UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST

DEPARTAMENT UNESCO CHAIR ON INTERCULTURAL

AND INTERRELIGIOUS EXCHANGE

Master of Intercultural Communication

Dissertation

WOMEN IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY ITALIAN CULTURE:

THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS, GENDER

NORMS, AND THE FASHIONING OF FEMALE IDENTITY

Student: Catalina Marmureanu

Supervised by: Professor Sylvie Hauser-Borel

Bucharest,

February 2009

1

Contents

INTRODUCTION

An overview / 3

History, Culture, and Gender / 6

A MACRO STUDY: THE ELITE WOMAN Ideological and Physical Restraints / 11

A MICRO STUDY: THE ELITE WOMAN

Idioms of Virtue and a Feminist Defense:

Isotta Nogarola / 22

The Rhetoric of Possibility: Laura Cereta / 39

CONCLUSION

Drawing Lines of Demarcation / 58

2

An Overview

The penetration of feminist theory in areas of study such as sociology and

anthropology has advanced our collective understanding of gender politics, power

relations and sexuality. The question of „woman‟, in the context of these studies, has

brought to light a greater understanding of her struggles, aspirations and triumphs, while

simultaneously identifying value systems unique and of importance to her. Yet, in the

process of recognizing and giving voice to history‟s oppressed and subjugated sex,

radical feminists have ironically, fashioned a romanticized and inaccurate depiction of

women as heroines and socio-political entities all of their own, which did not

necessarily nor accurately reflect social reality.

Contrasting this romanticized image, Marxist feminists have drawn parallels and

laid claims to an understanding of „woman‟ in relation to assets and income. As Joan

Kelly-Gadol indicates, Marxist arguments trace “the roots of women as secondary status

in history to economics inasmuch as women as a group have had a distinctive relation to

production and property in almost all societies”.1 Though methodically proven and a

good explanation of woman‟s disadvantage status, this conviction is also problematic on

two accounts. First, it treats female consciousness in terms of social status, asserting a

uniform plane of experience amongst women of the same class. This philosophy

however fails to take into consideration the diverse range of experience class permitted,

and other times restricted, thus being unable to account for all women, in „almost all

societies‟ and at all times. The demands and responsibilities of an endowed upper class

widow, for example, would differ dramatically from those of an upper class mother,

resulting in the formation of separate and conflicting perceptions of self and society.

Second, the Marxist approach to defining experience also lacks in its ability to

scrutinize the exceptions. If wealth was the fundamental and decisive factor in

determining whether or not a woman occupied a focal or a subordinate position in

1 Kelly-Gadol, Joan. “The Social Relation of the Sexes: Methodological Implications of Women‟s History”.

Signs. Vol.1, No.4 (Summer, 1976), p813.

3

comparison to her male compatriots, then lets say, a prostitute in Renaissance Italy,

according to this model, should have been characterized by a certain degree of financial

freedom and personal independence, which unfortunately was not the case. Despite their

ability and autonomy in managing financial matters, prostitutes were both marginalized

and considered subordinate in status, not only in relation to men, but also in comparison

to other women, due to their unchaste nature.

Drawing attention once again to the deficiency of the Marxist approach and of

other such theories is the narrowed focus of study. By centring solely on the lack of, or

the power of women, a very artificial and one-dimensional understanding of their

experience is presented. Further as both Marxist and feminist schools of thought place

the social experiences of women at opposite ends of the social spectrum, only

extremities are offered. In other words women are only noticed in one of two contexts:

the victim, who due to her meek nature and inability to challenge patriarchal structures

remains subordinate, and the rebel, who‟s exaggerated opposition to social norms

results in a challenging existence and in social exclusion from her peers and society in

general.

While understanding the root causes of these inequalities and the manners in

which they were dealt with reveals a great deal about the lives and struggles of women

in historiography, it is equally if not more important, I argue, to examine what enabled

and perpetuated the secondary status of females from generation to generation.

Examining the lives of fifteenth century Italian women, this essay will centre on their

perception of self, as influenced by social norms and their engagement in the formation

and fashioning of gender ideology. Were the roles society imposed on their gender

really problematic for them, or are these only problematic because they are viewed from

a modern day perspective? And, if they were problematic, to what extent were women

able to refashion and renegotiate the roles that society constructed and imposed on

them?

The fist part of this study recognizes the permeability of gender roles, and

focuses solely on their social construction and social imposition. As gender roles were

supported by both family and state, this section strives to depict how institutional forces

entrenched behavioural propriety in the minds and actions of fifteenth century Italians,

allowing the circulation and continual preservation of gender ideologies, while

consequently constructing and perpetuating a hegemonic notion of female identity.

4

While this section takes a macro approach in presenting the social status of women and

in explaining the factors that sustained their inferior position, the second section

changes in both scope and approach.

In the latter half of this work, though focus will still be imparted to the impact of

gender roles upon the social status of the fifteenth century Italian woman, the woman‟s

perception of self will take precedent. In other words, a micro approach will be

employed where focus will be positioned primarily of the lived experiences of Isotta

Nogarola and Laura Cereta in order to demonstrate and determine the extent to which

gender roles filtered into these women‟s perception of self. This section seeks to answer

whether or not these women were really able to divorce themselves and renounce the

systems of behaviour that they had been socialized and programmed to follow and

accept. This segment of research also examines the consequences that ensued once these

women distanced themselves from the strictly defined behavioural modes assigned to

their sex. The goal of this section is to demonstrate the extent to which gender roles

governed the lives of these women. It is my conviction that the rapport between gender

and femaleness in fifteenth century Italy, was so deeply entrenched in social attitudes

and dispositions, that complete renunciation was next to impossible even for women,

such as Isotta Nogarola and Laura Cereta, who committed their lives to practicing and

preaching nonconformity.

Nonetheless, this section recognizes the cultural contributions made by these

women. Comparing their letters, translations and arguments to those of their male

contemporaries, comments are made on their distinctive thoughts, their socially

opposing perceptions and the significance of these juxtapositions. Their cultural

importance, particularly to the Humanist philosophy is without question allotted space,

as each introduced notions that challenged the status quo, promoting the Humanist

cause and arguing for the worth and rational capabilities of a woman‟s mind and

intellect.

Providing a background not only of the gender roles present in these women‟s

lives, but more importantly of the conditions that enabled and perpetuated these roles,

the next section will provide contextual background, within which the lives, thoughts,

and cultural participation of the quattrocento Italian woman can be better understood.

5

History, Culture, and Gender

The fifteenth century provided the Italian woman with a paradoxical milieu,

where although she was theoretically encouraged to broaden her intellectual horizons,

better her morality and culture her tastes, the social fabric in which she moved

established such strict boundaries that intellectual development was made practically

impossible to pursue.

In fact, the states‟ close policing of public and private domains outlined the parameters

within which woman‟s identity and construction of self was to develop, while at the

same time defining her place and the roles she was to abide. By establishing differences

in gender – based on public space, decrees, marriage, and female nature – the state

formed attitudes which conditioned the intellectual structures and institutions within

which these women could operate, making the formation of personhood deeply

imbedded in the respective attitudes gender conceded.

The state‟s incessant need for domination and control in public matters can be

traced from the socio-economic hardships facing Italian society during this period.

From within the dominion, the despotic rule and the seigneurial systems of the

fourteenth century established relations and alliances amongst the states which brought

five distinct powers to rule in Italy: Milan, Florence, Naples, Venice, and the papacy in

Rome.2 All strong holds presented dynamic and unique problems which disrupted the

overall coherence of political rule, furthering turbulant sentiments throughout the land

(see fig.1).

In Milan, great territorial gains resulted from the diplomatic and military

incentives of Giangaleazzo Visconti‟s rule, which brought much of northern Italy under

his control. However, the latter part of the fourteenth century, particularly after his

death, witnessed a disintegration in the political stronghold he had established and in the

respectable reputation he had earned. Further to the east, Venice, and lower to the south,

Florence, had also increased their wealth establishing and monopolizing trade routes in

2 Holmes George. The Oxford History of Medieval Europe. (Oxford: University Press. 2001), p258.

6

the Mediterranean. Along with commercial contacts, the development of a strong glass

and cloth industry enabled these regions to create convoys to the Black Sea, Syria,

Egypt, the North African coast, from Tangir to the Straits of Gibraltar, Marseilles,

Aigues-Mortes, and Barcelona, placing much of the Adriatic under their control.3 Such

prominent financial positions however, came at a cost. Rivalries and the thirst for power

between the mercenary leaders of Florence and Milan, resulted in the 1423 war, which

lasted for twenty-two years.4 Throughout this period Florence also involved Venice, its

alley in the conflict, initiating a period of economic decline. This in addition to

Florences‟ financial and military support of Napels, which at the time batteled outside

threats of domination, resulted in additional instability and the exacerbation of finances

for the Florentian county.

The fifth power, the papacy, was also surrounded by several destabilizing

circumstances. Rome, in the fifteenth century, was underdeveloped with no industry,

and maintained little control over its territory. This lack of control resulted mainly from

the landed nobility, which was more concerned with land acquisition than with the

political welfare of the state. In addition, nepotism in papal elections and in the

appointment of cardinals frequently changed the states‟ diplomatic alignments, as each

pope promoted to the cardinalate members of his own family or entourage, along with

their respective state alliances and political agendas. The 1440s, when all of Italy found

itself embroiled in warfare, exemplifies the sway of such alliances.5

Despite the general pacification granted by the peace of Lodi in 1454, Italy‟s

problems continued to persist. The territorial states, governed by princes and nobles

such as the Medici family, continued to invest spectacular amounts of money in courtly

culture, diverting funds from the land while simultaneously raising taxes and weakening

Italy‟s commercial position. Moreover, external tensions also translated in instability

and in the need for consolidation. As the Turks overtook Constantinople in 1453,

widespread fears of outside attacks and domination gained momentum.6 The monopoly

Italy had exercised over the Adriatic and Mediterranean trading routes had become a

source of envy and an easy target not only amongst its territorial neighbours, but also

amongst the Muslim and Mogul empires as well.

3 Ibid, p236.

4 Ibid, p260.

5 Ibid, p262.

6 Holmes George. The Oxford History. p262.

7

The kingdoms of France and Spain, both of which held titles and land within

Italy, also proved problematic for the five princely states, as each kingdom had its

private agenda that habitually and forcibly involved its host in diplomatically

compromising situations. The Spanish launch of the Reconquista and the conquest of

Granada, both of which were subsidized by the financially floundering powers of the

papacy, are prime examples of such unsolicited involvement.

However in the midst of chaos and civil war, a philosophy of reform and unity

arose, which offered what seemed to be the solution to reviving a drained economy and

to combating outsider threats of invasion. Although political unity would not follow

until a century later, the papal state displayed a concerted effort in creating a sense of

unity in terms of sentiment, purpose, and peoples throughout the land. Uniform patterns

of prayer and practice were instilled and attempts to rid the church of its inherent

despotism were launched, starting with the return of popes from the Great Schism, the

deposition of Avignon pope Benedict XIII, papal elections and the subsequent return of

pope Martin the V to Rome.7 Martin the V, laid the foundations of authoritarian papal

rule whilst simultaneously transforming Rome into the capital of the Renaissance state.

Roads were paved and crumbling buildings replaced while the papacy, its

institutions, and the patronage of the nobility, attracted new scholars and artists, not

solely to Rome, but to the rest of flourishing nation as well. Religious customs and

concepts gained impetus with the organization of preaching and the erection of

cathedrals. At the same time, private and communally funded schools multiplied

particularly in northern and central Italy, leading to scholastic revisions and to superior

literacy abilities. Along side these schools, professional divisions in the field of

medicine, law and administration also became fundamental to the rhetoric of a more

enhanced and unified state. The meticulous attention to improvements and the

instilment of new systems aimed at correction, unquestionably ameliorated Italy‟s

political and financial affairs. However, the appearance of these new programmes,

professions, and intellectual currents of change, also proved to be problematic, as a

strong lean towards the idealistic arose.

The belief that adherence to certain codes would revive and advance the social

welfare and function of the state was also held to be true when the question of the

state‟s most basic frontiers- the individual and the family- were concerned. Male

7 John Van Engen. “The Church in the Fifteenth Century”. in Handbook of European History 1400-1600,,

Volume1 Structures and Assertions. (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 1994), p315.

8

chivalric values were endorsed through patriarchal roles; the need to protect and provide

for the family, much like ruling and protecting the land, were responsibilities allotted to

what society deemed as the more capable sex. As the patriarch held ultimate authority,

both woman and child, were practically one and the same under his command. Thus

marriage, the conservation of honour amongst female relatives, and women‟s physical

presence in society, were under the jurisdiction of their fathers and husbands, as these

issues could affect the welfare and solidity of the family unit. These guidelines then,

established the capabilities, characteristics, and the behavioural codes each sex was to

follow, giving rise to strict gender roles and more importantly laying out the parameters

within in which the Italian woman was to be perceived and understood.

