| Sforza, Scintilla (Mother Latifundia, O.F.F.) |
After Saint Fidgeta appeared to this woman, she changed her name to Mother Latifundia and founded the Order of Faithful Fidgettines [St. Fidgeta & Other Parodies, 14]. Scintilla, before her vision a spendthrift of checkered reputation, notorious for her midnight levées in the ruins of the Golden House of Nero, was so moved by the miraculous experience that she forsook all earthly joys and wrung from her father...[the] tract on which she built the...convent."
Scintilla is the Latin word for "spark" (thus scintillate, "sparkle") and is also used for a minute quantity; you may have heard the phrase "not a scintilla of evidence." Bowen doubts the word was ever used as a personal name, "but its ending makes it sound like one. John is not the first writer to take advantage of such coincidences. And when you read the description of the happy tenant farmers at Fobbio, you can see why John gave this name to the foundress of the order."
The Sforza family ruled Milan from 1450 to 1535. John borrowed the name but, as the context makes clear, this lady is fictional.
A latifundium is a large agricultural estate. Popular in ancient Rome, they were designed to make maximum use of cheap labour, whether free workers or slaves. In present-day Italy, Spain, and South America, the term latifondo refers to a large agricultural estate worked by low-paid casual or semiservile labour in the interests of absentee landlords.
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| Scintilla Sforza, now Mother Latifundia. |
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