Jewish Poet and Intellectual in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Works of Sarra Copia Sulam in Verse and Prose Along with Writings of Her

631 Pages·2009·1.821 MB·English

by  Sarra Copia Sulam, Don Harrán

JEWISH POET AND INTELLECTUAL IN
SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY VENICE
THE
OTHER VOICE
IN
EARLY MODERN
EUROPE
A Series Edited by Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil Jr.
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Sarra Copia Sulam
JEWISH POET AND INTELLECTUAL IN
SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY VENICE
The Works of Sarra Copia Sulam in
Verse and Prose, Along with Writings
of Her Contemporaries in Her Praise,
Condemnation, or Defense
(cid:2)
Edited and Translated by
Don Harrán
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Chicago & London
Sarra Copia Sulam (1600?–1 641)
Don Harrán is the Artur Rubinstein Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of In Search of Harmony: Hebrew
and Humanist Elements in Sixteenth-C entury Musical Thought and Salamone Rossi: Jewish
Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2009 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2009
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978-0-226-77988-1 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978-0-226-77989-8 (paper)
ISBN- 10: 0-226-77988-2 (cloth)
ISBN- 10: 0-226-77989-0 (paper)
The University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the generous support of
James E. Rabil, in memory of Scottie W. Rabil, toward the publication of this book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sullam, Sara Copia, 1592–1641.
[Selections. 2009]
Jewish poet and intellectual in seventeenth-century Venice : the works of Sarra Copia Sulam
in verse and prose, along with writings of her contemporaries in her praise, condemnation, or
defense / Sarra Copia Sulam ; edited and translated by Don Harrán.
p. cm. — (Other voice in early modern Europe)
Some text in Italian.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN- 13: 978-0-226-77988-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN- 10: 0-226-77988-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN- 13: 978-0-226-77989-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN- 10: 0-226-77989-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Harrán, Don. II. Title. III. Title: Jewish poet and intellectual in 17th century Venice.
IV. Title: Jewish poet and intellectual in XVII century Venice. V. Series: Other voice
in early modern Europe.
PQ4634.S83A6 2009
851(cid:2).5—dc22
2009028221
o The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Series Editors’ Introduction xiii
Volume Editor’s Introduction 1
Volume Editor’s Bibliography 91
I Sarra Copia and Ansaldo Cebà
1. Letters to Sarra Copia from Her Christian Correspondent Ansaldo Cebà (1618–2 2) 115
2. Letter from Sarra Copia to Isabella della Tolfa (1623) 257
3. References to Sarra Copia in a Second Collection of Ansaldo Cebà’s Letters (1623) 259
II A Controversy on the Immortality of the Soul
1. Letter from Baldassare Bonifaccio to Sarra Copia (End of 1619) 269
2. Sarra Copia’s Letter in Response (10 January 1620) 273
3. Excerpts from Baldassare Bonifaccio’s “Discourse on the Immortality of the Soul”
(June 1621) 279
4. Sarra Copia’s Manifesto in Self-D efense (July 1621) 311
5. Baldassare Bonifaccio’s Essay in Rebuttal (August 1621) 332
6. Portion of a Letter by Baldassare Bonifaccio (December 1621) 343
III “Notices from Parnassus”
1. “Notices from Parnassus” (1626 or Thereafter) 349
2. Excerpts from Numidio Paluzzi’s Rime, as Edited by
Alessandro Berardelli (1626) 499
3. Letter by Angelico Aprosio (Undated, Though Based on a Report from 1637) 506
IV Miscellanea
1. Dedication to Sarra Copia from Leon Modena’s Play Ester (1619) 511
2. Two Poems by Gabriele Zinano and a Poem by Sarra Copia in Response
(Probably 1622–2 3) 515
3. Leon Modena’s Epitaph for Sarra Copia’s Tombstone (1641) 519
Appendix: Sarra Copia’s Prose Writings in the Original 523
Series Editors’ Bibliography 535
Index of Poems by Their First Lines, Forms, and Authors 563
General Index 573
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Shield from Sarra Copia Sulam’s tombstone xxxii
2. Venice, detail from panoramic map etched by Matthäus Merian the Elder 8
3. Portrait of a woman (possibly Sarra Copia) in a painting attributed to
Antonio Lagorio 27
4. Ansaldo Cebà as portrayed in the frontispiece to his “Letters to Sarra Copia” 191
5. Letter, in Sarra Copia’s hand, to Isabella della Tolfa 258
6. Baldassare Bonifaccio, from an engraving in Le glorie degli incogniti 270
7. Beginning of a letter to Sarra Copia by Baldassare Bonifaccio 272
8. Latin ode dedicated to Sarra Copia at the opening of Baldassare
Bonifaccio’s Discorso 282
9. Title page of Sarra Copia’s Manifesto 313
10. Page from “Notices from Parnassus” 427
11. Leon Modena as portrayed on the title page of his Historia de’ riti
hebraici 513
12. Sarra Copia’s tombstone 520

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For a project that started many, many years ago, it is only inevitable that
I be beholden to more institutions and individuals than I could properly
acknowledge. The Newberry Library in Chicago played a major role: it was
there that in 1993, as a fellow on another project, I discovered by chance
Cebà’s letters to Copia. They appeared to me so novel, nay, extraordinary,
that I dropped everything else to type them out for future reference. Little
did I know at the time that they would form the cornerstone of the present
book. Other libraries of fundamental importance for the project were the
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, the Biblioteca dell’Accademia dei
Concordi in Rovigo, and the Vatican Library in Rome: my research there (in
2006) was facilitated by a grant from the National Endowment for the Hu-
manities. I am grateful to the Marchese Giacomo and Marchesa Emanuela
Cattaneo Adorno in Genoa for granting me access to their private library,
the Biblioteca Durazzo- Giustiniani (and to Dr. Oriana Cartaregia of the
University Library, Genoa, and Professor Sandra Macchiavello of the uni-
versity itself, for “paving the way” and assisting me during my visit). A fel-
lowship from the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2004) allowed
me to make progress on the translations and gain access to a rich body of
secondary literature in the libraries of the Institute and Princeton Univer-
sity, not to speak of libraries in the greater New York area and books secured
for me by the Institute through interlibrary loan. For help or advice, I am
particularly obliged to Ms. Natalia Sciarini, Drs. Ilaria Della Monica, Piero
Falchetta, Laura Nuvoloni, Ilana Tahan, and Marina Vianello, and Professors
Howard Adelman, Robert Bonfi l, Joseph Connors, Yosef Kaplan, Camillo
Manzitti, James Mirollo, Alessandro Morandotti, Benjamin Ravid, David
Rosand, and Louis A. Waldman. “If I raised some . . . diffi culty in some dis-
cussion with you . . . , it was solely out of curiosity to hear from you some ix