author
Tullia d' Aragona
d. 1556
A bold voice from Renaissance Italy, this poet and philosopher wrote about love, desire, and women’s intellectual freedom with unusual confidence for her time. Her work still stands out for turning elegant literary debate into something personal, sharp, and vividly alive.
1 Audiobook
Rime di Tullia d'Aragona, cortigiana del secolo XVI
by Tullia d' Aragona
About the author
Born in Rome sometime between 1501 and 1505, Tullia d'Aragona became known in sixteenth-century Italy as a poet, author, and philosopher. She moved through major cultural centers including Venice, Ferrara, Siena, Florence, and Rome, building a reputation for wit, learning, and literary skill.
She is best remembered for works published in 1547, especially Dialogue on the Infinity of Love and a collection of poems. In that dialogue, she entered a major Renaissance debate about the nature of love and gave a woman an unusually strong intellectual place within it.
Tullia d'Aragona died in March or April 1556. Her life has often been discussed alongside her fame as a celebrated courtesan, but her lasting importance comes from her writing: she remains one of the most distinctive female literary voices of the Italian Renaissance.