, 12451.
127 Robin, 1478.
3. The Games of Girolamo and Scipione Bargagli (15631569)
1 In that decade Girolamo also had a hand in two plays: the Ortensio, which
he helped to revise for publication while Archintronato in 1561 (BCI,
P.IV.27, no. 13, fols. 11v, 21v), and La Pellegrina, which he likely completed in 15678 (on which see below).
2 As for the dates of composition of the Dialogo, R. Bruscagli (at G. Bargagli 1982, 9n3) argues convincingly for the summer of 1563, just before
Girolamo took up his legal career with an appointment teaching law in
Siena in the 15634 academic year. In her otherwise excellent edition of
the Trattenimenti (to which I am greatly indebted), Laura Ricc argues unpersuasively for 1564, on the basis of a reference to an oration in praise
of academies by his brother in 1564 (though she acknowledges this could
be a later addition, as the work was published only later in 1572). She
also contends that the reference to an index of forbidden games derives from the March 1564 publication of the Tridentine Index (S. Bargagli
1989, xxxviiviii), but the earlier 1559 Index could just as well have been
the inspiration for this motif. As for the composition of the Trattenimenti,
his printer Luca Bonetti dates it to 1564, though in Scipiones Latin oration on academies presented on 23 April 1564 there is no mention of it. It
is, however, mentioned in the 1569 Italian version of this oration. Thus,
the likely dates fall between 1564 and 1569, though he could have continued to revise it until its publication in 1587 (L. Ricc in S. Bargagli 1989,
xvxvi, xxxv, xxxviii, lxxx). On the dating of the setting of the Dialogo, see
Seragnoli, 182; there is a reference in the dialogue to the reopening of the
academy (G. Bargagli 1982, 49), which presumably occurred in 1557, as
there is a roster for that year (Sbaragli, 1934).
3 Bargagli suggest that the Greeks and Romans had a game of the king of
the banquet (on casting lots for kingship of the banquet, cf. Horaces Odes
1.4:18), and he cites Horaces Letters 1.1:5960 to argue that in childrens
games there was a practice of rewarding winners of a game with lordship
of the next (G. Bargagli 1982, 60, 66).
4 G. Bargagli 1982, 66. Also, cf. the opening of the discussion in which
Sodo minimizes his expertise on the topic by saying that questa una di
quelle cose dove pi vagliono i giovani che maturi (ibid., 54).
5 G. Bargagli 1982, 5861. As for Sozzinis assertion concerning pre-Intronati precedents, some of Bargaglis games could be found in the earlier
230Notes to page 57
6
7
8
9
10
11
work entitled Veglia villanesca (1521) of Francesco Fonsi (Valenti, 2612).

It is appropriate that Bargagli assigned Sozzini the sceptics role in the
dialogue, given that it was Sozzini who, a couple of years after fleeing
Siena to escape persecution by the inquisitors, in April 1563 wrote Bargagli a chiding letter, urging him to abandon his amatory, frivolous ways
(and the law) for more pious pursuits. As for festive revels of the Intronati
such as Befana: Quanta alla Befana e il resto che tu mi racconti intorno
a quelle cose che gi merano tanto grate, me ne passer leggermente. Ti
dir solo che mi par che tu abbi voluto far prova della mia fermezza, la
quale con lajuto di Dio non scemer mai, anzi ogni giorno ander crescendo (Cant, 2:492; Cantimori, 3479). And later in the letter he warns
Bargagli mutar vita e di lasciar da parte coteste frascherie, che da qui a
poco tempo ti saranno omai troppo disdicevoli, or else he will come to
ruin, poich per un pezzo ti sarai fatto bee di Dio, egli si far di te, e
ti abbandoner in maniera tale, che cadrai poscia strabocchevolmente in
ogni sorte di vizj (ibid., 494). If, however, Sozzini hoped to thus discourage Bargaglis interest in festive life, the very opposite occurred, as Bargagli likely wrote his Dialogo in the course of the ensuing summer. In fact,
one wonders if this pious scolding in part provoked his desire to enshrine
the games as his swan song before embarking on his legal career.
See, for instance, the games described in the homes of Contessa Agnolina
dElci, Porzia Pecci, and Francesca Sozzini (ibid., 96, 102, 159).
Ibid., 58.
Ibid., 87.
These two games were the Temple of Immortality and Crowns (ibid., 889).
The first of these may have inspired or, alternatively, been inspired by
Giuseppe Betussis Le imagini del tempio della signora donna Giovanna Aragona
of 1556, a work that, in turn, Diana Robin has shown continued and improved upon the anthology of poetry in Girolamo Ruscellis Del tempio alla
divina signora donna Giovanna dAragona of 1555. Both authors had some
Sienese ties: Ruscelli published three of the Intronatis plays and Betussi
completed his treatise in Siena, bewailing the plight of the city during the
siege and praising the women of the city (O di che rare Donne adornata cosi magnifica Citt?), and bestowing upon Laudomia Forteguerri
the virtue of Fame (Betussi, 7480, H8v; Robin, 10224; Andrews 1993, 65).
Whichever direction the influence went, this is yet another illustration of
the interpenetration of the games with literary culture.

12 I have not been able to determine the date of this visit of Alfonso dAvalos
and Sanseverino to the city; on the ties between these Neapolitans and the
Sienese in the 1530s, see Corsi, 31n42.
13 G. Bargagli 1982, 91. In his Oratione in lode dellaccademia deglIntronati dello
Schietto Intronati, presented at the reopening of the academy in December
1603, Scipione Bargagli grounds the emergence of the games especially
as public spectacles in occasions in which notable figures (and here he
specifically mentions Marchese del Vasto) passed through the city. On
such occasions the Intronati stage parties to showcase the poetry, wit,
discussions of the giuochi di spirito, apparently hosted at the palace of Girolamo Piccolomini Mandoli (Intronati 1611, 2:5323).
14 G. Bargagli 1982, 912.
15 Ibid., 92.
16 Belladonna, 74.
17 See chapter 2 above, where Piccolomini observes that this incident led to
an hour-long debate between Frasia and Alfonso.
18 As to whether this was in fact the pivotal moment in female visibility
in the games, it should be noted that the Friulian poet Giovanni Mauro
praised Sienese women players in his poem Del viaggio di Roma,
which ensued from a game he witnessed in 1532. That game may have
preceded this occasion involving Alfonso dAvaloss and Ferrante Sanseverinos visit to the city a few years before 1538, though it is possible
that the two occasions are one and the same, especially given that, of
the five women Mauro names, two of them, Camilla Saracini and Frasia Venturi (Opere burlesche, 1:2523), overlap with the women named in
the game described in Marcantonio Piccolominis Ragionamento. Whether
these testimonies refer to two occasions or one, however, visitors to the
city attested to (and likely catalysed) the public nature of the Sienese parlour games.
19 G. Bargagli 1982, 92.
20 Ibid., 188.
21 Voi sete, Attonito [Maretti], rispose il Sodo un sollecito procrator donnesco, onde non possibile che voi non siate ben provisionato da loro
(ibid., 197).
22 Ibid., 198.
23 Dico bene che quando fosse una donna ben parlante gi det e che si
avesse qualche autorit acquistata, in tal caso le sarebbe lecito il ragionare
al lungo, il contradire e il paradossare, nella guisa che de gli uomini abbiamo detto (ibid., 198).

24 G. Bargagli 1982, 80; cf. Ruggiero, 1940. In some cases, anecdotes of the
playing of these games reveal their lewdness, such as the game of the
Mezzaiuoli, o lavoratori de poderi, in which a young field worker,
whom ten women would love to have work their field, is recommended
to a wealthy matron for but a small loan (G. Bargagli 1982, 1212).
25 If the Carnival season (roughly Epiphany to Lent) was the most common
setting, it was not the only one. Weddings and visits of foreign dignitaries, for instance, were two of the other occasions.
26 Ibid., 104.
27 Ibid., 11516. This anecdote concerning one of the weighty games certainly reveals the creative, extemporaneous demands of such contests.
28 Despite its full description, this game is not given a discrete title or number entry in Bargaglis catalogue (G. Bargagli 1982, 126).
29 Ibid., 107.
30 See the Games of Versifying (in which men and women might duel with
lines from Petrarch, Bembo, or Ariosto); ABC (in which contestants must
oer up a line of poetry beginning with a certain letter); the Portrait of
Beauty; the Figure of Cupid (ibid., 1503, 1601).
31 Ibid., 15960.
32 Ibid., 161.
33 Nostredame; Kelly, 1418; Boccaccio 1985, 24499.
34 G. Bargagli, 1982, 96.
35 Ibid., 96.
36 G. Bargagli 1982, 967. Aside from Agnolina, this group included Giuditta
Santi, Cincia dElci, and Urania dElci. On the series of novels constituting the Amads de Gaula and its continuation in the story of Don Florisello
(and Bernardo Tassos Italian translation in the Amadigi of 1560), and the
novels appearing under the title of Palmerin de Oliva, see Patrizia DIncalci
Ermini at G. Bargagli 1982, 967nn1489; on the Amads and Garci Rodrguez de Montalvo, see Helen Moore in Amadis de Gaule, ixxxviii.
37 Furthermore, the dismissive comment about romantic literature is somewhat contradicted by the fact that Bargagli treats some of these romantic
scenarios is such detail. In this way Bargaglis Dialogo in part validates
this romance literature by repeating it, especially on behalf of Intronati
males who are a bit behind in their reading.
38 G. Bargagli 1982, 102.
39 Ibid., 99.
40 For instance, Bargagli cites some of the tragic tales (4.4 and 4.9) to illustrate themes to be avoided because they would not predispose women
to love; and he refers to others (2.6, 2.8, 3.7) exemplifying themes of
41
42
43
44
45
46
constancy, greatness of spirit, and loyalty that would be more appealing, and especially those that concern stories of women who after great
persecution and calumny reveal themselves to be chaste and innocent
(and here, of course, he cites the famous Griselda story of 10.10) (ibid.,
2234).
Ibid., 224. By contrast, the closing scene of the treatise depicts an incident in which two Intronati tell stories drawn from their own experience
(or imagination). In the company of three women, these two men relate
tragic personal love stories (in which they witnessed the deaths of their
beloved) and then pose four questions as to who showed the greater love,
suered the greater loss, etc. (ibid., 22930).
Ibid., 216.
The earliest documented evidence for women appearing on the Italian stage is among the companies of the commedia dellarte in the 1560s,
though there is an earlier instance of women on stage in commedia erudita
performed by Italians in Lyons in 1548 (Richards and Richards, 39, 52,
736, 2235; Andrews 1993, 154, 169; Andrews 2000).
The frequency of these two games (ibid., 161) made even more challenging the requirement posed that one never reuse an emblem or pose
for discussion a proverb previously used in any Sienese game. As for
proverbs, Sodo indicates that he amassed a compilation of three thousand
Italian proverbs for a planned anthology (which he never completed)
(ibid., 162). Such a project would be completed later by Giovanni Torriano, who published collections of Italian proverbs (with English translations) in 1642 and 1666 (see Torriano).
The degree of overlap in these genres is well illustrated by Luca Contile in his 1574 Ragionamenti sopra la propriet delle imprese, in which
he argues that there are in fact nine dierent traditions all (improperly)
lumped under the genre of imprese, including coats of arms, liveries, emblems, reverses of medals, hieroglyphics, etc. (Contile, 1r43v).
Bargagli includes two games on this topic one on Devices and another
on Reverses of Medals explaining how both dier from the emblem
proper (which, unlike the device, lacks words and, unlike the reverse, pertains to the universal, is admonitory, and is oriented to the
future) (G. Bargagli 1982, 1746). Aside from Contiles work, sixteenthcentury collections of and treatises on devices and related forms include
Andrea Alciatis 1531 Emblemata; Achille Bocchis 1555 Symbolicarum
quaestionum de universo genere (on which see Watson); Paolo Giovios Dialogo dellimprese militari et amorose (orig. 1555); Lodovico Domenicis 1556
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
Ragionamento nel qual si parla dimprese darmi, e damore; Girolamo Ruscellis 1556 Discorso intorno allinventione dellimprese, dellinsegne, de motti,
& delle livree; and Scipione Bargagli wrote a Dellimprese, the first part of
which appeared in 1578, the second and third parts in 1594. See Patrizia
DIncalci Ermini in G. Bargagli 1982, 166n343; Stephen Orgels Notes
in Giovio; on emblems and the meaning of naming ceremonies, see van
Gennep, 1012.
On these requirements, cf. Paolo Giovios criteria (Giovio, 1213).
G. Bargagli 1982, 168, emphasis added.
See his Le pompe sanesi of 1649 (2:403) and chapter 5 below.
Unaltra dierenza ancora, che dove limpresa si fa per esprimere i suoi
pensieri particolari e a se stesso principalmente, lemblema si pone come
precetto e avvertenza universale per gli altri ancora (ibid., 175).
Ibid., 1712.
Ibid., 172.
On Vittoria Colonna, see Robin, xviii, 140, 79101.
G. Bargagli 1982, 1767.
On Scipione Bargaglis view of this realm of culture as the unique venue
for female recognition, cf. Laura Ricc in S. Bargagli 1989, 264n2.
As in the case of the men, sometimes Bargagli named the speakers (as in
the case of Flavia Bellanti at 212), but more often did not (as at 65, 89, 116,
213).
G. Bargagli 1982, 49. The only specific reference to a particular battle and
to the destructiveness of the Spanish (a touchy issue given their role in
assisting the Florentines in defeating the city in 1555) comes at the very
end of the treatise when an Intronato nicknamed Bertino (whose real
name I cannot identify, as he is not on the Intronati roster of 1525 or 1557
(Sbaragli, 18994) told of his tragic loss of a woman he loved in the aftermath of the Sack of Rome in 1527 (G. Bargagli 1982, 229).
Ibid., 53.
Intronati 1611, 2:4867.
S. Bargagli 1989, 262.
Ibid., 2634.
Ibid., 265.
Ibid., 266. Here, Scipiones critique of arbitrary and oppressive social convention discrimination per cagione del sesso and the duro possesso
stato preso gravemente loro addosso da i parenti e mariti loro of family
is a bit stronger than Boccaccios analogous comment in the Proemio of
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
the Decameron where he speaks of the melancholy and isolated condition

of women ristrette da voleri, da piaceri, dacomandamenti de padri,
delle madri, de fratelli, e de mariti (Boccaccio 1952, 4).
See n. 101 below.
His account principally describes events from January 1554 to February
1555, although it also refers to some earlier events (namely, the womens
involvement in the fortification of the city, which presumably refers to
the women at the walls in January of 1553) and later ones (up through the
last two months of the siege) (S. Bargagli 1989, 1237, esp. 28n1).
S. Bargagli 1989, 27. Also cf. Scipiones comment later in the treatise on
the Sienese women arming and con quale ardor danimo encouraging
them and watching them fight (ibid., 1001).
On this game, which is basically a combination of modern soccer and
rugby, see the description in Scaino, 197200; Magoun.
Ibid., 356.
Ibid., 36; see L. Ricc at ibid., n. 2.
See BCI, P.V.16, packet no.1, f. 1v2r; on this response to the criticism of
Alessandro Tessauro, see n. 101 below.
Ibid., 356n7. This Florentine game was visible to the enemy and provoked some artillery fire (Magoun, 8). This reinforces the possibility that
the Sienese calcio game may also have been in part a wartime statement;
certainly Scipione depicts Clizias motive as being defiant.
Ibid., 42.
In order to play these games the women needed men. And here the
precedent in the Decameron is turned to far more feminist ends. In the
latter, when Pampinea suggests they flee the city, a timorous Filomena says that, as women who are weak, fickle, and cowardly, they need
men to lead them. In Scipiones account, Clizia suggests that they need
men rather to complete a festive occasion, give them an audience, and
serve as a conduit to the outside world. If men are lacking, she argues,
non ci lasserebbe disporre e guidare i nostri giuochi con quellordine
e con quella maniera che da noi senza meno si eseguirebbe al cospetto
dingegnosi e valenti uomini, specchi invero sempre e scorte al mondo dogni
lodevole operazione (ibid., 45, emphasis added). Men are the conveyors
of female glory to the public world not, as Boccaccios Filomena would
have it, leaders for incompetent women.
S. Bargagli 1989, 567; the term valore here could translated as value
or valour, but given the theme of this game, I think the latter is more
appropriate.

76 Ibid., 59. As for the literary temples, this genre had been recently explored (in 1555 and 1556) by Girolamo Ruscellis and Giuseppe Betussis temples in honour of Giovanna dAragona (Robin, 10523; and see
above).
77 S. Bargagli 1989, 59.
78 Ringhieri, 1r2v.
79 G. Bargagli 1982, 166.
80 S. Bargagli 1989, 60.
81 Ibid., 6482. The explication of the first one of these, Ognun Pareggia, for
Clizia (who organized the games) contains some interesting political and
male imagery. The design is a sun, which is denoted as being her family crest, and to it the male player adds the zodiac to which she shines
all equally. And while this in part refers to her bestowing her grace and
light on all admirers equally, there are other subtexts, as the player suggests that the image shows that she knows molto bene con gli atti suoi
conformare allesempio od immagine statale nellarme proposte da imitare
da suoi nobilissimi maggiori (very well with her acts to conform to the
example or state image in the coat of arms her most noble forbears proposed to be imitated) (6970, emphasis added). Thus, the sun is a state
image, a political image, she will emulate; this is all the more relevant,
as a traditional iconography associated women with the moon to the
mans sun; see the sun/moon discussion in the debate of the Ferraiuoli
in chapter 4 below; also cf. Scipiones discussion of it in regard to the device of Leonora Montalvi degli Agostini in his Dellimprese (S. Bargagli
1594, 4489). Furthermore, later in explaining her making all equal,
the player compares this to a father who gives garments to all of his sons
equally though that for the elder son is greater: again, a patriarchal analogy (S. Bargagli 1989, 71). On two counts, then, Scipione depicts her in
patriarchal, political terms perhaps not surprising, given that she is the
instigator of the games. Finally, we could ask whether She makes all
equal is a veiled commentary about gender equality: that is, the statement might doubly mean that she makes equal all who admire or follow her, and that her very role and agency makes plain that all men and
women are equal.
82 Ibid., 69.
83 Ibid., 3401. This game has no counterpart in Ringhieris or Girolamo Bargaglis game books, though Girolamos does include one riposte from a
woman in the Game of Crowns who refers to a certain married man who
should be given the murale crown for successfully being the first to
have breached the fortress of this woman (G. Bargagli 1982, 89).

84 Ibid., 381.
85 On this proverb (which occurs not only in Italian but also in Latin,
French, Spanish, English, and German) and its application to the Decameron, see Barolini; Gittes, 2026.
86 S. Bargagli 1989, 381n1.
87 S. Bargagli 1989, 417. The male deeds/female words polarity could be
a matter of sensitivity on the part of male writers. In his Worlde of Wordes
(1598), John Florio defends his book against the charge that such an endeavour is not masculine, but rather feminine, citing the same proverb.
He counters that words and deeds are one gender to him, and he argues
that the strength and vigour of his work anyway proves it to be a male
child (Florio, a4v; also Yates 1934, esp. 1889).
88 S. Bargagli 1989, 394401.
89 This appears to be the reading Laura Ricc would give, as she unearths
the many sexual puns in this game at, e.g., 392n3, 396n1, and notes
throughout this section of the text, 381401.
90 That the complete fusion of the sexual and the martial/political was possible without compromise to the integrity of either theme is exemplified
in Aristophaness Lysistrata.
91 Ibid., 393.
92 Ibid., 2656; on hunting and fishing (on the part of both males and females) as sexual metaphor, see Gittes, 2035; Grieco, 99109.
93 Ibid., 543.
94 Ibid., 536.
95 Ibid., 544. As for the Florentine Carnival songs, first collected and published by Antonfrancesco Grazzini in 1559, see the anonymous No san,
donne, cacciatori and especially the closing stanza, which opens Tutta
larte del cacciare/ nel pertica veggino (Trionfi e canti, 4256); cf. also the
Canzona de Cacciatori di golpi [dialect for volpi] (ibid., 4756; S. Bargagli 1989, 534n1). See also Tutti i trionfi; G. McClure 2004, 4051. In Ringhieris Game of the Hunt there are necessarily cacciatrici as well as cacciatori
(because his work was specifically addressed to women), but the metaphor is not strongly sexualized, as the game turns on hunters (whether
male or female) calling out how they will hunt or wound a doe (Ringhieri, 59v60v).
96 facendo a gli uomini fare il romore e labbaiamento de cani, si cominciasse poi a gridare AllAmore! AllAmore!(G. Bargagli 1982, 130). They
seek out the beast of love in the cheek of this woman, for instance, and
she says no, it is in the grace of that man, and the hunt proceeds.
97 G. Bargagli 1982, 612.

