The Wretch, Otherwise Known as Guerrino

"Tullia d’Aragona’s The Wretch bears the extraordinary distinction of being the first epic poem written by a woman in Italian. Basing her work on a fifteenth-century romance recounting the chivalric adventures of the Carolingian knight Guerrino, Tullia transforms the prose source into thirty-six cantos of elegant ottava rima, totaling more than 28,000 lines of hendecasyllabic verse. In her letter to her reader as well as in the proems to the cantos, she emphasizes the moral themes of the text, which champion above all the Christian faith. The English translation by John McLucas is lucid and engaging, and Julia Hairston’s rich introduction provides an immensely useful discussion of the intellectual and religious framework behind Tullia’s text. This is a great contribution to the Other Voice series, and to the history of women’s writing in the Renaissance." ~Ramie Targoff, Jehuda Reinharz Professor of the Humanities and Co-Chair of Italian Studies at Brandeis University