{"id":1044,"date":"2010-01-29T11:43:08","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T11:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2025-06-05T11:48:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T11:48:52","slug":"sarra-copia-sullam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarra Copia Sullam"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nDon Harr\u00e1n<\/a>\r\n\t \t\t
Don Harr\u00e1n is the Artur Rubinstein Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the Hebrew University of Jersualem. He is the author of many books, including Salamone Rossi, Jewish Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Don Harr\u00e1n, Sarra Copia Sullam: Jewish Poet and Intellectual in Seventeenth Century Venice<\/em>, University of Chicago Press, 2009<\/p>\n

\"jewishpoet\"<\/p>\n

The first Jewish woman to leave her mark as a writer and intellectual, Sarra Copia Sulam (1600?\u201341) was doubly tainted in the eyes of early modern society by her religion and her gender. This remarkable woman, who until now has been relatively neglected by modern scholarship, was a unique figure in Italian cultural life, opening her home, in the Venetian ghetto, to Jews and Christians alike as a literary salon.
\nFor this bilingual edition, Don Harr\u00e1n has collected all of Sulam\u2019s previously scattered writings\u2014letters, sonnets, a Manifesto\u2014into a single volume. Harr\u00e1n has also assembled all extant correspondence and poetry that was addressed to Sulam, as well as all known contemporary references to her, making them available to Anglophone readers for the first time. Featuring rich biographical and historical notes that place Sulam in her cultural context, this volume will provide readers with insight into the thought and creativity of a woman who dared to express herself in the male-dominated, overwhelmingly Catholic Venice of her time.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Ivry, The Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Don Harr\u00e1n, Sarra Copia Sulam was the first Italian Jewish woman to \u201cexcel\u201d as a public literary figure, writing in various forms and leaving a \u201cpersonal imprint on them.\u201d She was a kind of Susan Sontag of the Venetian Ghetto. Sulam was also prominent because of her beauty and wealth (her husband was a banker\/moneylender whose brother, also a banker, was likely a patron of Salamone Rossi).<\/p>\n

Harr\u00e1n<\/a>, Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has published a series of landmark studies, including \u201cSalamone Rossi: Jewish Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua<\/a>\u201d (Oxford University Press, 2003), about the Italian Jewish composers of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. Harr\u00e1n\u2019s latest publication, from the University of Chicago Press<\/a>, \u201cSarra Copia Sulam: Jewish Poet and Intellectual in Seventeenth-Century Venice\u201d is equally rewarding and enlightening.<\/p>\n

Sulam\u2019s public literary career lasted only from 1618 to 1624, after which she focused on charitable works. Her writings include lyrical effusions like \u201cSonnet to the Human Soul\u201d:<\/p>\n

O di vita mortal forma divina
\nE dell\u2019opre di Dio meta sublime
\nIn cui s\u00e9 stesso e \u2018l suo potere esprime\u2026<\/p>\n

O divine form of mortal life
\nAnd sublime end of God\u2019s works,
\nIn which He expresses Himself and His power\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

There is also a lengthy correspondence with the Catholic author Ansaldo Ceba, who ardently tries to get her to convert, which Sulam refuses to do, essentially telling Ceba to go get circumcised (!)<\/p>\n

Sulam also tempts Ceba with the joys of Jewish cooking by sending him bottarga<\/em>, a delectable pressed caviar described succinctly and succulently in Jayne Cohen\u2019s \u201cJewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover\u2019s Treasury of Classics and Improvisations\u201d (Wiley, 2008).<\/p>\n

Also a gifted musician at a time and place where a few Jewish women<\/a> excelled in this domain, Sulam spoke out at a time when women were often seen as possessions or prisoners of their spouses (Horrifically, Sulam\u2019s own sister Diana was blinded by her husband because he suspected her eyes of straying towards other potential lovers). Sarra Copia Sulam is a voice to be remembered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don Harr\u00e1n, Sarra Copia Sullam: Jewish Poet and Intellectual in Seventeenth Century Venice, University of Chicago Press, 2009 The first Jewish woman to leave her mark as a writer and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nSarra Copia Sullam - Printed_Matter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sarra Copia Sullam - Printed_Matter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Don Harr\u00e1n, Sarra Copia Sullam: Jewish Poet and Intellectual in Seventeenth Century Venice, University of Chicago Press, 2009 The first Jewish woman to leave her mark as a writer and...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Printed_Matter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-29T11:43:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-05T11:48:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Venice.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"545\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"adkim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"adkim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"adkim\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/#\/schema\/person\/7db57d2ae8d63dbc6c645dc92917ebe2\"},\"headline\":\"Sarra Copia Sullam\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-29T11:43:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-05T11:48:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/\"},\"wordCount\":583,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Venice.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/sarra-copia-sullam\/\",\"name\":\"Sarra Copia Sullam - 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