In one of the most renowned fifteenth century Renaissance paintings, Sandro

Botticelli‟s depiction of Venus, captures the inherent contradictions identified with

femaleness, and indirectly comments on the role women occupied amid cultural

considerations at large. The Birth of Venus (c. 1482- 1486), embodies both the idealistic

rhetoric and the undeviating patriarchal ideology that assigned woman to the role of the

childbearing, maternal figure. Through the synonymous identification of Venus with

Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, an indirect comment is made

on the ideal qualities the fifteenth century woman was to posses.8 The nude body of

Venus conveys an innocently relaxed and complacent demure, while her well

proportioned body, rosy cheeks, and flowing hair, draw the viewer‟s attention to her

flawless physical attributes and beauty. The emergence of Venus (see fig.2), from the

“white foam produced by the severed genitals of Uranus”, is also quite suggestive.9 The

overt association between her person and the male reproductive organ would be taboo,

were it not for the sensual, seductive, and most importantly contained sexuality the

Venus possesses. Though patroness of marriage and fertility, the goddess becomes an

ideal worth emulation precisely because of the contradictions enthralled in her

sexuality.10

As her hand and hair elegantly cover her body, the Venus is modest and

unoffending in her sexuality. Moreover, because the work captures a moment of birth,

an alluring air of pure ignorance is granted, distancing her even further from the

profane. Like the Venus, female identity was also enthralled in contradictions. While

women were encouraged to be objects of beauty, sensuality and satisfactory carnal

8 “Aphrodite”. (2008). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved Nov,29, 2008, from Encyclopaedia Britannica

Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/29573/Aphrodite. 9 Ibid, Aphrodite.

10 “Venus”. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from Encyclopædia

Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/Ebchechked/topic/625655/Venus

9

pleasures for spouses, they were simultaneously expected to maintain an air of propriety

that such sensuality jeopardized.

Aside from representing a visual manifestation of idyllic characteristics, the

work also depicts the expectations woman was to fulfill. The roles of mother and

caregiver are acutely accentuated in the painting. Seeing that Venus stands on a

seashell, attention is drawn to birth, origin and the organic, as in antiquity the seashell

was symbolically associated with a woman‟s vulva.11

Further, the presence of the

goddess Horae is also reminiscent of the maternal. The caretaker in the scene, Horae, is

quick to cloth and protect the bare Venus from the elements, echoing the period‟s two

main beliefs- young unmarried women needed constant protection and guidance, while

the mature woman needed to assume the two most fitting roles of caregiver and mother.

Even as the nudity and simplicity of Venus beckons our attention, the viewer‟s

awareness is diverted from recognizing her powerful status as goddess. The cultural

perceptions and gender roles, with which the fifteenth century woman was perceived,

also deflected notice from her true power and potential. The customs and organizational

structure of her society, which the ensuing section will address, enabled and further

promulgate these beliefs.

11

“The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)”. (2008). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.. Retrieved November,14,

2008. from Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia Online:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Botticelli)#Classical_inspiration

10

Ideological and Physical Restraints

As the strict rhetoric of control manifested unifying capabilities, credibility in its

effectiveness spread, causing its adoption not only in the managing of state affairs and

public policy, but in managing the personal, familial matters, of its citizens as well. The

trickle down effect of organization and monitoring, from state to family, was especially

noticeable in the ideological and physical restraints placed upon women.

This subchapter will examine the connectivity between structural organization

and the policies of public space, their promulgation of stereotypes and the formation of

a stronger mode of expression within the context of gender discourse. In other words,

while the question of „why‟ these restrictions emerged was previously considered, this

juncture will treat the questions of „what‟ and „how‟- that is, what exactly were these

imposed restrictions? And, how did they affect the fashioning of female identity?

The section‟s concluding remarks will point out the ironic nature of these patriarchal

structural controls, as they revealed not only the perceptions with which woman was

held but also the fears and connotations of what her personal potential and liberation

could imply. Enhancing the focus on the inherent idiom of control, the final section will

also examine the consequences of stepping outside these prescribed gender norms,

providing a leeway to the micro, or case studies of Isotta Nogarola and Laura Cereta.

The austere campaign of reformation and correction, implemented in

quattrocento Italy, was intimately linked to the definition of gender roles because of

close-knit oligarchic and elite involvement in the country‟s politics. As no stable head

of political or unitary dominion existed, a combination of elites, oligarchs and princely

favors controlled governmental affairs.12

As such, their political and social hegemony

remained in constant flux, being threatened by the continuous efforts of feuding families

to gain control. The acquisition of such control, naturally implied political and social

12

Chojnacki, Stanley. Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician Society.

(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), p51.

11

participation; exercising influence in markets and other public places translated into

power. Likewise, the arrangement of marriage ties strengthened political alliances,

while the regulation of female sexuality, afforded a premeditated, controlled form of

social interaction that would ultimately ensure continuity in the pursuit of power. As all

these involved the political, female ineligibility was stressed through various

restrictions, giving rise to a division amongst the sexes and ultimately to gender

ideologies, where males were associated with initiative and females with passivity and

modesty.

The most observable method of restriction was in terms of physical space.

Throughout the fifteenth century, Italy understood the public domain as a dichotomy of

opposing arenas, where the sacred and the profane, the center and the periphery, the

civic and the private met and functioned, both separately and alongside the male- female

divisions. As each space contained symbolic and moral connotations, certain areas were

deemed improper for a woman, and thus placed outside the parameters of what

femaleness would tolerate.

The Venetian piazza of San Marco attests to the way in which organization

strengthened the slogan of male authority. As one of the most renowned commercial

zones, its political character and financial prospects enticed the participation of the

Venetian nobility, which Dennis Romano indicates, identified “participants as full-

fledged members of the Venetian community”.13

This involvement he stresses, defined

San Marco as a male domain, as such participation implied council memberships and

participation in civic affairs. Thus, to be considered a citizen of Venice and a productive

member of this public space one was to be involved in the town‟s civil causes, which

propriety argued against when it came to women. Indeed, with regard to civic

involvement women, argues Wiesner in an article comparing the Reformation and

Renaissance eras, “were generally criticized rather than praised for public actions…

they were never considered” members within this context.14

Public space and action

were closely tied to male livelihood and identity. Neither finances nor political affairs

presented the fifteenth century woman with opportunities for character refinement, and

as a result neither were deemed appropriate. In a letter of advice to one of his

13

Romano, Dennis. “Gender and the Urban Geography of Renaissance Venice”. Journal of Social History,

Vol.23, No.2 (Peter N. Sterns: Winter, 1989).p340. 14

Wiesner, E. Merry. “Beyond Women and the Family: Towards a Gender Analysis of the Reformation”. The

Sixteenth Century Journal. Vol.18, No.3. (Autumn, 1987), p318.

12

colleagues, Leonardo Bruni explains why loud, public locals were inappropriate for a

respectable woman:

…if a woman throws her arms around whilst speaking, or if she increases the

volume of her speech with greater forcefulness, she will appear threateningly

insane and requiring restraint. These matters belong to men; as war, or battles,

and also contests and public controversies.15

For women then, behavioral and participatory propriety became associated with a

regression from public life and communal institutions. However, regression along with

spatial exclusion proved problematic as these deprived women not only of public

involvement, but of their citizenship as well, excluding them even further from public

affairs.16

In fact, the contingent development of male identity on public space was so

powerful, that any female intrusion in this sphere was not only inappropriate, but also

regarded as anarchistic in terms of gender norms, soliciting correction.

The markets of Florence, Ferrara, Bologna, and Padua, presented a similar

scenario where selective participation continued to support and establish an ideological

discourse of masculinity. The commercial center at Rialto, another Venetian market

square, also defined public space as a male locale. Though a busy trading spot, Rialto,

like all other markets, presented inhospitable conditions for the elite, reputable, Italian

woman. Physical and moral dangers lurked freely amongst the streets posing threats to

her reputation. The taverns, travelers, prostitutes and “drunken brawls”, were all

extremely common.17

In addition the moneylenders and the numerous banking

transactions provided an environment that contradicted the Christian ideals she was to

uphold. For these reasons, women of status would not venture in these markets, leading

to a physical female absence, reiterating associations between males and public

domains. By defining designated areas of the public as male landscapes, a monopoly

over public power was granted to the male sex. Thus, engaging in educational pursuits,

writing, practicing professions, or any other activities associated with the public, were

often viewed as an affront to male authority, and as a result, were understood as

contradictions to female identity.

The pictorial depiction of women during this period, in balconies, bedrooms, and

15

Leonardo Bruni in Jardine, Lisa. “„O Decus Italiae Virgo‟, or the Myth of the Learned Lady in the

Renaissance”. The Historical Journal. Vol.28, No.4 (Cambridge University Press: December, 1985), p813. 16

Wiesner, E. Merry. “Beyond Women and the Family”. p318 17

Romano, Dennis. “Gender and the Urban Geography of Renaissance Venice”, p341.

13

windows, accentuates the manner with which Renaissance culture perceived them. Their

realm was within the private, carrying associations of domesticity and piety. Political,

civic and didactic matters would require women to leave this place of refuge, and

immerse themselves into an unrestrained environment, corrupting their modesty,

virginity, and the purity their fathers and husbands strove to protect. In reality, failing to

respect these established gender boundaries, would not only weigh down the projected

image of a respectable woman, but could also acutely affect the way in which her

husband and family were perceived. Famous fifteenth century architect Leon Battista

Alberti (1404- 1472), gave voice to this sentiment in his treaties Della Famiglia:

…to tell the truth, it would hardly win us respect if your wife busied herself

among the men in the marketplace, out in the public eye. It also seems somewhat

demeaning to me to remain shut up in the house among women when I have

manly things to do among men, fellow citizens and worthy and distinguishable

foreigners.18

The private and passive activities undertaken by females were demeaning for men, as

their place was within the aggressive, public space, where they could mingle with other

distinguished foreign and local „citizens‟.

The treaties of Fra Paolino the Minorite, entitled De regimine rectoris, and the

words of Francesco Barbaro in De re uxoria, gave further female associations to the

domestic. Fra Paolino, for example, claimed a woman‟s duty was to govern the house,

however, he also distinctly specified that this form of government was only to apply to

“lesser matters, such as the management of the household goods and similar things”.19

Though in principle the private was to be the woman‟s domain, where she would govern

and where a complimentary relationship of power to that of the man would emerge, in

actuality, women enjoyed little independence even in the home. Attempting to draw

parallels between the woman‟s supposed ability to exercise power within the home, and

that of her husband‟s within the public sphere, an ancient description of Roman law,

demonstrates the small degree of autonomy women held in the fifteenth century – be it

in the public or private space:

a woman joined to her husband by holy marriage, should share in all his

possessions and sacred rites… This law obliged (…) married women to conform

themselves entirely to the temper of their husbands and the husbands to rule

their wives as necessary and inseparable possessions. Accordingly, if a wife was

virtuous and in all things obedient to her husband, she was mistress of the

house, to the same degree as her husband was master of it, and after the death of

18

Ibid, p348. 19

Romano, Dennis. “Gender and the Urban Geography of Renaissance Venice”, p343.

14

the husband she was heir to his property in the same manner as a daughter… But

if she did any wrong, the injured party was her judge, and determined the degree

of her punishment.20

The italic font above is not part of the original text but was rather inserted to emphasize

the „catch‟ of female authority: it was the ideals of virtue that gave a woman status and

power, not her proper actions. In other words the title of „mistress‟ was granted to a

woman in order to recompense her ability to submit and obey her husband, and master

of the home. The accent placed on the woman‟s passivity stressed her inferior position

in fifteenth century gendered and domestic hierarchies.

Francesco Barbaro, who wrote treaties for the marriage of Lorenzo de‟ Medici

and Giverva Cavalcanti, in 1415, went further than simply identifying a domestic

hierarchy and overtly presented a woman‟s weaker intellectual nature as the reason for

which she could and should not govern the home. In his work, he contrasts the strong

man who supplies the house, with the woman “by nature weak”, who merely conserves

the things the man provides. Barbaro further advised women to:

care diligently for the household… to oversee the servants, to take inventory,

and to undertake vile tasks if their husbands or the need to entertain guests

required them to do so.21

For both Paolino and Barbaro, the woman‟s role was strictly within the private, and

even there, her duties did not encourage her to assert an authoritarian position. The fact

that both theologians commented and drew parallels between female identity and

passivity reinforced the popularity of this notion. In Barbaro‟s case, one truly becomes

aware of the degree with which this impression was socially accepted. As he was

writing for Florence‟s most influential family, it is natural to assume that he would be

indisposed to offend them. The fact that he terms woman, and consequently Cavalcanti

„weak by nature‟, suggests that such idioms were considered matter of fact in

quattrocento culture, and thus would not offend the recipient.

It seems clear that the genders were not to extend beyond their prescribed limits,

and opinion as well as strict public policy ensured this remained the case. Deviations

from these boundaries, especially for elite women, translated not only in an unfavorable

social standing, but also in a possible exorcise of power amongst their family members.

As elite families governed the political landscape of cities such as Venice, Florence, and

Milan, various acts were drawn up in an attempt to limit the nobility‟s access to power.

