23 Facts About Laura Cereta

Laura Cereta was one of the most notable humanist and feminist writers of fifteenth-century Italy.

Laura Cereta's letters contained her personal matters and childhood memories, and discussed themes such as women's education, war, and marriage.

Laura Cereta was a sickly child who suffered from sleeplessness.

Laura Cereta had three brothers, Ippolito, Daniel and Basilio and two sisters, Deodata, and Diana.

Laura Cereta's family was very popular in Italy due to her father's status.

Silvestro Laura Cereta was an attorney and a king's magistrate and her mother, Veronica di Leno, a famous businessperson.

Since her father and Laura Cereta believed in education, at age seven her father sent her to the convent.

Laura Cereta taught her how to draw pictures utilizing a needle, which she practiced herself day and night.

In 1484, Laura Cereta was married at age fifteen to Pietro Serina.

Laura Cereta never regarded one's marriage as a kind of friendship, nor did she ever directly call her husband a friend.

Laura Cereta often focused the readers' attention on mutual relations such as love, communication and responsibility that manage both spousal and friendship.

Laura Cereta finally recovered her spirits two years after the death of her husband and began immersing herself more deeply in her literary studies and works.

Laura Cereta continued writing her letters to a close circle of family and friends, discussing personal concerns such as her difficult relationships with her mother and her husband.

Laura Cereta defended the concept of educating women and objected the abuse of married women.

Furthermore, in her public lectures and essays, Laura Cereta explored the history of women's contributions to the intellectual and political life of Europe.

Laura Cereta argued against the slavery of women in marriage and for the rights of women to higher education, the same issues that would occupy feminist thinkers in later centuries.

In 1488, Laura Cereta assembled 82 of her letters into a volume.

Laura Cereta dedicated it to her patron, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza.

Laura Cereta's works circulated widely in Italy during the early modern era.

The earliest and most complete publication of Laura Cereta's letters is the Tomasini edition, published in 1640, which nonetheless omits a dozen of her letters.

Laura Cereta died in 1499 between the ages of 29 and 30.

Laura Cereta was honored with a public funeral and festivities in Brescia, which was uncommon for women.

Laura Cereta is remembered as a great woman who laid out the groundwork for many feminist and humanist writers after the Renaissance.