Stats and Overview

Family

Emilia is the only daughter of Don Ernesto Merlani, a low nobility gentleman and Marianna Gambini, daughter of a wealthy family. The earliest informations known about her father's lineage date arount mid XIII century, in Lazio, but it also seem that a branch already established in Lombardy around XIV century. First renowed about their cloth trading, Merlanis obtained a title around 1690. Since then, the family's fortune seemed to only get higher, so if they got to be more known, they also contracted many debts, which were inherited almost all at once by Ernesto at the death of his father. He passed a good part of his life to get to pay them, even by giving up his literary ambitions and raising his daughter on his own, alongside his wife. Once she grew up, Emilia got married to Tommaso Magnani, a viscount from a notable family from Bologna, who works as a lawyer. Together they had a daughter, Vittoria, alongside two other children, Ludovico and Sofia. Other noteworthy members of Emilia's family are Tullio Merlani, her uncle, Lucrezia Gambini, her grandmother, Antonio Magnani, her brother-in-law, with who she is in good terms and Perla Magnani, her mother-in-law, with whom she has a terrible relationship.

About

The viscountess Emilia Magnani is the playable character in Sapere Aude.

Born in a low nobility family, her most prominent traits are her consistent curiosity and gentleness: despite initially addressed towards a typical noblewoman education, she’s ultimately attempting to pursue a more refined knowledge and dreams to be a well appreciated philosopher or a poetess.

For economic reasons, she didn’t attend boarding schools, and if this eased her major independence of thought and a more flexible education, it also lead her to be clueless about social rules: while her mundane mother attempted to teach her the necessary skills it’s a fact that Emilia doesn’t know how to properly interact with other people. While she’s usual to treat everyone nicely, in her diaries she admits to not fully comprehending many of her peers’ mentalities and she feels more comfortable around older people: initially the only exception to this rule is her maid Desdemona, which she candidly considers as best friend. While she still has the desire to engage in sincere friendships, at the start of the game she still finds herself more comfortable alone or around her family, to which she’s extremely loyal. Nonetheless, the game starts concurrently with the opening of the literary salon in which she’s the amphitryon alongside her father Ernesto, first fulfillment of a dream that both had since years but only realized until they had enough money to maintain it.

The viscountess is a plethora of contradictions in general: while she’s often lost in her thoughts, imagining for the future, she also craves for concrete results in her life; while she is capable of rationality, she ultimately falls into feelings. She wants to be genuine yet in some ways she loses herself to conventions or prejudice. Emilia is a perfectionist in her both intellectual, social and inner life: she imposes herself the values she learnt from the books and the teachings with which she was grown up and aspires to be as virtuous as she could be, but this obsession leans her into major self doubt that also brings anxiety issues.

While usually gentle and generous with who’s around her, Emilia expects too much from both herself and others, so she gets often, even wrongly, angry when anyone disappoints her by breaking the idealized image she projected on them.

This lean to perfection also mines her otherwise great brilliance, expressed on her mastery of her native languages, Italian and Lombard dialect while also being fluent in French, German, Ancient Greek and Latin, alongside a deep understanding of philosophy, history and politics. She’s also really fond of music and art: while inept at drawing, Emilia loves to play the harp which she’s a decent player; she’s also always happy to go to the theater to see the opera. She also has other and varied interests, which however she lacks a more consistent knowledge, to list some: law, economics, math and sciences. She would improve her knowledge later in the game as her future husband and her brother in law will introduce her in some of these fields.

While initially not as cultured as some other noblewomen who also have been noticed in previous decades, Emilia’s education is still above average, even for her social status: especially since she opens her salon, her name would be more known in her hometown Milan, therefore attracting both praise and criticism.

Emilia applies her meticulousness into her physical space as well: she archives her many writings in pristine order, and her physical appearance is also kept well. While she’s definitely humane with her servants and naively lets them confide in her, even to actively help them, she’s demanding of them regarding their own work and when they misbehave she can scold them even more harshly than deserved. Despite she doesn’t like to admit it, since it contradicts her intellectual side, Emilia actually enjoys fashion and jewelry and after her marriage, when she has greater economic capacity, she likes to spend her money on clothes (besides, obviously, books) and she feels satisfied when someone appreciates her outfits.

As she gets used to be the host of her own salon, alongside her experiences in between each reunion, Emilia grows to be more spontaneous: she loves to play her guests some music and lets herself to be more playful, showing in this way a childish side she would otherwise tries to hide, in an attempt to pass as more mature or in fear to see her own reputation diminish for this. This side of hers would be further explored after her marriage with Tommaso.

The role she feels the best during each reunion is to spark some discussion by choosing the theme of that night and, most importantly, by moderating and asking some questions to each member, in order to clarify or to doubt their positions: likewise her husband Tommaso, she loves to inspire her guests but unlike him, who actively suggests his own ideas, she prefers to guide her interlocutor in order to find his reasoning within himself.

The most stimulating discussions also inspire her writing her book but they’re not the only sources for her ideas: in general she seems to deduct her intuitions by her apparently mundane experiences, her dedication to art and by reading her favorite authors. However, despite her commitment, many of her ideas are not that original because in her work are still present many thematics also tackled by Verri, Colpani, Parini, Voltaire, Rousseau and Locke, to quote some of her inspirations, whose values she grown up.

Like her peers, the union among Emilia and Tommaso was determined more as a deal than a romantic feeling but she still was fine about it, especially since she was going to marry a close friend of her family, who also frequented her own salon.

Motivated by her own thoughts about society, she’s even gone further: she didn’t want a cicisbeo for herself because she wanted to know better the man with who she would have spent the rest of her life, if not love and to be friends to him. This choice was rightfully criticised by all of her friends, even by her own mother: it would benefit her to always have someone to talk with and who may introduce her to the nicest companies but the Viscountess stood on her opinion, to remain faithful to her husband. She’s not even interested in love that much in the first place, therefore not having a cicisbeo doesn’t make a difference from her own point of view. Her decision, while not optimal for her social life, allowed her to develop a stronger bound with her husband.

Shortly after the birth of her daughter, Vittoria, Emilia despite not psychologically ready to be a mother, took this role seriously: while she’s helped by a nanny, she tries to be close to her child, inspired by both her infancy, adding the principles she’s seen theorised on books, mostly Rousseau.

She’s a loving but severe mother, who invests a lot of time to teach Vittoria her ideals, those that combines those of a proper lady to those of an intellectual autonomy and feelings.

Despite her dedication, Emilia struggles to combine her motherly and her social duties with her inner wishes: here it’s still evident how her young age’s mindset couldn’t still be covered by a moral code of sort.

When Vittoria grows up, she hopes to be also her teacher but Tommaso expressed his preference towards a tutor instead and both of them actively reject boarding schools.