Via Tavoleria

The name Polentofagi derives from the custom of eating chestnut flour polenta during literary meetings. The group met in via Tavoleria, at the home of the doctor and scholar Francesco Masi, and opposed the academic style as an end in itself; it sought a direct relationship with life and therefore a straightforward expression in the literary world, without frills. On the arch of the door there was a stone with the coat of arms representing a table with a pile of polenta on it. Among the members of this Academy there were also Elena Mastiani Brunacci, the Pisan poetess Maria Luisa Cicci...

Inno a Venere

Dell’Arno placido
Sul curvo lido
Scendi propizia,
Diva di Gnido,
E le altre sfere
Teco abbondino
Gioja e piacere.

Di azzurre mammole,
Tesor dei prati,
La via t’infiorino
Gli arcieri alati,
Via, che più bella
Farassi ai vividi
Rai di tua stella
(…)
Deh! lascia il fulgido
Stellato empiro,
Diva benefica
Del terzo giro,
E d’Arno in riva
Scendi all’unanime
Voce festiva.
(…)

Maria Luisa Cicci, known as Erminia Tindaride and the Incognita (Pisa, 14 September 1760 - 8 March 1794). It was said of her that “In vain was she deprived of ink or pen: small pieces of bread soaked in grape juice, and a few pieces of wood were enough to jot down her thoughts.” She burned almost all her poems before she died, but her brother managed to have some published in 1796. Her writings, which she referred to as anacreontic, were very successful, and her fame grew with her reciting the same.