Romana Guarnieri
Romana Guarnieri (1913-2003) was an Italian medievalist, responsible in 1946 for identifying Marguerite Porete as the author of "The Mirror of Simple Souls". Life. Romana Guarnieri was born in The Hague in 1913, the daughter of an Italian father and a Dutch mother. Her parents separated when she was young, and she was for a while brought up by atheist and theosophist grandparents. After her mother's second marriage, to an Italian architect, she came to Italy, living in Rome. In 1939 she gained her PhD in German language and literature. In 1938 she met the Catholic  priest Giuseppe De Luca, with whom she collaborated in founding the Edizione di Storia e Letteratura. She also converted to Roman Catholicism. Guarnieri established Marguerite's authorship in an article published in "L'Osservatore Romano". After De Luca's death in 1962, Guarnieri directed the "Archive Italiano per la Storia della Pietà", which he had created. She died on 24 December 2003.