98 See Ricc at S. Bargagli 1989, 232n1, who also makes this observation. As
for the more phallocentric development of this theme, cf. Girolamo Bargaglis citation of the story of ten women who would gladly like their
fields to be worked by the young mezzaiuolo (sharecropper) (G. Bargagli
1982, 1212 and n. 217 thereat). As for another precedent for the game of
gardening (though one not truly sexualized), see Ringhieris Game of the
Gardener, in which men and women plant seeds in their own gardens
(Ringhieri, 53v55r).
99 S. Bargagli 1989, 234.
100 Ibid., 2424.
101 There exists a badly damaged document in BCI, P. V.16, packet no. 1, that
records Scipiones ghostwritten response to a criticism of the Trattenimenti
by Alessandro Tessauro. That Scipione wrote the piece and later wanted
to disguise his authorship is evident in his referring to Tessauros critique
intorno all operetta de [miei cancelled] Trattenimenti (fol. 1r). Excising the my, he thereafter refers to the author. In this piece Scipione
responds to various criticisms, including the main ones that it lacks propriety (given the bitterness of the memory) and lacks verisimilitude (that
in a time so lugubre, e calamitossimo Donne, e Giovani si dimorino
in ociosi diletti, et amorosi diporti) (fol. 1r); Ricc in S. Bargagli 1989,
356n7. Scipione oered several rebuttals: no readers would take oence
because the outcome was in Gods hand and the Sienese behaved admirably; young people would indeed have been inclined to carry on with
their customary amusements, because chi non sa la forza dun habito,
o duna invecchiato usanza and he cites the game of pallone a livrea
played by some young men at the time; that the games took place not in
luogo pubblico, ma privato and were non palese, ma segreto, non pensato, ma fortuito, non di notte, ma di giorno, fra pochi, e non moltitudine
di gente (BCI, YP.V.16, packet no. 1, fols.1r2r). As for the setting of the
games, the Trattenimenti does specify that the group gathered in uno onorato salotto chivi dalla strada maestra assai remoto (S. Bargagli 1989,
48 and Riccs n. 3 thereat. On Tessauro (b. 1558), who published a poem
entitled La Sereide in 1585, see Domenico Valla.
102 In speaking of the bravery of the Sienese, he says di che sono per tutto
buoni approvatori, come in que d furono ottimi veditori, i principali
capitani e i prodi cavalieri dArrigo Valerio, trovatisi quivi, come si suol
dire, nella medisima nave, da quali si prendeva tuttavia ammirazion
maggiore dello scorgere quanto numero di persone e con quanto fervor
danimo il giorno andassero e la notte portando sopra le proprie spalle, a
tal opera non consuete, legni, pietre e terra a drizzare ognora nuovi ripari

e riparare a luoghi dentro e fuore delle mura opportuni (ibid., 267).
And he then follows with remarks about the eorts of the women. On the
currency of Monlucs remarks, and the earliest publications on the event
from Marco Guazzo (1553) and Guillaume Paradin (1556), see chapter 2
above, nn. 106 and 109.
103 S. Bargagli 1989, 465.
104 The dating of this work is disputed. Ferdinando de Medici and, later,
Francesco de Medici had both requested a play from Alessandro Piccolomini, who farmed out the project to Girolamo Bargagli for plot and
Fausto Sozzini for dialogue. The play, which thus was something of a
collaborative eort (including revisions by Piccolomini), was published
much later (1589) by Scipione Bargagli (see Bruno Ferraros discussion in
G. Bargagli 1988, 1116; Andrews 1993, 22535; Seragnoli, 16780).
4. Fortunes, Medals, Emblems: The Public Face of Private Women
1 For a consideration of the evidence and a survey of the literature on the
closing of the academies, see G. McClure 2010, 1201.
2 This statement from the Deliberazioni dei Rozzi unearthed (but undated) by Curzio Mazzi, seems to be the firmest documentary evidence
yet to be found on the closing: Nel mjle cinquecento sesanta otto regnjava nela nostra cjtta di siena moltte academje e congrege quale fra ditte
academie e congre (congreghe) regnjava la nostra sugara [the cork-tree,
their emblem] e congrega de rozi qualj academje e congrege per buono
rjspetto funo fatte tutte chudare da nostrj padronj ora con buona grazia
de medesimj la congrega de rozi si erjmesa su e comjnciono aragunasi in
casa sotto il ei 31 di agosto 1603 (Mazzi 1882, 1:93n1; Ricc 1993, 140).
3 In a letter to the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi Dellorigine, e
processo dellantica sanese accademia [of the Intronati], Gigli discusses
the cessation of meetings of the Intronati cagione di non ingelosire
con i particolari congressi gli occhi veglianti del nuovo dominio and in
a marginal notes adds that in addition to the Intronati, the Rozzi and the
confraternity Sotto lo Spedale also ceased meeting (BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 129v).
In his Diario sanese, Gigli 1854, 1:278, dates the closing to 1563 (though
1568 is the more accepted and plausible date).
4 Mazzi 1882, 1:92.
5 Ibid., 1:912, 25963; Seragnoli 724; Catoni 1986, 279.
6 The punishments included confinement outside the city for varying
lengths of time; fines for the host of the party and another figure who
dressed with a beard; and in the case of women, restrictions on certain
9
10
11
12
13
14
forms of clothing and jewellery for varying lengths of time according to

whether they performed at the comedy, merely watched, or dressed in
disguises (Mazzi 1882,1:2603; Seragnoli, 734).
Mazzi describes the pre-Rozzi drama mocking Florentines in 1526, the
popes woes in the Sack of Rome in 1527, and the appearance of the Spanish in comedies by the 1530s (Mazzi 1882, 1:2649).
Plaisance; Zanr 2004, 1521. According to Plaisance (421): Pour Cme,
lAcadmie constitue un moyen doccuper les intellectuels florentins et de
les flatter, et permet de canaliser lactivit des jeunes en les loignant de
la politique. Plus largement, elle constitue un organisme culturel dtat
jouant un rle au niveau de tout Florence et de toute la Toscane.
Zanr 2001.
The Ortensio was performed either at Cosimos initial entry into Siena in
October 1560 or on his return visit in January of the next year (Seragnoli,
1478, 1524). The second play, the Pellegrina, performed in 1589, resulted
from a request by both Ferdinando de Medici and his brother Francesco
for a play from Alessandro Piccolomini, who transferred the task to Girolamo Bargagli and Fausto Sozzini (see B. Ferraro in G. Bargagli 1988,
1116).
On heretical currents in the city beginning in the 1530s and 1540s, the
exile of Lelio and Camillo Sozzini, the entry of the Inquisition, and the
flight of Fausto Sozzini, see Marchetti, 1975 135; Belladonna; Caponetto,
1003, 3003.
The specific circumstance concerned a lecture by a member of the Academy of the Travagliati on Purgatorio 21:13, where Dante mentions the
encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (in John
4:715). (As it turns out, probably the only reason the speaker chose this
passage is because Dante uses the term travagliava, which resembles
their academy name.) For a transcription of the relevant passage from a
letter of June 1561 in Bargaglis letter book, see Marchetti, 1969 834; for a
translation, see G. McClure 2010, 1157.
BCI, P.IV.27, no. 13, fol. 45v: Qua chi ragionasse di ceppo, di veglie, di
sembollo ragionarebbe dheresia; chi disegnasse intertenimenti piacevoli
per il Carnovale, machinarebbe contro lo stato. This letter to Ascanio Salimbeni is immediately preceded in the copialettere by one dated 18 October [1562], so this letter presumably falls sometime in the last quarter of
that year.
P. Piccolomini, 163: Chio sia acerrimo persecutore delle heretici. On
Cosimos political policy regarding the papcy, see Jedin; Diaz, 1868, 194;
Cantagalli 1985, 239, 2718.

15 On Ghislieris role in heading up the investigation of Sienese heresy starting in 1559, see Marchetti 1975, 1728. On Benvoglienti, detained by the
Inquisition for Calvinist views in December 1568, and the ties of Intronati
member Attilo Marsili and Cristoforo Turamini to his group, see Seragnoli, 162n82; Marchetti 1970, 69; Celsi, 588n1; P. Piccolomini, 17088. On
Marsilis indictment for heresy along with with Benvoglienti in December
1568, see ibid., 1704. On Cinuzzi, see Marchetti 1975, 1523; Marchetti
1970, 635. On Celsi, who wrote a brief history of the Intronati, and for
his treatise In haereticis corcendis quatenus progredi liceat, see Celsi, passim
and 53841.
16 The extradition of his acquaintance Pietro Carnesecchi, who was executed
for heresy in 1567, was undoubtedly the greatest concession Cosimo
made to Pius V to earn his new title. In any case, when the pope enumerated the sixteen reasons for bestowing the honour on Cosimo, he listed
first his vigilance in safeguarding Tuscany from heresy (Cantagalli 1985,
2718; Diaz, 18891; Gigli 1854, 1:84; DAddario, 154).
17 Bertini, 11819; Bertini, 116, argues that quellodore [of heresy], ossessionava, intorno al 156768, Francesco de Medici.
18 P. Piccolomini, 1689; Catoni 1996, 142.
19 Catoni 1996, 142, 148; for the grand-ducal decree regarding the Capitoli et
Privilegi degli Huomini darme del d 25, Giugno 1568, see Cantini, 7:226.
20 Habermas, 156. In the treatises prefatory statements Bargagli traces the
group back to Cosimos founding and its continuation under his successors Francesco and Ferdinando ([S. Bargagli] 1591, 4). He claims that the
emblems are original and composed da ingegni Sanesi, cos come nobili Sanesi sono i portatori desse (ibid., 9) as if to emphasize the split
between the intellectual and the noble elite; the creators (who sign their
emblems) included Scipione himself and other such literati as Fortunio
Martini, Bellisario Bulgarini, Giugurta Tomasi, and others. At one point
he notes that emblems are the special preserve of the Academie (delle
quali si quello dell Imprese propriissimo studio) (ibid., 9). One other
way in which this body of knights co-opted academy culture was in the
identification of each figure with a nickname: for instance, Cavalier del
Chiuso Pensiero or Cavalier Aggravato (ibid., 61, 33).
21 In this letter on the origin of the Intronati to the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi, Gigli writes M perch gli allori di Minerva da tanto
tempo trascurati, mostrano quel buon Principe aver di bisogno duna
distinta e particolar cultura da quelli di Marte (BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 130v).
22 Curzio Mazzi plausibly argues that such a court devoted to women
would not pose a political threat in the current crackdown: Notevole
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
che questa Corte nascesse e vivesse a quel tempo in cui tutte le Accademie
e Congreghe furon tenute chiuse dal nuovo duca e signore; il quale in
vero niente avendo a temere da una brigata di gentiluomini intesi solamente a convitare e festeggiare le belle gentildonne, avr anzi veduto volentieri tali lieti ritrovi, durati almeno fino a dieci anni dopo, restandoci
del 1579 un ricordo della Corte (Mazzi 1882, 2:359).
Now edited in Ricc 1993, 14761.
Ricc 1993, 148.
Although use of the term essecutiva here surely is largely owing to the
fact that the sentence opens with the passage lascio da banda mille altre
dicult che apportano seco tutte le essecutione delle cose, it is nonetheless plausible to argue that Martinis referring to Flavias winning fame as
an essecutiva e valorosa donna (ibid, 149) also suggests an acknowledgment of female agency.
Ricc 1993, 149.
Mazzi 1882, 2: 359.
G. Bargagli 1982, 15960.
This treatise (in BCI, Y.II.26) remained unpublished until Laura Riccs
edition in Ricc 1993, 165242, which I will cite. As Ricc (ibid., 3001
and Ricc 1985) shows, probably in the 1590s Scipione Bargagli appears
to have planned a Venetian edition of the medal reverses together with
a ludic debate between the Ferraiuoli Knights and some fictive foreign
visitors (see below) and a new edition of Girolamo Bargaglis Dialogo de
giuochi. The ms. fragment of this project, preserved in BCI, P.V.16, 2nd
packet, fols. 1r3r (or 138r140r), contains an anonymous Lo Stampatore
in Venetia a benigni Lettori in Scipiones hand. Most revealing are the
emendations in the ms. that show Scipiones indecision as exactly how to
characterize his city of Siena and its women. In speaking of the games of
the city, he emends nobilissima Citt di Siena to si riguardevole Citt
(in superscript), then in the margin to egregia Citt and finally settles
on spiritosa Citt (ibid., fol. 2v [or 139v]; Cf. Ricc 1985, 252). Even
more intriguing is his vacillation as to how, in the anonymous voice of a
Venetian printer, to characterize the Sienese women. In the first mention of them, he decisively identifies them as belle, e valorose Donne
(ibid., fol. 2v [or 139v])., but in a second reference he has several changes
of heart. He emends an initial wording of spiritose Gentildonne to accorte e sapute Gentildonne (in superscript), and then in the margin to
leggiadre Gentildonne, before finally settling on virtuose e belle Gentildonne (BCI, P.V.16, fol. 140r; cf. Ricco 1985, 2534). In the changes
he thus has reassigned spirited to the city and removed it from the
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
women. It would seem that the accurate (or acceptable) characterization

of Sienese women was a matter of debate for Scipione, as in this second
reference to them he moves incrementally to more conventional adjectives: from spirited to shrewd and wise to charming and finally
to the more traditional virtuous and beautiful. Perhaps he sensed the
need to assign the Sienese women more mainstream female attributes for
a Venetian publication for the voice of a Venetian printer. These emendations are perhaps a telling reflection of the new and conflicting attitudes
towards more intellectual, shrewd, and spirited (as opposed to virtuous
or beautiful) women in the public domain.
Ricc 1993, 168.
On parlour games revolving around astrology and fortune, as in Sigismondo Fantis Triompho di fortuna of 1527, see Brown, 13640.
Ricc 1993, 184, 21617.
Ibid.,168: Dove incontra ben le pi volte che per quelle siano fatte saper
le cose della passata vita dalcuno, non altrimenti che non essendo elleno
state mai gli debbano avvenire una volta, et siano ancora scoperte le fantasie et i pensieri, et come si suol dire glhumori altrui, di cosa che stimi
essergli tra laltre pi fissa nellanimo.
Ibid.: L onde ben comprender si pu quanto di piacere et di giovamento insieme debba portaralli spiriti nobili e leggiadri in sentirsi con
dolcezza rarenaro spronare da quello, od a quel corso al quale si trovino di gi haver mossi i pensieri dellanimo loro.
Ibid., 174.
Ibid., emphasis added.
Ibid.
See the Proemio alle dichiarationi de riverci de Cortigiani Ferraiuoli
(ibid., 196206).
Ibid., 198.
Ibid., 198, emphasis added.
Ibid.
Ibid., 199.
Ibid., 198.
Ibid., 199.
Ibid.,180, 207.
Ibid., 190, 233; cf. the Giuoco dellAssedio in the Trattenimenti (S. Bargagli
1989, 33980) and chapter 3 above.
Ricc 1993, 188.
Ibid., 180, 208.
Ibid., 184, 218.

50 Ibid., 190, 233.
51 Ibid., 189.
52 Ibid., 231: Havendo in costume i romani dusare per loro spose novelle
in vece del dirizzacrine unhasta ferrata, questo era per renderle avvertite che, essendo congiunte con persona forte et valorosa, non conveniva
guidar la vita loro in delicatezze et vanit femminile. As for this custom,
cited in, for instance, Ovids Fasti 2:560 and Plutarchs Quaestiones romanae
87 (Moralia 285cd), see La Follette, 60, who discusses various other interpretations of the meaning of the hasta caelibaris (though oddly omits
the one cited here, even though it is one of the possible explanations of
the custom posed by Plutarch).
53 Ibid., 221, emphasis added.
54 S. Bargagli 1989, 101.
55 Cf. L. Ricc in S. Bargagli 1989, 101n1.
56 Scipiones explication here reads: le donne loro, di ci fatte accorte, incontinente presero larmi et, fatto sforzo contra nimici, non solamente
rimessero in piedi la gi perduta schiera de lor mariti, ma roppero ancora
et messero in fuga i messenii, onde i lacedemoni, abbracciando le mogli loro
armate, cos come essi ancora erano, si congiunsero con sommo diletto insieme (Ricc 1993, 221, emphasis added).
57 Anthony Bowens trans. in Lactantius, 106, emphasis added and spelling
Americanized.
58 Ricc, 1993, 184, 216; 185, 2212; 187, 2267; 191, 2345.
59 Ibid., 14950.
60 On the larger theme of the emasculation of the Sienese male elite and the
masculation of the female elite during the siege in the 1550s, see Girolamo
Giglis views in chapter 6 below.
61 This work, in manuscript until Lauro Riccs edition of 1993, is not formally entitled and appears in the collection Raguaglio delle cose da
ripresentarsi dalla radunanza de Ferraiuoli. Based on her examination
of another manuscript of the text at BCI, C.III.30 (which consists largely
of an autograph text of Belisario Bulgarini), Ricc assigns the text to him
and possibly others (Ricc 1993, 24486, 30623).
62 The suppression of some of these details, as well as the authors name,
may be owing to a desire to keep the event somewhat under the radar
of the authorities although in his text Scipione identified the site of his
gathering: at the home of Ascanio Borghesi (ibid., 175). The other gathering, presumably at the home of Piccolomini, is described as occurring
on the first anniversary of the creation of the court (ibid., 248), and thus
presumably in the same Carnival season of 1570. It may be indicative of
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
the emerging accommodation of the Sienese academies to the granducal regime that five of the Knights are identified as being Knights of the
Order of San Stefano, an order Duke Cosimo created in 1561 to fight the
Turks (ibid., 132, 247, 281). As for further co-opting of academies, in June
of 1568 Cosimo created another order of knights for policing Florence
and Siena, and in 1591 Scipione and other literati composed emblems for
these knights: see [S. Bargagli] 1591; Ricc 1993, 1312; G. McClure 2010,
11656.
It is unclear whether this island of Herma is meant to refer to the tiny
channel island of Herm. In any case, this is meant to depict an obviously
fanciful encounter.
Ricc 1993, 249.
Petrarch 1976, 329.
Ricc, 1993, 2505. On Aristotles biological views of women, see Jordan,
2934.
Ibid., 255.
Ibid., 257.
Ibid., 257. As for Ariostos catalogue of notable women and his similar
charge that they have been deprived of their fame by invidious writers,
see Orlando furioso 37:123 (Ariosto 1966, 10951102.)
Ricc 1993, 258.
On dowries, see King, 269; Molho.
Ricc 1993, 258.
Ibid., 267.
Ibid., 267.
Ibid., 267.
Ibid., 263.
See chapter 2.
See Bk. 9.11, entitled Sel vero Amore per elettione per destino (A.
Piccolomini 1545, 23641).
Thus, the Ferraiuoli Knight: Ma mi dite: guarda che se amore per destino non sar degno biasimo n di lode, volendo (per quel che io credo)
inferire che per destino et naturalmente sia una cosa istessa. Et io vi
rispondo che in quel modo degno di lode, ch meritono desser lodate le
cose di pregio donateci dalla natura, come sarebbe a dire la bellezza corporale, la destrezza et vivacit dellingegno, la gagliardia et simili (Ricc
1993, 278).
In the first edition of the De la institutione of 1542, Piccolomini makes the
interesting comment that if choice is not in play, then the beloved would
not be obligated to love as in those who through force and violence,
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
would be induced to love and not through free choice, from which merits
and demerits and praise and blame is weighed and measured (A. Piccolomini 1545, 238, emphasis added).
Mazzi 1882, 2:4245; Maylender, 5:3467. Aside from its traces here in
BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 406r549r, the academy was also depicted in an anonymous, undated ms. describing a ludic emblem contest between the
academies of the Intronati, the Accesi, and the Travagliati (Y.II.23, fols.
298v378r; on which see G. McClure 2010). In his copialettere of 1561, Girolamo Bargagli also refers to the Travagliati running afoul of the religious authorities for presenting a lecture on a passage from Dantes Purg.
21:13 (G. McClure 2010, 1157).
BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 411v, 417r.
This passage is from the title of the prefatory piece: A le nobile, e caste
giovani, cui piaqque al cielo sotto protesto de la Ventura di palesare il
premio da Giove lass destinato, al merito del valor loro, il libro per commissione del autore (BCI, Y.II.23, fol. 412v).
BCI, Y.II.23, fol. 417v: vostra altra virtute, / El senno, e la bellezza /
Hanno in Giove di voi desta vaghezza / che vapporta salute / Ne vuol
per voi cangiarsi in cigno, o ntoro, / Ma che splendiate intorno al sommo
choro / Qual poi sia il guiderdone uguale al merto / chin voi Donne
savanza / e chevi [?] da nel cielo, e fama, e stanza.
Ibid, fols. 421v422r: Giove non per seppe al amoroso suo appetito
por freno, anzi horo in toro hora in cigno, hora in altra forma cangiandosi, fece si che la gelosa sua moglie per venicarsi del ingiuria messe
pi volte in gravi pericoli il mondo.
Ibid., fol. 423v.
Ibid., fols. 224r425r.
Ibid., fols. 497v498r: Ma di che cantera ella prima? Dira forse le lodi del
sesso donnesco? Mostrando che ne loro mancarebbero Orfej o Esiodj, se
larroganza deglhuomini sottoponendose, non circoncrivesse loro ogni
ardire? Certonon, che la modestia sua non eleggerebbe simil materia.
Cantera forse la patientia di Psiche? Ne quello credo io, perche come accortissima non vorr provocarsi venore inimica.
Ibid., fol. 498rv: nuova deificatione di voi tutte divine giovanj far del
suo carme soggetto. beati voi, felici Travagliati, felicissima Siena.
Poiche in gloria del cielo sopra la lira dApollo la presentia del Divino
Consistoro per bocca di Madonna Livia sudiranno le vostre glorie da i
meritj vostri pendentj sudir il sapere deglAcademici sudir finalmente
la grandezza, e la buona fortuna de la citt vostra.

