medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Brenda,
The Sulpicia in question is neither of the two women poets mentioned but instead another member of this aristocratic ancient Roman _gens_, Sulpicia Patercula, the wife of Fulvius Flaccus. Pliny, _Natural History_, 7. 35 calls her the most chaste of Roman matrons. You can read about her there or in Valerius Maximus (8. 15. 12). Or, among medieval authors, at Christine de Pizan, _Livre de la cité des dames_, 2. 43. 3 and Boccaccio, _De mulieribus claris_, 67.
S. seems to have been canonized at the Walters.
Best,
John Dillon
On Saturday, March 3, 2007, at 11:00 am, Brenda Cook wrote:
> In the "Church Times" (a leading Church of England newspaper) for Feb
> 16
> there is a picture of an elegant woman in a dark pink dress standing
> on a
> plinth and with a townscape behind her. Her left hand points across
> her body
> to a model church held in her right hand.
>
> The caption reads "Chaste: St Sulpicia was considered the most
> virtuous
> woman in Rome. She is seen here in a late 15th century work by Pietro
>
> Oriolli from "Masterpieces of Italian Painting: the Walter Art
> Museum" [
> folloed by detai;ls of book]
>
> I can find nothing about St Sulpicia. Not in Med Rel archives, not in
> New
> Advent, not in the on-line Index of saints .... Not in either of my
> Dictionaries (Penguin, Oxford)
>
> So who IS this elusive lady ? There seem to have been two ladies of
> Classical antiquity by this name, both poets, one "The Elegist" and
> one "The
> Satirist" but the notes about them do not suggest sanctity far less
> canonisation.
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