Sarra Copia Sulam

Sarra Copia Sulam (d. 1641) is renowned for having written a Manifesto in which she upholds the principle of the immortality of the soul as applicable both to Christians and to Jews. With this work Copia enters the annals of one of the most heated controversies of her age and secures a unique place for herself within Italian literature. Yet the subject of immortality seems to have occupied Copia more fundamentally: Its ramifications can be demonstrated in her ongoing quest for self-fulfillment. I shall trace the subject in different areas of relevance to Copia’s life and writings, starting with her relations with members of her family and her interaction with her intellectual peers; continuing with pictorial and poetic evidence of “the quest”; and concluding with a vindication of Copia’s unwavering belief in the soul’s immortality as proffered in an unexpected source: a wedding ode set to music.