20

Kelly-Gadol, Joan. “The Social Relation of the Sexes”, p821. 21

Ibid, p343.

15

From 1414 to 1430, various policies were instilled regulating age and gender, while

simultaneously defining the required criteria for aristocratic inheritance and ability to

service the state.22

Males who planned to pursue political careers, secure offices, or

participate in civil affairs, had to meet a criterion based on documentation of the father‟s

credentials. In addition “the marital and social condition of the mother”, which was well

documented and served as official registry, was also closely evaluated.23

The

requirements of presenting a family recordi, ensured constant surveillance of the

political class, and although the focus seemed to be on the patrilineal side, regulations

were indirectly placed on women as well. The woman of such a candidate, had to be of

noble descent herself, and had to present a certain image and reputation, which

consequently had to adhere to gender impositions and subsequently the associated limits

of femininity. The above tensions between privilege, power and public rights, stressed

the need for conformity and the seriousness with which this was treated.

Discourses of femininity and masculinity were not just polite guidelines for

structuring relations between the sexes, but were rather overt, obligatory codes that held

serious consequences for those who chose to ignore them. Pressures to fit and remain

within certain social echelons meant maintaining a said reputation, which when lost,

affected the individual, the family, and the social balance of power.

The taboo character associated with public locales, the limits imposed on women along

with their separation from power and participation, assigned women a status of „passive

citizen‟, while all together creating a role for them as creatures of docility, triviality, and

of the private.

The idiom of controlling public space was not the sole contributor to the

instilment of such stringent gender norms. The roles and correspondingly appropriate

behaviors of men and women were also closely governed in terms of sexuality. The

fifteenth century witnessed a significantly high rate of male homosexuality and sodomy,

both of which contradicted what masculinity entailed. As these forms of behavior

rejected the already established sexual hierarchy and resisted any categorization of

conduct, they challenged the social order, and as a result were targets of reform.

The political desire of Italian states to circulate appropriate forms of masculinity

amongst male citizens can be observed in the rates of homosexual and sodomy

22

Chojnacki, Stanley. Women and Men in Renaissance Venice. p31. 23

Ibid, p31.

16

persecutions. Throughout the fifteenth century, and throughout the Italian peninsula,

various bodies of regulation were formed for the sole purpose of enforcing proper

sexual conduct. These bodies included the Otto di Guardia, the Ufficiali di Notte, and

the Collegio Sodomitarum.24

The rigor of persecution can be noticed after the formation

of the Sodomy Tribunal or the Collegio Sodomitarum. In 1418, after just one year of

having been established, more cases were tried and prosecuted than in any decade of the

fourteenth century.25

In fact, only 3 cases were prosecuted in 1376 to 1400, and 31 cases

from 1401 to 1425. Likewise the number of persecutions rose with each decade, as 54

cases were persecuted in 1426 to 1450, compared to 71 from 1451 to 1475, and 110

from 1476 to 1500.26

The visual representation of sodomy persecutions, in the above graph, highlights even

further the intense mandate for improving ideological and behavioral comportment. In

fact, after 1448, when the Council of Ten began concerning itself with sodomy cases, a

special police force was instilled which sought out individuals on suspicions alone. This

resulted in more serious sentences in Venice, where the indicted could be burned for the

offence.27

Suspicion alone as prerequisite for inquisition and examination, accentuated fears of

effeminacy and drew attention to a widespread misunderstanding regarding

24

Frey, A. Dennis. “Sodomy in Reformation Germany and Switzerland, 1400-1600”. Journal of Social History.

(Fall, 2004). Retrieved on October 29, 2008 from CBS Interactive Inc. Online:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_/ai_n6234818 25

Chojnacki, Stanley. Women and Men in Renaissance Venice. p35. 26

Ibid, p35. 27

Ibid, p35.

17

homosexuality, mainly, that it “involved the man becoming in some sense a woman”.28

In The Pardoner‟s Homosexuality and How It Matters, McAlpine makes note of several

sources where males were cautioned in terms of action, dress, and behavior so as to

avoid crossing the fine gender line:

…sew your sleeves and comb your hair, but do not paint or rouge your face, for

such customs belong only to ladies or to men with bad repute, who have had the

misfortune to find a love contrary to nature.29

However, actions regarding the implementation of proper dress and

comportment were not the only measures emplaced in fending off effeminacy. The

lenient policies towards prostitutions during this period can also be understood within

this context. While laws and punishments were increasingly unsympathetic towards

homosexual activities, legislative bodies took a more tolerant attitude towards

prostitution. Starting in 1403, the Uffici dell‟ Onesta for example, no longer sought to

extirpate prostitution but rather strove to regulate it, designating areas outside city limits

where brothels were permitted to function.30

Similarly in 1432, when sodomy and

homosexual persecutions were at a peek, prostitution was tolerated by Venice and

Florence even within their city limits.31

State control of its citizens‟ sexuality, was not

only a manifestation of the government‟s recognition of new sexual needs, but a manner

through which public morality and proper gender comportment could be enforced.

Through the overt toleration of a lesser social evil, or in other words prostitution, a

greater evil could be averted. The fears of effeminacy that sodomy and other

homosexual acts brought about, could be controlled through the state‟s encouragement

of proper heterosexual relations. In this manner the former status quo amongst the

genders was reinforced, and the morale of male authority was reestablished.

Stepping outside the conventional was problematic for both genders, and as

demonstrated above, the tensions such actions solicited were encountered with severe

punishments, as such acts were deemed „contrary to nature‟ and in need of correction.

Instructional manuals and sodomy sentences were stern in maintaining narrow-minded

male and female behavioral codes, and likewise, both gave voice to a frank discourse of

gender propriety. In addition, these methods also stressed the government‟s own fear of

impropriety and of sexual disorder.

28

McAlpine, E. Monica. “The Pardoner‟s Homosexuality and How It Matters”. PMLA. Vol.95, No.1 (Modern

Language Association: January, 1980), p11. 29

Ibid, p11. 30

Chojnacki, Stanley. Women and Men in Renaissance Venice. p32. 31

Ibid, p32.

18

The language employed in the above mentioned records, along with that utilized

in the decrees establishing grounds for sodomy pardons, should also be noted as it

further defined the norms within which men and women were to function. According to

the 1432 records of the Ufficiali di Notte, the actions of males under the age of eighteen

were pardoned on grounds of immaturity, as these males did not yet possess the abilities

required to distinguish right from wrong. In fact, between the years of 1478 to 1502,

records indicated that 82% of the offenders who were under the age of 30 were let off

without punishment.32

Interestingly enough, the same accounts made a great effort in

establishing a correlation between these minors‟ inculpability and the passive, ignorant

nature of women. By calling these young offenders female derogatory names such as

whore (puttane) and bitch (cagna), a synonymous relation between men, sex and power

was voiced.33

Similarly, while concepts of mature male dominance were accentuated,

the subordination of women was once again reiterated. The young offenders in question

were to be pardoned because, like the women they were compared to, they lacked the

common sense and the assertive nature of full-grown men.

The notion of cultural perception through the dialogical has gained much

attention from various sociologists. Horodowich for example, defined the concept of

sociolinguistics, as an attempt to bridge the language in a society with social

perspectives.34

The theoretical

approach of sociolinguistics maintains that:

different social groups use different varieties of language … that people

regularly employ different „registers‟ of language (that is standard or

dialectic/slang) in different situations; that language reflects the culture in which

it is spoken; and that language shapes society.35

The author further argued that language was:

an active force used by individuals and groups to control others or defend

themselves against control, to change society and to prevent others from

changing it.36

32

Chojnacki, Stanley. Women and Men in Renaissance Venice. p33 33

Ibid, p34 34

Horodowich, Elizabeth. “Civic Identity and the Control of Blasphemy in Sixteenth Century Venice”. Past

and Present Society. Vo.181, No.1. (November, 2003), p3. Retrieved online October 2008, from Oxford

University Press: http://past.oxfordjournals.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/cgi/reprint/181/1/3 35

Ibid, p3. 36

Ibid, p4.

19

Through the comparisons made between male and female characteristics, the language

employed in sodomy pardons established a male construction of femaleness as inferior

and submissive. In addition the same employments of gender categories were also

frequently found within the literary works of this period, demonstrating and reiterating

the same notions. Literary dialogues, popular genres at the time, used binaries of gender

categories and male superiority in order to convey meaning. Relying on methods of

rhetorical persuasion, the most assertive and aggressive arguments were give

legitimacy. In an almost mock battle of words, the reader was presented with male

protagonists, viewpoints, and epic conventions that enabled the triumphant speaker to

emerge as a powerful agent.37

In this manner, language both shaped and accentuated the

gender norms that would in turn shape women. Through the marginalization of women

both in language and public space, males were granted a status as dominant entities, and

unfortunately these implicit consequences were quite obvious.

The idea of language as active force, used to impose the contours within which

woman was to shift, certainly parallels the physical attempts marked by corporal

legislation, which impinged itself in order to monitor and govern female presence in

public space. In this way, women became what gender roles demanded of them, and

society both shaped and established these demands, so that women were never

encouraged to venture outside the parameters of their gender and possibly challenge

male authority. The defining of female identity in private terms, as housewives,

caregivers and mothers, shaped women‟s self-image and sexuality. In addition these

imposed limitations translated into male control over women‟s participation in society,

their relations with each other and the relations they established with the opposite sex.

As demonstrated above, the public perception of what femaleness entailed in

Renaissance Italy, resulted from a symbiosis of cultural beliefs and attitudes. The

organization of public space and the linguistic employment of fifteenth century Italians

depicted the proper gender norms that society and authoritative institutions expected of

their citizens. Males were deemed authoritative, while in comparison, women were

perceived as subordinate counterparts. These perceptions affected the proper formation

of female identity, and as confirmed in the following section, women could expect both

consequences and rewards if they failed to define themselves within these established

37

Cochrane W. Eric. Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance. (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1981), p254

20

norms. But, to what extent was the quattrocento woman able to engage and negotiate in

fashioning her proper identity outside of these cultural stereotypes?

21

Idioms of Virtue and A Feminist Defense:

Isotta Nogarola

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, European women were

viewed as one-dimensional subjects, where their social expectations and personal

comportment could be measured and esteemed based on a few crude qualities. The

translation provided by

Lovodico Dolce entitled Dialogo della Institution delle Donne, an appropriation of an

earlier text written by Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives, makes this perfectly clear:

Many things are necessary to a man: prudence, eloquence, expert skill in

governing the Republic, talent, memory, ability and diligence in leading one‟s

life, justice, liberality, magnanimity and other qualities which would take too

long to recount. If any one of these are lacking, he should not be reproached

since he has some of them. But in a woman one does not look for profound

eloquence or subtle intelligence, or exquisite prudence or talent for living or

administration of the Republic or justice or anything else except chastity. If this

is not found in her it would be as if all of the above mentioned virtues were

lacking in the man, because in a woman this is worth every other excellence.38

The notion of chastity, the unanimous virtue of utmost importance, by which the woman

would be measured for centuries to come, established the foundational groundwork by

which all her actions could be judged, understood, and placed into an appropriate social

context. However, if the fifteenth century woman failed to situate herself within the

prescribed boundaries of this virtue, her social reputation and standing undoubtedly

suffered.

The rhetoric of virtue was especially noticeable with the life choices presented to

young women -marriage or the taking of vows-, and with women‟s treatment, if they

failed to choose one or the other. Due to the fact that a woman‟s autonomous sexual

maturity was in contradiction with the notion of chastity, women that remained

unmarried, for financial or personal reasons, were forcefully conscribed to convents in

order to protect the family‟s honor and reputation from the risk of social slander and

38

Junkerman Christine Anne. “The Lady and the Laurel: Gender and Meaning in Giorgione‟s „Laura‟ ”.

Oxford Art Journal.Vol.16, No.1. (Oxford University Press: Spring, 1993), p49.

22

sexual disgrace. When examining the expansion of convents throughout quattrocento

Italy, one quickly becomes aware of this social reality. In 1368, for example, only 16

convents existed throughout the country, compared to 26 and 30 convents in 1415 and

1470 respectively.39

The extension and importance of convents during this period was

also, not surprisingly, correlative to the increased rate of female subscription to the

pious life. While only 1.6% of daughters took vows in 1336, an increased 6.7% of

daughters were recorded to have taken them in 1427.40

Though such a figurative increase in monastic calling would indicate a heightened sense

of spirituality, primary sources indicate this was not the case; young women did not take

the vow of chastity willingly. A Venetian law passed in 1420, forbidding forceful

monacation (the anglicization of an Italian word for entering into a convent), draws

attention to the traumatic experience and sorrow, these young women felt “imprisoned”

with “tears and wailing” within convent walls:

…forced by their fathers and brothers into convents with meager allowances, not

to pray and bestow blessings, but to blaspheme and curse the bodies and souls of

their parents and relatives, and to indict God for letting them be born…41

Despite a daughter‟s upset, this method ensured the family‟s pride and all important

social standing remained in tact.

