Strategie di potere, relazioni di genere e dinamiche familiari nelle Lettere di Annibale Guasco

Abstract

This article offers a selection of testimonies from the correspondence of Annibale Guasco (Alessandria, 1540-1619), along with a critical introduction. The Piedmontese author published three volumes of undated Letters , written to a wide variety of addressees (these books were published, respectively, in 1601 – with a second edition in 1603 –, 1607 e 1618). The selected texts highlight the tight network of relationships that the writer established with influential figures of the Savoy entourage . Guasco, who belonged to a renowned patrician family but did not carry administrative duties for most of his life, strove to establish these rapports to ensure the prosperity of his offspring. This strategy proved especially effective thanks to his daughter Lavinia, whose service as a lady-in-waiting of the Infanta Caterina would benefit the family’s fortunes. Guasco writes to members of the Savoy court to celebrate his daughter’s talents (especially, her refined penmanship), presenting her as an enfant prodige and a virtuosa , in order to pave the way for her entrance at court. Some letters also illustrate aspects of the author’s every-day life and affections. Thus, this correspondence reveals essential aspects, often overlooked, of the power strategies, gender relationships, and family dynamics of the northern Italian patriciate at the end of the 1500s.