GIULIA BECCARIA (17...

Daughter of Marquis Cesare Beccaria and Donna Teresa de Blasco, Giulia, along with her sister Marietta, had an unhappy childhood marked by the absence of their mother, who was always travelling and taken up with her social life. When Teresa passed away Cesare remarried, and Giulia was sent to a convent where the only visits she received were those of her father’s friend Pietro Verri.
Aged eighteen, Giulia, now a beautiful, green-eyed redhead, left the convent and fell in love with Pietro Verri’s younger brother Giovanni, whom, however, she was not allowed to marry on account of her being considered not wealthy enough. In 1782 she was married off to Pietro Manzoni. Three years later Alessandro was born: the biological son, however, of Giovanni Verri.
In 1796, some years after separating from her husband, Giulia left for Paris where she finally found happiness. Living with her beloved Carlo Imbonati, a wealthy and handsome man held in high esteem, and thanks to her famous surname, she was welcomed into the city’s intellectual circles with open arms. A few years later, in 1805, Giulia, who had been absent during Alessandro’s early years, asked him to come and live with her in Paris; and from then on mother and son were inseparable, until ‘Donna Giulia’ died in 1841.