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Collections Margherita Cogni manuscript material : 2 items
 

Margherita Cogni manuscript material : 2 items

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Description
Margherita Cogni, "La Fornarina," a Venetian baker's wife with whom Lord Byron had an affair from ca. August 1817 to sometime in 1819. In an 1819 letter to John Murray, Byron details an incident in which Cogni, in a violent fit, cut his thumb with a knife, then threw herself in the canal. Cogni was illiterate; her letters to Byron were dictated to a professional scribe. To Lord Byron, poet : 2 letters : -- ?Jan - May 1819 : (B'ANA 0240) : in Italian, in scribal hand; an emotional plea for him to keep his promise never to abandon her. -- 11 May 1819 : (B'ANA 0241) : in Italian; in scribal hand; begging to kiss his hand before he leaves. Both letters published with translations, as SC 630 and 638, in Shelley and his Circle vol. VII, p. 359f, 517f. For an account of Byron's relationship with Cogni, see Doucet Devin Fischer's "Countesses and Cobblers' Wives," p. 198-205 of the same volume.
Names
Cogni, Margherita (Creator)
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824 (Addressee)
Dates / Origin
Date Created: 1819
Library locations
Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Shelf locator: Pforz MS
Topics
Mistresses -- Italy -- 19th century
Genres
Correspondence
Notes
Biographical/historical: Margherita Cogni, "La Fornarina," a Venetian baker's wife with whom Lord Byron had an affair from ca. August 1817 to sometime in 1819. In an 1819 letter to John Murray, Byron details an incident in which Cogni, in a violent fit, cut his thumb with a knife, then threw herself in the canal. Cogni was illiterate; her letters to Byron were dictated to a professional scribe.
Funding: Digitized through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.
Physical Description
Extent: 2 items
Type of Resource
Text
Identifiers
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b17982332
MSS Unit ID: 21958
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): c1add710-d74c-0133-0c62-00505686d14e
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