Overview
Sarra Copia Sulam was a Venetian Jewish poet and intellectual who corresponded with Christian writers and hosted discussions involving literature, theology, and philosophy. Her public visibility exposed her to accusations shaped by both religious hostility and gender expectations. When Baldassare Bonifacio charged her with denying the immortality of the soul, she answered through a printed manifesto defending her beliefs and reputation. Only part of her work survives, much of it preserved through hostile exchanges. Copia’s career reveals the possibilities and dangers facing a learned Jewish woman who claimed authority within seventeenth-century Italian literary culture.
