Drusilla Tanzi (5 April 1885 – 20 October 1963) was an Italian writer who was born and died in Milan.

Life and career

Tanzi was the daughter of the socialist lawyer Carlo Tanzi. She was a niece of Eugenio Tanzi, sister of Lidia and Silvio Tanzi, and (via Lidia) aunt of

Natalia Ginzburg Natalia Ginzburg (, ; ; 14 July 1916 – 7 October 1991) was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, fo ...

. She first became the wife of the art historian

Matteo Marangoni Matteo Marangoni (12 July 1876 – 1 June 1958) was an Italian art historian, art critic and composer. Marangoni's art criticism aimed at identifying pure figurative values, in which an artwork's poetic values are identified. His books are posi ...

and later the poet and Nobel Prize winner Eugenio Montale. She married for the second time in 1958 only after her first husband's death that same year, even though she had been living with Montale long before that time. Tanzi was nicknamed "Mosca" (fly) because of her thick glasses to correct a strong

myopia Near-sightedness, also known as myopia and short-sightedness, is an eye disease where light focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry while close objects appear normal. Other symptoms may include ...

. She has been called a "muse of Montale" who dedicated two sections of his 1971 poetry collection ''Satura'' to her. According to Ahern, writing about Montale:

In 1927 the 30-year-old poet fell in love with Drusilla Tanzi, the wife of an eminent Italian art critic. Myopic, not beautiful, overbearing, she remained the central woman of his life until her death.

The two met after Montale moved to Florence to pursue his poetry and he moved into the home she shared with her husband and the critic, Marangoni. Tanzi and the poet soon became lovers and moved in together on via Duca di Genova. Montale featured her in many of his works using her Mosca nickname, but he kept her true identity secret for many years.

Selected works

* Tanzi, D. (2014). Caro piccolo insetto. ''Dear little bug'', 80–84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanzi, Drusilla 1885 births 1963 deaths 20th-century Italian writers 20th-century Italian women writers Writers from Milan 20th-century Italian women