Fulvia Miani Perotti

Fulvia Miani Perotti
File:Fulvia Miani Perotti.png
Native name	Fulvia dei conti Miani
Born	(1844-02-25)25 February 1844 Polignano a Mare
Died	25 February 1931(1931-02-25) (aged 87) Cassano delle Murge
Pen name	Voluntas
Occupation	poet and benefactor
Language	Italian
Nationality	Italian
Period	Romantic
Spouse	Gaetano Perotti
Children	Armando Perotti

Fulvia Miani Perotti (25 February 1844 – 25 February 1931) was an Italian writer who lived in the Apulia region of Italy.

Life

She was the daughter of Count Nicola Miani, a lawyer and member of the Parliament, and of Ruffina Volpe. As a liberal-spirited woman, she wrote for a number of magazines and newspapers under the pen name Voluntas, meaning "willingness".

Throughout her life, she devoted herself to charitable endeavours, including the establishment of the first professional school for girls in southern Italy, created for the daughters of sailors in Bari. She was President of Catholic Associations, of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, as well as director of the Italian Red Cross, and during the 1915-1918 war she was President of the Civil Assistance Committee that worked to provide assistance to soldiers and their families.

In 1871, she became a friend of Giuseppe Mazzini and went to visit him in the fortress of Gaeta, where he was being held as a political prisoner. Fourteen letters document the continued interaction between Mazzini and Fulvia Miani Perotti, who had become his friend and benefactor. When Mazzini went into exile, Fulvia and her husband Gaetano Perotti (a Piedmontese officer in the army of the Kingdom of Italy) remained faithful to Mazzini by refusing to give information to governmental agents, which resulted in the end of Perotti's army career.

Legacy

File:Polignano a Mare (BA), piazzetta Fulvia Perotti.jpg

The name plate of the town square in Polignano a Mare

Fulvia's son, Armando Perotti, was perhaps Apulia's greatest poet. The municipal library of Cassano delle Murge is named after him. An old town square in Polignano a Mare, where the family's nobiliary house (and Fulvia's birthplace) stands, was renamed after her.