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.
Added to your basket:
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 to the female players of tavolazzo – a Piedmontese sport along the lines of target shooting – at the Society of the Gentlewomen of Moncalieri; the rules of the sport would be formally laid out in 1780.
Moncalieri is a town just south of Turin whose castle is one of the Savoy Residences; the poem is dedicated by the corps of soldiers stationed in the town shortly after the Battle of Marengo, and is dedicated to the ‘singular merit’ of the ‘Abbess’ of the society, the Countess Gropello (or Groppello) de Borgone (née Provana). 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’ (trans.).
Not recorded by ICCU, KvK, or OCLC.
