Pimentel Thesis
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THE MAKING OF A FEMALE REVOLUTIONARY DURING THE NEAPOLITAN REPUBLIC OF 1799: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ELEONORA DE FONSECA PIMENTEL A Thesis Presented to the faculty of the Department of History California State University, Sacramento Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in History by Francesca Maria Golia SPRING 2016 © 2016 Francesca Maria Golia ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii THE MAKING OF A FEMALE REVOLUTIONARY DURING THE NEAPOLITAN REPUBLIC OF 1799: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ELEONORA DE FONSECA PIMENTEL A Thesis by Francesca Maria Golia Approved by: __________________________________, Committee Chair Dr. Mona Siegel __________________________________, Second Reader Dr. Jeffrey Wilson ____________________________ Date iii Student: Francesca Maria Golia I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this thesis is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the thesis. __________________________, Department Chair ___________________ Dr. Aaron Cohen Date Department of History iv Abstract of THE MAKING OF A FEMALE REVOLUTIONARY DURING THE NEAPOLITAN REPUBLIC OF 1799: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ELEONORA DE FONSECA PIMENTEL by Francesca Maria Golia Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel was no ordinary woman. Eighteenth-century Neapolitan intellectuals recognized her passion for learning and her poetic talent and welcomed her into their salons and academies at a very early age. Even the Bourbon monarchs of the Kingdom of Naples were impressed by her skill and appointed her as court librarian. Pimentel was able to infiltrate the masculine world of learning due the unique circumstances of the Italian Enlightenment, which was more open to permitting exceptional women an advanced education, and it allowed them to pursue their studies further than any other women of the eighteenth century outside of the Italian peninsula. However, as political events began to shift in Naples in response to the French Revolution, many of the enlightened intellectuals, along with Pimentel, turned to revolutionary democratic ideals to improve the social, economic, and political condition of their state. Pimentel became increasingly involved in political affairs due to her advanced education and her notable reputation, as well as her lack of familial obligations that originated from her abusive husband and their eventual separation, allowing the intellectual community of Naples to accept Pimentel within the public political masculine sphere. v In Italy, Pimentel’s story has been retold in the form of historical novels, theatrical productions, and to a lesser extent, scholarly research, which has often romanticized her image as a victim or martyr. Pimentel’s life and work has largely been ignored outside of Italy. This study sheds light on the historical context that gave rise to such a revolutionary female figure, whose life and work should be studied on an international level. The changing political circumstances in Naples, stemming from the events of the French Revolution created the perfect environment for Pimentel to emerge in her political role as writer, editor, and director of the newspaper Il Monitore Napoletano. Pimentel far surpassed even the most exceptional women of her time due to her political works and translations, her public role during the Neapolitan Republic of 1799, and her continuous fight to gain the support of the Neapolitan citizens, becoming a true revolutionary heroine of the eighteenth century. __________________________, Committee Chair Dr. Mona Siegel _______________________ Date vi To Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel and the countless female revolutionaries of the past, whose stories have been so often overlooked and forgotten. May you know that the day has come to remember even these things. “Forsan haec olim meminisse iuvabit.” “Perhaps one day it will be enjoyable to remember even these things.” Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a big thank you to my wonderful thesis advisors, Dr. Mona Siegel and Dr. Jeffrey Wilson, for their continuous guidance and support. Dr. Siegel in particular, thank you for believing in me even when I was ready to quit. You have challenged me to become a better writer and historian. I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Vann for pushing me outside of my comfort zone and helping me to find my voice. Most importantly, I have to thank my father for not only proposing Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel as a topic of research, but also for instilling in me a true passion of history and learning. And of course I am forever indebted to my mother and my best friend, whose unwavering love and support have sustained me and allowed me to reach my dreams. To my soon-to-be husband, John, thank you for your patience, love, and encouragement. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Dedication ............................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 Historiography ............................................................................................................. 3 Eighteenth-Century Naples ............................................................................................. 8 Naples’s Female Revolutionary .................................................................................. 12 2. A NEAPOLITAN POET IN THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS ...................................... 16 The Italian Enlightenment ......................................................................................... 16 Pimentel’s Early Life and Poetic Works ........................................................................ 22 3. THE MAKING OF A REVOLUTIONARY .................................................................. 33 Pimentel and the Neapolitan Enlightenment ............................................................ 34 The Origins of the Neapolitan Republic of 1799 ........................................................ 40 4. A REVOLUTIONARY JOURNALIST ........................................................................... 49 Revolutionary Editor ................................................................................................... 50 Pimentel, Il Monitore Napoletano, and the French ....................................................... 53 Pimentel and the Popolo ................................................................................................. 58 Pimentel and the Counter-Revolution ........................................................................ 65 5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 73 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 83 ix 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION June 13, 1799, marked the end of the Neapolitan Republic.1 The army of the Santa Fede, led by Cardinal Ruffo and composed of the counter-revolutionary Sanfedisti reached the city of Naples. The republicans only held out for a week until they agreed to a capitulation on June 21, 1799. As these events transpired, the female revolutionary, Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel sat aboard a ship in the Gulf of Naples hoping to reach France and live the rest of her life in exile. Tragically, Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson and King Ferdinand IV of Naples did not honor the capitulation. The State Council charged Pimentel, along with eight thousand other republican revolutionaries with treason. On August 20, 1799, Pimentel was sentenced to death by hanging. She maintained her courage until the very end and her last request was for a cup of coffee. Pimentel’s only worry was that she would expose her undergarments while hanging. As she approached the scaffold in the bleak Piazza del Mercato, Pimentel quoted Virgil in Latin and expressed her last hope, “Perhaps one day it will be enjoyable to remember even these things.”2 Pushed from a ladder while the tirapiedi clung to her feet, Pimentel’s body hung for an entire day in the public square before being laid to rest. In the end, five hundred 1 Also known as the Parthenopean Republic, which the French named to refer to the ancient Greek colony of Parthenope, located on the same site as the future city of Naples. 2 Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel, quoted in Vincenzo Cuoco, Saggio Storico sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799, ed. Fausto Nicolini (Bari: G. Laterza e Figli, 1929), 208. All translations are my own unless otherwise stated. 2 revolutionaries were exiled, several thousand imprisoned, and 216 executed.3 Pimentel was the only woman hanged for her participation in the Neapolitan Republic of 1799 as the director, writer, and editor of the republican newspaper Il Monitore Napoletano.4 Living within the public masculine political sphere also meant dying a very public death, similar to her male contemporaries. The dream of establishing a republican government held by so many Neapolitan Enlightened intellectuals came to a quick and violent ending. During her early life, Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel adhered to a traditional female role of her time by writing poetry, generally considered a calling suitable for aristocratic women of the eighteenth