90 Ibid., fol. 540v: Piacque Calisto Giove, ma fu poco modesta la cagione
del compiacimento. Allincontro piace Madonna Claudia Dio, ma
honesta, e casta cagione cio il sommo, e sincero Amore, con che ella
il primo monarca honora; il Fattor muove di cosi rara fattura compiacersi: Compunta dunque Calisto la chiama et il luogo suo le consegna.
91 For the fortune and a subsequent poem, see ibid., fols. 530v535r.
92 The first allusions to the Hair of Berenice date to Eratosthenes, and the
cluster was first isolated as a discrete constellation by Caspar Vopel in
1536, followed by Mercator in 1551, and then achieving its permanent
name (and status) in Brahes catalogue in 1602 (Ridpath, 534; Allen,
16872). It is perhaps only a coincidence that the autonomy of the Hair
of Berenice in the astronomical charts comes in the course this century
in which female fortunes, medals, and emblems are gelling, but perhaps
not a coincidence that the longest of Martinis expositions would be devoted to this newly autonomous female constellation honouring one of
the most notable of the Sienese elite.
93 Ibid., fol. 532v: Non sapete voi che una gemma pretiosa si lega in oro,
non vedete che una reliquia, o un liquore di molta virt in un vaso doro
si serra? Lo intelletto e la mente de lei legate, o serrate con queste fila
doro non sono gemme pretiossime non son reliquie e liquori di pretiossima e potentissima virt [?] Non senza cagione la natura circuindo la
testa di Madonna Fulvia di pretiossimo oro, che ben sapeva che niuno
tesoro haveva al mondo prodotto che in valore purgatissima anima di
lei agguagliasse.
94 On Coluccio Salutatis prominent development of the motif in the De laboribus Herculis of 13812, see Witt, 21226.
95 BCI, Y.II.23, fols. 486v487r (emphasis added): Come dunque esser esser
[word repeated] puote chun huomo figlio di Giove illustre per lopere divino, madonna Sulpitia doni, e ceda il luogo suo?
96 Ibid., fol. 487r: Hercole fu dignissimo del cielo, ma madonna Sulpitia
molto piu degna.
97 Ibid., fol. 487v: Humani sono le virt, e per humano valore acquistate,
cosi ad un suo libro insegn gia Aristotele. Divina la bellezza, e da Dio
le creature participata, e come parte di Dio, ne i belli corpi risplende, e
come buona dando odor di se glanimi, ad ammiratione inclina, e glocchi
sforza, cosi piu suoi libri mostr Platone.
98 Ibid., fol. 529rv.
99 Ibid., fol. 529v: essendo dunque madonna Flavia forte di animo, robusta
e bella di corpo, vigilante nel custodine tutte le sue belle doti [,] terribile
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
e spaventevole coloro che vili intendimenti declinano. And earlier he

asks: conosceste mai fra di voi donna di pi vigoroso cuore, e di animo
piu forte (fol. 528v). Her praises also include the intellectual: Udiste
mai raccontare di donna di piu alto intendimento! (fol. 529r).
Ibid., fols. 528v529r: la severa piacevolezza ondella comanda ce il terrore, onde con un cenno solo glhuomini terreni spaventa.
S. Bargagli 1594, 1078.
S. Bargagli 1594, 104: vollero dico i Cortigiani Ferraiuoli, che la notte
della Befania, secondo lusato costume, si traesse alla presenza damorose
gentildonne alcuna Ventura; ma che la maniera di quella esser non
dovesse cosi dellusitate. E perche tutti quasi que belli Spiriti erano
gravemente occupati nel detto magnifico apparecchiamento, diedero di
ci la cura ad alcuni pochi de loro, ma la principal carica vera, e certa,
che fu posta sopra il Domestico nostro della medesima schiera, e con
spazio di tempo brevissimo pur da pensarvi.
Ibid., 433.
Ibid., 433: m caduto in animo, che lImprese chavete a sentire da me al
presente, siano da donne composte e non da huomini; overo, che trovate
siano a richiesta, o comandamento of leggiadre, e nobili donne.
In chapter 63, ll. 7392, the duenna explains the comparison of the confined women (desiring sexual freedom) to the caged bird: The bird thats
captured in the forest green, / Shut in a cage and nourished carefully, /
And fed delicious food, may seem to sing / With happy heart, in your
opinion; / And yet it longs to be among the boughs / Out in the woods,
which naturally it loves, / And howsoever well it may be fed / Would
much prefer to flit among the trees, / Ever it pines and struggles to get
free. / With all the ardor which fulfills its heart / It treads its food beneath
its feet, and seeks / Throughout its cage, in greatest agony, / To find some
door or other opening / Through which is may escape into the wood. /
Know well that every damosel or dame, / Whatever her environment may
be, / Has the inclination naturally / To long and search for roadways and
for paths / By which to come into that liberty / Which all of them forever
wish to have (Harry W. Robbinss trans. in Guillaume de Lorris and
Jean de Meun, 291). On Chaucers use of the motif in the Manciples Tale
(lines 16374; Chaucer, 2256) and elsewhere in the Canterbury Tales, see
Economou.
For a study of the 21 editions of the work between c. 1481 and 1538 and
the woodcuts of the birdcage as an illustration of the Power of Nature,
see Bourdillon, 1718, 2057, plates VI.
Kay, 40.

108 Ceretas comment comes in a letter to Pietro Zecchi that has been characterized as the first anti-marriage treatise authored by a woman (McCue
Gill, 1104, credits this characterization to Diana Robin; Cereta, 72 and 26).
109 L. Panizzas trans. in Tarabotti, 59; King, 90. As for woman as birds, see
Ringhieris Game of Trees and Birds at Ringhieri, 34v. Also, on the use of
the birdcage in a sexualized context, see Anton Francesco Grazzini's Florentine Carnival song of the Masters of the Making Birdcages in Tutti,
496.
110 S. Bargagli 1594, 433.
111 Ibid., 433.
112 Ibid., 433.
113 Ibid., 434. A more gendered version of such a sentiment (that is, one dealing with the relationship between the female and male lovers, rather than
the females abstract relationship to Love) can be found in one of the female troubadours of the twelfth century, Maria de Ventadorn. In her poetic dialogue with her lover Gui dUssel, she argues for an equality of
relations between the two lovers: Gui, the lover humbly ought to ask/ for
everything his heart desires,/ and the lady should comply wit his request/
within the bounds of common sense;/ and the lover ought to do her bidding/ as toward a friend and lady equally,/ and she should honor him
the way/ she would a friend, but never as a lord (cum ad amic, mas non cum a
seignor) (M. Bogins translation in Bogin, 1001; emphasis added; Kelly,
142.
114 Ibid., 435; cf. S. Bargagli 1989, 2634.
115 S. Bargagli 1594, 4334.
116 Ibid., 434; Ariosto 1976, 60, and Peter Desa Wigginss preface in ibid.,
516.
117 Wollstonecraft, 1503.
118 S. Bargagli 1594, 434.
119 Ibid., 436.
120 Ibid., 438.
121 Ibid., 439.
122 Tarabotti, 91.
123 S. Bargagli 1594, 439: Che quanto invero lesser liberto di se, e signore
delle sue operazione cosa propria, e naturale della creatura humana, altrettanto il sommettersi a persona, & il menar la sua vita legata in servit,
cosa avversa e tutta a quella contraria.
124 He presents an account of the elaborate triple wedding she staged at the
Petrucci palace and all the attendant spectacles (ibid., 441).
125 Ibid., 442.

126 Ibid., 464.
127 Ibid., 46970. He further explains that her choice of the snail was owing to
its similarity to a treasured shell of pearl she possessed, and out of which
her medal was sculpted (ibid., 469). Of course, the Chiocciola (Snail) was
one of the contrade of Siena, but there is no reason to suspect that this
was the reason for her choice, as this was not the contrada (Drago) in
which the palazzo Spanocchi was located, nor, for that matter, the one
(Selva) in which the palazzo Bindi Sergardi was to be found.
128 Ibid., 446.
129 Ibid., 447.
130 Ibid., 447. The stanza from Ariosto, Satire 5: lines 2657, is Chella
ti sia compagna abbi disegno; / non come in comperata per tua serva
/ reputa aver in lei dominio e regno and the next stanza urges that
quanto pi amica puoi te la conserva (Ariosto 1976, 138). Even though
this satire certainly has some comic and even (at the closing) vulgar features, some of the advice such as the lines cited above can be seen as
genuine reflections on a proper marriage. In fact, the satirical force in
part may come from the fact that Ariosto addressed the satire to Annibale Malaguzzi, who was about to marry a daughter of the Pio family of
Carpi. Thus, when Ariosto urges that one should not seek to marry up
as Malaguzzi was set to do but rather find a social equal, his counsel is
satirical only in the context of the dedicatee. Indeed, in some ways Ariostos satirical target was the conventional customs surrounding marriage,
rather than simply marriage itself. On the circumstances of this satire, see
Peter Desa Wiggins at ibid., 11722.
131 And similarly he depicts one (fig. 11) of a mustard plant (which can bring
tears to the eyes) with the motto A Chi la Noia, Pianto (or in Latin Fletum Lacessenti) (Tears to One Who Disturbs).
132 S. Bargagli 1594, 456: si mostrava cortese per natura, gioiosa, e lieta a chi
cosi da lontano seguitasse in amarla e cha qualunque amadore lascivamente, o poco honestamente accostar le si voleste, ella non pur gli si
renderebbe avversa, ritrosa; ma nimica mortalissima. In a similar vein,
Scipione describes one depicting a building material that will not burn,
with the motto Impenetrabile, to indicate a woman impervious to the
flames of love (ibid., 457).
133 Ibid., 460.
134 This last emblem depicts a laurel plant with the motto In Arido Terreno, drawn from a stanza of Petrarchs Rime sparse 64:911, which describes a laurel plant unsuitably situated in arid ground that would
welcome a new site (Petrarch 1976, 143). Scipione says that he does not

remember if this womans name was indeed Laura, as these emblems
often played upon the womans name. In any event, given the meaning
(and further implications) of her emblem, we may assume that her husband was not present at the party.
135 S. Bargagli 1594, 459.
136 In his collection of medal reverses, Scipione Bargagli also included one
for una nobilissima vedova, which depicted a black dove (Ricc 1993,
182). In his explication of the medal, he explains how the ancient Egyptians recognized the dove as the paragon of devotion to its mate and thus
saw it as the ideal symbol of a woman in perfect and respectable widowhood. Black, moreover, was not only the traditional colour for dolorous
matters but also a segnal di fermezza et di perseveranza (ibid., 212).
One of only two of the ninety-four medals that had an unnamed recipient, this medal, like the eclipsed-moon emblem above, reflected the ambiguous status of the widow in public.
5. The Birth of the Assicurate: Italys First Female Academy (16541704)
1 On the reopening of the Rozzi on 31 August and the Intronati on 14 December 1603 see Mazzi, 1:923.
2 Both the Breve descrittione (Intronati 1611, 2:411451) and the Oratione
(ibid., 2:452553) were included in a two-volume edition, Delle commedie degli Accademici Intronati di Siena, published in 1611. The Breve descrittione opens with an account of the egies, devices, and mottoes of Grand
Duke Ferdinando de Medici (identified as their Maecenas), his wife
Christine of Lorraine, and their son Cosimo, all to show their submission
to their Florentine overlords: Tutto ci per denotare, la dovuta singolare
osservanza, e devotione deglAccadmici Intronati, verso i loro Serenissimi Padroni (ibid., 2: 417).
3 This oration, addressed to the Accesi Academy in April 1564, was originally composed in Latin, and then revised and republished in Italian in
1569 (see L. Ricc in S. Bargagli 1989, xxxv). Written and revised during
the decade in which the Sienese academies faced increasing suppression
and finally (in 1568) closure (on which, see G. McClure, 2010), Scipiones
oration tries to defend the usefulness of academies in fostering civic peace
and buttressing the power of princes, and especially the Grand Duke Cosimo (see S. Bargagli, 1594, 51145, esp. at 53840).
4 Intronati 1611, 2:47275.
5 Ibid., 2:470; cf. Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:432; for Petrarchs sonnet 289, line 14,
io gloria in lei, et ella in me virtute!, see Petrarch 1976, 469.

6 Scipione conflates two observations from the Deipnosophists here to suggest that all these gods were honoured in the Platonic Academy, but in
fact Athenaeus observed that Eros could be found worshipped alongside
Hermes and Hercules in Greek gymnasia and alongside Athena in the
Platonic Academy.
7 L. McClure (no relation), 2758.
8 Intronati 1611, 2:5267.
9 Che questa valorosa squadra accademica si sia pe tempi trovata in alcuna competenza, e contrasto con altre simili schiere di pari armi, e ardire
guernite; e chella nhabbia allo spareggio riportata linsegna gloriosamente alzata (ibid., 2:527).
10 Ibid., 2:5278. The dominant strand of Sienese culture, comedy, is also
framed in terms of political docility. In a prologue to the Ortensio, performed by the Intronati for Duke Cosimos entry into Siena in 1560
(or early 1561), Scipione constructs a dialogue between two sisters, Tragedy and Comedy. When Tragedy appears in town drawn by the fame
of the academies, Comedy says she should not expect a strong interest:
Tragedy deals with high personages and can advise princes, but Comedy says that their prince has no need of Tragedys advice (Intronati 1611,
1:540). Comedy proclaims that she is more attuned to those of the mezzano stato, deals with the more common aairs of human life, and
owes her prominence in the city to women, to whom comedies are directed (ibid., 1:53940). The point here is that the prologue expressly depicts political tragedy as now irrelevant in Siena, so much are they under
the protection of their Florentine masters, and comedies and festive
life in general can now return to the city (ibid., 1:5434). Political domination thus facilitated the ascendancy of comedy in the city (and in this
dialogue between Comedy and Tragedy); on the prologue, see Seragnoli,
13842).
11 A measure of how women were viewed more as pawns than competitors
in the ancient world can be seen in Athenaeuss account of one interpretation of a scene in the Odyssey (1:1067) in which the suitors are depicted
as playing a board game (pessoi). In this account two teams of fifty-four
suitors essentially shoot marbles to win the figure of Penelope poised in
the middle (Deipnosophists 1.16e17b; Kurke, 2556).
12 Intronati 1611, 2:533.
13 Intronati 1611, 2:5334, emphasis added: in quel tempo venne rinvigorito il numero di questa (per modo di dire) accademica greggia, di persone femminili si per natura, ma per senno bene, e per iscienza virili.

14 Although Scipione identifies both as Intronati members, he admits to not
being able to remember the Intronati nickname of Creusa Florida, contessa di Pratta [Prata] in Venetia (Intronati 1611, 2:534). This may be because she was not an ocial member: Battiferra, wife of the Florentine
sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati, is found (as the first woman member)
in the list of 1557, but Florida, whom Scipione hails for her prose and
verse in Greek, Latin, and Italian, is not listed for that year or the subsequent list drawn up in 1603 (Sbaragli1942, 1834, 1938). In a poetic exchange between Girolamo Bargagli and Battiferra, the latter expresses her
gratitude to the Intronati, by whose shining bountiful splendour I was
/ lifted from such thick shadows[.] // To what more learned and honored
troop / than this one, that I not fear the passing of / the hours, could others late-night vigils and my / sweat open to me a more glorious entry?
// How much then do I owe you, elect and rare / spirits so courteous to
me? (Victoria Kirkhams trans. In Battiferra, 171.A letter by Florida is included in Ortensio Landis collection, Lettere di molte valorose donne of 1549
(Landi, fols. 129r130v).
15 I signori accademici Intronati nella lora accademia avendo ammesse
le pi principali poetesse di Parnaso, Apollo comanda che sieno levate
(Ragguaglio 21 in the first Centuria; Boccalini, 66; Varese, 2).
16 Boccalini, 66. On the publication of Colonna, Gambera, and Terracina
by Lodovico Domenichi, Gabriel Giolito, and others, see Robin, 501, 60,
20542.
17 For editions of Buoninsegnis Satira and Tarabottis Antisatira, see Buoninsegni and Tarabotti. On Tarabotti, whose coerced entry into a nunnery at
age thirteen provoked her Tirannia paterna (this, her original title for the
work that eventually appeared as Semplicit ingannata) and Inferno monacale, see ibid., 728; Tarabotti; Heller, 5768; Biga, 49; King, 8991; Weaver
in Buoinsegni, 728; Westwater, 6974.
18 On Aprosios acquaintance with Buoninsegni when he spent time in Siena
between 1626 and 1632, see Biga, 49. For an edition of Aprosios unpublished La maschera scoperta and the controversy, see Biga; Heller, 638.
19 Buoninsegni, 40; Biga, 4952, 121.
20 See Ottonelli (and discussion in my conclusion below); Biga, 106. Moreover, in the following decade (1656) a Lucchese Dominican named
Lodovico Sesti (writing under a pseudonym) also attacked Tarabotti,
publishing in Siena his Censura dellAntisatira di Suor Angelica [sic] Tarabotti, in which he marvelled that una femmina infarinata (lightly learned
woman) dared to challenge a huomo and Accademico (cited and discussed in Biga, 8990).

21 He identifies himself as being dellordine de Predicatori, gia publico lettore nellUniversit di Pisa, ed hora Professore della Sagra Teologia nello
Studio Generale, Teologo Collegiato, Consultore del SantOzio, ed Accademico Filomato di Siena (Ugurgieri Azzolini, title page).
22 According to Girolamo Giglis Lettera dellEconomico Intronato
allIllustrissimo Signore Antonio Magliabechi Bibliotecario dellorigine,
e processo dellantica sanese accademia, Prince Mattias de Medici (son
of Grand Duke Cosimo II), governor of Siena, authorized the union of the
two academies and obtained dal Serenissimo Granduca [his brother Ferdinando II de Medici) un annua rendita per la accademia sopra lappalto
per le carte da giuocare (BCI, Y.I.3, . 131v132r).
23 See the section entitled Giuochi usati da Sanesi nelle veglie loro in
chapter 20 (Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:6479).
24 Ibid., 2:396400, 403.
25 Ibid., 2:397.
26 Ibid., 2:401; S. Bargagli 1989,79.
27 Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:398; G. Bargagli, 1982, 102.
28 G. Bargagli, 1982, 168, relates the story without identifying Iuditta as the
Santi woman, though she is mentioned earlier in the treatise in another
context (ibid., 98). According to Ugurgieri Azzolini, her silent reply was
a box with a pearl and a broken wedding ring to symbolize his broken
faith. Of her he then continues: Questa stata tra le Dame di Siena, che
furono scopo, motivo delle pi nobili azzioni virtuose de vecchii Accademici Intronati la principale; perche per formare Imprese, comporre
poeticamente, e far tutto ci, che persona ornata di belle lettere non
hebbe molti eguali, anco parlando di quelli di prima classe (Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:403). This story bears out Bargaglis claim that the games
could win eternal grido for the Sienese women, though he does not cite
Santi as one of those (G. Bargagli 1982, 92).
29 On Livia Marzi, whom he praises for her published sonnets and madrigals (and who was enshrined as the constellation Lyra in Giugurta Tomasis star book), see Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:398. On Frasia Marzi to whom
Marcantonio Piccolomini dedicated his Ragionamento of whom wrote a
biography (see chapter 2 above) Ugurgieri Azzolini reveals that he has
been able to read some of her unpublished poems, as well those of Frasia
Bandini, whom he charactersizes as a Dama di bizzarrissima fantasia
(ibid., 2:399). He also includes an entry for Francesca Scotti (d. 1509), a poetess praised by Sannazzaro (ibid., 2:396).
30 Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:406. See chapter 2 above. He does not give the first
name of Forteguerri, and would thus distinguish her from Laudomia
Forteguerri, who receives a separate entry at #29 (ibid., 2:403, 406).

31 Ibid., 2:408.
32 Ibid., 2:404. He then goes on to cite her inclusion in Angelico Aprosios
1646 misogynistic Scudo di Rinaldo as one of the female literati in a chapter entitled Se le Donne siano atte a gli esercitii delle Armi, e delle Lettere, e se perci meritino de essere superiore a gli huomini (Aprosio,
27). This citation from Aprosios recent work shows Ugurgieri Azzolinis
knowledge of this work and makes clearer the context of his own feminist
agenda in this female prosopography.
33 Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:431: essendo stata ama dhonore di Maria Maddalena Arciduchessa dAustria, e Grand Duchessa di Toscano, liberalmente rimunerata de suoi servigii nella persona del suo Consorte con
molti Maestrati, ed ozii in questa Citt, e suo stato.
34 Ibid., 2:431: Hora se bene avanti con let, nondimeno le sue vivezze
sono, come prima, rigorose E si come nella sua giovent f albergo
delle grazie, e seggio bellezza, cos hora ne scintillano gli spendori, se ben
annuvolati da gli anni.
35 Ibid., 2:432.
36 Ugurgieri Azzolini pays special attention here to the musical accomplishments of Sienese women, singling out by name several nuns (on whom,
see Reardon, 3, 27, 33).
37 Ibid., 2:433.
38 On his awareness of this last point, cf. his praise of Francesca Scotti, who
applied her non femminili talenti alli studii delle belle lettere (ibid.,
2:396).
39 For the Intronati, see BCI, Y.I.1, . 1r10v and last document (pp. 153 [or
fols. 42r71r]); also BCI, Y.I.4; for the Rozzi, see Mazzi 1882, 1:342457.
40 See BCI, Y.II.22; a second copy of the book can be found at BCI, B.II.26.
Little has been written on the Assicurate. The only discrete study that
I know of is the sixty-six-page 1993 work of Carolina Scaglioso (which
I was able to consult in the Biblioteca of the Universit per Stranieri in
Siena), which was very helpful in identifying ms. sources for the academy
and published works of individual members.
41 Although the motto listed here reads Qu ne difende, e qu nillustra
lombra (BCI, Y.II.22, frontispiece, and fol. 2r), it is more commonly
listed as Qu ne difende, e qu nillustra lombra (at BCI, C.VIII.26, fols.
5v6r; cf. BCI, B.II.26; Mazzi 1882, 2:348.
42 Gigli 1854, 1:275, 418; Mazzi 1882, 2:348.
43 Given our discussion of the Ugurgieri Azzolinis treatise above, it is
worth noting that among the original 16 Assicurate were Caterina Ugurgieri Spannocchi and Violante Bargagli Ugurgieri (BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 1v and
3r).

