Women Authors of Science and the Comedy

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Women shaped scientific and literary culture through their patronage, connections, intellectual acumen and art. These books showcase women’s interpretations of Dante’s poem and how their authorship influenced its content, illustration and reception. Mathematician Alessandro Piccolomini dedicated his astronomical treatise On the Fixed Stars to poet and scholar Laudomia Forteguerri, citing her deep knowledge of Dante and natural philosophy (1, 2). In the eighteenth century, Venetian publisher Antonio Zatta pulled out all the stops to produce the first fully illustrated edition of the century for the Empress of Russia, Elizabeth Petrowna (3). Petrowna is known for founding the first national university in Russia, and is among many erudite women to whom the Comedy was dedicated in the early modern period. Zatta also enlisted the prominent artists and intellectuals of his city to collaborate on the volume. Indeed, for a dedicatee of such stature, only Dante would suffice. Her patronage contributed to Dante’s international status in the eighteenth century.

Notable eighteenth-century literati commented that the frontispiece of the Comedy’s 1726 edition was beautifully executed, “despite being drawn in the hand of a woman.” The engraving, a copy of an earlier diagram, was circulated in the majority of eighteenth-century editions, and concretized how the structure of hell was perceived in this era (4). Illustrated by the Florence-born Margaret and Helen Maitland Armstrong, Ad Astra includes selections from the celebrated English translation of the Comedy by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (5). Margaret was among a number of important cover designers and book illustrators of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Helen was mostly known for her works in stained glass, but she also illustrated many literary volumes with her sister, including authors such as Tennyson. Her artistic formation might have contributed to the distinctive art nouveau style of the illustrations.