Born in Rome to an aristocratic Piedmontese family, Maria Bellonci née Villavecchia showed a very lively intellect from the years of her youth. In 1928 she married the renowned literary critic Goffredo Bellonci, who was among the early admirers of her writing. Her first novel Lucrezia Borgia (1939) was inspired by a historical study of the jewels of the noblewoman, and Bellonci immediately proved her ability to tell the great historical figures, and in particular the female figures of the Renaissance, in a refined and intimate way. Tu, vipera gentile (1972) is a literary experiment in which three different short …