Maria Bellonci
Maria Villavecchia Bellonci (30 November 1902 – 13 May 1986) was an Italian writer, historian and journalist, known especially for her biography of Lucrezia Borgia. She and Guido Alberti established the Strega Prize in 1947.
Biography
Bellonci was born Maria Villavecchia in Rome on 30 November 1902. Her father, Gerolamo Vittorio Villavecchia, was a professor of chemistry, and came from an aristocratic Piedmontese family, while her mother, Felicita Bellucci, came from Umbria. She had three younger siblings, a brother Leo and a sister, Gianna.[1]
From 1913, she studied at the Liceo Umberto, graduating in 1921.[1] She married the journalist Goffredo Bellonci in 1928.[2]
Following the Second World War, the Belloncis established a salon at their residence, the Amici della domenica (Friends of Sunday) inviting Italian literates to discuss the promotion of Italian culture.
Bellonci's husband died in August 1964.[1]
Bellonci died on 13 May 1986 in Rome.[2]
Career
Literary
Aged 19, Bellonci wrote Clio e le amazzoni, a novel that remained unpublished,[3] but which circulated in Italian literary circles and introduced her to her future husband Goffredo Bellonci.[2]
Bellonci's literary debut was in 1939 with the acclaimed biography of Lucrezia Borgia, published in Italian by Mondadori, and translated into twelve languages.[3] This and her subsequent works on historical subjects, based on rich and detailed research of extant primary documents, were lauded for their vivid reconstructions and psychological motivations of their characters from which the public obtained a credible picture of history stripped of legends and accretions over the centuries. She concentrated on the great Renaissance families: Borgias, Estes, Gonzagas and Sforzas. Especially welcomed was her focus on women in the Renaissance and their interactions with power.[4] Although these works were written in the genre of historical fiction, they were fully documented histories.[2]
By 1972, Bellonci was beginning to experiment with the form. For the first time, in the compendium Tu vipera gentile, she introduced fictional characters in order to propel the historical narrative. Similarly, her final novel Rinascimento Privato (Private Renaissance) which came out in 1985, was written in the first person by the protagonist Isabella d'Este; she added fictional characters to describe historical events, in essence creating a metahistorical novel.[2] Furthermore, contrasting this depiction of Isabella with her previous appearances in Bellonci's works (e.g. in Lucrezia Borgia), Bellonci was able to show how subjective and ideologically malleable historical interpretation may be.[5]
Culture, activism, journalism
Bellonci was actively involved in the promotion of Italian culture. Along with her husband and Guido Alberti, she established the literary Premio Strega in 1947. She recounted its history in her 1971 book Come un racconto. Gli anni del Premio Strega.
She was a columnist in periodicals such as Il punto (1958–64), and Il Messaggero (1964-70). Many of these articles were compiled and republished in Pubblici segreti (two volumes, 1965 and 1989). Her collection of articles on Italian cities was republished posthumously in Segni sul muro (Signs on the wall, 1989).[2]
Translation
Bellonci was inspired by Stendhal and translated some of his work into Italian: Vanina Vanini e altre cronache italiane (1961), La duchessa di Paliano (1994). Among her other translations are Alexandre Dumas' I tre moschettieri (1977) and Emile Zola's Nana (1955).[2]
Awards
Bellonci was awarded the Viareggio Prize in 1939 for Lucrezia Borgia.[4] In 1979, she won the Premio San Gerolamo for her literary oeuvre. She was posthumously awarded the Strega prize in 1986 for Rinascimento privato.
Bibliography
- Lucrezia Borgia. La sua vita e i suoi tempi, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1939.
- Segreti dei Gonzaga, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1947.
- Milano Viscontea, Torino, Edizioni Radio Italiana, 1956.
- Pubblici segreti, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1965.
- Come un racconto. Gli anni del Premio Strega, Milano, Club degli Editori, 1969.
- Tu vipera gentile. Delitto di stato, Soccorso a Dorotea, Tu vipera gentile, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1972.
- Marco Polo, Torino, ERI, 1982.
- Rinascimento privato, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1985.
- Io e il Premio Strega, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1987. ISBN 88-04-30197-X.