44 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 2r.
45 Of the Assicurate, Maylender, 1:366, comments: Fra le adunanze letterarie istituite e composte da gentildonne, questa delle Assicurate costituisce
il pi antico e bellesempio.
46 In BCI, B.II.26, the title page reads: Origine dellAccademia
dellAssicurate di Siena col ruolo de nomi, et imprese di quelle dame, che
si acriveranno alla medesima. Raccolto dal G. Signore Francesco Piccolomini and recopied by Galgano Bichi. On the six games between 1680 and
1704, see BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 8r16r; on the game not hosted by Piccolomini,
but identified as being orchestrated by him, see ibid., fol. 14r.
47 Ibid., fol. 10r.
48 These women, Caterina Ugurgieri Spannocchi, Acritia Chigi Cerretani,
and Margarita Piccolomini Nelli, respectively, were all among the founding members (ibid., fols. 1v, 3v, and 4r).
49 Of these, La Resoluta (Filomena Marsili Petrucci), LIntrepida (Ginevera
Guidini), La Maestosa (Caterina Chigi Piccolomini Mandoli), and La Disinvolta (Camilla Alberti Buonsignori) were among the original 16 (ibid.,
fols. 1v, 4r, 2r). In all, the number of women enrolled in the Assicurate in
Y.II.22 totalled eighty-eight, though this number does not include any others (aside from Camilla Placidi Lucarini, inducted in 1672) who may have
enrolled in games in 1672 and 1673 as listed in BCI, Y.I.2, pp. [134]135.
50 Ibid., fol. 12r; on the alternate use of this emblem by, e.g., the Emperor
Charles V, as a symbol of ambitious daring beyond the accepted frontiers,
see Giovio and Domenichi, 24; E. Rosenthal.
51 In the detailed accounts of the parlour games (to be discussed below),
see the recorders reference to the challenge of reporting tutte quelle vivezze, che dalla femminile disinvoltura furono improvisamente proferite (BCI, C.VIII, 26, fol. 69r); Giulia Cervinis combatting a point with
maravigliosa disinvoltura (ibid., fols. 81v82r); the reference to Caterina Gaetana Grioli Piccolominis consueta disinvoltura (ibid., fol.
120r); Portia Bichi Gori Pannelinis interrupting a discussion con un inesplicabile ecacia, et ammirabil disinvoltura (ibid., fol. 143r).
52 In the Courtier 1. 28 (Castiglione, 50); on sprezzatura, see Lehfeldt, 4712.
53 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 3r.
54 See fig. 8 and the discussion in chapter 4 above. Likewise, nicknames and
emblems that seem to be wholly female in a traditional sense can take on
a more assertive connotation. Vittoria Tancredi Ballatis nickname, la Ritarata (the Secluded), suggests female retreat, and her emblem, A Pearl
Inside a Seashell, female jewellery, but her motto is a rather defiant I
Open Myself Only to the Rays of the Sun (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 3v).

55 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 10v.
56 Ibid., fol. 12v. The locus for the lantern of Cleanthes would seem to be
Varros De lingua latina 5.9, in which he referred to his night-time lucubrations by the lanterns of Aristophanes (of Byzantium) and Cleanthes
(the Stoic philosopher); other references to these lanterns can be found in
Polizianos Miscellanea (Godman, 81) and Rabelaiss Gargantua and Pantegruel 5.33 (on this image, see Ker, esp. at 229n71.)
57 BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 8v.
58 That there was prior planning for these names and emblems is unequivocally apparent in the case of the fourteen new members created in 1704
and the thirty-one women celebrated in the party of 1707/8: in the first
case all of their mottoes were drawn from lines of verse from Dante, Petrarch, or Torquato Tasso (BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 16r17v) and in the second
all were drawn from Petrarch (BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 258v263v, repeated at
303r308r), a uniformity that obviously required preparation.
59 And a sixth game during this period, held to celebrate the entrance of Patritio Bandinis new daughter-in-law to his home (site of the game), was
orchestrated per opera, e a preghiere del Signore Francesco Piccolomini
[her husband] (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 14r).
60 Ibid., fol. 10r.
61 Ibid., fol. 16r, emphasis added.
62 Thus the party of 1690 is entitled Intrecciamento accademico guidato per
comandamento dellIllustrissima Signora Caterina Gaetana Piccolomini
dallAlbagioso Intronato (BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 68r). Caterina is similarily
acknowledged in two other parties in 1691 (ibid., fols. 116r and 168r), and
Olimpia Chigi ne Gori is named in the first game of 1664 (ibid., fol. 2r).
In this supervisory role, the Sienese women conform to a role seen the
Courtier 1:412, where Elisabetta Gonzaga and Emilia Pia are overseers of
the launch of a game (though only marginal participants in its execution).
What is notable here is that this record of the Sienese parties identifies a
female role on four occasions, whereas the record book kept by Piccolomini did only in the case of the 1704 party.
63 The title page of this, the sole Assicurate publication, reads in part: Poesie per musica fatte in congiuntura che le Signore Accademiche Assicurate di
Siena fanno in Giuoco di Spirito in casa del Signore Francesco Piccolomini
a preghiere della Signora Caterina Gaetana Grioli Piccolomini consorte del
medesimo fr dette Accademiche, detta LImpareggiabile (Assicurate, 1704);
see further discussion below.
64 On the alternate manuscript of this account of this last party, found in the
papers of Giovanni Battista Pecci in the Biblioteca Moreniana in Florence,
65
66
67
68
69
70
see Mazzi 1919, who cites the title of this anonymous account as Veglia
della domenica del carnevale fatta in Siena lanno 1707 nella sala del. Sig.
Lattanzio Finetti (ibid., 171), but this presumably old-style date, falling
as it does during Carnival, would likely denote 1708 in new style.
Namely, games in 1664, 1690, two in 1691 (February and June), and
1699. (The dates between the two books are inconsistent, as I believe the
compiler of the Origin of the Assicurate used modern dating, and the
scribes of the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito used old style.) If one adds
two more games not recorded in either of these books, but listed in a
manuscript in BCI, Y.I.2, pp. 133[136] as occurring in June of 1672 and
1673, the aggregate number of recorded parlour games in the period totals twelve.
BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 69r: La memoria di chi scrive non puol esser cos facile in reportare tutte quelle vivezze, che dall femminile disinvoltura furono improvisamente proferite. The chi scrive in the above passage
does not reveal the gender of the recorder, nor is it clear in any of the accounts, although I think it very likely that women wrote these accounts,
given that the games discussed the creation among the Assicurate of offices such as the secretary and the censors. Sometimes, the recorder confesses to weakness of memory, as in a game during Carnival of 1691,
where the scribe writes se non erra la mia memoria (ibid., fol. 126v). At
another point in this same game, the recorder suggests that the banter
was simply too lively to capture: seguirono scambievolmente vivacissimi motti, la moltiplicit de quali rende pi scarsa la penna nella relatione (ibid., fol. 121v). In the last party of the book of 1707/8 (not explicitly
identified as an Assicurate/Intronati event, though it likely was one) the
recorder writes: Degli altri non pote souvenire ne al Segretario, ne a
me; ibid., fol. 274v).
Ibid., fol. 116r: la discretezza di chi rivolger locchio queste carte refletter molto bene alla disuguaglianza grande, che corre dalla penna, all
lingua, da fogli, alle sale, e dallesame di una ricertata memoria, alla real
dimostrazione de un ingegnoso trattenimento.
BCI, Y.I.2, p. 133: A condotta, e directione deglAccademici Intronati,
sono stati fatti tutti i Giuochi di Spirito seguiti in Siena dal dal [word repeated] Anno 1603.
Ibid., pp. 133[136].
Ibid., pp. 137[138]: la predetta Accademia delle Signore Assicurate
hebbe lessere, e la sua origine, non inaspettata, e improvisa come laltre
cose di Giuochi di Spirito, ma ben si dan una ben ponderata, e preventiva consideratione fatta daglAccademici Intronati di tal tempo che la
71
72
73
74
75
76
promoverono di concerto, e se ne fecero Autori, i quali, per non assoggettare cosa di tanto rilievo, a determinationi instantanee, disposero avanti
al gioco, e regolorono quanto occorreva, per stabilirla in ogni circostanza
opportuna, e requisito formale, e porla in stato di buon essere, a che
vi contribu assai superiormente ad ognaltro, lapplicatione, e particolar pensiero che di cio si prese il prenominato Signore Ugo Ugurgieri
Archintronato.
Ibid., p. 137: LAccademia delle Signore Dame Assicurate di Siena
se bene appar essere eretta occasionalmente nel farsi in casa del Signore Niccol Gori Pannelini nel Anno 1654 un gioco di spirito diretto dal Signore Ugo Ugurgieri Accademico Intronato, fra quali era
nominato LImpatiente, e di tal tempo haveva fra gli stessi il grado
dArchintronato. Given that the description of this game in the Origin
of the Assicurate (at BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 2r) does not credit Ugurgieri as the
director of the game, it is again likely that the anonymous chronicler here
is trying to correct the record by assigning the latter his due credit.
See the brief descriptions of this game in this same document at ibid., p.
139, and in Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito at BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 2r.
BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 3r5v. The list of 31 Assicurate includes the original
16 from 1654 and the 15 more enrolled at this gathering. To the number of
the Intronati must be added Ugo Ugurgieri, who was charged by Olimpia Chigi with directing the game. Only the Assicurate have emblems and
mottoes; none of the men do this a symbolic indication of the primacy
of the women over the men in these events.
And, as we shall see in other games, in the case of women who are not
yet enrolled in the academy, their real names are used, which further reinforces how they are being tested for entry into the Assicurate and transformation into a new public identity.
He remarks, Quella gloriosa imprea [the oak tree], questa maestosa residenza [where the 1654 game had also been played], mi riducono memoria leggiadrissime dame, le glorie de vostri virtuosi trattenimenti nelle
veglie passate (ibid., fol. 10r). Having been charged by Olimpia Chigi
with creating a game, he says, come povero d concetti ricorrer allauiti
favorebole dellantic Accademia dellAssicurate; sicuro, che quando
haver radunata la medesima haver fatto un composto le pi elevati
spiriti di questa Patria (ibid., fol. 10r). Though this exaggerated praise (of
an academy only ten years old, with only one recorded event in its past)
is part of the courtly excess of female praise, it nonetheless signals the
passing of the mantle of ludic control considerably to the Assicurate.
Ibid., fols. 5v6r.

77 She says, Acceto lhonore con conditione per di non rienere appresso
di me alcuna sovranit, m dappoggiare le mole di questo nostro governo al saggio consiglio di tr virtuose Accademiche (ibid., fol. 11r). For
instance, Caterina Pecci is named prima Consultrice, e Segretaria della
Consulta del Regno dAmore (ibid., fol. 11r)
78 And in this sense, the Assicurate possibly envision themselves as a republican alternative to autocratic rule. On the political feature or agenda in
Renaissance and early modern Italian academies, see Cochrane, 523.
79 BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 14v.
80 One of the counsellors, Caterina Spannocchi, acknowledges their debt to
him, but fears his natural inclination to control them: dubito solo, che
ammettendolo noi allamministatione di nostra Accademia, con tate sue
massime in testa non cerchi un giorno di venirne tiranno and there is a
side note reading: perche il continuo discorso di questo Cavaliere di
Massime Politiche (ibid., fol. 14v).
81 Ibid., fols. 15r16r.
82 Francesco Accarigi submits a written oer to be censor to improve upon
their literary eorts: to impartially correct errors, to moderate huge amplifications, and to give a rule of rhetorical colours with which in the
shadow of fables well depicted they will make the near appear distant,
and the distant near, in order to cause hope or despair according to the
occasions that occur in their inventions (ibid., fols. 21v22r). One of the
Assicurate, Laura Marsilii Vecchi (the Spirited), challenges him on every
sentence and turns the tables, censoring the would-be literary censor.
She tells him: Vada studiar meglio i colori rettorici, che per adesso
questa sua figura non cos bella, che possa persuaderci, per vada in
pace (ibid., fol. 23v). This mock contest between the la Briosa (the
Spirited) and the aspiring male censor who oers up a florid application
letter suggests that both groups the men and the women are aware
of the issue that men may exaggerate their literary and rhetorical capacities, and women may want more control over their own forms of cultural
production.
83 Ibid., fol. 56r.
84 Ibid., fols. 33v34r.
85 The game director, Ugo Ugurgieri, proposes the theme (ibid., fols. 31v
32r) of preparing for Loves passage through the city with proper arrangements: two members of the Assicurate, Alessandra Fantoni Gori (the
Witty One) and Filomena Marsili Petrucci (the Resolute), were charged
with supervising the festivities. The entry of Love into the city was really
a metaphor for the real reason for the party, which was on the occasion
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
of the passage that [Cardinal Flavio Chigi] made through Siena on return
from a legation in France (this from the description of the game in BCI,
Y.II.22, fol. 5r).
BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 58r: Rallegratevi Signore Assicurate, che per passatempo potrete far guerra al tempo, e per ischerzo acquistarvi
limmortalit. Potrete con briosa intrepidezza de vostri ingengi in questa
sera aprirvi il varco alla gloria. Ne vatterrisca lapprentioni d heroiche Maesta che nascoste sotto il manto di Regia benignita, vi daranno
pi tosto animo di palesare quelle virt, che fino ad hora sotto il silentio di rigorosa modestia tenesti celate e gia tempo di sciorre la lingua,
sicure, che i vostri gratiosi componimenti saranno graditi dalla fortunata assistenza dAmore; e perche questa nostra Accademia habbia il
suo principio da unottimo regolamento, voi Saputa cominciarete a dire
dellEccelenza di noi altre Dame sopra deglHuomini. It should be noted
that in this introduction to Saputas speech, the Assicurate Principessa invokes some of the Academy members nicknames or their variants: briosa, intrepidezza, maesta, modestia.
Ibid., fol. 58v: la gran disgratia delle povere donne, che chimate bene
spesso da Signori Intronati alle loro Accademie, siano poste per lo pi
immobili in una seggiola, come fisso bersaglio i colpi delle loro maledicenze. Quando entrano nellaccademia, se bene anchessa ha il nome di
donna, para nulla di meno, che questi ingegnosi giurino mortale nemicitia alle donne.
Ibid., fol. 59r: Certo che saria pusillanimit la nostra, se mostrassemo col
silentio dacconsentire alla malignita de loro detti.
Ibid., fol. 59v60v.
Moderata Fontes Il merito delle donne (The worth of women)(pub. 1600) and
Tarabottis Tirannia paterna (or Semplicit ingannata) (Paternal tyranny, or innocence betrayed) (pub. posthumously in 1654) both counter the misogynist derivation of donna from danno (harm) with positive derivations.
Moderata Fonte has her interlocutor Corinne suggest that it comes from
dono celeste (Fonte, 923) and Tarabotti poses the possibilities of dono
di Dio, delizia, and dea (Tarabotti, 134). On Fonte, see King, 22832;
Smarr, 21530; Cox 2011, 23649; on Tarabotti, see n. 17 above.
BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 59v60r.
She asserts that the prince of the Peripatetics says che le gentilezza del
corpo pi atta di qualunque altra condizione di persone per le scienze,
e virt (ibid., fol. 61r); presumably, this comment is an embellishment
of the De anima 2.9 (421a) that those with soft flesh are more intelligent
(though cf. Agnesi, 84; and the Ps.-Aristotelian Physiognomics 6 (813b).

93 Ibid., fol. 61r. For other evidence from social practice, she cites (surely,
ironically) arguments from current custom and civil law that would
imply the superiority of women: namely, that girls are freed from tutors
two years before boys, and that they can marry at age twelve (as opposed
to fourteen for boys) (ibid., fols. 61v62r). Other examples of female dignity from social custom are that the king of Spain removes his wig for
women and the pope has them sit during audiences (ibid., fol. 62r).
94 Ibid., fol. 62r: dunque se per la tua origine, e per la sovranit del nome,
se per le comparationi delle virt, se per le costitutione del corpo, se
per lapprovatione delle leggi, se per i trattamenti de i gran monarchi
la Donna dichiarata superiore glhuomini, e perche non vogliamo
ritornare al nostro primo grado Signore e trarci per una volta questa
vile catena dal piede, la quale troppo ingiustamente c stata posta da
glhuomini.
95 Ibid., fol. 168r.
96 The description of the game indicates that it took place alla presenza
degli Eccellentissimi Signori, Prencipessa e Prencipe Chigi, e lor Signore
due figlie spose monache (ibid., fol. 168r).
97 Reardon, 12931.
98 BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 169r170r; cf. BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 13v.
99 Guardinga (Caterina Bandini), however, claims that she is quiet or participatory depending on the compositon of the gathering (BCI, C.VIII.26,
fols. 170v171r).
100 Ibid., fol. 171r.
101 This earlier game was held during Carnival of 1690; the theme was the
choice of a wife for Love (ibid., fols. 68r113v).
102 Ibid., fol. 168r.
103 Ibid., fols. 171v, 188r. These two pages are in fact contiguous, because the
pages describing this game in the collection were scrambled when the
book was bound and misnumbered accordingly. The proper order of the
pages is the following: fols. 168r171v, 188r191v, 180r183v, 176r179v,
172v175v, 184r187v, and 192r202r.
104 When it is decided that the academys pursuits will be literary and cultural (rather than focusing of matters of fashion and appearance), Guardinga appropriately is chosen as one of the two censors guaranteeing the
quality of the academys productions (ibid., fol. 194v).
105 Ibid., fol. 182r.
106 Ibid., fol. 182v.
107 Ibid., fol. 198v.
108 Ibid. fol. 200r.

109 Ibid., fol. 200r.
110 Ibid., fol. 176r: se li bastava sapere come mettano bene in carta le dame,
poteva leggere le lettere della Marchesa di Pescara, di Signora Vittoria
Colonna, d Isabella Andreini, e di altre date alle stampe, e lodate da tutto
il mondo. (Oddly, the passage suggests the Marchesa di Pescara and
Colonna to be dierent figures, but they are one and the same.) On Vittoria Colonna and Isabella Andreini, see Robin, 79101, 2023; MacNeil,
45, 32126; Ross, 21234.
111 BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 176r-v: Soggiunse il Signore Sparnicciato [Alessandro
Marsilii], che questa erano dame di la dal Seicento, e che egli desiderava
di veder lettere di quelle dal mille seicento settantinque [read settantacinque] in qua, et allora direbbe chi scrivesse bene, male, benche non
mettesse niente in dubio, che tutte le dame Assicurrate potessero esser
degni Segretarie in ogni genere di lettere.
112 Robin, xxxxi; also see Ray; Westwater; Ross.
113 BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 180v: un Accademia, che h per oggetto la virt, deve
aborrir la fintione, che seguace del vitio.
114 Ibid., fol. 180v.
115 Ibid., fol. 181r: la Signora Archiassicurata per debito di sua carica fosse
ognianno obligata di fare almeno due Giuochi di Spirito, et altre virtuose,
e private adunanze di loro Accademia, quando dalla medisima vene fosse
conosciuto il bisogno.
116 Ibid., fol. 172v: e togliere in questa guisa la gloria alle Pompe di Francia,
e rendere insieme ingegnosa la vanit, e speculativo anco il lusso.
117 Ibid., fol. 172v.
118 Ibid., fol. 172v, emphasis added: tutti quei virtuosi esercizi, che servano dornamento allo spirito, come nella lettura, e conferenza distorie,
nel compor sonetti, e madrigali, nellapprender lingue straniere,
nellesercizio del suono, e del canto, nellintrecciar bene le danze, et altre
simili virtuose occupationi, per farne poi bella pompa in tutte le adunanze, che di tempo in tempo fossero seguite.
119 Ibid., fol. 173v: E per non fare ingiustitia al singolar talento della Signora
Accademica Reservata, f la prima ad essere invitata dalla sede far
pompa di qualche parto del suo ingegno, giache questa dama continovamente simpiega in simile virtuoso esercitio.
120 Ibid., fol. 189v: perche glIntronati devono esercitarsi nellacquisto delle
virt, e le Signore Assicurate nel far pompa del perfetto loro spirito.
121 Ibid., fols. 173v174r: Alle Eccellentissime Signore Donna Maria Teresa e
Donna Maria Maddalena Chigi, che abbondano il mondo, / Sincaminano
alla gloria di una vera perfettione. Born in 1675 (Reardon, 124, 130) the
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
twins were fifteensixteen years of age at the time of this ceremony in

1691.
BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 174r: Hanno presso di voi picciolo vanto / Queste
del fasto uman, pompe terrene, / Loro prole del sol, con rie catene /
Sepe al cuore di huom leggiadro incanto, / Ma voi, sprezate il luminoso
ammanto.
She presented a sonnet in honor of the visiting Principessa Maria Virginia
Borghesi Chigi, mother of the twin girls. (ibid., fol. 175rv.)
Ibid., fol. 193v.
Ibid., fol. 193v: il loro impiego doveva consistere in esaminare il them
[read tema?] dei Giochi di Spirito, nellemendare che is essi non rebuttasse con ecacia le ragioni dei Cavalieri, et ancora nel ben considerare i
sonetti, che qualche Accademica volesse recitare. Portia Pannelini, nicknamed La Pretiosa, had for her motto E Tesor di Virt, Pompa dOnore
(BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 12v), revealing yet again the transvaluation of pompa
to a more honourable plane.
BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 12r.
BCI, C,VIII.26, fol. 124r.
Ibid., fol. 129r.
Ibid., fol. 129r.
Ibid., fols. 129v130r.
Ibid., fol. 130r: Si dichiarorono superati dal talento di dama si eloquente
gli Signori Inflessibile, et Allocchito, confessando, che il cuore sentiva ancora per gli occhi le di lei ragioni, e molto si pentivano di non haver trovata compagnia, per farsi ascrivere al vero ruolo dellArciero bendato.
Ibid., fol. 135v.
Ibid., fol. 135v.
Ibid., fol. 136r: e sautentic con dimostrare bastanti le singolari prerogative, accompagnate da un esemplare virt, ambita assai pi delle ricchezze in una sposa sagace.
For the story of Cleopatra and the pearl, see Plinys Natural History
9.11921.
Ibid., fol. 136r.
Ibid., fol. 137r (but should not he likewise wait until he has a daughter to
dower?).
Love also lodges a complaint that the casino del gioco (gambling) diverts time from worthy impieghi amorosi, e tutte quelle lodevoli e virtuose operationi (ibid., fol. 130v), which launches a debate on men wasting
money on such games that would be better spent on comedies, jousts,
masquerades, and similar festivities (fols. 131v132r).

