UNRECORDED SONNET TO SHARPSHOOTING WOMEN
[NAPOLEONIC ITALY.]
Alla società delle gentilissime signore di Moncalieri dilettanti del giuoco del tavolazzo. Sonetto bernesco-morale estemporaneo dedicato al merito singolarissimo dell’ ill.ma sig. Contessa Gropelli di Borgone nata Provana abadessa della medesima società dal corpo dei sigg. militi volontari della citta. Li 30 luglio 1799.
Turin, Giacomo Fea, 1799.
4to, pp. 3, [1 (blank)]; trimmed a little close at head and foot, light staining to fore-edge of p. 1, light creasing from folding, but text clean and fresh; disbound.
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Alla società delle gentilissime signore di Moncalieri dilettanti del giuoco del tavolazzo. Sonetto bernesco-morale estemporaneo dedicato al merito singolarissimo dell’ ill.ma sig. Contessa Gropelli di Borgone nata Provana abadessa della medesima società dal corpo dei sigg. militi volontari della citta. Li 30 luglio 1799.
An unrecorded sonnet addressed to the Society of the Gentlewomen of Moncalieri, a town just south of Turin whose castle is one of the Savoy Residences, and in particular to the ‘Abbess’ of the society, by the corps of soldiers stationed in the town shortly after the Battle of Marengo.
The women to whom the sonnet is addressed are players of tavolazzo, a Piedmontese sport along the lines of target shooting, whose rules were formally laid out in 1780. The poet reflects on the abilities and roles of women, citing Cicero’s dictum that women were just as capable as men of great accomplishments if given the education and the opportunity, and urges the women to show the courage ‘to make Mars himself pale and kneel in wonder before you’.
Not recorded by SBN, KvK, or OCLC.
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