ISABELLA DUCROT

Isabella Ducrot was born in in Naples in 1931. She lives and works in Rome. 

"But now the time of reckonoing had come, a time to ask myself how I'd managed to survive without knowing the names of capital cities, without knowing my Pythagorean tables by heart, being unaware of the exact location of the pancreas, the differences among dog breeds, between fine wines, my ignorance of major anniversaries, the battles Italy had won and lost, the birth and death of Dante, Pavarotti, Joan of Arc, not knowing where Vittorio Veneto was, how many planets revolved around the sun, the fact that I'd never read "The Betrothed" or Grimm's fairy tales... As I ran through this list, I continued not to know these things. I could walk blithely through town without worrying about knowing how at a certain point an immobile object would start to move, or how the mysterious element that made bread rise actually worked... even if I had kneaded dough with my own two hands..."

Text from Isabella Ducrot, "Women's Life", 2021

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