The reference made to allowances, in the above quotation, is also telling of

another factor contributing to the high rate of taking monastic vows: dowries. Dowries

were sums of money given to women upon marriage that ensured women‟s stake in the

patrimony, and that strove to aid the groom in bearing the burden of matrimony.42

As

dowries were the most significant factor in a woman‟s marriageability, increasing the

woman‟s standing vis-à-vis her husband and in-laws, the increased costs of financially

furnishing young women left many families unable to marry off more than one

daughter, forcing the remaining female siblings to take monastic vows, so as to prevent

the shame of having unmarried women in the home.

The fifteenth century witnesses a high rate of dowry inflation and such deeply

entrenched ideologies of chastity that the choices provided to women were more acutely

articulated than ever. Chastity could only be preserved through these two means, and

39

Chojnacki, Stanley. Women and Men in Renaissance Venice. p38. 40

Ibid, p38. 41

Ibid, p37 42

Ibid, p134

23

under no circumstances could a woman establish a reputable character mingling outside

these boundaries. As pressures to conform and maintain family honor were enforced,

women were subject once again to a rhetoric of male control. In fact, subscription rates

to the monastic had become so problematic, due to the inability of families to provide

all female siblings with the financial possibility of marriage, that frequent attempts were

consistently being made by governmental treaties to alleviate dowry funds and

withdraw women from their monastic vows.

The Florentine Dowry Fund, or the Monte delle Dotti, introduced in 1424,

exemplified such attempts, striving to provide families with “dowries, however

small”.43

The financial assistance granted by the government aimed at ensuring that

“women will be certain to lead a virtuous and praiseworthy life”.44

Such incentives were

also prevalent in Venice, where a law instilled in 1430 placed a maximum of 1, 600

ducats for marriage settlements.45

In fact, in Venice the practice of taking vows in order

to observe chastity had grown to such outrageous extremes that the marriage market

was noticeably suffering, forcing the archbishop himself to advocate stricter entrance

laws, as more than “2 000 noble women were stored in convents as though in a public

warehouse”.46

These statistics are attention worthy and telling, not only of the cultural

ideologies and of what culture deemed appropriate for respectable ladies, but rather of

the prevalent adoption of these currents amongst the upper social strata. As the historian

Chojnacki indicates, more than 30% of the nuns in convents came from the middle or

upper social echelons, and as the century progressed these numbers increased,

beginning with 906 elite women in 1427 and rising to 2000 by the end of the century.47

These statistics specify that notions of purity and virtue were just as prevalent and

important amongst middle class women as they were amongst the elites. In other words,

the same standards were imposed upon, and held as a term of measurement for the elite

woman, who‟s family could have surely afforded to provide her with a substantial

dowry or with the financial means necessary to support her, if she chose not to marry.

With these statistics, it becomes important to stress that women in this period did not

manifest a heightened sense of spirituality, but rather an obliged duty to preserve

dignity, honor and their own reputations amongst their social peers.

43

Ibid, p43 44

Ibid, p43 45

Gibson, Joan. Educating for silence. p320 46

Chojnacki, Stanley. Women and Men in Renaissance Venice. p38. 47

Ibid, p40

24

The paradigm of chastity, which women were to follow however, presented

many paradoxes especially when women attempted to enter into the public domain. As

any sort of involvement that brought the woman into the civic sphere contradicted what

chastity implied, conflicts arose. In the literary world, for example, where although the

women‟s involvement was theoretically welcomed, the incongruity that the chaste

idiom presented jeopardized the female ideal, and as a result worked as a measure of

censorship limiting female participation. Isotta Nogarola, our female humanist in

question, was often confronted with this paradigm, and the conventional wisdom that

intellectual activity was the providence of man. In fact, even a century later, women

were still very much excluded from academic circles. The School of Athens, (see fig.3)

or the Scuola di Atene (1510-1511) painted by Renaissance artist Raphael, demonstrates

the exclusive character of these very public, male spheres.

Despite the numerous mathematicians, poets and established scholars, women

are noticeably missing from the fresco. Women are neither students nor teachers, and as

a result of their absence, the canvas seems to suggest that their contributions were

nonexistent in shaping the pagan philosophy and Christian theology the canvas‟

scholars represent. However, this was not the case, as Nogarola was not the first woman

to make an intellectual contribution to European culture. Contributions made by women

as early as 612BC, with the lyrical poems of Sappho, and as close to Nogarola‟s own

time as Maddalena degli Scrovengi (1336-1429) were never acknowledged.48

This

deliberate censorship of female academic participation stemmed both from a social

unwillingness to recognize a woman‟s intellectual capabilities, as well as from fears of

what such recognition might entail. For, how could a woman engage a room full of

males, debate, argue, and pose as an intellectual equal, while keeping her virtue and

chastity in tact?

Proscription regarding female engagement in any form of public literary

dialogue held firm, and as Junkerman denotes, in her article “The Lady and the Laurel”,

continued to do so because verbal display was strongly associated with the body‟s

physical display.49

In her text, Junkerman examines the pictorial depictions of Giorgio

Barbarelli da Castelfranco‟s Portrait of a Woman „Laura‟ (1504) and Leonardo da

Vinci‟s Portrait of Ginevra de‟ Benci (1474), and contends that the active gesture of

48

King L. Margaret. The Renaissance in Europe. (New York: McGraw Hill Publishing, 2003),p86. Obtained

online at: http://books.google.ca. Retrieved Feb/07/09. 49

Junkerman Christine Anne. “The Lady and the Laurel”. p54

25

writing became, through the bare limbs, body language, and sly glances of these

poetesses, compound with self display (see fig.4).50

The strategy of eroticism employed by Giorgione‟s canvas, for example,

sexualizes the female poet, making her an object of seduction for the male viewer, and

thus incompatible with societal norms required of women. The argument Junkerman

lays forth is unsurprisingly, compatible with epithets circulating within the literary

sphere, which urged females, Nogarola not excluded, to silence. In fact, echoes urging

silence amongst the artistic and literary world were complimentary, especially when

considering the words of fifteenth century Venetian, Francesco Barbaro, towards

women:

… the speech of a noble woman can be no less dangerous than the nakedness of

her limbs…,

and more precisely the words he uttered towards Nogarola “an eloquent woman is never

chaste”.51

The notion of the chaste, silent woman, confronted the noblewoman often, as

Nogarola herself voiced in a letter to her presumed lover, Ludovic Foscarini:

Know yourself! The famous saying of Socrates, whom the ancients thought most

wise, which has been repeated often up to the present day, has frequently

deterred me from writing, since it has encouraged me to recognize the frailty of

my intellect and the inelegance of my speech. My sex, too and my current way

of life also urge me to be silent, and all the more so now since I have all but

abandoned those studies and others call me that have better prepared me to live

with God in the age to come and to restore order to life.52

The letter extract presented above gives voice to the social constraints Nogarola faced

for refusing to conform to the accepted social norms that ascribed marriage and

monastic vows as ideals for the elite woman. The reference Nogarola made to silence

was rooted in personal experience and the sentiments she must have felt from being

ostracized by the literary community.

Having offended masculine propriety, by entering into the male humanist

preserve and by refusing to do the accepted- marry or answer religious callings-

anonymous public pamphleteers attempted, in 1438, to shame Nogarola out of the

50

Ibid, p54 51

Junkerman Christine Anne. “The Lady and the Laurel”. p45 52

Nogarola Isotta. “Isotta Nogarola to Ludovico Foscarini”.(Verona, 1451). in Complete Writingss: Letterbook,

Dialogue on Adam and Eve, Orations. Ed. Margaret L. King, Diana Maury Robin, Diana Robin. (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 2003), p128.

26

literary world by calling into question her nonconformist attitude and lewdness. 53

Accusing the elite of homosexuality, promiscuity, adultery, and of having had sexual

relations with her brother, the charges maliciously claimed:

When that second unmarried sister, who has won such praise for her eloquence,

does things which little befit her erudition and reputation- although this saying

of many wise men I hold to be true: that an eloquent woman is never chaste; and

the behavior of many learned women also confirms its truth… But lest you

approve even slightly this excessively foul and obscene crime, let me explain

that before she made her body generally available for promiscuous intercourse,

she had first permitted – and indeed even earnestly desired – that the seal of her

virginity be broken by none other then her brother, so that by this tie she might

be more tightly bound to him. Alas for God in whom men trust, who does not

mingle heaven with earth nor the sea with heaven, when she who sets herself no

limit in this filthy lust, dares to engage so deeply in the finest studies.54

As Isotta Nogarola was well recognized amongst various male literary figures, her

imposition upon the noble pursuit of letters, posed a threat to social norms and

conventions, and as a result her sexuality was brought into question. The accuser in this

case, much like Giorgione‟s Laura, combined lewd sexuality as premise arguing against

female autonomy. Despite the fact that Nogarola took a vow of virginity, attacking her

sexuality and chastity, were the only means through which one could discredit and oust

her from her social peers, as women were hardly ever judged outside this context.

The affronts on Nogarola‟s character were particularly painful for the female

humanist, and sadly, the pamphleteers managed to accomplish what they had sought

out. In one of her letters to Guarino, Nogarola laments at the social ridicule and

exclusion these accusations had caused:

There are already so many women in the world! Why then was I born a woman,

to be scorned by men in both words and deeds? (…) For I am jeered at through

the city, my sex mocks me, nowhere do I have a restful resting place.55

The above extraction intensely illustrates the ramifications of gender politics, in

that, although Nogarola never married nor took vows, she none the less retreated from

the public position of intellect and scholar after the 1438 accusations, indicating once

again, the importance of maintaining one‟s reputation and respectability, and the force

with which social norms had the ability to conduct one‟s life.

53

Stevenson Jane. Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender and Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth

Century. (Oxford University Press). p162. Obtained online at: http://books.google.ca. Retrieved Nov.03. 2008 54

King L. Margaret. “The Religious Retreat of Isotta Nogarola (1418-1466): Sexism and Its Consequences in

the Fifteenth Century”. Signs. Vol.3, No.4. (University of Chicago Press: Summer, 1978). p809 55

Ibid, p810

27

However, Nogarola‟s retreat should not be interpreted as a defeat or a

renunciation of her philosophical views. In contrast, while her actions only demonstrate

the difficulty encountered by literate women when transgressing gender boundaries and

attempting to enter a domain deemed as masculine, the opening words „know yourself‟,

in her letter to Ludovic, suggest a strong sense of self-assurance in spite of the social

conceptions of female intellectual frailty. As has been demonstrated in earlier sections

and by various historians, Joan Kelly and Jane Stevenson to name a few, the act of

socially defining women in terms of domesticity, chastity, and inferiority shaped

women‟s “self image, sense of worth… mode of expression and ability to relate” to

their society.56

Yet, despite the rhetoric of „inferior intellect‟ and immorality with which

many male literates perceived Nogarola, she never ceased to assert her prerogatives nor

did she renounce her feminist perspective. On the contrary, her letters and orations

avidly engage the scholastic world, while simultaneously defending female capabilities

and intellect, even against the en vogue humanists that claimed to advocate the

competence of the female sex.

The practice of defending female intellectual capacities commenced in the

fourteenth century with the work of Italian author and poet Giovanni Boccaccio. In De

Mulieribus Claris, Boccaccio presents the biographies of over one hundred famous

women, which the 1374 text argues, are worthy of praise and recognition.57

Throughout

the text Boccaccio maintains that moral education along with the imitation of the

spiritual attitudes presented by the women discussed, can improve the moral character

of the female reader, which the text addressed. Considered an anomaly for the time, the

book‟s success, Benson argues, was rooted in ambiguity. In other words, although the

author presented autonomous women, he praised their morale, virtuous nature, or their

religious character, while overlooking their political or civic involvement. These praised

traits, neither threatened nor disrupted the already established social hierarchy, and thus

could be emulated and adopted as norms, while the women‟s public deeds were

overlooked as contextual background.

Examining the framework and the ideas presented with regard to education for

example, Boccaccio advocates the female potential for retaining instruction and

56

Joan Kelly. “The Double Vision of the Feminist Theory: A Postscript to the „Women and Power „

Conferences ”. Feminist Studies. Vol.5, No.1, Women and Power: Dimensions of Women‟s Historical

Experience. (Feminist Studies Inc.: Spring, 1979). p217 57

Benson Joseph Pamela. The Invention of the Renaissance Woman: The challenge of Female Independence in

the Literature and Thought of Italy and England. (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992),

p11

28

benefiting from it, but oddly enough, refrains from advocating any particular fields or

subject matters for instruction other than basic morals:

I shall not condemn Nature, for no matter how strong its powers may be, at the

beginning they are so flexible that with a little effort they can be guided almost

at will. But if you disregard this evil when it begins, it will always grow worse. I

believe that often the indulgence of parents towards adolescent girls spoils their

character.58

Nature the author suggests, is not the reason for female inferiority of character or

intellect, but rather the parents‟ reluctance to provide their girls with a moral education.

Moral education, he further asserts, can mold a girl‟s nature, providing her with the

knowledge required in order to triumph over „indulgence‟ and other such „evils‟.

