Maria Bellonci

Fiction Writer

• Born: November 3, 1902
• Birthplace: Rome, Italy
• Died: May 13, 1986
• Place of death: Rome, Italy

Biography

Maria Bellonci was born in Rome, Italy, the oldest child of Girolamo Vittoria Villavecchia, a noted professor of chemistry at the University of Rome, and Felicita Bellucci Villavecchia. She received an extensive education in the classics, music, and the arts that was typical of the upper-class milieu in which she was raised, and she began writing very early, finishing her first but later-discarded novel at age twenty. In 1928, Bellonci met and married Goffreddo Bellonci, a prominent journalist and critic who shared her love of history and who acted as the young Bellonci’s literary mentor in the early years of their lifelong partnership.

Bellonci is most well-known for her historical novels about the ruling families of the Italian Renaissance: the d’Este, Gonzaga, Borgia, and Sforza families. Known for her scrupulous research and deep understanding of character, she enjoyed great success with the novel Lucrezia Borgia, which won the prestigious Viareggio Prize in 1939. An important feature of this novel was its female protagonist, a passionate woman caught up in the power struggles of the Papal court. One of her last novels, however, is considered her greatest achievement: Private Renaissance is narrated from the perspective of Isabella d’Este, who summoned up great personal resources that allowed her to preside over a complex and dangerous Renaissance court.

The first edition of Lucrezia Borgia was censored because certain passages were felt to be too sexually frank; Private Renaissance was also provocative in its advancing of a feminist perspective. Isabella d’Este appears briefly in every novel of Bellonci’s, and Bellonci includes in her character something of a self-portrait. Another important achievement for Bellonci was her novel about the life of Vincenzo Gonzaga, the Prince of Mantua, which was also meticulously researched, and which also explores the way in which power penetrates all aspects of public and private life. In addition, Bellonci wrote numerous highly regarded historical studies, book reviews, travel diaries, and reflections on contemporary issues that demonstrate her thorough knowledge of the Italian cultural world; her depictions of women who excel in various fields anticipated the perspective of later feminists.

A lifelong resident of Rome, Bellonci was a cultural leader in the Italian literary world from 1930 until her death, and a friend of many well-known authors. One of her major contributions to her country’s cultural life was the Strega Prize, Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, which originated in a literary circle called Amici della Domenica (Sunday friends), a gathering of prominent Italian writers, intellectuals, artists and musicians that met at the home of Bellonci and her husband. This informal gathering in Rome, which began during the final, difficult days of World War II, is credited with having a major influence on the revival of the arts in the face of the war’s devastation. A few years after its inception, the group created a literary prize, named after the bottle of Strega liquor a few of them were sharing one particular literary Sunday. Guido Alberti, the owner of the firm that produced Strega, was delighted to provide the money for the prize and its name. The Strega prizewinners, who constitute a nearly complete history of Italy’s major writers in the second half of the twentieth century, include such illustrious names as Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi, Umberto Eco, and Ignazio Silone. Maria Bellonci was director and manager of the prize for more than forty years and was herself the recipient of the prize in 1985. Since her death 1986, the prize has been administered by the Bellonci Foundation.