Ferrari, Matilde (1808-1885)

Title

Contessa Matilde Ferrari

Author

Ferrari, Matilde (1808-1885)

Date

1808-1885

Place of origin

Mantova

Borgo Virgilio

Country of origin

Italy

Language

Italian

Biographical details

Matilde Ferrari was the second Ferdinando and Maria Ballet’s ten children. She was born in Parenza, a town near Mantova, now part of Borgo Virgillio in Lombardy. She was Ippolito Nievo’s first love and the inspiration for her poetry and, immediately after the break-up, a satyr novel and and ironic poem.
The ten Ferrari children were: Luigi, Matilde, Orsola, Elena, Arturo, Alessandro, Emilio, Arturo II, Daria (nicknamed Pupé), Lavinia (nicknamed Mimi).

Luigi was exiled from Mantova after 1848 and moved to Paris and later Mexico where he was killed in 1871; Orsola (1831-1915) nicknamed “Lina”, was a painter. In 1956, she married Luigi Poma, brother of Carlo Pomo, one of the martyrs of Belfiore. Allesandro and Emilio were part of the Garibaldi Battalion in 1860. Two children died in infancy.

Translated from Italian by Megan Carroll