Quick Facts
Biography
Marianna Marchesa Florenzi (1802 - 15 April 1870, Florence), née Marianna Bacinetti, was an Italian noblewoman and translator of philosophical works. She was also known by her married name of Marianna Florenzi Waddington.
Life
A daughter of count Bacinetti of Ravenna, she had a literary education and devoted herself to reading philosophical works, becoming the female ideal of an educated woman of the time and a witty hostess of cultural gatherings and salons. She was one of the first female students, studying natural sciences at the University of Perugia in the first half of the 19th century. She translated Leibniz's Monadology into Italian and also promoted the spread of works by Kant, Spinoza and Schelling in Italian. Politically she supported Italy's national-movement and in 1850 published Some reflections on socialism and communism, which (like many of her other works) ended up on the church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum. She was for forty years a lover and close friend of Ludwig I of Bavaria, whom she visited more than thirty times. He always sought her advice, even in government matters, and 3,000 of her letters to him (along with 1,500 of his replies) survive.
Marriages
- in 1819, to marchese Ettore Florenzi in Perugia
- May 7, 1836 to the Englishman Evelyn Waddington in Florence.