LA STORIA DI Ginevra Benci NELLE CINQUANTA FRASI ANAGRAMMATE DAL MOTTO VIRTUTEM FORMA DECORAT + LA PAROLA-CHIAVE IUNIPERUS

Carla Glori (2010/2017) deciphered the encrypted messages of the Latin motto VIRTUTEM FORMA DECORAT on the back of Ginevra’s portrait, where the juniper branch, in the center of the laurel and palm wreath, is related to the model’s name and represents her chastity. The researcher, adding the keyword IUNIPERUS to the motto, anagrammed fifty Latin sentences signed VINCI, formed with the same alphabetic letters and having a meaning unequivocally referred to the portrait and biography of Ginevra Benci. The fifty deciphered sentences are perfect anagrams and, by joining them together, it is possible to form a coherent and meaningful text, coinciding with the documented history of Ginevra in 1474, when the notary Simone Grazzini from Staggia in Florence stipulated “ab incarnatione” her promise of marriage to Luigi di Bernardo Niccolini. She (who loved Bernardo Bembo) was forced to marry Niccolini, who was a widower about fifteen years older than her. Ginevra’s “mental motions” are faithfully reflected and the anagrammatized text is permeated by a sense of rebellion, which calls for justice against the patriarchal tradition that subordinates women and appropriates their bodies.