139 Ibid., fols. 141rv, 161v, 163rv; as for the poem, its theme was meant to
unire al Moribondo Carnevale Morte et Amore (fol. 163r).
140 Ibid., fol. 138r: se alcune Gentilissime dame, che fecero lanno passato prova del lor talento nel canto, ad eetto di publicarlo poi ne teatri,
havessero adempito alla loro promessa.
141 Ibid., fol. 138r.
142 Ibid., fol. 158r: La Signora Guardinga non capiva donde deducesse
questa obligatione, perche non sapeva, che esse fossero soggette, che i
mariti et alle dicrete volont.
143 See chapter 2 above.
144 Ibid., fol. 158v. Part of the debate between Pannelini and Caterina turns
on the analogy between the performance of comedy, which the Intronati
routinely staged, and the performance in parlour games. When Caterina
claims that the latter is as dicult as the former, Pannelini denies this,
saying that theatrical performance requires memorization of lines, costume changes, and altering ones persona, whereas in giuochi di spirito
women simply rely on their lively quickness (vivace prontezza) (fol.
159r), which should be easy for them, since in all their gatherings, in all
their visits and conversations, they always make a giuochi di spirito, so
why do they not wish to make a display (far pompa) of something that is
so familiar to them (fol. 159v). Thus, for Pannelini, theatrical comedy is
laboured; the parlour game is merely an extension of a natural female vivacity. Still, however, the women see these games as acts of public performance and we saw in chapter 3 above, Girolamo Bargaglis game book
included a Game of Comedy (G. Bargagli 1982, 113) that implied the porous boundaries between the parlour game and theatrical comedy.
145 Ibid., fol. 166r.
146 Ibid., fol. 44v.
147 Ibid., fol. 47rv.
148 For instance, in the second game, which eventually dealt with the selection of a wife for Love, preliminary discussion on the topic of a game included a proposal from a woman to consider how the passions are like
a badly ruled state needing a prince to rein them in. One of the Intronati
said that this was beyond the ken of the gentlemen and would require
command of Aristotles Ethics (ibid., fol. 74v). Other men suggested the
theme of Love as a biribissaio (gambling director) or as a gypsy dispensing fortunes to women, but the women reject these as too lowly
(ibid., fols. 75v76v).
149 In the Accounts of Giuochi di Spirito this party is undated, but an alternate ms. dates it to 1707/8 (see n. 64 above and Mazzi, 1919).

150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
G. Bargagli, 1982, 107

BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 275v.
Ibid., fol. 277v.
Ibid., fol. 278v.
For instance, Eufrasia Nini (as the Muse of Tragedy, Melpomene) movingly presents the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, after Orazio Mignanelli mishandled a theme from Ariosto (ibid., fols. 284v285r);
Olimpia Ganducci (as Muse Polennia) mimed Niobes grief at the death
of her children, outperforming the male aspirant (fols. 285v286r); Emilia
Orlandini (as Muse Calliope) wrote a better madrigal than the male on
the theme of being a soldier in the battles of love (fols. 291v292r). In
some cases the men are described as intentionally failing, as in the case
of an accomplished violinist who intentionally played poorly as a strattagemma dellaccortezza, non colpa dellignoranza (fol. 287v).
Ibid., fol. 281r.
Ibid., fol. 281v.
Ibid., fol. 281r.
BCI, Y.II.22, fols. 16r17v.
Assicurate, [1].
BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 16r.
Ibid., fol. 8v.
Ibid., fol. 16r.
Assicurate, 3.
See www.royalblood.co.uk./D234/I234372.html (accessed 04/08/2011).
Assicurate, 5
Ibid., 6.
Although the Lover in the Roman de la Rose impregnates the Rose, this is,
as Charles Dunn suggests (Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, xxv),
the exception rather than the rule in the literature of courtly love. Moreover, in this scenario of the Assicurate, the impregnation will not come
from a predatory Love (who restrains himself) but from a heavenly bee
(suggesting an other-worldly, pure, essentially non-sexual fertilization).
Ibid., 78.
Caterina was married in 1672 to Francesco Piccolomini, bringing an enormous dowry of 8,000 florins (Lisini, 63). She was the daughter of Fulvia
Piccolomini and Lelio Grioli, whose dramatic love triangle (or rather,
quadrangle) resulting in the deaths of Fulvias admirer Paride Bulgarini
and Lelio and her remarriage to Parides brother Lattanzio was the subject of the 1869 novel, Il destino of F.D. Guerrazzi. As for Caterina, she was
enrolled in the Assicurate in 1664 as La Pomposa (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 6r),
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
and despite her role as long-time matriarch of the Assicurate, who were
championed by the anti-Jesuit Intronati member Girolamo Gigli, her will
of 1722 left 2,000 scudi to the Jesuits (Cohn, 228).
Likewise, in the alternate copy of the Origin (in BCI, B.II.26) only fifteen
of the fifty-nine folios were filled.
See BCI, C.V.25, fol. 25r (or p. 47, old numbering) and C.III.18.2, fol. 277r
(or fol. 234r, old numbering). It was published in Rime degli Arcadi, 4:185.
BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 17v.
In aver letto il libro ove sono registrate le veglie senesi e giochi di spirito,
che ivi si fanno da quelle nobilissime dame e cavalieri (BCI, C.V.25, fol.
25r (or p. 47, old numbering); cf. BCI, C.III.18.2, fol. 277r (or fol. 234r, old
numbering), where the poem is dedicated to a Sienese woman Francesca
Ugolini nelli (Arrighi?).
Rime degli Arcadi, 4:185: Sio pari avessi al gran desio il potere, / Le
dotte risse, e lerudita gara / Direi delle tue Donne, ove simpara / Co
rai dingegno ad illustrar le sere. / Ma quelle tue gran Donne al Mondo
sole / Salzan cos sovra il femmineo sesso, / Chio non ho penna, che s
alto vole. On Arbia as metonymy for Siena, see Battiferra, 101, 1689,
399n137.
In BCI, C.V.25, Alessandris praise of the Sienese parlour games is answered in a poem by Giovanni Gori, who, in turn, praises her praise. His
poem depicts Arbia speaking to her nymphs, saying Che costei, che
con tai voci altere, / Ninfe gentili, e con virt preclara / F la stima di voi
piu bella e chiara? / Donna o Dea (fol. 25r [or p. 47]).
For Alessandris poems, see Rime degli Arcadi, 4:1819; For Orlandinis, see
ibid., 6:1956. Orlandini was enrolled as an Assicurate (as the Studiosa)
in the 1704 game in which Alessandri was enrolled (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 17v).
Both of these women joined the Arcadian Academy (and published under
Arcadian nicknames in this collection), but in the listing of the authors
in the index of the Rime, in which authors academy memberships were
often identified, neither of these women is shown as being aliated with
the Assicurate, further confirming that by the time this collection was
published (171620) the Assicurate had eectively ceased to exist and/or
revealing that the Rimes editor Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni did not recognize the academy.
The influence of the Assicurate likely bore upon the Sienese woman Aretafila Savini de Rossi, for whom a medal was struck in 1710 commemorating her as a fusion of Venus (love) and Minerva (wisdom), which in
turn prompted Piero Jacopo Martello to dedicate his 1721 tragedy Elena
Casta (Chaste Helen) to her. Aretafila weighed in on the debate on female

learning hosted by the Paduan Academy of the Ricovrati: in 1723 she responded to Giovanni Antonio Volpis attack with her Apologia in favore
degli studi delle donne. (Messbarger, I believe, is incorrect in suggesting
that Savinis praise of an improvisational peasant poetess in this treatise
referes to Emilia Ballati Orlandini [at Agnesi, 115n19]; it was rather probably Menichina della Legnaia [on whom see Graziosi 1992, 3478].) A
document in Sienas Archivio di Stato includes Savini de Rossi and Orlandini among five women similarly identified as being erudita donna,
Pastorella Arcade, e Assicurata (cited in Scaglioso, 55); although there
may be no other record of Savini de Rossi as an Assicurate, certainly her
admiration for Orlandini places her in that circle. On Savini de Rossi, see
Giordano, 1468; Catoni, 166; Agnesi, 67116; Messbarger, 2148; Graziosi
2009, 1056. As for other Sienese women active in publishing in the eighteenth century (and enrolled as Arcadians), see the portraits of Livia Accarigi, Emilia Ballati Orlandini, Elisabetta Credi Fortini, Lucrezia Sergardi
Buonsignori, and Settimia Tolomei Marescotti, in Giordano, 2332, 379,
947, 14950, 16567.
178 Marescotti wrote a letter (cited in Scaglioso, 54) that same year to the head
of the Intronati acknowledging the union of the weaker trunk of the
oak of the Assicurate with the vines of the famous pumpkin of the
Intronati, eectively conceding the end of the Assicurates autonomy. As
for the option presented by the Arcadian Academy, in addition to Alessandri and Orlandini, the Assicurate matriarch Caterina Gaetana Griffoli herself (along with her husband) became a member of this academy
(ibid., 57).
179 A point made and passage cited in Mazzi 1882, 2:349.
6. Girolamo Gigli: The Legacy of the Sienese Games and Sienese Women
1 See L. Spera in DBI, 54:6768; Tylus, 152; also the comments of Luciano
Banchi in Gigli 1865, x.
2 This collection is entitled Zucchino deglIntronati o sia guarda memorie
dellantichissima Accademia Intronata, Madre di tutte llAccademie Italiane. Libro di carte 204 dove si scriveranno varie notizie, che appartengono allIntronataria dallEconomico [Gigli] Intronato Segretario lanno
1696 (BCI, Y.I.3).
3 E determinarono sia lanno alcune cene erudite, all quali facevano alle
volte succedere virtuose viglie, non senza mescolanza doneste, e nobili
donne, da quali trattenimenti ne sono passati fino ai tempi nostri, e fino
ai paesi pi lontani, tanti, e tanti spiritosi giuochi, unico, e raro pregio di
7
8
10
11
12
13
questa Patria (BCI, Y.I.3, fols. 126v127r). He then cites the praise of the
Sienese games in Giambattista Marinos Adone 6:41 (Marino, 1:350).
BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 128v, emphasis added: Cosi mentre gli altri cittadini vegliavano s le mura, alla difesa della libert della Patria gli Intronati vegliavano all difesa della libert dellanimo, allattando in tanto della gran virt
fino nei petti pi deboli delle donzelle Sanesi, quali non favolosi Palladi,
nel tempo, che da una mano trattavano gli Olivi, impugnavano, lAste
collaltra; e di ci fanno testimonianza non solo le nostre Istorie ma tante
altre, che parlano con tanta lode di quelle Amazzoni nostre, con le quali
disse un gran Capitano, che pi tosto averebbe voluto difendere le muragli di Roma che collUomini Romani.
Ibid., fols. 128v129r: Di tutte queste virtuose donne furono Capitane la
Forteguerra, la Piccolomini, e la Fausti, quali in alzando ciascuno la propria Impresa concepita, e spiegata nelle veglie amorose, servirono vestite
dacciaro fino allImprese pi virili, e perche non qui da tralasciare, quai
Geogrifici esse portarono spiegati nelle loro Bandiere, mi far occasione
di riferirli, con lautorit dAscanio Centorio.
Ibid, fol. 129r: Ne quali sensi spiegavano forse, qualche particolare
amoroso, onesto pensierio, qualche disegno dellAnimo loro pr della
Patria conceputo.
He alludes to Girolamo and Scipione Bargaglis game books at ibid., fol.
127r.
Gigli 1719, 94, emphasis added: anzi quelle Sanesi Eroine, le quali non
dubitarono coprirsi le trecce bionde collelmo, come scrisse il Monluch
ne suoi Comentari, furono di quelle medesime, che in somiglianti esercizi virtuosi imparavano ad uscir fuora della condizione del Sesso, ugualmente spiritose nelle dispute notturne coloro onesti Amici, che animose
ni contrasti del giorno coNemici della Patria.
See BCI, Y.I.3, fols. 128v129r; Gigli1719, 94. And in following these writers, Gigli maintains the ambiguity as to who Lady Forteguerri was among
the three female captains, though it was almost certainly Laudomia
Forteguerri (see chapter 2).
And indeed one of the literary criticisms of Bargaglis Trattenimenti (by
Alessandro Tessauro) was that he would set his games in a period of warfare (which Bargagli responded to in a badly damaged document in BCI,
P.V.16, packet no. 1).
BCI, Y.I.3, fol. 129r.
Ibid., fol. 127v: sicch per le mancanza di cosi maschio vigore, incominci languire nel suo principio la nostra Pianta.
Gigli 1854, 1:282291.

14 The treatment of the Intronati came in his chapter on May, as the first
Sunday of this month was the date of the Intronatis founding; moreover,
his having been appointed secretary occasioned his investigated into the
history of the academy (Gigli 1854, 1:2667).
15 Ibid., 1:287.
16 Ibid., 1:287.
17 Ibid., 1:417; as always, he cites Marino (in his Adonis 6:41) and Mauro (in
his poem Del viaggio di Roma al Duca di Malfi) as two such writers
hailing this Sienese tradition (Marino, 1:350; Opere burlesche, 1:2523).
18 Gigli 1854, 1:417; on the women attending these gatherings, see the biography of Jaufre Rudel in Nostredame, 1519; Crescimbeni, 1013.
19 Giglis dating the origins of the games to Mariano Sozzini is tentative,
claiming that this practice fu cominciato in Siena (per quanto ne abbiamo dalla tradizione) dallinsigne nobilissimo Giurisconsulto, ed in ogni
maniera di buone Lettere Professore egregio Mariano Sozzini il vecchio
nella sua Villa di Scopeto (Gigli 1854, 1:41718). Gigli does not oer further evidence that the Sienese games date from that period and setting.
Scopeto, a villa located a few miles outside of Siena, was a holding of the
extended Sozzini family, although Gigli is technically incorrect in calling
it Mariano the Elders estate: while a document of October 1457 indicates
that he repaired there to escape the plague (and thus presumably spent
other time there as well), the villa actually came into his immediate family
later, when Mariano the Younger bought it in the sixteenth century from
Francesco Sozzini (Nardi, 84n61; Tedeschi , 159n2). As for evidence of later
games played there, in Girolamo Bargaglis Dialogo de giuochi Lelio Maretti
referred to la gentilissima madonna Francesca Sozzini, facendosi un tal giuoco alla sua villa di Scopeto (G. Bargagli 1982, 159).
20 Ibid., 1:418.
21 In this sense Gigli perhaps chooses to follow the spirit of the more philogynic depiction of the games in Scipione Bargaglis (fictive) Trattenimenti
than the more Intronati-oriented depiction in Girolamo Bargaglis (historical) Dialogo de giuochi. He does, however, go on to describe the orchestration of these games from 1654 to the present as involving men: that is,
whereas the female leadership entailed the princess, two counsellors, and
the secretary, he names Francesco Piccolomini as beadle and Pandolfo
Spannocchi as game director and president of the Kingdom of Love (ibid.,
1:41819).
22 Ibid., 1:41819. On Battista Berti Petrucci and Francesca Scotti, see Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:3956. On Domenichis Rime diverse dalcune nobilissime, et
virtuossime donne, see Robin, xviii, 50, 5960, 159, 23842.

23 Gigli 1854, 1:419. At the January 17 entry, Gigli records the incident as
an ocial part of the calendar of Sienese greatness: In questo giorno la
Forteguerra, la Piccolomini, e la Fausti Dame Sanesi si fecero condottiere
duna squadra di Donna, e si armarono in difesa della Citt assediata
daglImperiali, con tanto coraggio, che il Sig. di Monluc, che era in que
tempi Comandante delle Milizie Sanesi, ritrovandosi in altra congiuntura
alla difesa di Roma pot lasciare scritto ne suoi Commentarii, che pi
tosto avrebbe voluto difendere le mura di Roma colle Donne di Siena, che
co Soldati di Roma stessa (ibid., 1:34).
24 In his listing of vol. XLI (at ibid., 1:290) he opens with female writers: Di
Cecca da Siena degli Scotti, Ermellina Aringhieri dei Cerretani, Cassandra Petrucci, Atalanta Sanese, Aurelia Petrucci, Onorata Pecci, Lucrezia
Figliucci, Laodamia Forteguerri, Pia Bichi, Silvia Piccolomini, Verginia
Martini de Salvi stampate in Lucca presso il Domenici [sic]. Di Lucrezia
Mignanelli, di Margarita Marescotti, di Fulvia Spannocchi, manoscritto
della libreria Chigi: di Camilla Piccolomini, e dIsifile Cesari, manoscritto
del Benvoglienti. E delle viventi, Sig. Lisabetta Credi Fortini, Sig. Emilia
Orlandini Ballati, Sig. Aretafila Savini Rossi, tutte tre Pastorelle Arcadi addietro nominate.
25 Ibid., 1:419.
26 Ibid., 1:41920, emphasis added; also, 1:418.
27 Ibid., 1:420.
28 She was the widow of Cosimos son, who died of syphilis in 1713.
29 Torrenti, esp. 25, 5360; for Vasellis account, see Gigli 1854, 1:13540.
30 Gigli 1854, 1:4201.
31 Ibid., 1:421. On Laudomia Forteguerri and Piccolomini, see chapter 2
above. On Lucrezia Mignanelli, see Ugurgieri Azzolini, 2:404; Aprosio, 27.
The reference to Pandolfo Spannocchi teaching his poetry alludes to his
dedicating his translation of Horaces Ars poetica to her and the Assicurate
in 1714. Marcantonio Cinuzzi dedicated his translation of Claudians Rape
of Proserpine to Isifile Toscana (which was jointly published with Spannocchis trans. of Horace above in 1714) (Gigli 1854, 1:291; Mazzi 1882, 2:349).
Presumably this is la Toscana whom Girolamo Bargagli refers to as one
of the famous female game players in this Dialogo de giuochi (G. Bargagli
1982, 92); also, she is one of several female intellectuals named in Marcantonio Piccolominis Ragionamento (Belladonna, 74).
32 Gigli 1854, 1:421.
33 Ibid., 1:421. This volume forty-four of his planned set included a translation of Bk. 1 of the Aeneid by Alessandro Sansedoni dedicated to Aurelia
Tolomei; Bk. 2 by Cardinal Ippolito de Medici to Giulia Gonzaga; Bk. 3 by
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
Bernardino Borghesi to Giulia Petrucci; Bk. 4 by Bartolomeo Carli Piccolomini to Aurelia Petrucci; Bk. 5 by Aldobrando Cerretani to Girolama Piccolomini; Bk. 6 Alessandro Piccolomini to Frasia Venturi. In this description
of the volume he also lists the recent translations of the Ars poetica by Pandolfo Spannocchi and the Rape of Proserpine by Marcantonio Cinuzzi (dedicated to Lucrezia Mignanelli and Isifile Toscana respectively (ibid., 1: 291).
Ibid., 1:4212.
Ibid., 1:422.
On the likely sexual meaning of the emblem (designed by the Antonio Vignale, author of the highly pornographic La cazzaria), see Domenichi 1979,
2367; Vignali; Nerida Newbigins comments in Intronati 1996, 252; Toscan, 997, 13734, 1385, 1612; G. McClure 2010.
Gigli 1854, 1:422, emphasis added.
Ibid., 1:424: Si provano le spiritose Donne de Rozzi talora a cingottare privatamente, ad imitazione delle Gentildonne, e deglIntronati; ma
questi, che pretendono la privativa sopra tali trattenimenti, non permettono, che tali erudite fringuellotte cantino fuora di chiusa.
Ibid., 1:419.
Favilli, 27; Gigli 1963, 212; L. Spera in DBI 54:678.
Gigli 1719, title page. On Giglis use of masked personas, see Gagliardi.
The Assicurate parlour game and roster take up 100 of 213 pages of the
treatise.
Gigli 1719, 15.
See Vincenzo Buonsignoris Sulla condizione civile ed economica della citt di
Siena al 1857 (Siena, 1857), pp. 1718, published in Gigli 1854, vol. 2.
See Mauro Manciottis comments in Gigli 1963, 30, 34950; L. Spera in
DBI, 54:677. In fact, in the 1711 Lucchese edition of the work the Don Pilone is subtitled Il bacchettone falso.
In his letter to reader before the work, Gigli comments, Avemmo per
somigliante la sorte il Molier ed io. Quegli fu perseguitato a morte
dagliipocriti di Parigi, io altres da falsi bacchettoni dItalia, whom he
calls a diabolica setta, la quale a di nostri ancora, al coperto di falso
mansuetudine e divozione, fa tanta rovina di roba e di onore, nelle case e
nelle corti, nelle citt e ne regni (Gigli 1963, 39). Gigli himself performed
the role of Don Pilone in the initial production of the play (probably 1707)
and again, in a performance in June 1709 (in honour of a visit to Siena by
Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni) (Strambi, 162, 1856; M. Manciotti in Gigli 1963,
34950). As for his ousting from his university chair and departure to
Rome in 1708, see Favilli, 16; L. Spera in DBI 54:676, 677 (but cf. Antonio
Di Petra in Gigli 1973, xxxii).

