From Lucrezia Borgia to Alda Merini, female creativity on display at Milan's Ambrosiana

Last May 30, with the coronavirus emergency over, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana reopened to the public, and it did so with the exhibition Autografi femminili dalle collezioni dell’Ambrosiana, an exhibition that runs until September 6, 2020, and aims to celebrate female creativity through the testimonies of four great women of the past, each able to distinguish themselves in their own field of investigation: Lucrezia Borgia, Virginia de Leyva, Gaetana Agnesi and Alda Merini.

The exhibition begins with the display case containing the hair of Lucrezia Borgia (Subiaco, 1480 - Ferrara, 1519) and part of the correspondence with letters sent to the Venetian humanist Pietro Bembo, between 1503 and 1514, which came to the Ambrosiana in 1609 with the collection of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli, a distinguished bibliophile of the 16th century. The journey continues with the letters of Sister Virginia de Leyva (Milan, 1575 - 1650), known for inspiring Manzoni’s character of Sister Gertrude, the nun of Monza in The Betrothed. While her youthful years and the subsequent complex events involving her are well known and documented, including through court papers, very little is known about the period of imprisonment, expiation and prayer she spent at the house of the converts of Santa Valeria: of those years, very important are the autograph letters addressed to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, preserved at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

Also on display are the autograph sheets of Gaetana Agnesi (Milan, 1718 - 1799) one of the most important mathematicians of all time, the first woman author of a book on mathematics and the first to obtain a university chair in mathematics at the University of Bologna. The last part is devoted to some typescript sheets donated by Milanese poet Alda Merini (Milan, 1931 - 2009) to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi: they contain poems dedicated to Dante ALighieri and to some important Italian poets of the 20th century, such as Aldo Palazzeschi, Salvatore Quasimodo and Father David Maria Turoldo. All bear pen corrections, sometimes substantial ones, as in the case of the poem on Palazzeschi, rewritten almost in its entirety. Also prominent is a manuscript, titled Montale and I, which contains Merini’s reflections on the fundamental role Montale’s work played in the evolution of her poetry.

In June, the exhibition can be visited on Saturdays and Sundays. Only 20 visitors can enter every half hour; tickets must be purchased in advance on the Ambrosiana website.

Pictured is an image of the set-up.

From Lucrezia Borgia to Alda Merini, female creativity on display at Milan's Ambrosiana

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