Baptista Malatesta

Baptista Malatesta, also known as Baptista di Montefeltro, (born c 1383 - died 1450, Urbino, Italy) was an Italian Renaissance poet.

Baptista Malatesta was the daughter of Antonio, Count of Urbino. On 14 June 1405 she married Galeazzo Malatesta, the heir to the lordship of Pesaro. Galeazzo came to power in 1429 but was so hated as a ruler that, after two years of power in 1431, he was driven from his city. His wife thereupon found a refuge in her old home at Urbino. She lived for some twenty years a widowed and secluded life. She died, as a Sister of the Franciscan Order of Santa Chiara, in 1450.

She was a learned woman of the aristocracy who was educated in philosophy and languages, and was a poet and orator. She corresponded with other scholars of her time such as Leonardo Bruni. Bruni's letter to Baptista Malatesta of Montefeltro, entitled "De studiis et litiris", was written in the early 1400s. In it Bruni describes a course of study suitable for women, illustrating the belief, early on held by humanists, that classical studies are "worthy to be pursued by men and women alike."

The Emperor Sigismund when passing through Urbino in 1433 was greeted by her in a Latin oration, which half a century later was still thought worthy of print.

ee also

*Federico II da Montefeltro Baptista Malatesta's grandfather.

References

* [http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/baptista_malatesta.php Baptista Malatesta] at The Brooklyn Museum, Dinner Party database of notable women. Accessed September 2008
* [http://www.jstor.org/pss/463661 Margaritte de Navarre's Biblical Feminism] Paula Sommers, University of Missouri. Accessed September 2008
* [http://history.hanover.edu/texts/bruni.html Leonardo Bruni letter to Baptista di Montefeltro] Leonardo Bruni d'Arezzo De Studiis et Litteris W.H. Woodward, ed., Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912), 119-33. Accessed September 2008