Giorgina Craufurd through Her Letters: The Formation of a Political Identity

Abstract

The article examines the figure of Giorgina Craufurd Saffi through her correspondence, situating her within the familial, Mazzinian, and feminist networks of the nineteenth century. The family and the salon emerge as key spaces of political formation, in which the public and the private were closely intertwined. The letters make it possible to move beyond the image of the “staunch Mazzinian”, revealing instead a complex subjectivity marked by tensions between ideological commitment and personal autonomy. Craufurd appears both as a cultural intermediary between Britain and Italy and as a leading figure in early emancipatory movements.