Keywords

• These reflections on the presence of women on the literary scene take origin from the first 19th Century bibliography of â€
• œ
• womenâ€
• ™
• s writingâ€
• 
• published in Venice in 1924 with the title: Prospetto Biografico delle Donne Italiane Rinomate in Letteratura dal Secolo Decimoquarto fino aâ€
• ™
• giorni nostri (Biographical Schedule of Italian Women renowned in the Literary Field from the 14th Century up to the present time) edited by Ginevra Canonici Fachini. This bibliography
• addressed to Lady Morgan
• aims to refute all her malicious judgements about Italian women. It takes strength from a sense of belonging in order to emphasize womenâ€
• ™
• s rich poetical tradition
• starting from the â€
• œ
• big mothersâ€
• 
• of the 16th Century
• moreover
• it starts an interesting analytical reflection on spaces
• shapes
• intensity and strength of a womenâ€
• ™
• s widespread presence on the literary scene at the turn of the 19th Century.
• Examining the pages of the Bibliography
• Adriana Chemello inquires into womenâ€
• ™
• s real literary frameworks at the beginning of the 19th Century. The author analyses some interesting publishing experiences: her purpose is to outline a first
• although approximate
• map of the womenâ€
• ™
• s presence on the literary scene. She also takes into account the fact that
• in such a peculiar historical context
• women shift between â€
• œ
• privateâ€
• 
• and â€
• œ
• publicâ€
• 
• in their historical and narrative coming and going. In these editorial works the word â€
• œ
• womanâ€
• 
• becomes text interacting and conversing with other texts in an open but clearly-defined and shaped system
• such as the â€
• œ
• collectionâ€
• 
• the â€
• œ
• miscellanyâ€
• 
• the â€
• œ
• anthologyâ€
• 
• the â€
• œ
• giftâ€
• 
• . Each of these literary products gives the reader a little series of personal data and
• most of all
• it shows â€
• œ
• a synchronic cross-sectionâ€
• 
• of the literary products of the period
• creating a hierarchy of the prevailing literary forms