View source for Caterina Imperiale Lercari Pallavicini

{{Short description|18th-century Neo-Latin poet}}
'''Caterina Imperiale Pallavicini''' (also spelled "Catharina"; [[pen name]], '''Arsinda Poliades'''; [[floruit|fl.]] 1721) was an 18th-century [[Neo-Latin]] poet from the greater [[Genoa]] region. Her work, which was published in the collections of the [[Pontifical Academy of Arcadia]] (Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi<ref name="PADA">{{Cite web|url=https://www.accademiadellarcadia.it/|title=Accademia dell'Arcadia}}</ref>), includes the styles of [[epigram]] and [[elegy]].
[[File:Scan of Poetry by Catharina Imperiale Lercari.png|thumb|Catharina's poetry as published in the Arcadum Carmina, 1721]]
==Life==
Caterina was born into and married into prominent aristocratic families—the {{ill|Lercari family|it|Lercari (famiglia)}} and the [[Imperiali family]]. During the time of her writing, she was the marchioness ([[Marquess]]) of [[Mombaruzzo]]. The [[Pallavicini family]] into which Caterina married profited greatly off of Genoan trade for hundreds of years (since the 15th century). Records suggest that Caterina's paternal grandfather, Ansaldo Imperiale Lercari, was close trading partners with the Pallavicini family.<ref>{{DBI|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/paolo-gerolamo-pallavicino_(Dizionario-Biografico)|title=PALLAVICINO, Paolo Gerolamo}}</ref> When Caterina married Paolo Gerolamo III Pallavicini, she brought the {{ill|Cosma Centurione Palace|it|Palazzo Cosma Centurione}} (now a [[UNESCO World Heritage]] site<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1211/|title=Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli|first=UNESCO World Heritage|last=Centre|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre}}</ref>) with her as a dowry. This palace was in the family of her paternal great-grandfather, Adamo Centurione, marquess of Monasterio, and further demonstrates the illustrious background that afforded Caterina the opportunity to learn and be published in Latin.
Her writings earned her membership into the Pontifical Academy of Arcadia which was an Italian literary society that had its beginnings in an academic circle created by [[Christina, Queen of Sweden]]. It was famous for its combat against [[Marinism]]. In 1656, during her exile in Rome, Queen Christina started gathering literary scholars and writers into her social circle. After the death of this unconventional queen, the group of writers who had gathered formalized their society by creating what was known in Italian as the Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi. This academy wanted to move away from the [[Baroque]] poetry gaining popularity at the time and instead pursue classic, [[bucolic]] poetry in the tradition of the [[Greco-Roman world]].
==Work==
Like many members of the academy who adopted “pastoral” pen names, Caterina had the pastoral name Arsinda Poliades.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OuNfAAAAcAAJ |title=Arcadum Carmina |date=1721 |publisher=Antonius de Rubeis |language=la}}</ref> She was considered a full member of the Arcadian society and had work published in (at least) the 1721 edition of the society's publication, ''Arcadum Carmina''. This edition was also reprinted in 1757.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morei |first=Michel Giuseppe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O9ReAAAAcAAJ |title=Arcadum carmina |date=1757 |publisher=J. & P. de Rubeis |language=la}}</ref> Though many women belonged to the academy throughout its approximately 200-year history,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dixon |first=Susan M. |date=1999 |title=Women in Arcadia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30053912 |journal=Eighteenth-Century Studies |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=371–375 |issn=0013-2586}}</ref> of the thirty-three authors present in the 1721 book of poems, Caterina is the only female author to appear. Her work also differs from the work by male authors in the collection because she is one of only six authors to write epigrams. The longer elegy and [[eclogue]] (pastoral) formats are much more popular among her male counterparts. Here is an epigram written by her:
:Quid nam sit tempus?  Se scire, aut dicere posse,
::unâ omnes, sapiens, insipiensque negant.
:Nempe animus noster vitam scit, tempora nescit:
::Aeternum quid enim praetereuntis habet?
:Sed cur tristatur de praetereuntibus annis?
::Heu timet iratum sistier ante Deum!
:Sistar ego: sed qualis ero?  sons dicar, an insons?
::Utraque, care Deus, si mihi parcis, ero.
== References ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Imperiale Lercari Pallavicini, Caterina}}
[[Category:Neo-Latin poets]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian poets]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:Imperiali family]]
[[Category:Noblewomen in the Republic of Genoa]]
[[Category:Members of the Academy of Arcadians]]
[[Category:Italian women poets]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian nobility]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian women writers]]
[[Category:18th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Latin-language writers from Italy]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous women writers]]
[[Category:18th-century pseudonymous writers]]