Angelica Goltara is an Italian national who’s real name is Angelica Goltara Melhorru. The name was given to her by her great-grandfather, who was a nobleman of the Renaissance in Venice, who was also a doctor and whose aptitude for the medical arts is well attested. In the year 1587, Goltara was apprenticed to a physician by a certain Father Guntieri da Capo, whom she had known since childhood and whose family had been in the same line of Goltara’s descent from her mother. Though Guntieri did not employ Angelica as his private physician, he made her aware of his professional aspirations and recommended her to various doctors and other physicians throughout Venetian society.
At the age of twenty-one, Goltara married Antonio Geminario, a well-to-do Florentine merchant, and brought up a family of her own with her son Joaquim. It was while she was working at a printing shop that she met Piero Piccinini, who invited her to spend the Christmas holiday with him in his home at Guglialla, near the Duomo. When Goltara and her family arrived at the estate of Piccinini, they were surprised to find a man, identified as Joanna da Polignano, who had been staying there for years. Goltara fell in love with this woman, whom she described as beautiful and tall, though she was about forty years older than she looked.
Joanna was not only a charming and fascinating person but also possessed a dazzling intellect and a talent for the art of needlework. She was so enchanting that Goltara found it difficult to resist her advances, which she accomplished by sewing clothes for the household. One of the highlights of the holiday for Goltara was the afternoon when she and Joanna wheeled themselves out to the place where Piccinini lived, a small building on the hill above the grounds of their house. Goltara presented her with a valuable set of needlework, which she proudly showed off, before leaving to meet her husband.