Boccaccio‟s De Mulieribus Claris, made conventional morality a virtue worthy

of imitation, where the previously enforced conformity of women to the traditionally

inferior social roles were replaced by the glamorization of willful conformity. In this

manner, the seemingly radical and pro-feminist text, adhered to the traditional notions

of chastity and virtue which already defined and restricted women.

Like Boccaccio‟s text, those of Antonio Cornazzano, Vespasiano da Bisticci,

and Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, which were to follow in the fifteenth century,

praised the accomplishments of women while presenting a similar rhetoric of

conventionality. Also like Boccaccio, neither of the above-mentioned authors presented

methods through which any meaningful change or social reform could be implemented.

Antonio Cornazzano‟s De Mulieribus Admirandis, for example, grounds its so called

pro-feminist defense in the exemplary abilities of the women he describes to uphold

vows of chastity, maintain their spirituality in times of adversity, and remain devoted to

their families.59

The work of Vespasiano da Bisticci, Il Libro delle Lode e

Commendazione delle Donne, also refrains from redefining or questioning accepted

societal perceptions of woman. Worse still, and ironically, he engages in idioms of

female inferiority in order to present and elaborate his so-called feminist defense. The

defense of Eve, for instance, with which Il Libro delle Lode opens, maintains that Eve

should not be faulted for eating from the forbidden tree, and was in reality excused for

her actions, based on the fact that God chose Adam to guide her. Stated in different

58

Ibid, p19 59

Ibid, p36

29

words, Vespasiano considered the gravity of Adam‟s sin much more grievous as he was

“more perfect than the woman”.60

Using extracts and examples from the Old Testament, the author further tries to

persuade the reader into siding with Eve, by demonstrating that God blamed man more

than woman. While such an argument defends Eve‟s actions, and absolves her of any

responsibility for the Fall, it hardly attests to her ability to reason. Thus, the praise

Vespasiano assigns to Eve‟s character, fails to be a defense in the true meaning of the

word. Adam, despite his sin, emerges as an intellectual superior, while Eve, despite the

given justification, emerges as an emblem of women‟s irrationality.

Despite its feminist pretext, Vespasiano‟s work, much like the works of his

humanist contemporaries, failed to depict woman as an equal to man, in terms of reason

and capabilities. Rather than a defense, Il Libro delle Lode, was a work of laud, which

strove to prove that “in every nation there have been women full of many virtues”, and

that the female virtues praised in quattrocento Italy were also praised and valued by the

ancients.61

The reoccurring contradictions between the content and the context in these

works draw attention to the authors‟, as well as to the culture‟s inability to understand

and perceive women outside the ascribed „inferior and virtuous‟ roles society assigned

to their gender. Moreover by reiterating and upholding the traditional qualities that

already defined women, a subtext of restrain was made possible, through which the

autonomy of these exemplary women was tamed.

In her most notable correspondence with Ludovico Foscarini, Isotta Nogarola

also engages in these cultural currents, debating the question of transgression, while

arguing for the defense of Eve and consequently against the premise of female

inferiority. The 1451 dialogue presents four arguments, which are deliberated at length

between the two humanists.62

The first topic addresses the notion of nature versus free

will, while the second speaks of the relative severity of Adam and Eves‟ sins. The

second argument proves to be the strongest Nogarola provides. Arguing Eve‟s sin to be

less decisive than that committed by Adam, as his transgression disobeyed God‟s direct

command, Nogarola demonstrates an extensive assortment of knowledge ranging from

the works of church fathers, to scripture, to the ancients and finally to the contemporary

works of individuals such as Lorenzo Valla and his dialogues on Free Will. The third

argument debates the significance of Christ‟s redemption of Adam, while the fourth and

60

Vespasiano da Bisticci in Benson Joseph Pamela. The Invention of the Renaissance Woman. p37 61

Ibid, p37 62

Nogarola Isotta. Complete Writings. p143

30

last topic of discussion unfolds around the relative severity and significance of the

punishments assigned to woman and man.

The first section of the entire debate, much like the last, finds Nogarola

defending Eve based on her inadequacies. In this manner, Nogarola argues that Eve‟s

sin is of lesser gravity than that of Adam, because her weaker, irrational, nature

prevented her from making a wiser choice. The argument then continues with Nogarola

claiming that Adam, who was gifted by God with reason, should accept responsibility

for the sin, as:

…where there is less intellect and less constancy, there is less sin; and Even

(lacked sense and constancy) and therefore sinned less. Knowing (her weakness)

that crafty serpent began by tempting the woman, thinking the man perhaps

invulnerable because of his constancy. (For it says) Sentences 2: Standing in the

woman‟s presence, the ancient foe did not boldly persuade, but approached her

with a question: “Why did God bid you not to eat of the tree of paradise?” She

responded: “Lest perhaps we die”. But seeing that she doubted the words of the

Lord, the devil said: “You shall not die”, but “you will be like god, knowing

good from evil.63

The next paragraph contrasts Eve‟s inadequacies and inability to reason by presenting

the strengths God endowed Adam with:

Adam must also be judged more guilty than Eve, secondly because of his greater

contempt for the command. For in Genesis 2 it appears that the Lord

commanded Adam, not Eve, where it says: “The Lord God took the man and

placed him in the paradise of Eden to till it and keep it”, (and it does not say,

„that they might care for and protect it‟). .. “and the Lord God commanded the

man” (and not „them‟): “From every tree of the garden you may eat” (and not

“you” in the plural sense), and (referring to the forbidden tree), “for the day you

eat of it, you must die”, (again, using the singular form of man more highly than

the woman.64

Through her comparison of the sexes and her engagement in stereotypical gender

perceptions, Nogarola draws attention to the inconstancies and inherent contradictions

with which society perceived the Renaissance woman. Arguing that Eve committed the

greater sin and that she should bear responsibility, would imply Eve was Adam‟s

superior, in terms of intellect, persuasion, and ability to rationalize. In other words, if

one was to condemn Eve for her actions, one needed to accept the fact that Eve was

capable of rationalizing the gravity of her transgression and of persuading her

intellectual superior, Adam, into committing the same forbidden act. But seeing as how

cultural perceptions deemed women to be inferior and incapable of anything other than

63

Nogarola Isotta. “Of the Equal and Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve (c.1452)”. Obtained online from Sunshine

for Women., February, 2000. http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2000/nogar2.html 64

Ibid, http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2000/nogar2.html

31

chastity and virtue, how could this be the case? Nogarola‟s argument seems to suggest

the incompatibility of these rhetorics; Eve cannot be held ignorant, inconsistent, and

irrational by nature, while at the same time wiser than Adam, someone more perfect

than she. In this manner, the humanist satirizes social perceptions as well as Foscarini‟s

argument. If society is unwilling to accept women as the intellectual equals of men,

Nogarola argues, than they cannot be judged as equals, and Adam is to be held

responsible, for “in him to whom a more indulgent liberality has been shown, insolence

is more inexcusable”.65

The second fraction of the debate, along with the remaining arguments of the

dialogue also present the above mentioned duality that Nogarola mocks. Adam and Eve

are compared on equal grounds, in terms of their pride and once again, their

transgression. While Foscarini retorts that Eve‟s pride led to disobedience and the

crucifixion of Christ, Nogarola presents the actions of their damnation on equal

grounds. With respect to pride Nogarola argues that Eve longed for the knowledge of

good and evil, and that despite her actions, she only harmed herself, unlike Adam who

injured all of humanity:

…but Adam‟s companion, (you agree), “is not excused because Adam

was appointed to protect her, because thieves who have been trustingly

employed by a householder are not punished with the most severe punishment

like strangers or those in whom the householder placed no confidence”. This is

true, however, in temporal law, but not in divine law, for the divine proceeds

differently from temporal justice in punishing sin.

You argue further that “the fragility of the woman was not the cause of

sin, but rather her inordinate appetite for seeking that which was not suited to

her nature”, which (appetite) is the product, as you write, of pride.

Yet, it is clearly less a sin to desire the knowledge of good and evil than to

transgress against a divine commandment, since the desire for knowledge is a

natural thing, and all men by nature desire to know. And even if the first impulse

of sin were this inordinate appetite, which cannot be without sin, yet it is more

tolerable than the sin of transgression, for the observance of the commandments

is the road which leads to the country of salvation.

(It is written): “But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments”; and

likewise: “What shall I do to gain eternal life? Keep the commandments”.

And the transgression is particularly born of pride, because pride is

nothing other than rebellion against divine rule, exalting oneself above what is

permitted according to divine rule, by disdaining the will of God and displacing

it with one‟s own. Thus Augustine (writes) in, On nature and Grace: “sin is the

will to pursue or retain what justice forbids, that is, to deny what God wishes”.

Ambrose agrees with this in his On Paradise: “sin is the transgression against

divine law and disobedience to the heavenly commandments”.

65

Nogarola Isotta. Complete Writings. p152

32

Behold! See that the transgression against the disobedience to the

heavenly commandments is the greatest sin, whereas you have thus defined sin:

“Sin is the inordinate desire to know”. Thus clearly the sin of transgression

against a command is greater than the sin of desiring the knowledge of good and

evil. So even if inordinate desire be a sin, as with Eve, yet she did not desire to

be like God in power but only in the knowledge of good and evil, which by

nature she was actually inclined to desire. 66

Throughout the above extract Nogarola displays her argumentative skills and her ability

to critically engage. She accepts Foscarini‟s reasoning of pride as premise for Eve‟s sin,

but does not accept this as an explanation by which Adam should be excused. In

contrast employing her knowledge of scripture and of theologians, such as St. Augustine

and St. Ambrose, Nogarola compares the drive behind Adam and Eve‟s pride, and

contends that while Eve‟s pride was driven by a thirst of knowledge, being ignorant as

she was, Adam‟s, pride was fueled, much like that of the fallen angel, by a thirst for

power:

For if man deserved redemption, the woman deserved it much more because of

the slightness of the crime. For the angel cannot be excused by ignorance as can

the woman. For the angel understands without investigation or discussion and

has an intellect more in likeness of God‟s – to which it seems Eve desired to be

similar – than does man. Hence the angel is called intellectual and the man

rational. Thus where the woman sinned from her desire for knowledge, the angle

sinned from a desire of power. While knowledge of an appearance in some small

way can be partaken of by the creature, in no way can it partake in the power of

God and the soul of Christ. Moreover, the woman in sinning thought she would

receive mercy, believing certainly that she was committing a sin, but not one so

great as to warrant God‟s inflicting such a sentence and punishment.

But the angel did not think of mercy. Hence Gregory (says in the) fourth book of

the Moralia: “The first parents were needed for this, that the sin which they

committed by transgressing they might purge by confessing”. But that

persuasive serpent was never punished for his sin, for he was never to be

recalled to grace. Thus, in sum, Eve clearly merited redemption more than

angels.67

Although Nogarola engages intensely in her dialogue with Foscarini, countering

his thoughts and at times even challenging his notions, attention must also be drawn to

the distinct concepts and ideas Nogarola presents. The concept of free will, which the

two intellects debate clearly exemplifies Nogarolas ability to confront male

contemporaries as well as social norms:

“Eve” you say, “must bear responsibility for every fault of Adam because as

Aristotle shows, whatever is cause of the cause is the cause of the thing caused”.

This is true in the case of things which are, as you know better (than I), in

66

Nogarola Isotta. “On Equal and Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve”. Online 67

Ibid. “On Equal and Unequal Sin”.

33

themselves the causes of other things, which is the case for the first, cause, the

first principle, and “that on account of which anything is what it is”. But clearly

this was not the case with Eve, because Adam forced the sin upon him, which is

impossible. For as Bernard says, “Free will, because of its inborn nobility, is

forced by no necessity”, not even by God, because if that were the case it would

be to concede that two contradictories are true at the same time…

“God cannot act against that nature which he created with good will”.

God could himself, however, remove that condition of liberty from any person

and bestow some other conditions on him. In the same way fire cannot, wile it

remains fire, not burn, unless its good angel or devil can do this, since they are

less than God; much less a woman, since she is less perfect and weaker than

they. Augustine clarifies this principle of God‟s supremacy saying: “Above our

mind is nothing besides God, nor is there anything intermediary between God

and our mind”. Yet only something which is superior to something else can

coerce it; but Eve was inferior to Adam, therefore she was not herself the cause

of sin.

(In) Ecclesiasticus 15 (it says): “God from the beginning created man and placed

him in the palm of his counsel and made clear his commandments and

precepts…”. Thus Adam appeared to accuse God rather than excuse himself

when he said: “The woman you placed at my side gave me fruit from the tree

and I ate it”.68

The notion of free will Nogarola presents, demonstrates the female Renaissance

potential and talent. Nogarola‟s argument removes „every blame‟ Eve is to „bare

responsibility for‟, as Foscarini claims, on the grounds that Adam freely made a wrong

choice. In this sense gender became removed from the dialogical equation, showing

individual fault.

According to Nogarola, regardless of whether or not Eve ate the forbidden fruit

first, Adam knew the commandments as well as their consequences and despite this, he

still chose to do wrong. Nogarola seems to suggest that Foscarini, like Adam, who is

unable to take responsibility for his transgression and even accuses God for his mistake,

needs to swallow his pride and accept reality. Adam, despite the philosophical reasoning

of Foscarini, sinned for the simple fact that he chose to go against God‟s command, and

as such, Nogarola suggests, should accept consequent penalties and blame.

