{{Short description|Italian writer (1866–1901)}} {{Infobox person | name = Emilia Errera | birth_date = 1866 | birth_place = Trieste, Austrian Empire<ref name="Salani 2000">{{cite book |last1=Salani |first1=Teresa Poggi |title=Sul crinale: tra lingua e letteratura saggi otto-novecenteschi |date=2000 |pages=59–61, 92}}</ref> | death_date = 1901 | death_place = Milan, Italy | occupation = Teacher, writer<ref name="Buchner2018">{{cite book|author=Moritz Buchner|title=Warum weinen?: Eine Geschichte des Trauerns im liberalen Italien (1850–1915)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aI5uDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA160|date=21 August 2018|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-059851-3|pages=160–1}}</ref> }} '''Emilia Errera''' (May 15, 1866 – December 12, 1901) was an Italian teacher, essayist, and literary critic known for her historical analyses and her early Italian scholarship on Charles Dickens. Educated in Venice and Florence, she taught history, geography, and Italian in schools before establishing herself as a contributor to Italian literary magazines of the late 19th century.
Her work was noted for its moral perspective on literature and its emphasis on themes of national identity, civic virtue, and historical understanding. After her death in 1901, her writings were collected and published posthumously by her family.
== Biography == Emilia, was born on 15 May 1866 in Trieste, Austrian Empire to a Jewish family. Her parents were Cesare, a Venetian, and mother Luigia Fano from Mantua. Her siblings included writer Rosa Errera (1864-1946), brother Carlo Errera (1867-1936), and sister Anna Errera (1870-1940).<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Norsa|first=Achille|date=1975|title=Tre donne che hanno onorato l'Ebraismo italiano: le sorelle Errera (segutio e fine)|journal=La Rassegna Mensile di Israel|volume=41|issue=2|pages=108–123|jstor=41284104|issn=0033-9792}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it//enciclopedia/rosa-errera_(Dizionario-Biografico)|title=ERRERA, Rosa in "Dizionario Biografico"|website=www.treccani.it|language=it-IT|access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref><ref name="JWA D'Ancona">{{cite web |last1=D'Ancona |first1=Luisa Levi |title=Modern Italy |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/italy-modern |website=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=23 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="Natterman 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Natterman |first1=Ruth |title=The Italian-Jewish Writer Laura Orvieto (1876-1955) between Intellectual Independence and Social Exclusion |journal=QUEST. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History |date=2015 |url=http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/focus.php?id=368 |access-date=23 March 2020}}</ref>
Emilia graduated teacher training in Venice and attended the Institute of Magisterium in Florence, where her instructors included P. Villari and Enrico Nencioni, who had taught Italian literature there since 1884 and who passed on to her a love of history and literature.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it//enciclopedia/emilia-errera_(Dizionario-Biografico)|title=ERRERA, Emilia in "Dizionario Biografico"|last=Paesano|first=Paola|date=|website=www.treccani.it|language=it-IT|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-02}}</ref>
Much later, in 1900, Emilia credited Nencioni, who was regarded as a connoisseur and interpreter of English writers, with fostering her lifelong interest in writers such as Charles Dickens (she referred to him as Carlo Dickens). She dedicated a commemorative article to Nencioni in the Florentine magazine ''Il Marzocco'' full of gratitude and giving him credit for passing along his teachings.<ref name=":1" />
=== Teacher === In 1887, she qualified with honors to teach in secondary schools. Beginning her teaching career as an assistant to the professor of Italian language in normal school, she soon qualified to teach history and geography. She moved to the commercial technical school, refusing better assignments outside of Florence so as not to leave her mother alone. After her mother died, Errera moved to Milan to join her sisters and teach at the normal school. Two years later, in 1892, she started teaching history and geography at the "GB Piatti" technical school, and then Italian language in the women's technical school. Finally, she returned to the Piatti school.<ref name=":1" />
=== Writer === In 1887, Errera's original work began appearing in Italian magazines, including the ''National Review'', the ''Magazine for Young Ladies'', ''Cordelia'', ''Albo per la Giovinezza'', ''Readings for Young Girls'', ''Library for Children'', and more.<ref name=":1" />
