Olympia Fulvia Morata

Olimpia Fulvia Morata
Born	1526 Ferrara, Italy
Died	(1555-10-26)26 October 1555 Heidelberg, Germany

Olimpia Fulvia Morata (1526 – 26 October 1555) was an Italian classical scholar. She was born in Ferrara to Fulvio Pellegrino Morato and a certain Lucrezia (possibly Gozi).

Her father, who had been tutor to the young princes of the ducal house of Este, was on intimate terms with the most learned men of Italy, and the daughter grew up in an atmosphere of classical learning. At the age of twelve she was able to converse fluently in Greek and Latin.

About this time she was summoned to the palace as companion and instructor of the younger but equally gifted Anna d'Este, daughter of Renata, duchess of Ferrara. Many people with literary fame or Protestant leanings, like John Calvin, Vittoria Colonna and Clément Marot visited the court of the duchess. In her teens Olympia lectured on Cicero and Calvin's works.

In 1546 she left court to take care of her ailing father and, after his death, she took care of the education of her brothers and sisters. Olympia's father, having died a convert to Protestantism, and Olympia embraced the doctrines of Luther and Calvin. When she returned to court, Anna d'Este's marriage to Francis, Duke of Guise left her isolated. She spent her time studying philosophy and corresponded with Gasparo Sardi, who dedicated his De Triplici Philosophia to her.

About the end of 1550, she married a young student of medicine and philosophy, Andreas Grundler of Schweinfurt in Bavaria. In 1554 she accompanied Grundler to his place of birth, where he had been appointed physician to the garrison of Spanish troops. In 1553 the margrave Albert of Brandenburg on one of his plundering expeditions took possession of Schweinfurt, and was in turn besieged by the Protestants. At length Albert evacuated the place, and Olympia and her husband made their escape.

They finally succeeded in reaching Heidelberg in 1554 where a medical lectureship had been obtained for Grundler through the influence of the Erbach family, by whom they had been hospitably entertained during their flight.

In 1558, after her death, a major collection of some of her Greek letters and Latin dialogues was published in Basel.

