On February 28

On this day in ...
... 1879, Hortense Allart de Méritens (right) died in Montlhéry, France, 77 years after she'd been born in Milan, Italy. (image credit) Also known by her nom de plume, Prudence de Saman L'Esbatx, Allart was a French feminist writer who spoke out in favor of free love and women's rights and contributed to La Gazette des femmes, or Women's Daily, a periodical whose contributors also included a colleague of Allart, the Frenchwoman who wrote novels under the pseudonym George Sand. Philosophical inquiries by Allart -- the study of this 1998 biography by Helynne Hollstein Hansen -- included publication in 1857 of Novum organum ou sainteté philosophique, which contended that new scientific discoveries proved the existence of a higher power. Among Allart's many lovers was diplomat François-René de Chateaubriand, who inspired not only French Romantic literature, but also the beefy dish popular to this day.

(Prior February 28 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On June 14

On this day in ...
... 1920 (90 years ago today), Anna Maria Mozzoni (left) died in Rome, Italy, 83 years after her birth in Milan. Through formal and self-education, she studied the works of writers ranging from the ancient historian Plutarch to the 19th C. Frenchwoman whose novels appeared under the pseudonym George Sand. In 1864, Mozzoni herself published a feminist critique of Italian family law. In subsequent years she wrote or cowrote other works, submitted petitions for women's suffrage to her country's parliament, represented her country at international women's meetings, and founded a Milan-based women's organization, Lega promotrice degli interessi femminili. She's "known as the founder of the Women's movement in Italy."

(Prior June 14 posts are here, here, and here.)