In the ''National Review'' of Florence (June 16, 1890, pp. 620-688), she published an essay about the historical-literary character of Alessandro Tassoni's ''Filippiche'', an incendiary pamphlet in which Tassoni attacked the then Spanish domination of Italy. The work by Errera begins with a broad examination of the environment and the facts around the story, in particular the author's relations with the Savoy house. Her sympathy for the author seems based on shared feelings of homeland and freedom, along with the hope for a united Italy.<ref name=":0" />
In her next essay "The Stone of Political Comparison by Traiano Boccalini" (Milan 1891), Errera showed greater detachment. <ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1890|journal=Archivio Storico Italiano|volume=6|issue=180|pages=519–521|jstor=44454972|issn=0391-7770|title=Pubblicazioni Periodiche}}</ref>
Her essays about Charles Dickens (whose name in Italian translated to Carlo Dickens) became a notable contribution to the language, and her biographical-critical essays on the writer were published widely. According to Paesano,<ref name=":1" /> <blockquote>"Appearing in the ''Magazine for Young Ladies'' (15 December 1895 and 15 June 1898) and in ''Il Marzocco'' (4 February 1900), she provides indications on the distinctly moral point of view with which E. looked at literature. She found it reassuring that the author of ''Oliver Twist'' had no hesitation in drawing a clear line between 'good and evil,' between completely positive characters and exclusively negative characters; and she appreciated his humor and a feeling of hope."<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>Errera wrote about a contemporary Italian writer, E. De Marchi (in ''Il Marzocco'', 17 February 1901), espousing similar arguments.<ref name=":1" /> She worked with her sister Rosa Errera on ''Voices and incorrect ways:'' ''Essay on the correction of idiots and other errors of the Milanese use'', Milan 1898, and the article "On the teaching of history in secondary schools"'','' which appeared in ''Il Marzocco'' (22 and 29 December 1901; 2 February 1902).<ref name=":0" /> In her published opinions, Errera hoped that history teachers and publishers would pay more attention to the times and products of peace, rather than to the military view of history.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Her 1895 ''Carlo Dickens'' was the first full-length study of Dickens in Italian.<ref name="Hollington2013">{{cite book|author=Michael Hollington|title=The Reception of Charles Dickens in Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PXxvAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA216|date=29 August 2013|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-62356-076-8|pages=216–7}}</ref>
=== Death === Emilia Errera died of pneumonia on 12 December 1901 in Milan at the age of 35.<ref name=":1" /> She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Milan.<ref name="SatReview 1903" />
Posthumously, Emilia's writings were collected by brother Carlo Errera and his sisters in a volume titled ''Carlo Dickens'' ... (''and other writings''), with a preface by writer Angiolo Orvieto, Bologna, 1903.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> According to Paesano, in that preface, Orvieto noted that "her ideas were 'the most minute and faithful that one has.'"<ref name=":1" /> A review in the London ''Saturday Review'' commented "Emilia Errera led a busy life and wrote little, but that little is well written and makes us regret that she did not live to write more."<ref name="SatReview 1903">{{cite journal |title=Carlo Dickens by Emilia Errera |journal=Saturday Review |date=1903}}</ref>
== Selected works == According to worldcat.org, these are the most widely held works by Emilia Errera in libraries:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldcat.org/identities/viaf-89099705/|title=Emilia Errera|last=|first=|date=|website=worldcat.org|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=March 2, 2020}}</ref>
* Gli amici di Dante (Book), one edition, published in 1890, in Italian * Sulle Filippiche di Alessandro Tassoni, one edition, published in 1890, in Italian * Gli amici di Dante, one edition, published in 1890, in Italian * La pietra del paragone politico di Traiano Boccalini (Book), two editions, published in 1891, in Italian * Carlo Dickens, one edition, published in 1895, in Italian * Carlo Dickens. Estratto dalla: "Rivista per le Signorine." (Book) one edition, published in 1895, in French * Carlo Dickens, four editions, published in 1903, in Italian
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [http://digitale.bnc.roma.sbn.it/tecadigitale/rivista/CFI0358036/1901/n.17 Digital access to the Florentine magazine, ''Il Marzocco,'' weekly magazine of literature and art]
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Category:1866 births Category:1901 deaths Category:Writers from Milan Category:Italian women writers Category:19th-century Italian women writers Category:Jewish Italian writers Category:19th-century Italian Jews Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Italy