Cornificia | |
|---|---|
_72v_-_Cornificia.jpg) | |
| Born | c. 85 BC |
| Died | c. 40 BC |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Spouse | Camerius |
| Children | unknown |
| Parent | Quintus Cornificius (father) |
Cornificia (c. 85 BC – c. 40 BC) was a Romanpoet and writer ofepigrams of the 1st century BC.
Cornificia belongs to the last generation of theRoman Republic.[1]
The daughter of Quintus Cornificius and the sister of thepoet,praetor andaugurCornificius, Cornificia married a man called Camerius.Jane Stevenson has suggested that this may be the same Camerius who was a friend of the poetCatullus, mentioned in his poem 55.[1]
The fact that Cornificia's brother became both apraetor and anaugur indicates that the family was of considerable status.[2] Apraetor was a magistrate and/or military commander, while anaugur was a priest whose task was to 'take theauspices', interpreting the will of the gods by studying the activities of birds.
The authorChristine de Pisan references Cornificia in her bookThe Book of the City of Ladies (1405), stating that she had an aptitude for learning, particularly poetry and the sciences.
All of Cornificia's work has been lost.[1] Her reputation as a poet is based chiefly on the 4th centuryChronicle ofSt Jerome (347–420AD). In writing of her brother Cornificius, Jerome says: "Huius soror Cornificia, cuius insignia extant epigrammata" (His sister was Cornificia, whose distinguishedepigrams survive).[3] This must mean that her work was still being read some four hundred years after her death.
Cornificia is one of the 106 subjects ofGiovanni Boccaccio’sOn Famous Women (De mulieribus claris, 1362 AD), which says of her:[4]
She was equal in glory to her brother Cornificius, who was a much renowned poet at that time. Not satisfied with excelling in such a splendid art, inspired bythe sacred Muses, she rejected thedistaff and turned her hands, skilled in the use of thequill, to writingHeliconian verses... With her genius and labor she rose above her sex, and with her splendid work she acquired a perpetual fame.
TheRenaissancehumanistLaura Cereta wrote in a letter to Bibolo Semproni: "Add also Cornificia, the sister of the poet Cornificius, whose devotion to literature bore such a fruit that she was said to have been nurtured on the milk of theCastalian Muses and who wrote epigrams in which every phrase was graced withHeliconian flowers."[5]
A monument to Cornificia and her brother survives in Rome, the inscription reading -CORNIFICIA Q. F. CAMERI Q. CORNIFICIUS Q. F. FRATER PR. AUGUR (Cornificia, the daughter of Quintus, wife of Camerius, [and] her brother Quintus Cornificius, Praetor and Augur).[2]