Letter Petrarch to Cardinal Francesco Colonna, sent on 23rd November 1343.
“Of all of God’s miracles ‘which alone are miracles’ nothing He put on earth is more marvellous than man. Of everything I saw today, which I refer to you in this report, the matter that stands out the most regards a marvellous woman from Pozzuoli, strong of body and spirit. Her greatest virtue is without a doubt that she has maintained her virginity despite living in close contact with men of arms; in fact it is said that the soldiers avoid assaulting her, even only in jest, held back more by fear of her than by the respect one must have for a woman. In fact Maria dresses as a warrior and not as a girl; she has a strength comparable to that of a veteran; she does not occupy herself with cloths, with needles, with mirrors, but with arrows, with bows and with lances: her face has no signs of amorous kisses or of the lascivious bites of lovers, but of wounds obtained in battle; she bravely scorns death. With her close companions she has been in war for years, a war that has already claimed many victims on both sides. She has fought often, alone or in the company of a few others, but until now she has always come out the victor of every conflict. She launches herself furiously into the mix of battle, sets-off eagerly, attacks the enemy with courage, prepares ambushes with guile. She endures with incredible patience hunger, thirst, cold, heat, tiredness and lack of sleep. Day and night, indefatigably she dons arms and she rests her limbs on a bed or on a shield as if it were a bed. These continuous exertions have altered her appearance in a short space of time. I had met her years ago when she was still a girl but today, when she stepped forward and greeted me, dressed for war and at the command of a small group of soldiers I was taken aback. Then beneath that helmet I recognised her femininity.”