Drawing parallels, Nogarola implies that if Foscarini is unable to acknowledge

Adam‟s full liability in his transgression and accord him the deserved blame, he should

in the very least recognize Adam‟s equal contribution in the Fall of humanity.

The notion of assigning equal responsibility to the sexes is a truly a novel idea for

Nogarola‟s times, as women were never perceived outside a chaste and virtuous

framework. By accepting responsibility for Eve‟s actions where it was appropriate, the

68

Ibid. “On Equal and Unequal Sin”..

34

sexes were equated in terms of transgression and also in terms of rationality and

capability.

Nogarola‟s defense of Eve, unlike the contemporary quattrocento texts written in

defense of women, takes on an autonomous character, distancing itself from the popular

rhetorics of female measurement. Understanding Eve and her rationality as the equal of

Adam, allows Eve and women for that matter, to be perceived outside gender

constraints. In this manner Eve ceases to be just a meek woman and becomes recognize

as an autonomous rational human being. Like Adam, she too has the capacity and free

will to make her own choices, the capacity to sin, and the capacity to seek redemption.

It is ironic to note however, that while Nogarola sought to hold firm a feminist

standpoint, many instances throughout the dialogue find her asserting Eve‟s

inadequacies. Laying claims to intellectual inferiority and a weaker natural condition

pardon Eve‟s actions, but unfortunately also abated Nogarola‟s defense. The personal

inability of Nogarola to refrain from engaging in the stereotypical qualities that defined

the genders is as King argues, a confession of weakness on Nogarola‟s part. Despite her

studious examination and various examples, Nogarola had, according to King:

so thoroughly accepted her culture‟s evaluation of the worth of women that she

could not successfully justify her sex without, at the same time, demeaning it.69

Keeping in mind the pain and shame Nogarola suffered from the anonymous

pamphleteers as well as from the various scholars that sought to restrict her access in the

male driven literary sphere, King‟s argument cannot be easily dismissed.

Indeed, one need only take into consideration her argument on free will, in order

to give merit to King‟s statement. Although Nogarola presents a motive through which

Adam becomes solely responsible for his actions, she is unable to assign full

responsibility to him for the transgression. Instead Nogarola claims, in the extract

presented earlier on free will, that God could have removed Adam‟s autonomy, which

could have been the reason for his „coercion‟. Though this seems unlikely based on

what the two have argued, it becomes an important indicator of the complexities

encountered by women while participating in intellectual domains. As propriety, and the

notion of the quiet chaste woman, only permitted Nogarola to say so much, assigning

direct blame to Adam could have been perceived as cause for controversy.

Contradicting not only a male intellect but also what society deemed to have been a

69

Kink L. Margaret. “The Religious Retreat”. p820

35

historical fact, would have been unacceptable for the Renaissance woman and thus

cause for restriction.

Though King‟s emphasis on Nogarola‟s engagement in cultural gender

stereotypes is valid and important to take into consideration, one must also realize the

impossibility of accurately justifying it. As only a minimal amount of literary works

produced by Nogarola are still in existence today, it becomes difficult to make such

assertions. Nogarola‟s engagement in the „weaker woman‟ ideology could very well

have been a satirical tool, employed to call into question social perceptions. By

contrasting Eve‟s so called weak and irrational nature with that of Adam, Nogarola

indirectly mocked socially accepted idioms of male superiority and intellect. For, how

can someone as wise as Adam do something so foolish, especially when knowing in

advance the consequences of his actions?

Though the methods Nogarola employed in her attempts to establish a different

mode for understanding the female entity might have gotten entwined with fifteenth

century notions of gender politics, her personal engagement with Foscarini undoubtedly

conveys woman as both the intellectual and rational equal of man. Nogarola‟s ability to

think, argue, challenge and present new debatable material for Foscarini is admired and

even commented on by the male literate himself:

… although others may find that my writings suffer from the defect of obscurity,

if you who are most brilliant accept them and join them to what you and I have

already written, our views will become known and sparkle and shine amid the

shadows. And if what I have written is clumsy, by your skill you will make it

worthy of your mind, virtue, and glory, you who march forward to new battles to

the sound of sacred elegance, as do soldiers to the clamor of trumpets, always

more learned and more ready. And you march forward against me, one who has

applied the whole of my thought to my reading and likewise to my writing, that I

might present my case and defend myself against yours, although the many

storms and floods of my obligations toss me about at whim.70

Nogarola‟s dialectical debate functions as an indicator of women‟s capabilities

when understood outside the appropriate traditional gender contexts. With Eve, woman

is seen as proud and as capable as man of being irrational and rebellious. With the

dialogue between the two literates, woman is seen as autonomous, intellectual and as

rational as her academic correspondent. Through the dialogue on Adam and Eve as well

as through personal example, Nogarola interacts with cultural perceptions of female

70

Ludovic Foscarini in Nogarola Isotta. Complete Writings. p143

36

inadequacies and propriety, and advocates change. Unlike the male literates that

defended women without challenging social norms, Nogarola manages to do both.

By refusing to marry or enter a convent, Nogarola declined to conform to the idealistic

view of woman, introducing the possibility of a female existence outside those roles.

Further, by drawing attention and articulating the personal literary restriction she

had faced as a result of her gender, Nogarola exposes the narrow mindedness of

quattrocento Italy, and begs the question of reform, suggesting that perhaps time has

arrived for defenders of Adam, along with the rest of society, to recognize their

perceptional limitations and take responsibility for the weight and effects of their biased

views.

37

Portrait of Isotta Nogarola (1418-1466)

71

Portrait of Lara Cereta (1469-1499)

72

71

Gerold, Apud. “Nogarola, Isotta (1418-1466)” in Isotae Nogarolae Veronensis, opera quae supersunt omnia.

Obtained online from Italian Women Writers. (University of Chicago Press: 2001). Retrieved Nov. 26, 2008

from: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/Portraits/HTML/A0037.html 72

Tomasini, Jacopo Filippo. “Cereta, Laura (1469-1499)”. Italian Women Writers. (University of Chicago

Library: 2001). Retrieved online Nov, 26, 2008 from:

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/Portraits/HTML/A0009.html

38

The Rhetoric of Possibility: Laura Cereta

In an environment where fifteenth century women, and their roles in society,

were defined by class and more importantly by gender, their social participation was

marginalized. Despite this, scholars have frequently called attention to the equality

women were granted in the intellectual arena, noting their liberty of expression and the

presented opportunities that encouraged their theological engagement:

… everywhere the intellectual arena was open to them on the same terms as to

men. Incapacity and not sex was the only bar to entrance…never were their

efforts more highly appreciated and more generously rewarded.73

Though this time period does present an abundance of brilliant women their

opportunities along with their granted participation was superficial and apparent rather

than an actual, social reality. The same gender roles that entrenched themselves in, and

conditioned, public space, transgressed to the private outlining women‟s intellectual

participation and proper methods of engagement. Physical and instructional restraints,

rather than „incapacity‟ were the „bar to entrance‟.

Cultural gender perceptions, scholastic curriculums, and the lack of grammar

schools available for girls, were all social factors that restricted the number of women

who actually received any instruction, despite the apparent promotion of female

education. Laura Cereta, the woman in question throughout this section, accentuates the

restrictions males imposed upon her gender, and draws attention to the difficulties

encountered by learned women. As Cereta claimed in 1487, participation along with the

knowledge these academic spheres held, were not just simply made available to women,

as suggested in the above quotation by Gibson, but were rather the attained product of

mind and a great deal of personal effort:

…knowledge is not given to women as a gift, but is gained with diligence. The

free mind, not the shrinking effort, always soars zealously toward the good, and

the desire to know grows ever more wide and deep.74

73

Gibson, Joan. “Educating for Silence: Renaissance Women and the Language Arts.” Hypatia. Vol.4, No.1.

The History of Women in Philosophy. (Indiana University Press: Spring, 1989), p9.

39

Renaissance cultural perceptions of gender controlled the education and

therefore the theological involvement of elite women by either restraining their

instruction or by overtly refusing to credit their works and ideas. Education was meant

only as a tool for refining the elite woman, so that she may be a mentally fit and

stimulating wife for her mate. The scholastic intents of curriculums available to girls in

the fifteenth century demonstrate this mentality, and surprisingly, even a century later

these attitudes remained unchanged. Pedagogical humanist, Desiderius Erasmus

Roterdamus, deemed advocate for female education, and the author of numerous

textbooks and teacher‟s instructional manuals, questioned the utility of rigorous

education for women.75

In one of his most notable works, De ratione studii (1513),

Erasmus scorns the „fashionable education of girls‟, claiming that such instruction

should not be taken too seriously as it has no practical function in the daily life of an

elite woman:

In the morning make-up and hair-do, then to church to see and be seen, then

breakfast, then gossip. After this lunch. Then trifling little stories. Here and there

girls will sit down, and men will throw themselves on their laps- which offends

no one, indeed is greatly praised as polite conduct. Then there are foolish games,

not infrequently immodest. So the afternoon is passed until dinner time. At

dinner there is the same behavior as at lunch. The (…) daughters even of princes

are brought up in this way. Nor are they much more decently educated away

from home… Daughters of the nobility spend all their days among bored and

sated servants, generally despicable and of low morals. This is how they pass the

time! They would do better set to weaving cloth.76

In contrast to this opinion, De pronuntiatione, expresses the pragmatic need and

utility of male education. As boys were to be the seed-beds of society from which

“senators, magistrates, doctors, abbots, bishops, popes and emperors” would emerge

there was a conscious need for encouraging the development of independent thought

and expression in male curriculums, which was not needed when the opposite sex was

concerned.77

Indeed, instead of displaying the same vigor for female education, as was

displayed when advocating the education of boys, Erasmus‟ thoughts reverted once

again towards the social perceptions of the fifteenth century. In both centuries,

instruction in letters was most important for women, as this could aid in preserving their

virtue:

74

Schibanoff Susan. “Botticelli‟s Madonna del Magnificant: constructing the Woman Writer in Early Humanist

Italy”. PMLA. Vol. 109, No.2. (Modern Language Association: March, 1994), p190. 75

Sowards, J.K. “Erasmus and the Education of Women”. The Sixteenth Century Journal. Vol.13, No.4. (The

Sixteenth Century Journal: Winter, 1982), p86. 76

Ibid, p86. 77

Ibid, p87.

40

…the precious treasury of virginity is irrecoverable once violated. This, as I

have said, is the first reason why the mind of a girl should be imbued with the

most chaste teachings, why they should learn to know first what is honorable,

then to love. The second reason is that they may keep themselves clear of every

stain of dishonor. One who never knows vices will never love them. The third

reason is that they may avoid idleness, the most dangerous plague of good

morals.78

The idea of virtue, discussed in previous sections, in the context of female

participation in public space, limited the education of girls to studying and imitating the

palms, letters of correspondence and other poetic works. This curriculum, thought to

prevent „idleness‟ and „dishonor‟, actually divided the education of the sexes and

promoted a system of blind repetition for girls, where personal opinion and expression

were unable to take root. The encouragement of achieving “breadth of learning and

grace of style” centered the curriculum of girls on the study of religion, the literature of

the church, and of the church fathers.79

The trivium, or in other words the educational program of the fifteenth century

which was thought to lead to wisdom through language, was thought unsuitable for

women, whereas the quadrivium, an educational program based on numbers was

thought of as futile. The core of the trivium, which centered on rhetoric, the art of

persuasion, and declamatory speech, was thought to prepare the student for public

positions of service in the legal, medicinal, and political arenas, and thus was perceived

as a controversial form of instruction for women, as it failed to aid in the development

of female norms, which pertained to the domestic. For as Leonardo Bruni eloquently

asks, why exhaust a woman:

(…) with the thousand difficulties of rhetorical art, when she will never see the

forum? And indeed the artificial performance…which we call pronuntiatio

(which Demosthenes maintained to rank first, second and third, such was its

importance), as it is essential to performers, so it ought not to be pursued by

women at all… A woman will not, therefore, study any further what to speak

either for or against witness, either for or against torture, either for or against

hearsay evidence, nor will she (…) devote her attention to dilemmatic questions

or to cunning answers.80

Maintaining an accord with the notion of female virtue, grammar studies employed

scripture and patrology, for character improvement, Latin and Greek fluency, and for

the advancement of dialectic and compositional skills. More importantly however, these

sources undermined the importance of female education, while simultaneously

78

Ibid, p86. 79

Ibid, p79. 80

Leonardo Bruni in Gibson Joan. “Educating for Silence: Renaissance Women and the Language Arts”.

Hypatia: The History of women in Philosophy. Vol.4, No.1. (Indiana University Press, 1989), p12.

41

providing skills that could only be used in personal and private correspondence, and that

were to remain outside the all-important public sphere of men. Thus, as rhetoric was

perceived to be both useless and dangerous for women, leading perhaps to contempt for

domestic chores and arguments with one‟s husband or companions, strict censorship

was instilled. This censorship was to refute women what rhetoric endowed men with:

the ability to establish a bridge of communication between the learned and the common

world, so as to deny women access to an intellectual platform from which they could

shape or alter social mindsets.

