Poems and Selected Letters by Veronica Franco

Sometime in the 1570s, Maffio circulated in manuscript three poems in Venetian dialect, specifically targeting Franco. By far the most serious critique of poetry in which Franco engaged, however, was her debate with Maffio Venier (1550-86), which led to defend herself but her sex in general against mockery and hatred from men. And two poems crucial to her defense of herself and of women in general against a male attacker begin in the first section (13) and continue into the second (16). A trio of Franco’s poems (3, 17, 20) deals with jealousy and separation in terms clearly drawn from ancient Roman elegy. Two groups of poems tell a story that spans both sections of the collection. She continues to address her eleven final capitoli to male readers, but she also includes more meditative, elegiac poems-laments over love or separation from her city-and she ends the collection with a long capitolo dedicated to a Veronese churchman, Marcantonio delle Torre, in praise of his country estate. From Capitolo 15 on, all poems are by Franco. This pattern of poems paired in dialogue changes in the second part of the collection. In these pairs of poems, the first writer sets a theme and the second responds to it. The authors of the other poems in men’s voices are not identified. This pattern changes from Capitolo 15 to Capitolo 25.

One capitolo is followed by a response by the other poet.Ĭapitolo 1 was composed by Marco Venier, the nephew of Domenico Venier, whose name appears at the head of the poem in one of the original copies of the book but is replaced with incerto autore (unknown author) in other copies. The first contains fourteen poems arranged in pairs, written by men as well as by Franco. The collection of poems can be divided into two parts. The length of the capitol is variable: the shortest is 39 lines long, the longest 565. This meter and rhyme scheme consists of eleven-syllable lines arranged in interlocking tercets (aba, bcb, cdc).

Veronica Franco’s poems consist of 25 capitoli in terza rima, a poetic form used by Dante in The Divine Comedy.

Poems and Selected Letters by Veronica Franco