Jewish Poet and Intellectual in Seventeenth-Century Venice

The first Jewish woman to leave her mark as a writer and intellectual, Sarra Copia Sulam (1600-41) was doubly tainted in the eyes of early modern society by her religion and her gender. This book features a collection of Sulam's writings including letters, sonnets, and a manifesto.

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The first Jewish woman to leave her mark as a writer and intellectual, Sarra Copia Sulam (1600-41) was doubly tainted in the eyes of early modern society by her religion and her gender. This remarkable woman, who until now has been relatively neglected by modern scholarship, was a unique figure in Italian cultural life, opening her home in the Venetian ghetto to Jews and Christians alike as a literary salon. For this bilingual edition, Don Harran has collected all of Sulam's previously scattered writings - letters, sonnets, a manifesto - into a single volume. Harran has also assembled all extant correspondence and poetry that was addressed to Sulam, as well as all known contemporary references to her, making them available to Anglophone readers for the first time. Featuring rich biographical and historical notes that place Sulam in her cultural context, this volume will provide readers with insight into the thought and creativity of a woman who dared to express herself in the male-dominated, overwhelmingly Catholic Venice of her time.