In addition, specific associations of dialectics heightened the censorship

infringed on women, furthering access to this intellectual platform. As W. J. Ong

indicates, the modes in which the learned spoke with each other as well as with their

audience, incorporated gender specific features.81

In other words, pioneer in the study of

gender and dialectics, Walter J. Ong contends, that two separate universes of discourse

existed for Renaissance men and women: the vernaculars and Latin. The first, also

known as the mother tongue, was the language of children, women and the uncultured.

In contrast to this, Latin was considered the language of men, the learned, the action-

oriented, and above all, of the exclusive. This distinction was so stringent, that male

children, between the ages of five and seven entering their instructional years, were

often removed “from the company of women and generally forbidden to speak in the

vernacular while being schooled”.82

This break from the family, the vernacular, and the

world of women, as Ong indicates, was meant to initiate boys, almost like a rite of

passage, into the world of men, society, and a life outside the family household.

Although it would be inaccurate to claim that young girls were unaware or

unable to understand the Latin language, their knowledge was much more limited. Girls

of elite families were provided rudimentary training, differing in scope from that of

boys, as women‟s education was based on imitation and the memorization of scripture.

Here, reflection and attention must be drawn to the connotations of the implied

differentiation in aim. As men and the cultured lay claims to the Latin language, women

faced a two fold exclusion. First, as an overt bar to their intellectual participation was a

language that was pedagogically placed out of their reach, and second, the exclusive use

of Latin amongst the learned prevented women from establishing a female presence

81

Ong J. Walter. Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture. (Ithaca:

Cornell University Press, 1977) p24-35. 82

Gibson Joan. “Educating for Silence”, p15

42

within cursive discourse. As a result, and despite the fact that certain elite women such

as Laura Cereta wrote in Latin, women were unable to take a purely female perspective.

They were unable to voice their proper concerns and prerogatives, as a female audience

was both virtually inexistent and insufficiently schooled in the Latin language, unable to

understand or lend support to the few women present in these intellectual arenas.

If elite women wanted access to subjects such as rhetoric, individual drive as

well as a private tutor needed solicitation. The education of Laura Cereta exemplified

this form of instruction, moving from rudimentary grammar, embroidery, and Latin, to

geometry, Greek, astrology, mathematics, agriculture, and moral philosophy.83

However, despite the educational support she received from her tutor and father

Silvestro Cereto, the lack of expressional freedom, and the inability to assert herself in

these impenetrable cultured circles, deeply affected Laura Cereta. In a correspondence

letter written in 1488, Cereta metaphorically laments the educational limitations that

were present in her era and imposed upon her gender:

I sit by my father‟s sickbed, wringing out cloths in cool water

No more useful than my younger sister, as he is too sick to be read to

Tonight he waved away Homer, though I‟d been hoping to practice my Greek

Later on a burst of hurdy-gurdy music floated up over the balcony from the

street

And I did not run out to gwak at them, the Neapolitan and his monkey

But peered out from behind the draperies, as befitting a woman in mourning

The monkey danced a jig dressed up in a man‟s cap and britches

Then swung on a young girl‟s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek

When I was that girl‟s age my head was full of learning

Always cloistered in my father‟s study writing treatises in Latin

Letter to Augustinus Aemilius, Curse against the Ornamentation of Women

Letter to Bibulus Sempronius, Defense of their Liberal Instruction

How naïve I was, copying them out and sending them to scholars

As young men do to establish their reputations

Only one friar wrote back to me, though I gained some notoriety

Here in my native Brescia, and then I was married

The plague claimed my husband after eighteen months and no children

I am glad to see that it spared the Neapolitan musician

For what would the monkey do if the master were to die before him

His head cold without a cap and his legs twitching to music?

I busied myself for awhile collecting a volume of my letters

And published them six months ago, but no one has taken notice

When my father dies my Greek will die too: it is not like Latin

83

Haraguchi, Jennifer. “Laura Cereta (1469-1499)”. Obtained online from Italian Women Writers. (University

of Chicago: 2003), Retrieved Dec.11, 2008: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/BIOS/A0009.html

43

It fades from the mind so quickly, like a tune on the barrel-organ.84

The autobiographical lines and the bitter sentiments expressed in the letter draw

attention to the difficulty Cereta faced in getting the intellectual community to „take

notice‟ of her talents and abilities. The contrasts between the outside world and the

claustrophobic room in which the writer finds herself, establish a clear divide between

the public and the private space. The window from which Cereta gazes out of serves as

a physical barrier separating the sexes and reminding the young writer, along with her

audience, that the public realm is to remain a male sphere. This notion is accentuated

even by the monkey, who is wearing a „man‟s cap and britches‟. Although women may

slyly gaze into this world, proper modes of conduct, as exemplified by Cereta‟s

behavior, along with women‟s overall oblivious naiveté, personified by the young girl in

the street, act as barriers of restriction to this space. As Cereta notes in her letter,

despite having written treaties in Latin and having sent various letters to Augustinus

Aemilius and Bibulus Sempronius, she was naïve in copying and sending them out to

scholars „as young men do to establish their reputations‟, as intellectual debates

belonged to the public and subsequently to men. Seeing that Cereta belonged, according

to social norms, to the domestic her contemporaries neither accepted her nor granted her

full entrance into this learned world.

Indeed, despite the supplementary instruction her father provided, the works

Cereta submitted to various accomplished individuals, such as Cardinal Ascanius Maria

Sforza and Dominican Brother Thomas, to name a few, never gained validation. In

contrast, the works were often ridiculed and criticized in a particularly harsh manner

simply because they had been written by a woman. In response to a published critique

by Brother Thomas, Cereta defends herself by remarking the unfounded cruelty of the

monk‟s words in evaluating her writing:

Your thorny letter is an angry swarm of bees, whose numerous angry stings are

hidden in so many honey-bearing knees. But this odious poison should touch

minds more deserving of blame; I myself have not yet learned to walk the thorny

paths of censure, nor do I purchase pens of such virulence that they drip with

wormwood. If Plato rejects Parmenides, if Socrates does the same to

Anaxagoras, if Philo of the Academy renounces the Stoics and Diogenes does

likewise to Euclid, and finally if Sallust reproves Cicero and Cicero does the

same to Marcus Antonius, why should I be interested in those thinkers? This

amounts to a brawl and not a discussion among philosophers. The defending of a

84

Kane Julie. “Letter From Laura Cereta: Brescia, 1448”. In Feminist Studies. Vol.20, No.3 (Feminist Studies

Inc.: Autumn, 1994), p564. Obtained online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178187. Retrieved Nov. 24, 2008.

44

war of nasty insults held in the public arena is the task of a gladiator, not a critic. 85

In her retort, Cereta denotes both the unfair treatment she has received from these

supposed cultured and open minded academic circles, as well as the sway men held in

validating or denouncing the works of female authors.

Reverting back to Cereta‟s letter, this sense of absolute authority invested in

learned men is also cynically alluded to, through a rhetorical comparison between the

Neapolitan, his monkey, and Cereta and her father. In the letter the young elite asks

“what would the monkey do if his master were to die before him?” and answers

imagining the monkey‟s helplessness alone in the world “his head cold without a cap

and his legs twitching to music”.86

Mirroring this worrisome train of thought is Cereta‟s

unwritten self-imposed question: what will happen once her father dies? The answers to

which also indicates a sense of loss and helplessness:

When my father dies my Greek will die too: it is not like Latin

It fades from the mind so quickly, like a tune on the barrel-organ.87

Like the monkey, unable to function in the world without his master‟s guidance, Cereta

imagines her own intellectual peril. Without the support her father provided, Cereta

claims she will lose the fruits of her intellectual labors, as a result of her inability to

interact and penetrate the intellectual world. A sad and powerful recognition coming

from a woman that saw beyond the socially imposed limitations of her gender.

Although Cereta vehemently fought for pedagogical equality amongst the sexes,

she nonetheless recognized the contradictory and ironic reality of her struggles. In order

for her to penetrate the male driven intellectual domain and establish herself as an

academic equal, she would have to break away from the influence and protection of

male intellectuals such as her father. However, in the process of creating and asserting a

separate „female writer‟ entity, intellectual suicide ensued, as the works of a woman lost

credibility once they became divorced from male sway and validation.

Unfortunately this ironical dichotomy was not merely a reflection for the young

Humanist, but was rather a harsh reality. In 1488, six months after having published her

85

Prudence Allen. The Concept of Woman, Volume2: The Early Humanist Reformation, 1250-1500. (Wm. B.

Eerdams Publishing Company, 2002), p1031. Obtained online at Google Book Search:

http://books.google.ca/books. Retrieved Nov. 12, 2008. 86

Kane Julie. “Letter from Laura Cereta”.p564. 87

Ibid, p564.

45

first volume of letters, Cereta‟s father and her greatest supporter, died.88

Lacking his

emotional and moral comfort, Cereta seemed unable or unwilling to face the harsh

criticisms of her contemporaries alone, and as her melancholic thoughts foreshadowed

in her letter, the end of her father‟s life also marked the end of her publishing career.

An interesting article written by Susan Schibanoff, entitled Boticelli‟s Madonna

del Magnificant: Constructing the Woman Writer in Early Humanist Italy, comments on

the oxymoronic dichotomy present when attempting to establish literal female

autonomy. Terming it the “rhetoric of impossibility”, Schibanoff claims women were

either exaggeratedly scolded or overly praised for their intellectual pursuits, both of

which were overt manifestations of misogynistic attitudes.89

According to quattrocento

perceptions, women lacked the mental abilities to become scholars of a stature equal to

that of their male counterparts, and if by surprise they happened to reach such an

intellectual platform, it was presumed to be the direct product of male agency. However,

if neither of these assumptions were fitting to the case, the woman writer was then

deemed a prodigy, exemplifying a unique case of supernatural abilities amongst her sex,

undermining once again her capabilities and the possible notion that other ordinary

women could follow in her footsteps.

In Schibanoff‟s article, this „rhetoric of impossibility‟ is personified through

Sandro Botticelli‟s Madonna del Magnificat (c.1483). As one of two artworks in the

fifteenth century to depict a woman in the act of writing, the artist chooses to portray the

most “extraordinary and „impossible‟ figure in the Western lexicon of female

worthiness – the Virgin” as the subject of his canvas.90

Through the exalted nature of

the Virgin, Botticelli engages and participates in emphasizing the miraculous rarity of

the female writer (see fig.5). Depicting the Madonna in opposition to the typical

Byzantine tradition, where the Virgin is pictured raising her arms in prayer to the Lord,

as well as in contrast to Western traditions, where the Virgin is pictured reading, further

applauded her learned character, exalting her even more from previous depictions.

In addition, the twelve-starred crown placed over her head by the two lateral

angels, also becomes entrenched with significance, as this object implicitly associated

the Madonna with both Apocalypse and the world of learning. In other words, as the

twelve star crown was deemed a characteristic element in identifying “the learned

doctors of the church”, the Madonna was consequentially vested, through this

88

Gibson Joan. “Educating for Silence”, p19 89

Schibanoff Susan. “Botticelli‟s Madonna del Magnificant”, p195 90

Ibid, p198.

46

association, as a member of the highest learned order.91

Moreover, as the angels are in

the process of crowning the Virgin, the gesture suggests a newly earned attribute and

recognition. The fact that Mary was not only crowned but also surrounded by a group of

all male characters, who held her inkwell and the book in which she inscribed the

Magnificat, implied a unanimous acceptance amongst these male intellects of her

presence and of her worthy academic engagement. In this sense her assertion in this

male dominated sphere, along with her written composition, become a phenomenon of

divine inspiration. Mary can hold the pen of authorship and wear the crown of learning

precisely because she is not a woman. As she is the „blessed‟ and „chosen‟ Virgin of

God, her divinity allows her to step outside the boundaries of her gender, and thus

accomplish a feat so miraculous that ordinary women writers, by proxy of their sinful,

mortal nature, can only hold as an admirable example and under no circumstances as an

achievable goal.

Ironically however, the very attributes Botticelli employed in exalting Mary and

in setting her apart from the rest of the female race are also indicative of another

competing cultural current. Echoes of Laura Cereta and Isotta Nogarola, who argued for

a rhetoric of possibility concerning the female writer, are just as easily perceived in

Botticelli‟s canvas as those arguing against it. The same male presence that is utilized in

validating Mary‟s literary talent also acts in mitigating the celestial attributes that enable

her, thus demystifying her persona, and as a result making her talent a more attainable

goal for the ordinary woman.