47 Although many scholars date this production to 1712 (Frittelli, 2467; M.
Manciotti in Gigli 1963, 350; A. Di Preta in Gigli 1973, xxxii; L. Spera in
DBI, 54:677), a stronger case is made for 1713 (based on letters of Uberto
Benvoglienti) in Strambi, 160, 190n102, 192n106 (the confusion is possibly
owing to old style/new style dating).
48 On his maternal uncles adopting him and marrying him o to a woman
with whom he did not get along, see Antonio Di Pretas comments in
Gigli 1973, xxivxxv. Giglis concern with arranged marriages is evident
in his La scuola delle fanciulle, a story about women rebelling against such
matches, which he adapted from Montfleurys Lecole des filles, which in
turn was a jab at Molires own May-December match (ibid., xxiv). Giglis own constrained and unhappy marriage may have been another
source of this sympathy for the plight of women so often married o unwillingly at a very young age.
49 Gigli 1963, 228, 262.
50 Gagliardi, 225.
51 On which see Grendler 1989, 36381.
52 Gigli 1719, 89, 1321, 80.
53 Ibid., 716, 78.
54 Even though the curriculum calls for training in Greek, Latin, Hebrew,
and even the modern languages of French, Spanish, German, and English
(ibid., 75), Italian is not studied: E perch tale Istituto stato ordinato a
nuovamente naturalizzare la Lingua Latina, e allesercizio della Greca, e
daltre Orientali, non escludendosi a tempo suo le Oltramontane, non si
mai parlato di esercizio di lingua Italiana (ibid., 76). To ensure proper
Italian grammar, however, before students leave the school they will
spend four months (in a special room) studying a Jesuit text entitled the
Cristiano istruito. Moreover, the youth will be warned against the pernicious writings of Boccaccio, [Franco] Sacchetti, [Giovan Battista] Gelli,
[Francesco] Berni, and Machiavelli (ibid., 767).
55 Ibid., 66.
56 On this point, see Mauro Manciottis comments in Gigli 1963, 212.
57 Gigli 1719, 8.
58 She is identified as Veronica Sergardi de Signori di Monte Po, Vedova del Signor Bal Mariano Sansedoni and as brother of Monsignor
Lodovico Sergardi. I have not been able to identify Veronica or Sansedoni as actual people, although Lodovico Sergardi (16601726) was a
functionary at the papal court (and designated a monsignor) and was a
lively satirist. He was known for mocking a fellow Arcadian literato, Gian
Vincenzo Gravina, as a pedantic Grecist (Dixon, 268, 125; and Ronald
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
Pepin in Sergardi, 19). Sergardi apparently was one of Giglis accomplices in his fake news dispatches, the Gazzettino (or avvisi ideali) of 1712
13 (Vanni 1888, 44; for his appearance in the Gazzettino both as Settano
[his literary pseudonym] and as Monsignor Sergardi, see Gigli 1864, 67,
1328).
Cf. Giglis list of female writers he planned to include in one of his volumes of poetry in his forty-five-volume anthology of Sienese culture
(Gigli 1854, 1: 290).
Gigli 1719, 42: In vestrum etiam nonnullis generosam illam alacritatem
conspicio, quam Picolomineam, Fortiguerriam, & Faustam nostrates Heroidas imitari laudabiliter cupitis, quae sexus infirmitatis pertaesae, indutis armis, tectoque galea capite, ensem in Patriae hostes stringere, ac
eandem strenu defendere parta ideo immortali sibi fama, gestierunt.
Ibid., 423.
The others were Lisabetta Credi, Marla Antonia Bizzarini, and Lucrezia
Sergardi (ibid., 12).
Ibid., 67; this connection may well be fictive, as I have no basis for knowing whether Veronica Sergardi was an actual person (see n. 58 above).
Ibid., 90.
See BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 280r, 291v292r; also chapter 5 above. As for this
occasion in the Collegio Petroniano, they also sought out her famous male
counterpart in improvisational poetry, Bernardino Perfetti, but he had
suered a mishap and had earlier left the gathering; and two other possible accompanists had also departed (Gigli 1719, 90). As for Perfetti, his
fame as an improvisational poet was such that Gigli correctly predicts his
crowning as poet laureate later in 1725: the Archimagistra fece pure cercare del Signor Cavalier Bernardino Perfetti prima gloria della Poesia di
questo secolo, a cui fu ultimamente in Roma preconizzata la corona del
Campidoglio pel suo divino cantare allimproviso (ibid., 90; Dixon, 29
30, 124; Agnesi, 115n19, 116n21.
Gigli 1719, 91.
Ibid., 92.
Ibid., 94.
Ibid., 94; Opere burlesche, 1:253; he also cites a comment on the Sienese
games from Marinos Adone 6:41 (Marino, 1:350).
Forteguerri says that he had heard Gigli read part of the first stanza of the
poem at a party at the home of Francesco Piccolomini, and that Gigli had
also read the poem at a gathering in Rome (ibid., 92).
Gigli 1865, 94. Students of this seminary write home describing
how the gluttonous Tuscan priest grows fat, / and with food of more
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
excellence absolves and uncrates the sin of gluttony / while the novice
lives in abstinence (ibid., 101).
Ibid., 99n1, 108.
Ibid., l07; Gigli 1963, 37, 150; Favilli, 4650, 60.
Gigli 1719, 95.
Ibid., 98; and he similarly makes reference to a seminary for Aetti legittimi and another for Aetti bastardi, e mostruosi (ibid., 101).
An Erasmian touch occurs when Mars objects to the founding of a school
to correct the passions, because Ire and Ambition are crucial to the realm
of war (ibid., 96).
Ibid., 95.
Ibid., 97; and Gigli continues by saying that having heard of the Ardire of
these three women and of their women followers in defence of the country and of many, many more [Sienese women], the gods therefore wanted
to hear the opinions of the virtuous Assicurate concerning the education
of the baby Love (ibid., 97).
Ibid., 102.
Ibid., 2049.
On food (as nature) as an archetypal symbolic opposite to culture,
see Jeanneret, esp. 24, 6288; Bakhtin, 278302.
Gigli, 1719, 200. Gigli wryly adds, however, that the Latin milk of the
nursemaids the next day was poco riscaldato and in some cases bore
signs of the nursemaids desire to sleep one night with their husbands
(ibid., 200). On the Calandra, see Andrews 1993, 4850, 5763. As for Aretifila Savini, it is odd that she is not included in Giglis list of new Assicurate, even though the other five female Arcadians he mentions are.
The poem, Se il libro di Bertoldo il ver narr, argues that a husband
should place over the bed of a new bride a sieve (presumably here, a fine
netting), so that onde veda, e non veda quel che fa (Gigli 1719, 103)
that is, so that he does not see too closely what she does. For this poem,
also see Gigli 1722, 293.
Similarly, Gigli has Olinda Tancredi ne Savini perform one of his poems,
Colombaja amorosa (Gigli 1719, 11113).
Gigli 1719, 117.
Ibid., 118; the choreographer, Maria Tommasi Bulgarini, would be inducted into the Assicurate in the following roster as la Favorita (ibid.,
142).
This chapter of the treatise is entitled Dellacclamazione fatta dalle Accademiche Assicurate di alcune delle pi insigni Principesse, e Gentildonne
Italiane ascritte nel Ruolo Accademico; e dei Nomi simbolici, e ingegnosi
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
Emblemi significanti le particolari virt di dette Eroine del nostro secolo,

con che si chiude la giornata 19. Di Febrajo memorabile per laprimento
del Collegio Petroniano (ibid., 119).
Ibid., 119.
In alphabetizing his Assicurate list by nicknames, Gigli says that he follows the practice of the Arcadian Academy in their raccolte (collections), presumably meaning here their poetry anthologies, their rosters,
or both. Also, in describing the Collegio Petroniano in his Diario sanese,
Gigli places it in the context of Platos Republic, Mores Utopia, Aristotles
Eudemian Ethics, and the present reign of Arcadia in Rome (Gigli 1854,
1:419).
Quondam 1973, 412; Dixon, 105. He notes, however, that a proportionately higher percentage of women were included in the publications of
Arcadian poetry: of 237 authors in these volumes, 20 were women, constituting 8 per cent of the total and 27 per cent of the female Arcadians
(ibid., 412).
In his Gazzettino, a satirical compilation of fake news releases written in
171213, Gigli makes two references to the Assicurate (as hosting a trousseau of detached left breasts of Chinese Amazons passing through the
city) (Gigli 1864, 42, 62).
Gigli 1719, 92, 94.
Ibid., 119.
Her motto, drawn from a sonnet of Bernardo Tasso, is Che grazia, ed onest regge, e governa (ibid., 170; BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 8v).
And on the margin by Orlandinis name is written la Dama fa poetare
allimproviso (Gigli 1719, 151).
Ibid., 12, 171, 179, 184. Oddly, the other Sienese Arcadian woman, Aretifila Savini, whom Gigli cites for translating the Calandra into Latin on the
last day of festivities (ibid., 199200), is not among the new Assicurate.
On Lisabetta Credi Fortini and Lucrezia Sergardi Buonsignori, see Giordano, 947, 14950.
See respectively their nicknames, emblems, and mottoes at ibid., 135, 148,
153, 138, 170, 165.
As Gigli indicated (at ibid., 119), some of these women were enrolled
by virtue of their birth or station (rather than accomplishments). This
would no doubt apply to one young woman, identified as nubile,
who was none other than the now fourteen-year-old child of Costanza
Chigi, whose birth was invoked in the 1704 partially published Assicurate game. This child, Maria Virginia Altieri de Duchi di Monterano,
was born in 1705 and appears here with the nickname La Festegiatta
99
100
101
102
(the Celebrated) (ibid., 144), perhaps alluding to the fact that her beckoned birth was celebrated at a parlour game. Her mother, Costanza Chigi
Duchessa di Monterano Altieri, and her older sister, Vittoria Altieri Principessa di Civitella Rospigliosi, also appear in the list (at ibid., 143, 160).
Her emblem is a card table piled with primiera cards because, the marginalia says, her familys emblem included nineteen gold lilies, quanta
ne ha il flusso maggiore in that game (ibid., 157) adjoined with a motto
from Dantes Inferno 3:9: Abandon all hope, who enters here.
BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 10r. Following her nickname on this page of the Origins
of the Assicurate in another hand there is added 3a Princip [essa?],
suggesting that indeed she may have been the third Principessa of the Assicurate. For the dedication of the Lamor dottorato to Bandinelli and the
Assicurate, see Biblioteca Moreniana, 59. The Biblioteca Moreniana in
Florence also contained a set of poems Gigli wrote in honour of her and
thirty-five other Assicurate women, a collection entitle Passaggio delle stelle
Accademiche Assicurate and published in Siena by the Bonetti press in 1699
(ibid., 3840). The poems depict the Assicurate as stars, and in this resemble the constellation book of Giugurta Tomasi discussed in chapter 4
above.
In fact, when he describes the work in his Diario sanese, he places it in the
context of, among other works, Thomas Mores Utopia (Gigli 1854, 1:419).
Gigli 1854, 1:422. Gigli may have acted further to immortalize the Assicurate. His eighteenth-century biographer, Francesco Corsetti, lists among
Giglis unedited works a Raccolta di Poese delle Gentildonne Sanesi Accademiche Assicurate (Corsetti, 51).
Conclusion
1 Opere burlesche, 1:252. He goes on to say that these games revealed a familiarity (between the sexes) common in France or Lombardy but not
in Rome: Eran domestichezze a ala Francese, / O per non gir pi oltra,
alla Lombarda, / Non usitate nel Roman paese (ibid., 1:252). Mauro
addressed his poem Del viaggio di Roma to the Duke of Amalfi (Alfonso Piccolomini) current governor of Siena and himself a member of
the Intronati (G. Bargagli 1982, 53; Sbaragli 1942, 191). Mauro passed
through Siena in 1532 en route with a papal entourage from Rome to
Bologna (www.nuovorinascimento.org/n-rinasc/ipertest/html/orlando/
mauro_d'arcano.htm: accessed 11/18/2010). It is this passage that Gigli
cites (along with one from Giambattista Marino) in more than one place
in his praise of the Sienese games (see chapter 6).

2 Opere burlesche, 1:252.
3 Ibid., 1:253. For another outsiders admiration for the Sienese games and
the womens impressive showing in them, see the comment by the Venetian figure Celio Malespini, cited in Robin, 12930. As for the general
fame and influence of the Sienese games in Italy, see Fabris 1996, in regard to musical games and particularly in terms of the 1575 Giuoco piacevole of Ascanio de Mori of Mantua. Also, various banquet comedies
performed for Doge Marino Grimani in Venice between 1595 and 1605
(and probably written by Enea Piccolomini [b. 1545]) seem to have been
modelled on them (Shi ). Also in Venice, a madrigal comedy of Orazio
Vecchi, the Veglie di Siena of 1604, reflected Girolamo Bargaglis games,
and in nearby Treviso in 1610 Guido Casoni hosted games in the style of
the Sienese game (Haar, 24n13, 324). Casoni also describes a game he
attended in Venice as a giuoco Sanese (cited in Shi, 3378).
4 Benjamin Kohls trans. in Kohl, 206, 205. The latter passage followed upon
Barbaros citation of a locus from Plutarchs Conjugal Precepts 31 (142D):
When a certain young man saw the noble woman Theano stretch her
arm out of mantle that had been drawn back, he said to his companions:
How handsome is her arm. To this she replied: It is not a public one
(Kohls trans., Kohl, 205). On the male ideal of female silence and views
of female comportment, also see Gnsberg, 467; Knox.
5 G. Bargagli 1982, 92.
6 Ibid., 175.
7 Ibid., 172.
8 S. Bargagli 1594, 461 (and fig. 8).
9 He warns his female audience, for instance, sappiate quanto sia questa
vostra bellezza caduca, & fugace, & come in breve a guisa di fiore si scolorisca & languida divegna and that they should enjoy life to the fullest
in questa giovenile, & verde etade (Ringhieri, 36v37r.).
10 The rose in the Romance of the Rose had thorns as well and was briefly
mentioned as a deterrent to the Lovers approach, in contrast to the considerable description of the roses beauty and aroma (Guillaume de Lorris
and Jean de Meun, 34), but in the case of this 1664 parlour game, forbidding thorns are the defining feature of the identity of Pandolfina Marsilii Vecchii, whose Assicurate nickname is la Severa and whose motto
was Pi fr le spine mie sicuro h il Regno (Among my thorns I have a
more secure rule) (BCI, Y.II.22, fol. 5v.)
11 Granted that both treatises written in the 1560s could have drawn their
emblems and insignia games from the historical moment of the women at
the walls, rather than vice versa, this is not as plausible as the likelihood
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
that the Intronati games, which had in general been under way since the
1530s, sparked both the assertion of the women and their bearing of insignias. Laudomia Forteguerri, surely the Forteguerri among the three,
had been praised as a notable player as young as a seventeen-year-old (in
Mauros 1532 poem), and her reputation as an outspoken intellectual (in
Marcantonio Piccolominis Ragionamento), her promotion by Alessandro
Piccolomni, and her praise as a defender of the citys freedom (in Betussis 1556 Imagini del tempio) all point to her being the leader of this force
and doing so as a natural extension of the spirited games.
Along these same lines, this might explain why he placed the playing of
the games somewhat later in the siege.
BCI, C.VIII.26, fol. 62r.
Cox 2008, 2068, 22931; Graziosi 1992, 347.
Robin, 11623; Ray; Westwater. On Domenico Vernier as literary advisor to Veronica Franco, see M. Rosenthal, 58115, 14951. On male/female
collaboration whether father/daughter, husband/wife, or male patron/
authoress see Ross.
BCI, P.V.15, fol. 166rv.
Similarly, Piccolominis later Alessandro (1544) depicted couples overcoming their arranged marriages.
G. Bargagli 1982, 912. Bargaglis comments suggest, then, that this public
occasion when the Neapolitans Alfonso dAvalos (Marchese del Vasto)
and Ferrante Sanseverino passsed through the city sometime in the 1530s
was the beginning of women making a notable showing in the games
(on ties between Neapolitan and Sienese culture in this period, see Corsi,
esp. 31n42). Presumably this was the same occasion to which Marcantonio Piccolomini alludes in his 1538 Ragionamento in which he depicts the
Marchese del Vasto at a game pochi anni fa (Belladonna, 62), which
might put the event some time after Mauros observance of the games in
1532 in which he noted the performance of the women.
A. Piccolomini 1545, 121.
See chapter 2 above.
Betussi, 746; Robin, 1256.
Turner 1969, 94130; 166203; Davis, 97151. Turner 1982, 2060, generally
distinguishes between liminal rituals (e.g., rites of passage) as universal,
compulsory events in tribal societies, and liminoid activity (participation
in Carnival play) as voluntary events orchestrated by self-defined groups
in advanced societies. The latter, part of the realm of leisure, would include literary academies such as the Intronati and Assicurate.
Turner 1982, 42.

24 See Epigrams 10:9 in Owen, 123.
25 Aprosio, 278.
26 Ottonelli, title page. Although citing a few exemplary women (at 38991,
3926), the book is largely a summa of misogyny with citations from
theologians and ancient writers on the evils and perils of women. On
Ottonellis attacks elsewhere on theater and female performers, see Andrews 2000, 317.
27 In the full passage here, Ottonelli explains that this encounter between
a virtuous man and a learned woman is not innately wrong, but in fact
is fraught with danger: In quanto alla Donna Accademica, tengo certissimo, che unhuomo, forte di Spirito, e virtuoso, non pecchi, con landare
conversatione in casa sua, per udirla discorrere Accademicamente;
perche tal conversatione un fiore di Virt; & un frutto dellArbore di
una virtuosa Politica, e di unerudita, & honorata Civilt. E ben vero,
che anche unhuomo forte di Spirito; anzi un Savio, e di pi un Santo,
pu correre pericolo di peccare per le ragioni d me spiegate di sopra
perche alla fine la Donna Donna, tuttoche sia letterata, e modesta; e le
vicinanza di lei, e la sua conversatione, pu cagionar tentatione, e pericolo di peccar, almeno con il pensiero (ibid., 3978); also see 398405.
28 Ibid., 37980.
29 Guazzo 1590, 153v; Ottonelli, 55; and also cf. 589.
30 Guazzo 1590, 161v.
31 Boccalini, 1:66; Cox 2008, 198.
32 BCI, C.IV.4, fols. 1r8v. It is unclear whether the author was using old
style or modern dating: thus, the brackets. This Crescenzio Vaselli was
presumably the same Intronati figure whose account of the 1717 celebration of Violante of Bavarias appointment as governor of Siena was included in Giglis Diario sanese (see Gigli 1854, 1:13540).
33 See BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 257r308r; Mazzi 1919.
34 BCI, C.IV.4, fol. 2r2v: Dico per, che essendo per se medesime dierenti molto le particolari incumbenze degluomini da quella delle Donne,
non meno per la Gloria, la buona armonia, [il?] avanzamento delle famiglie, ne nascesse per consequenza, che confuto un tal regolamento per la
troppa frequenza del conversare, e quelle, e questi rendasi meno atti al
proprio necessario ministero.
35 BCI, C.IV.4, fol. 4r. Finetti attributes this prologue (for which see Intronati
1611, 1:535, which is a dialogue between Comedy and Tragedy) to Alessandro Piccolomini, an attribution much debated, and complicated by
Piccolominis distancing himself from the Intronatis theatrical eorts at
that time (on which see Seragnoli, 13873).

36 BCI, C.IV.4, fol. 4r: Questo non meno utile, che piacevole esercizio di
[read diede?] motivo ad una onesta, e virtuousa conversazione, che del
continovo sintrodusse, e si mantenne ben lungo tempo tra i giovani, e le
Donzelle di quella fioritissima et. Da ci nel nacquero quelle gioconde
spiritose veglie, che furono il diletto della dotta Italia.
37 Ibid., 4v; on these writers see Cox 2008, esp. 6482.
38 Ibid., fol. 5r: Per lo contario le antiche veglie non erano di troppa invenzione ripiene, essendo che tali cose molto sono inverisimili, e lontane
dallimproviso parlare.
39 Ibid., fol. 5v: Egli altres vero, per che quella gran frequenza di conversare non ebbe lunga vita. Credite voi, che quando un tal uso fusse
stato congiunto col ben pubblico, e con lutilit delle faccende dimestiche si fusse combiato costume? Io non lo credo per certo, specialmente
quando da ci, che ci diletta si ha da far passaggio allausterit, e all ritiratezza; E poi pur troppo vero quel detto, che il troppo conversar genera
noja.
40 Ibid., fols. 5v6r: tutta volta molte, e molte valorose Donne ha auto
[read avuto?] la Citt nostra, le quali anno saputo allimproviso rispondere con vivacit di spirito, e secondo lopportunit pungere ancora con
gentilezza.
41 Ibid., fol. 6r (emphasis added): ma vi soggiungo, che se il talento di
quelle spiritose Donne fusse stato esercitato dalla continova conversazione, molto pi sariasi segnalato alle occasioni, non essendovi cosa, la
quale pi conferisca alla propriet, e prontezza de nostri concetti, & a
quella, che disinvoltura si appella, quanto laver molto udito, e molte persone trattato.
42 Ibid., fol. 7r: quella ridicola severit di vivere segregati gluomini dalle
Donne.
43 Finetti suggests that the restrictions on contact were quite severe: Io s,
che lAusterit del convivere era ad un tal grado di riputazione ascesa,
che fuori del primo grado, al pi al pi [sic] del secondo di strettissima
parentela, era un grave delitto far visite a qualsivoglia Dama. Ne pure a
mariti davasi laccesso in quelle confidenziali veglie, allora quando ora
dalluna, & ora dallaltra adunavansi quelle povere Donne (I know that
the austerity regarding association had risen to such a degree of reputation that to visit any woman whomsoever outside of the first or at the
most second degree of tightest kinship was a grave crime. Not even
husbands gained access to these private parties then, when these poor
women were gathered together by one or another of their number) (ibid.,
fol. 7v).