In 1549 or 1550, Morata married Andreas Grunthler, a German protestant who came to Ferrara to study medicine. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Germany to evade the Roman Inquisition. They took Morata's eight-year-old brother, Emilio, with them, never to return to Italy. While they were in Germany, Morata tutored Emilio in the classics. Grunthler accepted a position as medical doctor for the Imperial Spanish troops who were stationed in his native city Schweinfurt. From 1553-54, they were caught in the middle of war. Schweinfurt was occupied by the soldiers of Albert Alciabides, and Morata, Grunthler, and Emilio lived in dangerous and difficult conditions, at one point taking refuge in a wine cellar. Ultimately, the city was sacked and burned by Albert's enemies. In a letter to Cherubina Orsini, written on August 8, 1554 from Heidelberg, Morata describes her arduous escape from Schweinfurt: Vorrei che aveste visto come io era scapigliata, coperta di straccie, ché ci tolsero le veste d'attorno, e fuggendo io perdetti le scarpe, né aveva calze in piede, sì che mi bisognava fuggire sopra le pietre e sassi, che io non so come arrivasse. (quoted in Costa-Zalessow 103) Shortly after arriving in Heidelberg, Grunthler accepted a position as professor of medicine at the university and Morata tutored students in Greek and Latin. However, the fever that Morata caught in Schweinfurt never subsided, and a few months later she died. She was not quite 29 years old. Less than two months later, Grunthler and Emilio also died, most likely of the plague that had taken hold of the residents of Heidelberg. While much of Morata's writing was lost in the siege on Scheiwnfurt, Grunthler managed to salvage some and sent it to Celio Secondo Curione, a professor at the University of Basel and close friend of Morata's father, who published three editions of her work (1558, 1562, 1570). Another edition followed in 1580. Morata's extant writings consist of fifty-two letters (most written in Latin), two dialogues (in Latin), a declamation on Cicero's Stoic Paradoxes and another In Praise of Mutius Scaevola (the latter in both Greek and Latin), eleven poems (eight in Greek and three in Latin), as well as translations of seven Psalms (in Greek) and the first two stories of Boccaccio's Decameron (in Latin). The Psalms that Morata translated were set to music by her husband. Works by Olympia Morata: Olympiae Fulviae Moratae Foeminae Doctissimae ac plane Divinae Orationes, Dialogi, Epistolae, Carmina, tam Latina quam Graeca. Edited by Celio Secondo Curione. Basel, 1558, 1562, 1570, 1580 (the first edition was dedicated to Isabella Bresegna; the second edition, to Queen Elizabeth I of England). Olympia Morata: The Complete Writings of an Italian Heretic. Edited and translated by Holt Parker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Olimpia Morata Epistolario (1540-1555). Edited by Lanfranco Caretti. Ferrara: R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per l'Emilia e la Romagna, 1940. Olimpia Morata Lettere. Edited by Giuseppe Paladino. In Opuscoli e lettere di riformatori italiani del Cinquecento. Bari: Laterza, 1913-1927, pp. 169-227, 265-79. Olimpia Morata Lettere. Edited by Giuseppe Guido Ferrero. In Lettere del Cinquecento. Turin: Unione tipiografico-editrice torinese, 1967, pp. 551-64. Opere, vol. I. Epistolae, vol. II. Orationes, Dialogi et Carmina. Edited by Lanfranco Caretti. Ferrara: Deputazione Provinciale Ferrarese di Storia Patria, 1954. Studies on Olympia Morata: Archivio biografico italiano (microform). Edited by Tommaso Nappo. Munich and New York: Saur, 1987-98. Bainton, Roland H. "Olympia Morata (1526-1555)." Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1971, pp. 253-68. Bonnet, Jules. Vie d'Olympia Morata, épisode de la renaissance et de la réforme en Italie. Paris: Charles Meyruels, 1856. Caretti, Lanfranco. "Gli scritti di Olimpia Morata." Studi e ricerche di letteratura italiana. Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1951, pp. 37-64. Cignoni, Mario. "Il pensiero di Olimpia Morato nell'ambito della Riforma protestante." Atti dellÕAccademia delle Scienze di Ferrara 60-61 (1982-83, 1983-84), pp. 191-204. Costa-Zalessow, Natalia. "Olimpia Morato." Scrittrici italiane dal XIII al XX secolo: testi e critica. Ravenna: Longo editore, 1982, pp. 99-103. Dizionario biografico delle donne lombarde: 568-1968. Edited by Rachele Farina. Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1995. Dizionario enciclopedico della letteratura italiana IV, p. 62. Bari: LaTerza, 1967. Dizionario enciclopedico italiano VIII, p. 78. Roma: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1958. Enciclopedia italiana XXIII, p. 798. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1934. King, Margaret L.. "Book-Lined Cells: Women and Humanism in the Early Italian Renaissance." Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past. New York: New York University Press, 1980, pp. 66-90. --. Women of the Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Mulazzi, Virginia. Olimpia Morato, scene della riforma: racconto storico del secolo XVI. Milan: Tipografia di Lodovico Bortolotti E. C., 1875. Pirovano, Donato. "Le edizioni cinquecentine degli scritti di Olimpia Fulvia Morata." Le varie fila. Studi di letteratura italiana in onore di Emilio Bigi. Edited by Fabio Danelon, Hermann Grosser, Cristina Zampese. Milano: Principato, 1997, pp. 96-111. --. "Olimpia Morata e la traduzione latina delle prime due novelle del Decameron." Acme: Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Milano LI (Gennaio - Aprile 1998), pp. 73-109. Rabil, Albert Jr. "Olympia Morata (1526-1555)." Italian Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Edited by Rinaldina Russell. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1994, pp. 269-78. Weiss, Gertrud. "Per una biografia di Olimpia Morato." Miscellanea di studi in memoria di Cesare Bolognesi nel trentacinquesimo della scomparsa. Edited by Lucio Puttin. Edizioni Ascledum, 1976, pp. 79-107.

References

• Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 2007. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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