- Segni sul muro, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1988. ISBN 88-04-31881-3.
- Pubblici segreti n. 2, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1989. ISBN 88-04-33086-4.
- Il Premio Strega, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1995. ISBN 88-04-40540-6.
- Gente in castello, Milano, A. Mondadori, 2007. ISBN 978-88-04-57410-1.
References
- ^ a b c Luisa Avellini (2012). "Bellonci (Villavecchia), Maria". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Treccani.
- ^ a b c d e f g Lodovica Guidarelli. "Maria Villavecchia Bellonci". In Gaetana Marrone (ed.). Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies: A-J. Taylor & Francis. pp. 160–162. ISBN 978-1-57958-390-3.
- ^ a b Giacomo Striuli (1991). "Maria Bellonci". In Katharina M. Wilson (ed.). An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. Taylor & Francis. pp. 108–. ISBN 978-0-8240-8547-6.
- ^ a b Maria O. Marotti (1997). "Maria Bellonci". In Rinaldina Russell (ed.). The Feminist Encyclopedia of Italian Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-0-313-29435-8.
- ^ Susanna Scarparo (2005). Elusive Subjects: Biography as Gendered Metafiction. Troubador. pp. 73–. ISBN 978-1-904744-19-1.
- v
- t
- e
- 1947 Ennio Flaiano
- 1948 Vincenzo Cardarelli
- 1949 Giovanni Battista Angioletti
- 1950 Cesare Pavese
- 1951 Corrado Alvaro
- 1952 Alberto Moravia
- 1953 Massimo Bontempelli
- 1954 Mario Soldati
- 1955 Giovanni Comisso
- 1956 Giorgio Bassani
- 1957 Elsa Morante
- 1958 Dino Buzzati
- 1959 Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
- 1960 Carlo Cassola
- 1961 Raffaele La Capria
- 1962 Mario Tobino
- 1963 Natalia Ginzburg
- 1964 Giovanni Arpino
- 1965 Paolo Volponi
- 1966 Michele Prisco
- 1967 Anna Maria Ortese
- 1968 Alberto Bevilacqua
- 1969 Lalla Romano
- 1970 Guido Piovene
- 1971 Raffaello Brignetti
- 1972 Giuseppe Dessì
- 1973 Manlio Cancogni
- 1974 Guglielmo Petroni
- 1975 Tommaso Landolfi
- 1976 Fausta Cialente
- 1977 Fulvio Tomizza
- 1978 Ferdinando Camon
- 1979 Primo Levi
- 1980 Vittorio Gorresio
- 1981 Umberto Eco
- 1982 Goffredo Parise
- 1983 Mario Pomilio
- 1984 Pietro Citati
- 1985 Carlo Sgorlon
- 1986 Maria Bellonci
- 1987 Stanislao Nievo
- 1988 Gesualdo Bufalino
- 1989 Giuseppe Pontiggia
- 1990 Sebastiano Vassalli
- 1991 Paolo Volponi
- 1992 Vincenzo Consolo
- 1993 Domenico Rea
- 1994 Giorgio Montefoschi
- 1995 Mariateresa Di Lascia
- 1996 Alessandro Barbero
- 1997 Claudio Magris
- 1998 Enzo Siciliano
- 1999 Dacia Maraini
- 2000 Ernesto Ferrero
- 2001 Domenico Starnone
- 2002 Margaret Mazzantini
- 2003 Melania Gaia Mazzucco
- 2004 Ugo Riccarelli
- 2005 Maurizio Maggiani
- 2006 Sandro Veronesi
- 2007 Niccolò Ammaniti
- 2008 Paolo Giordano
- 2009 Tiziano Scarpa
- 2010 Antonio Pennacchi
- 2011 Edoardo Nesi
- 2012 Alessandro Piperno
- 2013 Walter Siti
- 2014 Francesco Piccolo
- 2015 Nicola Lagioia
- 2016 Edoardo Albinati
- 2017 Paolo Cognetti
- 2018 Helena Janeczek
- 2019 Antonio Scurati
- 2020 Sandro Veronesi
- 2021 Emanuele Trevi
- 2022 Mario Desiati