44 Ibid., fol. 8v: Questa altrettanto utile, che necessaria scienza [of good
moral and civil conversation] ha tutta la sua forza per ispirare in chi che
sia, e molto pi neglanimi nobili una scambievole amist, & estimazione,
un Idea molto piu giusta delle cose, delle circostanze, e di ci, che a ciascheduno convenga, secondo la propria et, e grado; una maggiore consideratezza ne familiari discorsi, & un forte vivissimo desiderio dornare le
nostre menti, & operare con ingenuit, e decoro.
45 Finettis was not the only male defence of unrestrained conversation in
this period. In the previous decade, a Neapolitan figure, Paolo Mattia
Doria, defended open exchanges (il libero conversare) in a treatise on female equality of 1716. I have not been able to see this work, entitled Ragionamenti nequali si dimostra la donna, in quasi che tutte le virt pi grandi,
non essere alluomo inferiore, but Elisabetta Graziosi suggests that Era
uno scritto ardito, dove si difendevano il gioco e le conversazioni comme
mezzo di perfezionamento intellettuale nella convinzione che non punto
il libero conversare quello che le citt guasta e corrompe, ma le genti
guaste e corrotte sono quelle che fanno il libero conversare dannevole e
pernicioso (Graziosi 1992, 330).
46 Rime degli Arcadi, 4:1819.
47 Ibid., 4:185.
48 Ibid., 4:187. Other poems recount her withdrawing her hand in marriage
from a Gio. Battista Arrighi (ibid., 4:182, index at Bb3); praise Maria Francesca Raaelli Tuccetti (ibid, 4:184, index at Bb3); and mark the entry of
Violante of Bavaria (Duke Cosimo IIIs daughter-in-law) into Tuscany.
(ibid., 4: index at Bb3v).
49 Ibid., 6:195.
50 On these developments and the ongoing defence of female learning by
such figures as Aretafila Savini de Rossi and Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola (who translated Descartess Principles of Philosophy in 1722), see
Rebecca Messbarger in Agnesi, 122; Paula Findlen in ibid., 3746, 11727;
Agnesi, passim; also Messbarger, esp. 319.
51 Eric Cochrane, who generally underplays the role of women in the life
of the Italian academies, perhaps erroneously credits the lack of a strong
salon culture to the general absence of women in Italian public life: The
private salotto in Tuscany never developed into anything like the salon in
France partially because women played a considerably less important
role in Tuscan society and partially because informal groups could not
fulfill the particular demands of Tuscan intellectuals as well as permanent
organizations (Cochrane, 41). Rebecca Messbarger reads the situation in
a totally opposite and, I think, more plausible way: In other parts of

Europe, notably France and England, women intellectuals exerted their
influence in the shadow academic world of the salon because they were
forbidden entry into academies and universities (Agnesi, 7). Carolina
Scaglioso makes a similar point when she argues that the all-female Assicurate ceased to exist around the time that three of their number were
inducted into the Intronati (in 1710); she argues that at this juncture: Di
una Accademia esclusivamente femminile non cera pi bisogno (Scaglioso, 54). Thus, the decline or absence of specifically female institutions
may then be ironically some measure of womens success in their integration into the public intellectual realm.
52 On an invitation to Marino from Marie de Medici in 1609, see Picco, 43n1,
and on the Marinos presence and literary influence in France, see Picco,
passim; Mirollo, 3685, 22742. Picco, 39, cites Marinos biographer Francesco Ferraris comments that Marino influenced the vogue of parlour
literature by transporting his experience with improvisational poetry in
Italy to Paris: Giambattista Marino, che a Parigi vedremo contribuire alla
voga della letteratura da salotto, aveva praticate a Rome sale aristocratiche secondo quanto si rileva da suoi biografi in casa Mancini a Roma
per proprio trattenimento alle volte sopra qualche leggiadro soggetto
allimproviso recita[vansi] commedie in presenza di poche Dame
in modo che i medesimi personaggi erano spettatori e nobili Istrioni
quindi nacque [lAccademia] dei Begli Humori [ai quali] con molto
honore G. B. Marino [fu] aggregato. In his travels, Marino passed through
Siena and was inducted into the Academy of the Filomati (Mirollo, 17).
53 Picco, 28, suggests that among the parlour games favoured at Rambouillets salon molto gustati sono i cosidetti pointes dovuti allinfluenza italiana e spagnla e parimenti gli nigmes, componimentuzzi poetici dai
peregrini concetti evanescenti, anzi addiritura aeriformi, dei quali Cotin
si compiacque mettere insieme unintera raccolta. On the collection of
riddles made by the abb Charles Cotin, the Recueil des enigmes de ce temps
(1638), see Cotin; Livet, 1202. On the Italian antecedents of riddle collections in, for instance, Giovanni Francesco Straparolas Le piacevoli notti
(15503) and Giulio Cesare dalla Croces Ducento enigmi piacevoli da indovinare (1609), see Cotin, xxxiiixxxiv, lvilxi; Straparola. Exploring the
possible influence of the Italian parlour games on the French salons is beyond the scope of this book but would merit further study. On French salons prior to Rambouillet, see Keating; Yates, 1947; for a social history of
the seventeenth-century French salon, see Lougee.
54 The collection also included childrens games and board games (see Daniel-A. Gajda in Sorel, ixvi). The French Jesuit Claude-Franois Menestrier
55
56
57
58
59
60
also cited the prominence of the Sienese games in a discussion des jeux
desprit et de divertissement in his 1682 Des ballets anciens et modernes
selon des regles du thtre (Fabris 1995). Menestrier noted that although
such games first began in France, it was the Italians who invented the
majority of them quoique les Italiens ayent invent la plpart de ces
petis jeux, ce sont les Franois que en sont les premiers Auteurs (cited in
ibid., 37) and his treatment draws on such works as Girolamo Bargaglis
game book and Ascanio de Moris Giuoco piacevole.
In his Second Day, Sorel includes fifty of Ringhieris games (Sorel 1657,
Seconde journe, 24597), but not only does he excise the questions appended to each game (see Daniel-A. Gajdas comment at Sorel 1977, iv),
he also at the close of his series of Ringhieris games warns of the overly
intellectual calibre of games requiring too much learning (see chapter 1,
n. 88 above). On the Sienese games, see the section on games that allow
or mandate kissing (marked as Que ces Ieux ne se pratiquent point avec
tant de libert in Italie) in which one of Sorels interlocutors reacts to
such games en quoy lon prend une trop grande licence by saying Ie
voudrois bien savoir, reprit Isis, si dans ces veilles de Sienne dont Clymante a parl, lon baise avec une libert semblable, & si les Italiens qui
sont si ialoux de cette faveur, le peuvent sourir (Sorel 1977, 308).
See his summaries of the Courtier and the Civil Conversation at ibid.,
54574.
See Corilla Olimpica; and Biagini therein.
Cochrane, 68; Messbarger 2002, 9.
BCI, C.VIII.26, fols. 268r, 291r292r.
Graziosi 1992, 348; on the game of Sibillone, in which a Sybil utters a
prophetic word and players expound upon its possible meaning, see
the description in the Discorsi accademici sopra alcuni dubbi proposti
nellAccademia degli Apatisti (Salvini, 2:41517). The case of Petronilla
Paolini Massimi (16631726), inducted into the Arcadian Academy in
1698, reveals how ludic activities could be a source of marital friction, as
her husband opposed such gatherings. Petronilla, who had been married
o at age ten to the Castellano of Castel SantAngelo, separated from her
husband in 1690 after the death of her child. She sought refuge from the
chiuso orrore and rigida prigion of her married life in the Castel by
returning to the convent of Spirito Santo, where she had received her education. She was free to host her own social events only after his death in
1707 (Tozzi, 8, 1516, 201; Graziosi 1992, 3345). Gigli refers to her in his
La finta conversione di Madama Adelaide as a dama di singolar saviezza e
letteratura ancora (Gigli 1865, 45).

61 As for the Arcadians Olympic Games, female participation may have
been a bone of contention, as women were not allowed participation in
these events until 1701 and a few years later, the academys founder
Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, in his brief for female inclusion in the academy in his 1708 Arcadia, oered a literary depiction of nymphs who
protested their exclusion from such games (Giuli 2009, 31516). For an
example of female participation, see Lisabetta Girolami Ambras madrigal in a game of the Garland in the 1721 Giuochi olimpici (I giuochi olimpici
1721, 79).
62 Giuli 2002, 156; on Corilla and the oral tradition of extemporaneous poetry in the eighteenth century, see Giuli 2009; Finotti; Di Ricco. In 1754
she was praised as one of the three women improvisers (out of ten such
poets) in a Dialogo pastorale emanating from the Arcadians Olympic
Games of that year (Giuli 2009, 31819). Apparently, Corilla even founded
a literary academy called the Ordine dei Cavalieri Olimpici, in which
she envisioned monthly meetings for readings of poetry or philosophical
pieces (Giuli, 162). Elisabetta Graziosi sees Corilla as part of the Tuscan
flowering of women under the patronage of such figures as Vittoria della
Rovere (patroness of the Assicurate) and Violante of Bavaria (who became governor of Siena in 1717 and was later the dedicatee of Giglis Diario sanese) and views her improvisational poetry in part in the context of a
Tuscan ludic tradition: Ammessa nell[Arcadian] Accademia dal fiorentino Michele Giuseppe Morei insieme a una valanga di Toscani, Corilla
rappresentava una regione culturale dove le dame di corte e le poetesse
avevano trovato (dopo quello concesso da Maria Vittoria della Rovere
a Maria Selvaggia Borghini) un buon patrocinio in Beatrice Violante di
Baviera (1716 Elemira Telea [her Arcadian induction and name]), e dove il
gusto dellimprovvisazione, non solo come esercizio dingegno, ma anche
come gioco o sfida o ricupero del canto popolare, aveva una tradizione
(Graziosi 1992, 347).
63 Stal, esp. 456, 24860.
64 Ibid., 2135.
65 In her notes to the novel, Stal ironically emphasizes the connection by
indicating that the name of Corinne should not be confused with that
of Corilla, an Italian improviser, of whom everyone has heard and indicates that her characters name alludes to the ancient Greek poetess
Corinna of Tanagra (S. Raphaels translation in Stal, 408n29; also ibid.,
260). Similarly, Stendhal, somewhat later, in his Charterhouse of Parma
modelled his character, the Duchess Sanseverina (Gina del Donga), on
Barbara Sanseverino, one of Tassos notable women of ingegno in his
286Notes to page 196

Gonzaga secondo a noted reveller who later used her festive gatherings to
hatch the political conspiracy that led to her execution (G. McClure 2008,
7678).
66 On European salon culture in general as a setting mediating the private
and the public and as a venue for women to engage in the querelle des
femmes, see Campbell, esp. 119.
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Index
ABC, game of, 232n30

Abbeys of Misrule, 334
Accarigi, Francesco, 260n82
Accarigi, Livia, 2678n177
Accesi, Academy of the, 246n81,
251n3
Accetto, Torquato, 215n141
adultery, 369
Aeschylus, 96
Agazzari, Giudetta Perfetti, 178
Agostini, Ippolita, 124
Agostini, Ippolito, 1045, 113
Agostini, Leonora Montalvi degli,
11014, 236n81
Agrippa von Nettesheim, Cornelius,
41, 2223n66
Alciato, Andrea, 110, 2334n46
Alessandri, Maria Buonaccorsi,
1567, 194
Altieri, Emilio, 154
Altieri, Maria Virginia, 154,
2767n98
Altieri, Vittoria, 2767n98
Amads de Gaula, 623, 124
Amazons, 51, 52, 94, 160,
200n9
Amazons, game of the, 53, 61, 152

Ambra, Lisabetta Girolami, 285n61
Andreini, Isabella, 144
Animosi, Academy of the, 212n92
Apatisti, Academy of the, 284n60
Aprosio, Angelico, 122, 146, 18990,
255n32
Aragona, Giovanni d, 230n10,
236n76
Aragona, Tullia d, 192
Arcadians, Academy of the, 157, 165,
177, 194, 1956
Archive, game of the, 25, 67
Aretino, Pietro, 3, 4, 216n144
Ariosto, Lodovico, 31, 61, 62, 94,
1089, 113, 174, 208n57
Aristophanes, 237n90
Aristotle, 11, 95, 102, 141; Eudemian
Ethics, 276n89; Generation of
Animals, 93; Nicomachean Ethics,
14, 38, 220n46, 265n148; Poetics,
219n35; Rhetoric, 219n35
Arnigio, Bartolomeo, 1922, 24, 27,
60
Arrighetti, Cassandra, 89
Artemisia, 90
308Index
Aspasia, 13, 17, 119, 141
Assicurate, Academy of the, 61,
12558, 1714, 17681, 187
Athenaeus, 13, 11920, 173, 1967
Avalos, Alfonso d, 445, 58, 63
Axiothea of Phlius, 141
Ballati, Livia Nerli, 177
Ballati, Vittoria Tancredi, 256n54
Bandinelli, Girolama Accarigi, 179
Bandinelli, Lucrezia, 137, 139
Bandini, Caterina, 151, 262n99
Bandini, Patritio, 257n59
banquets, 19
Barbaro, Francesco, 183
Barbolani da Montauto, Federigo, 83
Bardi, Artemisia, 90
Bardi, Berenice, 90
Bargagli, Girolamo, 3, 19, 29, 37,
82, 84, 10710, 239n104, 253n14;
Dialogo de giuochi che nelle vegghie
sanesi si usano di fare, 218, 305,
43, 5667, 68, 72, 856, 89, 123, 124,
133, 151, 152, 1634, 195, 242n29,
270n19, 2834n54; La Pellegrina, 79,
229n1, 240n10
Bargagli, Scipione, 3, 25; Dell imprese, 10418, 236n81; Oratione in
lode dellaccademia deglIntronati
dello Schietto Intronato, 689, 119
21, 231n13; Orazione in morte di
Monsignor Alessandro Piccolomini,
220n41; Riverci di medaglie della
Ventura Befana de Cortigiani Ferraiuoli, 6680, 8593, 104, 251n136;
Rolo, overo cento imprese de
glillustri signori huomini darme sanesi, 834; I trattenimenti, 25, 6780,
889, 91, 92, 101, 107, 123, 125, 133,
1601, 1634, 238n101
Barisano, Antonio, 206n48

Battiferra, Laura, 121
Bawd, game of the, 17
bawds, 17, 42
Befana, 43, 66, 857, 97, 104, 113, 116
Belladonna, Rita, 44
Bellanti, Dorotea Piccolomini, 131
Bellanti, Flavia, 89, 1023
Bentivoglio, Cornelio, 5, 153, 207n53
Bentivoglio, Margherita, 513
Benvoglienti, Achille, 83
Benvoglienti, Girolamo, 21718n15
Benvoglienti, Uberto, 171, 217n10
Berenice (wife of Ptolemy III
Euergetes), 101
Berni, Francesco, 4
Berti, Battista, 172
Betussi, Giuseppe, 51, 219n36,
230n10, 236n76
Bias of Priene, 110
Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati,
1256, 135, 192
Bichi, Annibale, 10
Bichi, Eleonora Agostini, 178
Bichi, Galgano, 256n46
Bichi, Margherita, 52
Bichi, Pia, 172, 271n24
Bichi, Verginia Bandini, 178
biography, 458
Bird Pecking at the Fig, game
of the, 60
birdcage, image of, 10510
Biringucci, Giovanni, 31, 21718n15
Biringucci, Margarita, 125
Bizzarini, Maria Antonia, 274n62
Black Death, 69
board games, 14, 24
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 31, 174; Corbaccio, 17, 42; Decameron, 13, 634, 68,
69, 77, 2345n64, 235n74, 237n85;
Index309
De mulieribus claris, 225n97;
Filocolo, 13, 25, 62
Boccalini, Traiano, 1212, 153, 1912
Bocchi, Achille, 2334n46
Boethius, 107
Bologna, 41, 42
Bonetti, Luca, 229n1
Borghesi, Alessandro, 27
Borghesi, Ascanio, 244n62
Borghesi, Bernardino, 2712n33
Borghesi, Geneviefa Gigli ne, 176,
178
Borghesi, Maria Virginia, 142, 154
Borgia, Lucrezia, 12
Brahe, Tycho, 101, 247n92
Bruni, Leonardo, 40
Bulgarini, Belisario, 93, 104, 241n20,
244n61
Bulgarini, Lattanzio, 2667n169
Bulgarini, Maria Tommasi, 177
Bulgarini, Paride, 2667n169
Buoninsegni, Francesco, 122, 146
Buoninsegni, Portia, 90
Buoninsegni, Verginia Chigi,
178
Buonsignori, Camilla Alberti, 130,
256n49
Buonsignori, Lucrezia Sergardi. See
Sergardi, Lucrezia
Buonsignori, Vincenzo, 272n44
burlesque poetry, 4
Canigiani, Bernardo, 203n34
Canigiani, Ermelina, 203n36, 208n58
Cantini, Lorenzo, 81
cards, 4, 24, 28, 57, 123, 204n38
Carnesecchi, Pietro, 241n16
Carnival, 19, 29, 34, 35, 45, 53, 81,
152; Academy of Assicurate,
1304, 145, 148, 150; Ferrara, 5, 9;
Girolamo Bargagli, 224, 27, 60,

82; Girolamo Gigli, 1639, 170,
176, 179; Scipione Bargagli, 69, 71,
745, 79
Casale Monferrato, 19
Casoni, Guido, 278n3
Castiglione, Baldassarre, 10, 13, 19,
56, 57, 64, 123, 130, 195
Cataneo, Maurizio, 205n45
Catherine of Siena, Saint, 123
Cauzzi, Emilia, 205n46, 206n47
Celsi, Mino, 83
Centorio, Ascanio, 502, 124, 1601
Ceremonies (or Sacrifice of Venus
and Love), game of, 210n87
Cereta, Laura, 107, 21213n103
Cerreta, Florinda, 41
Cerretani, Aldobrando, 2712n33
Cerretani, Ermellina Aringhieri dei,
271n24
Cerretani, Flavia Tolomei, 85, 92
Cerretani, Girolamo, 96
Cerretani, Gironimo, 84
Cerretani, Lucrezia dAzzolini, 124
Cerretani, Pietro, 84
Cervini, Giulia, 256n51
Cervini, Piera, 172
Cesari, Isifile, 271n24
Challenges and Reconciliations,
game of, 71, 735
Charles V (emperor), 49, 223n71,
256n50
chastity, 17, 27, 42, 89, 90, 109,
210n80
Chastity, game of, 17
Chaucer, 248n105
chess, 5, 24, 28
Chiari, Pietro, 195
Chigi, Agostino, 142, 154
Chigi, Camillo, 97
310Index
Chigi, Costanza, 154, 2767n98
Chigi, Flavio (cardinal), 2601n85
Chigi, Maria Maddalena, 1467
Chigi, Maria Virginia Borghesi,
264n123
Chigi, Maria Teresa, 1467
Chigi, Olimpia, 259n73
Christina of Sweden (queen), 187
Christine of Lorraine (grand
duchess), 251n2
Cicirlanda, game of, 56
Cinuzzi, Marcantonio, 83, 167,
271n31
Circe, 60
Civoli, Laura, 49
Claudian, 271n31
claustration, 9, 79, 1423, 145, 156
Cleanthes, 131, 257n56
Cleopatra, 149
coat of arms, 33
Collegio Tolomei (Siena), 170, 1745
Colonna Vittoria, 12, 17, 66, 116, 121,
144, 147, 192
comedies, 30, 31, 34, 43, 64, 79, 82,
150, 163
Comedy, game of, 64, 265n144
coming-of-age, rituals of, 33
commedia dellarte, 64
commedia erudita, 233n43
conduct books, 23
confessors, 37
confraternities, 34
Contile, Luca, 104, 2334n46
Corinna of Tanagra, 17,
2856n65
Cotin, Charles, 283n53
Counter-Reformation, 26, 83, 208n57
courtesans, 120
courtiers, 1089; sprezzatura, 130,
184
courtly love, 89, 1078, 136. See also

love; Love, Kingdom of
courtship, rituals of, 10
Cox, Virginia, 187
Credi, Lisabetta, 274n62
Crescimbeni, Giovanni Mario, 163,
165, 177, 267n176, 285n61
Crowns, game of, 236n83
Crusca, Academy of the, 30, 159, 170,
1712
Cupid, 61, 150, 21011n87
Cyrus (king of Persia), 47
Damo (daughter of Pythagoras),
141
dancing, 57
Dante Alighieri, 13, 17, 38, 61, 82,
109, 257n58, 277n99
Devices (Imprese), game of, 646, 78
Dia, Countess of (Beatriz di Dia),
208n60
dice, 5, 10, 19
Diogenes, 110
Diotima, 13, 17, 119
disinvoltura, 130, 1345, 1834
Domenichi, Lodovico, 41, 1645,
210n77, 2334n46, 253n16
Donati, Atalanta, 44
Doria, Paolo Mattia, 282n45
double standard (sexual), 36, 37, 95
Dovizi, Bernardo (Bibbiena), 176
dowries, 93, 95, 14950, 171
Duke of Alva, 50
Ebreo, Leone, 222n65
Egitto, Monas d, 214n117
Elci, Agnolina d (countess), 62,
230n7
Elci, Carlo d (count), 113
Elci, Cincia d, 232n36
Index311
Elci, Margherita de Salvi d (countess), 44
Elci, Urania d, 232n36
Eleonora di Toledo (duchess),
216n144
Elizabeth I (queen of England), 12
emblems, 28, 33, 65, 84, 10418,
12933, 1602
Enchantress, game of the, 60
Epiphany, 85, 97
Erasmus, 24, 175
Erik Erikson, 32
erotic allusions, 334, 60, 74, 76, 152,
168
Este, Alfonso II d (duke), 5, 203n33
Este, Isabella d, 12
Este, Leonora d, 200n8
Este, Lucrezia d (duchess), 207n51
Euripides, 95
Fanti, Sigismondo, 243n31
Farnese, Ranuccio I (duke), 9
Fausta, Livia, 49, 50, 51, 75, 1602,
172, 175
Fedele, Cassandra, 17
feminism, 40, 54, 76, 78, 93, 141, 181
Ferraiuoli, Court of, 84118, 142
Ferrara, 5, 9
fertility, 34
Figliucci, Lucrezia, 271n24
Figure of Cupid, game of the,
232n30
Filomati, Academy of the, 123, 125,
283n52
Finetti, Anna Maria, 152
Finetti, Cosimo, 1924
Finetti, Lattanzio, 152, 192
Florence, 13, 34, 49, 69, 70, 73, 814,
11921
Florentine Academy, 82
Florentine Carnival songs, 22, 27,

