Donne ed educazione nelle “Conversazioni femminili” di Angelina Damiani Lanza

Angelina Damiani Lanza (1879-1936) was a writer, mystic and daughter of the well-known architect Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda. She carried out an intense “apostolate” activity in Palermo during the Belle Époque in defense of Antonio Rosmini, who was condemned in 1887 by the Congregation of the Holy Office for forty propositions taken from his works and judged to be «not in line with the Catholic truth». Known for her poetic work whose “glory” came in with Fonte di Mnemosine, Angelina Damiani Lanza was invited in 1912 by the «Corriere di Sicilia», the Sicilian edition of the «Corriere d’Italia», to edit the column Conversazioni femminili that she eventually interrupted due to health issues in May 1913. This article investigates her writings, cor- respondence and articles of the column she edited in order to highlight some aspects of the role of education in the process of women’s emancipation, and the legitimate “rebellion” against the prejudices on the basis of which women would be inferior to men. According to Angelina Damiani, however, this process of revolution should not have been the result of an abrupt change, but the effect of a gradualism that could have produced authentic progress and innovation, while hindering the force of conservation that, more often than not, is the sad outcome of sudden revolutions.