Leonora de Alberti
English historian and suffragist (1870 – 1934)
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Leonora de Alberti (1870–1934) was an English-born historian, translator and suffragist. As well as writing on Spanish history and producing a Spanish-English and a Portuguese-English dictionary, she edited the journal of the Catholic Women’s Suffrage Society (later St Joan's International Alliance).
The Catholic Suffragist
Leonora de Alberti | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1870 Marylebone, London, England |
| Died | 1934 (aged 63–64) |
| Occupations | Historian, translator and suffragist |
| Employer(s) | Public Record Office The Catholic Suffragist |
| Organization(s) | Catholic Women's Suffrage Society League of Nations |
Early life and family
Alberti was born in Marylebone, London, the seventh of ten children of Eugenio de Alberti and his wife, French-born Amalia de Acuñaga, who had moved to London in 1866. Her sister Amalia de Alberti was a journalist and translator whose main achievement was a three-volume translation of Romain Rolland’s L’Ame enchantée.[1]
History and language publications
In 1909, Alberti collaborated with economic historian Annie Wallis Chapman on a paper for the Royal Historical Society on English traders and the Spanish Inquisition,[2] which became the book English Merchants and the Spanish Inquisition in the Canaries in 1919. By this time she had worked as an editor for the Camden Society.[3]
Alberti produced Spanish-English and Portuguese-English pocket dictionaries for Hill in 1919 and 1920.[1]
In 1925, Alberti assisted with translation for Lucien Wolf's Jews in the Canary Islands.[4]
Suffragism
In 1913, partly in reaction to what she perceived as the too moderate views of other Catholic suffragists like Margaret Fletcher, Alberti published a pamphlet, Woman Suffrage and Pious Opponents, arguing that Catholic women did not need to oppose women’s suffrage on pious grounds.[5][6]
From 1915, while working part-time at the Public Record Office, Alberti belonged to the Catholic Women’s Suffrage Society and was the inaugural editor of its journal The Catholic Suffragist.[7][8] Women’s suffrage was the main focus of the journal, but Leonora also wrote articles against laws which discriminated against women and reactions to sexist publications.[9]
In the 1920s, Alberti served as honorary secretary for the Council for the Representation of Women in the League of Nations.[10]