756
Florida, Creusa, 121
Florio, John, 237n87
Fonsi, Francesco, 22930n5
Fonte Moderata (Modesta da Pozzo),
141
Fontebrandese, Caterina, 523
forbidden games, 26
Forese, Livia, 90
Forteguerri, Laudomia, 36, 3740,
435, 48, 51, 58, 75, 1602, 167, 172,
174, 175, 182, 230n10, 271n24; son
Alessandro, 389
Forteguerri, Livia, 149, 151
Forteguerri, Niccol, 174
Forteguerri, Nicomedo, 51
Forteguerri, Tarsia, 50, 51
Fortini, Lisabetta Credi, 178,
2678n177, 271n24
fortune (and goddess Fortuna), 58,
1415, 44, 589, 110, 204n38
Fortune, game of, 85
fortunes (prophecies), 8593,
97104
Francesco da Barberino, 23
Franco, Veronica, 279n15
Fulvia da Correggio, 89, 12
funeral orations, 401
Galen, 95
Galileo, 131
Gambara, Beatrice, 10
Gambera, Veronica, 17, 121, 147, 192,
21213n103
Ganducci, Olimpia, 266n154
Garden of Love, game of the, 1546
Gardeners, game of the, 76
Garland, game of the, 285n61
Garzoni, Tomasi, 3, 213n110
312Index
Gazzaia, Buoncompagno di Marcantonio della, 812
Gellius, Aulus, 200n12
Gennep, Arnold van, 33, 34
Ghini, Leonardo, 97
Ghislieri, Michele (cardinal, pope),
83
Giberto da Correggio, 9
Gigli, Girolamo, 48, 512, 78, 81,
84, 126, 15981, 217n10; Del Collegio Petroniano, 161, 165, 16980;
DellOrigine, e Processo dell Antica Sanese Accademia, 1602;
Diario sanese, 159, 1629, 239n3;
Don Pilone, 170, 175, 176; Gazzettino (or Avvisi ideali), 2734n58,
276n71; Lamor dottorato, 179; La
finta conversione di Madame Adelaide, 284n60; Sorellina di Don
Pilone, 170, 172, 175; Vocabolario cateriniano, 170
Giolito, Gabriel, 253n16
Giovio, Paolo, 104, 2334n46
Gonzaga, Carlo, 205n46
Gonzaga, Elisabetta (duchess), 13,
257n62
Gonzaga, Erecole (cardinal), 205n46
Gonzaga, Giulia, 2712n33
Gonzaga, Giulio Cesare, 5, 78, 11,
205n46
Gonzaga, Guglielmo (duke), 11
Gonzaga, Guglielmo (duke), 205n46
Gonzaga, Margherita (duchess), 5,
8, 11
Gonzaga, Scipione, 205n46
Gonzaga, Vespasiano, 206n47
Gonzaga, Vincenzo, 11, 203n33
Gori, Alessandra Fantoni, 2601n85
Gori, Caterina, 152
Gori, Giovanni, 267n175
Gori, Olimpia Chigi ne, 133

Grande, Academy of the, 29, 56,
209n65
Grassi, Caterina Pannelini, 131
Gravina, Gian Vincenzo, 2734n58
Graziosi, Elisabetta, 187, 196
Grazzini, Antonfrancesco, 22,
237n95, 249n109
green years, 2935, 168
Grioli, Caterina Gaetana, 130,
1323, 1423, 1546, 173, 178,
256n51, 268n178
Grioli, Jacopo, 63
Grioli, Lelio, 2667n169
Grillo, Angelo, 207n52
Grimani, Marino (doge), 278n3
Guazzo, Marco, 50, 2267n106
Guazzo, Stefano, 19, 21, 191, 195
Guerrazzi, Francesco Domenico,
2667n169
Guglielmo, Vittoria, 92
Guidini, Ginevera, 256n49
Haberman, Jrgen, 18, 83
Hannibal, 8
Happiness and Goods, game of,
1416
Helen of Troy, 95
Henry II (king of France), 49, 209n67
heresy, 823
Homer, 17
Horace, 31, 158, 229n3, 271n31
humanists, 4, 18, 30, 40
Hunt, game of the, 756
Imprese (devices), 30, 33, 51, 65. See
also emblems
Index of Forbidden Books, 26
Infiammati, Academy of the, 38
Inquisition, 83
Index313
insignias, 65, 72, 73
Insignias and Banners, game of,
715, 78, 161
Intronati, Academy of the, 21,
2935, 42, 44, 689, 1212,
1924; and Academy of the
Assicurate, 12558, 186; closing,
814; Ingannati, 43, 79; Ortensio,
31, 192, 229n1, 240n10, 252n10;
re-opening, 84, 119; Sacrificio, 34,
43, 96
Italian Wars, 65, 76
Jeanneret, Michele, 19
Jesuits, 159, 169, 1702, 174, 1901,
2667n169
jousts, 14, 15, 57, 69, 72
Judith, 17
Knight, game of the, 72
knights, 33, 53, 61, 83, 936, 137, 152,
157
Lactantius, 912
Landucci, Marcello, 224n81
Lappolli, Giovanni (Pollastra),
223n75
law, 302, 43
League of Cognac, 70
Leisure, game of, 14
Lenzi, Mariano, 222n65
Leonora of Austria (duchess), 11, 12
liberal games, 17
Liberal and Noble Arts, game of the,
17
love, 36, 3940, 423, 61, 63, 73, 76,
88, 96, 130. See also courtly
love
Love, Kingdom of, 7, 26, 126, 128,
1359, 143, 148, 156, 181
Lucarini, Camilla Placidi, 256n49

Lucca, 41
Lucretia, 17
Lupercalia, 24, 27, 34, 76
Lutheranism, 834
Maddalena, Maria (grand duchess),
124
Maei, Raaele, 199n2
Magliabechi, Antonio, 51, 1602,
239n3, 241n21
Malaguzzi, Annibale, 250n130
Malatesta, Battista, 221n60
Malespini, Celio, 278n3
Mandoli, Aurora, 89
Mandoli, Caterina Chigi Piccolomini, 256n49
Mandoli, Girolamo Piccolomini,
231n13
Manfredi, Muzio, 203n32
Manso, Giovan Battista, 205n45
Marchese del Vasto. See Avalos,
Alfonso d
Marescotti, Margarita, 271n24
Marescotti, Settimia Tolomei, 146,
157, 2678n177
Maretti, Lelio, 59, 270n19
Margaret of Austria, 54, 2201n47
Marinella, Lucrezia, 207n54
Marino, Giambattista, 195, 2689n3,
270n17, 274n69
Mario da Venadorn, 249n113
marriages (arranged), 36, 37, 39, 43,
46, 96
Martello, Piero Jacopo, 2678n177
Martini, Fortunio, 84, 92, 946,
241n20
Martini, Virginia, 172
Marzi, Frasia, 43, 458, 124, 167
Marzi, Livia, 99100, 124
314Index
Massimi, Petronilla Paolini, 196
Mauro, Giovanni, 174, 182, 224n86,
231n18, 270n17
Maxims and Signs, game of, 209n70
Mazzi, Curzio, 81, 85
McClure, Laura, 120
Medici, Alessandro de (duke),
82
Medici, Catherine de (queen of
France), 12, 1314, 195, 227n108
Medici, Cosimo I de (duke, grand
duke), 67, 813, 228n122,
2445n62, 251n3; daughter
Isabella, 67, 69
Medici, Cosimo II de (grand duke),
251n2
Medici, Cosimo III de (grand duke),
166, 170
Medici, Ferdinando de (grand
duke), 82, 84, 119, 239n104,
251n2
Medici, Francesco de (grand duke),
823, 239n104
Medici, Gian Angelo de (pope), 83
Medici, Ippolito de (cardinal),
2712n33
Medici, Marie de (queen of France),
195
Medici, Mattias de, 254n22
Menestrier, Claude-Franois,
2834n54
Mercator, Gerardus, 247n92
Messbarger, Rebecca, 194
Meun, Jean de, 107
Mignanelli, Lucrezia, 167, 172,
271n24
Mignanelli, Orazio, 97, 266n154
misogyny, 40, 42, 95, 1212, 139,
18990
Molire, 170
monasticism, 323
Monluc, Blaise de, 4953, 70, 124,
153, 1601, 172
Montalvo, Garci Rodriguez de,
232n36
Montfleury, Antoine Jacob de,
273n48
moratorium, 32
More, Thomas, 18, 276n89
Morelli, Maria Maddalena (Corilla
Olimpica), 1956
Mori, Ascanio de, 10, 28, 278n3,
2834n54
mottoes, 30, 501, 65, 723, 84, 8693,
10518, 12933
Museo, Agostino, 44, 45
nicknames, 323, 38, 12932, 137
Nicodemism, 32
Nini, Eufrasia, 266n154
Nostredame, Jean de, 163
Nuti, Fausti, 92
Order of the San Stefano, Knights of,
2445n62
Orlandini, Emilia Ballati, 157, 165,
173, 178, 194, 196, 266n154,
2678n177, 271n24
Ottoboni, Pietro (cardinal), 272n46
Ottonelli, Giovan Domenico, 122,
1901, 194
Ovid, 244n52
Owen, John, 189
ozio, 14
Padua, 38, 41, 42
Pagni, Lorenzo, 82
Paleario, Aonio, 44
Palmieri, Bernardino, 14950
Panico, Jeronimo, 10
Index315
Pannelini, Caterina Savini Gori, 130,
145
Pannelini, Niccol Gori, 126
Pannelini, Portia Bichi Gori, 1478,
256n51, 264n125
Pannelini, Silvio Gori, 1501, 153
Paradin, Guillaume, 226n106
Parnassus, game of, 153
Passi, Giuseppe, 207n54
patriarchy, 67, 90, 132, 206n47;
Alessandro Piccolomini, 3942;
Academy of the Assicurate, 1378,
1434, 1501; Bartolomeo Arnigio,
20; Fortunio Martini, 94; Scipione
Bargagli, 69, 1089, 113
Pecci, Caterina, 260n77
Pecci, Giovanni Battista, 2578n64
Pecci, Onesta Vannoccio Biringucci
ne, 144, 147
Pecci, Onorata, 271n24
Pecci, Porzia, 63, 124, 230n7
Penelope, 17
Perfetti, Bernardino, 1956, 274n65
Pericles, 23, 86, 109, 141
Petrarch, Francesco, 13, 31, 61, 67,
142, 257n58; De remediis utriusque
fortune, 6; Rime sparse, 934, 119,
2501n134
Petroni, Riccardo (cardinal), 171
Petrucci, Aurelia, 401, 58, 110, 172,
271n24, 2712n33
Petrucci, Battista Berti, 164
Petrucci, Cassandra, 271n24
Petrucci, Eusta, 89
Petrucci, Filomena Marsili, 256n49,
2601n85
Petrucci, Girolama, 11011
Petrucci, Giulia, 58, 2712n33
Petrucci, Jacopo di Francesco,
222n65
Petrucci, Pandolfo, 41, 49

Philip II (king of Spain), 49
Pia, Emilia, 13, 257n62
Piano, Academy of the, 82
Piccolomini, Agnesa Piccolomini
ne, 131
Piccolomini, Agnese Chigi, 176, 178
Piccolomini, Alessandro, 3343,
44, 47, 48, 167, 226n104, 240n10,
2712n33, 280n35; De la institutione di tutta la vita de lhuomo
nato nobile e in citt libera, 3740,
96, 151; Dialogo della bella creanza
delle donne (or Raaella), 3640,
423; LAlessandro, 423; Lamor
constante, 223n71; Orazione fatta
in morte di Aurelia Petrucci, 401;
Orazione in lode delle donne, 412
Piccolomini, Alfonso (duke),
277n1
Piccolomini, Bartolomeo Carli,
2712n33
Piccolomini, Camilla, 271n24
Piccolomini, Caterina Gaetana
Grioli. See Grioli, Caterina
Gaetana
Piccolomini, Clemente, 93
Piccolomini, Enea, 278n3
Piccolomini, Fausta, 50, 51, 75,
1602, 172, 175
Piccolomini, Francesco, 130, 1323,
142, 148, 1545, 163, 165, 174, 177,
270n21, 274n70
Piccolomini, Fulvia, 2667n169
Piccolomini, Girolama Carli de, 43,
224n78, 226n104, 2712n33
Piccolomini, Marcantonio, 23,
345, 438, 5666, 77, 218n23;
La vita de la nobilissima Madonna Arithea de Marzi, 468;
316Index
Ragionamento, 435, 2223n66,
225n91, 231n18
Piccolomini, Silvia, 271n24
Piccolomini, Urania Cerretani de,
84, 86, 92
Pico della Mirandola, Lodovico II, 9
Pius II (pope), 36
Pius III (pope), 36
Pius IV (pope), 83
Pius V (pope), 83
Placidi, Sulpitia Pannelini de, 1012
Plato, 11, 44, 102; Menexemus, 13,
119, 207n77; Republic, 94, 141, 212
13n103, 276n89; Symposium, 13,
119, 207n77
Pliny, 264n135
Plutarch, 11, 90, 174, 244n52, 278n4
Pocaterra, Annibale, 511, 60
Poliziano, 257n56
Portrait of Beauty, game of the,
232n30
priests, 33, 36, 37
primiera (card game), 4, 8, 12
Protestantism, 26, 31, 45, 21011n87
Provence, 13, 24, 62, 128, 163, 169,
174
proverbs, 18, 74
Proverbs, game of, 64
Ptolemy I Soter, 21
querelle des femmes, 12, 20, 54, 936,
139, 142, 286n66
questions of love, 12, 62, 63
Questions of Love, game of, 62, 91,
224n81
Rabelais, 3, 257n56
Rambouillet, Madame de (Catherine
de Vivonne), 195
Rangone, Claudia, 89, 12
Ray, Meredith, 187

Reardon, Colleen, 142
Renata of Ferrara, 12
reverses (of medals), 65
Reverses (of medals), game of, 66,
8593
Ricc, Laura, 70
Ricovrati, Academy of the,
2678n177
Ringhieri, Innocenzio, 3, 1318,
19, 212, 24, 267, 28, 60, 72, 195,
238n98, 249n109
Robin, Diana, 45, 51, 54, 145, 167, 187
Roman de la Rose, 107, 184, 278n10
romances, 613
Romei, Annibale (count), 5, 206n48
Rossi, Aretafila Savini ne, 176,
2678n177, 271n24, 282n50
Rovere, Felice della, 89, 208n58
Rovere, Vittoria della (grand duchess), 122, 126, 164, 166, 187,
285n62
Rozzi, Academy of the, 81, 119, 166,
169, 170, 216n3, 217n10
Rudel, Jaufre, 208n60
Ruscelli, Girolamo, 104, 230n10, 233
4n46, 236n76
Sack of Rome, 29, 193, 240n7
Salimbeni, Ascanio, 240n13
salons, 1956
Salutati, Coluccio, 247n94
Salvi, Virginia Martini, 227n108,
271n24
Sanese, Atalanta, 271n24
Sannazzaro, Jacopo, 934
Sansedoni, Alessandro,
2712n33
Sanseverino, Barbara (countess), 89,
12, 2856n65
Index317
Sanseverino, Ferrante, 4, 58
Sansovino, Francesco, 203n32
Santi, Iuditta, 65, 124, 232n36
Sappho, 17
Saracini, Camilla, 44, 45, 58, 174, 182,
231n18
Saracini, Ottavio, 97, 1001
SantAnna hospital (Ferrara), 11
Saturnalia, 234
Savelli, Giulia, 195
Savini, Olinda Tancredi ne, 275n84
Savini, Persio, 146
Scaglioso, Carolina, 157
Scaino, Antonio, 3
Scipio Africanus, 47
Scotti, Francesca (Cecca), 164, 172,
255n38, 270n22, 271n24
seduction, 27, 48, 156
Semiramis (queen of the Assyrians),
47
Seneca, 110
Sergardi, Lodovico, 2734n58
Sergardi, Lucrezia, 173, 176, 178,
2678n177, 274n62
Sesti, Lodovico, 253n20
Shakespeare, William, 43
Sharecropper, game of the, 232n24,
238n98
Ship, game of the, 60
Siege, game of the, 71, 735, 243n46
Siena, siege of, 29, 45, 4854, 6780,
91, 153, 1602, 164; Bardotti faction, 81; Libertini faction, 41, 49;
Noveschi faction, 41, 49; theatre,
30
Siri, Vittorio, 203n35
skill, 4, 5, 6
soccer, 14, 70, 163
Socrates, 13
Sorel, Charles, 18, 195
Sotto lo Spedale, confraternity of,

239n3
Sozzini, Alessandro, 227n109
Sozzini, Camillo, 240n10
Sozzini, Fausto, 31, 56, 82, 239n104,
240nn1011
Sozzini, Francesca, 230n7
Sozzini, Lelio, 240n10
Sozzini, Mariano, 163
Spain, occupation of Siena, 41, 49,
82; influence on Sienese games,
24, 113
Spannocchi, Agnese Cosatti, 178
Spannocchi, Caterina Ugurgieri,
255n43, 260n80
Spannocchi, Fulvia, 69, 71, 101, 110,
112, 123, 131, 165, 174, 182,
271n24
Spannocchi, Pandolfo, 132, 143, 154,
1578, 167, 177, 270n21
Spartans, 902, 120
Speroni, Sperone, 910, 221n57
Stal, Madame de, 1956
Stendhal, 2856n65
Stilbo, 110
Stoicism, 56
storytelling, 634
Straparola, Giovanni Francesco,
283n53
Strozzi, Piero, 228n122
Suetonius, 214n119
Sybil, game of the, 196
Tarabotti, Arcangela, 107, 109, 122,
141, 146
Tasso, Bernardo, 219n36, 276n94
Tasso, Ercole, 207n54
Tasso, Torquato, 3, 413, 28, 142,
257n58; Discorso della virt feminile e donnesca, 1112, 94; Gonzaga
318Index
secondo overo del giuoco, 4, 59,
1012, 205n43, 2856n65; Il padre di
famiglia, 206n47; Il Romeo overo del
giuoco, 59, 1012, 60, 205n43; Jerusalem Delivered, 12, 1512, 204n37,
205nn456, 208n57
Temple of Immortality and Crowns,
game of the, 230n10
Temple of Love, game of the, 1512
Temple of Venus, game of the,
215n133
Terracina, Laura, 17, 121, 147, 192
Tessauro, Alessandro, 77, 235n71,
238n101
Thermes, Paul de, 49, 50
Thucydides, 11, 23, 47
Tolomei, Aurelia, 90, 92, 2712n33
Tolomei, Claudio, 29, 94, 1001,
209n65
Tolomei, Elena, 989
Tomasi, Giugurta, 97104, 241n20
Tomyris (queen of the Massaetae), 47
Tondi, Maria Antonia Bizzarini ne,
178
Torrenti, Giuseppe, 166
Torriano, Giovanni, 233n45
Toscana, Isifile, 44, 58, 167, 271n31
Travagliati, Academy of the,
96104
trattenimento, 5, 20, 21
Trees and Birds, game of, 249n109
Trexler, Richard, 34
Tribunal of Love, game of the,
14851
Triumph, game of, 210n80
Tuccetti, Maria Francesca Raaelli,
282n48
Turamini, Giulia, 13942
Turner, Victor, 32, 35, 189
Twelfth Night, 43. See also Epiphany
Ugurgieri, Violante Bargagli, 255n43

Ugurgieri, Ugo, 1369, 259n73,
2601n85
Ugurgieri Azzolini, Isidoro, 49, 50,
53, 65, 1225, 136, 153, 161, 163,
226n104
Umidi, Academy of the, 82
universities, 61, 62, 63
Urbino, 13, 19
Ussel, Gui d, 249n113
Valle, Guglielmo della, 227n112
Varchi, Benedetto, 219n36, 220n44
Vaselli, Crescenzio, 166, 192
Vecchi, Laura Marsilii, 260n82
Vecchi, Orazio, 278n3
Vecci, Girolama de, 153
Venturi, Camillo, 222n65
Venturi, Frasia, 44, 58, 63, 174, 182,
219n35, 231n18, 2712n33
vernacular, 613, 67, 171, 174
Vernier, Domenico, 279n15
Versifying, game of, 224n81, 232n30
Vida, Girolamo, 3
Vignali, Antonio, 33, 34, 37, 167,
222n65
Vignali, Cinzio, 65
Violante of Bavaria, 1667, 187,
282n48, 285n62
Virgil, 4, 17, 167, 2712n33
vocation, 33, 34
Volpi, Giovanni Antonio, 2678n177
Vopel, Caspar, 247n92
War of Love, game of the, 92
Westwater, Lynn Lara, 187
widows, 11617, 206n47
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 108
women: acting, 64; agency, 912,
7580, 85, 956, 97, 157, 163, 181;
Index319
conversation, 39, 44, 18997; disinvoltura, 130; domestic life, 656,
11013, 177; eloquence, 401, 47,
13940, 149, 173, 179; fame, 58,
689, 879, 97, 104, 105, 107, 1256,
12930, 140, 157, 166, 178, 195;
flowers, 1556, 166; ingegno, 7, 8,
15, 17, 48, 121; intellectual combativeness, 45; military, 4854, 70,
75, 80, 901, 1602; music, 150,
153, 196; philosophy, 445; poetry,
41, 146, 150, 153, 1548, 1645,
167, 173, 178, 1946; political
realm, 42, 467, 94, 144; pregnancy, 1546; professional restrictions, 689, 88; prosopography, 49,
1235, 136; shyness, 57; silence,
20, 21, 23, 59, 74, 1401, 165; universities, 195; vanity (fashion),
122, 1467
Xenophon, 38, 219n35
Zanr, Domenico, 82
Zappi, Faustina Maratti, 196
Zecchi, Pietro, 249n108

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PARLOUR GAMES AND THE PUBLIC LIFE

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