Luna scrunched her hands into the softness of her skirts. She was no longer that child, free to speak her mind. She was one and seven and unmarried; a dangerous state for a young woman, Mamma Lucrezia reminded her often. Luna hated it. She was the same person, only now her self-assured tone of voice was heard as immodesty. The spectre of her unresolved future grew stronger with each year. The acceptable path to marriage, should she even wish to become some man’s wife, would never be hers to tread because no family wanted the curse of her deformity on their lineage. Papa never mentioned marriage to her anyway and she’d made this right in her mind by believing he would not waste their time on such a pointless topic. Yet he alone would decide her fate.

Luna’s insides churned as tightly as the twist of wool she held to. She wanted to remain living with her father and have his permission to study astronomy. Why could this not be her path? She thought of her sister Maria at home, and of all the girls sent forth in this complicated world, believing themselves inferior creatures purely because of their sex and the foolish pride of men such as Tommaso Palagio. Yet their sex had a long history of greatness. Zenobia, the Egyptian woman who became so well versed in Egyptian, Greek and Latin literature that she wrote the histories of barbarian and foreign peoples. And the Greek woman, Semiramis, who spoke her mind in a court of law and in the senate so that the Romans deemed her praiseworthy. Compared to these women’s abilities, Luna knew she was but a mouse, yet when challenged, she felt a passion as fierce as any lion.

In her own beloved land there were cultivated women like Nicolosa of Bologna, Isotta of Verona and Cassandra of Venice, for whom knowledge was not a novelty but earned through hard work. These scholars were her example and, just like them, Luna knew she’d always have to defend herself against the envy of men such as Tommaso Palagio. Her father had cultivated her skill in rhetoric so she could do just that. Now, she must use that talent to convince him to allow her to study astronomy. She rested her hands in her lap, cupping her palms one atop the other. She’d remind Papa of his past as the son of a weaver and how he’d changed his future. Now it was her turn.