Diana Rizzo dies in Trapani in 1624. I went looking for a second book about her. There are four: the first written by hand in 1625, another printed in 1659. In none of the four does she hold the pen. Not an exception: the shape of the genre.
Luciano Longo
@lucianolongo.bsky.social
I'm an independent researcher. I like manuscripts where the writing is still in progress: crossings-out, second thoughts, unfinished pages. I build digital editions and the ecosystems that keep them alive. https://luciano-longo77.github.io/en/index.html
Her name was Diana. In the convent she becomes Innocenza; a friar writes her life; and the verses where she says "I" are written by another man. In the book that bears her name she never holds the pen. I am looking for the point where she does, crossings-out and all. Trapani, 1625.
I have started reading the lives and writings of religious women in Sicily, 1600–1750. Manuscripts and old prints, most of them never edited. I will be posting what I find, as I find it. Starting from one question: in these books, who is actually speaking?
