Giustina Levi-Perotti

Giustina Levi-Perotti was the supposed 14th-century author of two Petrarchan sonnets published in the 16th century. They were attributed to Giustina in a collection of the poems of Petrarch, assembled by G.F. Tomasini. Tomasini claimed that one of the sonnets was directed to Petrarch and that the latter replied with one of his most famous works, La gola, e'l sonno e l'otiose piume. However, only a few Petrarch scholars ever accepted this assumption, which was finally rejected by modern Italian literary critics. It is very probable that the poems attributed to Giustina Levi-Perotti were written in the 16th century and that she never existed.