ABSTRACT
In Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance, Georgina Masson calls Tullia d'Aragona "the intellectual queen of a literary salon". This chapter first explores Aragona's and Sperone Speroni's literary careers and connections in literary society. Then it examines how the dialogues inspired by Aragona's salon encounters, her Dialogo della infinita di amore (1547) and Sperone Speroni's Dialogo di amore (1542), reveal an intertextual engagement in the Querelle des femmes in which the issues are both personified and addressed by two very different versions of the same character called Tullia. The chapter argues that such possible indicators of co-authorship could be considered signs of literary circle interaction. Performances, be they sexual or intellectual, were part of the honest courtesan's stock in trade. Salon or academic performances by women lauded for their wit and learning could easily inspire parts for actresses whose stock in trade was to imitate learned discourse.