The male characters in the image hover around the Virgin stressing their

involvement in Mary‟s literary efforts and granting a claustrophobic air to the work. In

fact, the Madonna del Magnificat, is not only a departure in terms of theme for

Botticelli but also in terms of pictorial gestures. According to art historian Roberto

Salvini, all of Botticelli‟s male authors -who are either sacred or clerical figures- are

typically unobstructed while compiling their writings. They “look heavenward while

inscribing … gaze at other books lying on their writing desks, or witness divine events

as they write”.92

These solitary figures are depicted alone in their cells or at their writing

desks “holding book and pen”, and more importantly they are all portrayed undisturbed,

91

Ibid, p197. 92

Salvini Roberto. All the Paintings of Botticelli. Trans. John Grillenzoni. Vol2. (New York: Hawthorn, 1965),

p59

47

unaided, and untouched.93

In contrast to this independent depiction, the Madonna is

pictured as both aided and obstructed. The tools Mary utilizes are in the possession of

male hands, while her own hand lacks freedom as the Christ child, whom she cradles in

her lap, covers and guides it. Although little is know about the meaning of grasping

ones hand in Renaissance paintings, in ancient law and art the gesture had great

symbolic significance as it indicated to the audience:

taking possession of someone, usually a female figure, who is so captured by a

male figure - a wife by her husband in Greek marriage ceremony, for instance,

or Andromeda by Perseus and Eurydice by both Hermes and Orpheus in Roman

reliefs.94

Whether or not Botticelli‟s placement of the Christ child‟s hand was intended as a

signifying gesture of possession is debatable (see fig. 6). Nonetheless, the child‟s hand

seems visually, if not physical restrictive, obscuring the Madonna‟s writing and

preventing her from exerting the same control over her text that the rest of Botticelli‟s

solitary male writers seemed to enjoy.

This simple yet telling gesture forces the questionability of the Virgin‟s literate

abilities, her text, and even its authenticity. As the Madonna is pictured being guided in

every which way, both by angels and the Christ child, her act of writing ceases to be

such a miraculous or unattainable accomplishment lending a sense of possibility to the

ordinary female writer. This idiom of possibility becomes further accentuated when

glancing at the Virgin‟s left hand. As the Virgin is depicted touching the Christ child,

notions of the maternal are evoked, while the bitten pomegranate she holds serves as an

emblem of the Fall and of female transgression.95

In both cases the viewer is reminded

of the Virgin‟s humility and overall her humanity, granting the viewer a sense of

proximity to her.

While Schibanoff argued that the male presence in Botticelli‟s Madonna del

Magnificat provided an expression for the discourse of impossibility and served as an

example of female containment, one could also argue, that the artist‟s work

subconsciously acknowledged an emerging cultural trend where women sought to

establish their literary accomplishments as both ordinary and possible.

Contending the notion of gender as prerequisite for intellectual achievement,

Laura Cereta frequently advocated the prospects of ordinary female capabilities and

93

Ibid, p57 94

Barasch Moshe. Giotto and the Language of Gesture. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p134 95

Schibanoff Susan. “Botticelli‟s Madonna del Magnificat”, p197

48

avidly warned against the idioms of praise that dubbed the learned woman a unique

rarity. In one angry letter, in actuality a defense of female learning, Cereta reproached

Bibulus Sempronius, for his laud of her, as this was only a guise through which her

skills could be assigned to the extraordinary woman trope. In the opening lines of her

letter, the young writer stated that her mind was as “fine a mind as nature ever bestowed

upon the most learned man”, and that Bibulus‟ admiration of her as a “female prodigy”

was a “crafty ploy” in which pretense and “sugared deceit” were lurking.96

Like the

praise allotted to the Madonna, Cereta realized that the praise Bibulus attempted to pay

her was in actuality a reflection of his contempt; by implying that her learned skills

were so rare and miraculous, he was ridiculing the rest of the female gender, implying

that the ordinary woman could never reach such intellectual plateaus.

Continuing to address Bibulus in the letter, Cereta defends herself from her

detractor‟s assertions that as a woman writer she must either be exceptional amongst her

kind, must automatically lack learning or must have committed some sort of literary

fraud in order to formulate on paper the thoughts in her mind. After stating several

examples of accomplished female scholars throughout the course of history, Cereta

attempts to convince the audience of the normality of these women by stressing that

nature imparted the ability to learn equally amongst all human beings:

All of history is full of such examples. My point is that your mouth has grown

foul because you keep it sealed so that no arguments can come out of it that

might enable you to admit that nature imparts one freedom to all human beings

equally- to learn.

But the question of my exceptionality remains. And here choice alone, since it is

the arbiter of their hair, the elegance of their clothes, and the pearls and other

jewelry they wear on their fingers. Others love to say cute little things, to hide

their feelings behind a mask of tranquility, to indulge in dancing, and to lead pet

dogs around on a leash. For all I care, other woman can long for parties with

carefully appointed tables, for the peace of mind of sleep, or they can yearn to

deface with paint the pretty face they see reflected in the mirrors. But those

women for whom the request for the good represents a higher value restrain their

young spirits and ponder better plans. They harden their bodies with sobriety

and toil, they control their tongues, they carefully monitor what they hear, they

ready their minds for all-night vigils, and they rouse their minds for the

contemplation of probity in the case of harmful literature (…)

So be it therefore. May we women, then, not be endowed by God the grantor

with any giftedness or rare talent through any sanctity of our own. Nature has

granted to all enough of her bounty; she opens to all the gates of choice, and

through these gates, reason sends legates to the will, for it is through reason that

these legates transmit desires. I shall make a bold summary of the matter. Yours

is the authority, ours is the inborn ability. But instead of manly strength, we

96

Ibid, p202

49

women are naturally endowed with cunning, instead of a sense of security, we

are naturally suspicious. Down deep we women are content with our lot. But

you, enraged and maddened by the anger of the dog from whom you flee, are

like someone who has been frightened by the attack of a pack of wolves. The

victor does not look for the fugitive; nor does she who desires a cease-fire with

the enemy conceal herself. Nor does she set up camp with courage and arms

when the conditions are hopeless. Nor does it give the strong any pleasure to

pursue one who is already fleeing.97

Further, while nature imparted reason equally to men and women, personal will or

choice, she argued, led to intellectual development, which was natural and by no means

a miraculous gift. If outstanding women were “a rarity”, Cereta contended, their scarcity

resulted from the pursuit of trivial matters, such as dancing or fashion, and not from

their inaptitude of learning. Her personal literary accomplishments, like those of the

women she cited, sprung from „sobriety and toil‟, „all night vigils‟, and the

contemplation of virtuous literature.

In a personal fashion, Cereta was deeply stung by the rhetoric of impossibility

she experienced, and continually felt the need to defend herself and her capabilities. In

letters to Frontonus Carito, Orestes, Phronicus, and Boniface Bembo, the young writer

rebuffs accusations that her father was responsible for her works.98

Writing to Michael

Baetus, Cereta denies charges of plagiarism, while in a sarcastic letter to Giovanni

Olivieri, who slyly sent his wife in an attempt to catch her „literary deception‟ the

aristocrat is once again noticeably stung by the accusations:

Although I have neither consulted the divination of Tages nor the Sybilline

books in order to know the future, nor have I been possessed by the god, or

guided by auguries, still I have a suspicion that had already caused me to write

on another occasion that I thought you‟d be rightly amazed that I‟d have enough

courage – mere woman that I was, untutored in literature, and utterly ignorant –

to send you a little epistolary oration, however crude and in need of editing with

a scythe it might be.

Anyway, look how conveniently it has worked out that a more prescient mind

than mine has provided inspiration from higher places. Your wife has

approached me in a friendly manner – and she is very charming and addresses

everyone in the right way at the right time. It seemed she wouldn‟t leave me

alone until she asked me to write something to you on the spur of the moment

even though I had nothing in the least worthwhile to say. I don‟t know if she

came over, in the role of a scout or deserter herself, to have a look at the modest

education I‟ve had. In any case I do see the nature of these attempts of hers: and

they are – if you‟ll permit me the liberty of saying so – underhanded missions

under the guise of which you expect me to get tangled up in the net of my own

97

Laura Cereta in Kind L. Margaret and Albert Rabil, Jr. Her Immaculate Hand. (Binghampton New York:

Medieval & Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1991), p77-79 98

Schibanoff Susan. “Botticelli‟s Madonna del Magnificant”, p201

50

inexperience, just as you tend to imagine me wandering around on unknown

roads, blind without my father‟s guidance.99

After having sent Olivieri her work for editorial suggestions, Cereta receives his

accusations of plagiarism as neither flattering nor unnoticed. The affront, as Cereta

overtly states, comes not only from his disbelief in the potential of her skills, but more

insultingly from his assumption that she would not be wise enough to realize his ploy in

sending his wife as „scout‟ in examining and critiquing the „modest education‟ she had

received.

The sarcasm Cereta uses when stating Olivieri‟s wife addressed her in „right

way‟ and at the „right time‟, acts to shame the learned Latin scholar. As Cereta explains,

this method of inquiry was deceitful because it was conducted in an attempt to ridicule

her, and at the same time futile, as it failed to accurately reflect her true abilities, since

at the given time she had noting “in the least worthwhile to say”.100

Cereta‟s final blow however, and personal demonstration of intellectual and

verbal aptitudes, comes from her letter‟s final stanza:

Education is a thing highly esteemed – and this is certainly something learned

men know well enough. I‟ve obtained whatever plumage I do have from strong

wings – this I don‟t deny. But finally I progressed beyond the stage of being a

chick and my skill of flying has become so good that the great forest on Mnt. Ida

might find me worthy of adopting. Perhaps in a short time the radiant realm of

the sun will receive me, to which, in our own era, the rear phoenix flew.

And now let me refine my argument so that the things I‟ve said in all

seriousness won‟t be taken as merely an attempt to show off my talent – since

this could make it seem as though I was starting a war between the lovers of

wisdom and philosophy, though surely the truth is that I, your most obedient

servant, esteem you for your virtue best of all. This is all for now.101

Amongst these phrases, and particularly in the last two, Cereta schools Olivieri, the

teacher of virtue, by calling into question the integrity of his intent. Contrasting his

dishonest actions with his revered endorsement of virtue, Cereta blatantly invites

Olivieri to reevaluate his understanding of what the word entails, implying this is

necessary if he wishes to maintain his esteemed reputation.

More importantly however, the last stanza functions as an indicator of her

perceptions of what virtue entailed, and how one irrespective of their gender could hope

to attain it.

99

Laura Cereta in Prudence Allen. The Concept of Woman. p1017- 1018 100

Ibid, p1018 101

Ibid, p1018

51

According to Cereta, the object of any educational endeavor was to obtain truth. This

truth was then reached through virtue, and virtue was cultivated by the knowledge one

gained. Influenced by the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Cereta believed the

„passions of the soul‟ (love, hate, anger, fear, despair ect.) needed to be controlled by

ones intellect and will.102

Cereta‟s philosophy claimed that only through this command,

could intellect and virtue flourish. In other words, an individual could be led astray by

his or her passions. But, by examining the source of these emotions, through reason, and

by exercising control over them, one would be granted a deeper understanding of truth.

This truth would in turn, bestow the respective individual with the insight necessary to

make virtuous choices.

In this sense, Cereta emerges virtuous twice over. For one, she exposes the fact

that Olivieri has allowed his passions to govern his intellect and will. The clandestine

attempt he orchestrates in hopes of unveiling Careta‟s inadequacies was motivated by

his personal sentiments of fear. Intimidated by the connotations of what might ensue if

the male academic world accepted the possibility of the woman writer as an equal,

Olivieri felt the need to discredit the Latin skills Cereta possessed. Unlike Olivieri

however, Cereta remains true to her own conception of virtue; she refrains from giving

into her passions, by refusing to adopt feelings of hate or anger when responding to the

scholar‟s actions. In contrast, she remains aloof and even goes as far as to remind

Olivieri of his virtuous qualities, which she admired „best of all‟, in an attempt to

present him with the possibility of atoning his actions.

Second, the response Cereta provides disproved notions of female inadequacies

circulating amongst the intellectual community, by reinforcing once again the idea that

education, like virtue, could be attained by anyone regardless of their gender. In both

cases, individuals were free and naturally equipped to pursue virtue and educational

enlightenment, through their personal efforts and will. Moreover, her exemplary

behavior stressed that in the same manner in which a woman might be governed astray

by her passions, indulging in dance and fashion, so too may a man as revealed by

Olivieri‟s ridiculous ploy.

Further, Cereta also demonstrated that the same factors causing a man to fall

from virtue could also be the means through which a woman might rise to its ranks,

suggesting that men‟s unwillingness to accept the possibility of the woman writer was

102

Ibid, p994

52

both ludicrous and unfounded. Employing rationality and will, as opposed to claims of

prodigical or divine inspiration for literary achievements, provided a concrete

foundation for reasoning the abilities of the learned woman, while simultaneously

calling into question pedagogical methods. Thus, through humanity‟s ability to reason,

Cereta equated not only the intellectual capacities of both sexes, but their unlimited

potential as well.

A product and construct of patriarchal humanism, Cereta‟s works often followed

humanist lines where she advocated self wrought faculties and power. This is not to say

that all her literary interests lay here. In contrast, her letters often indicate attempts made

to free herself from humanist constraints and to establish an intellectual dialogue that

was as much meaningful as it was feminine in scope. After the death of her husband,

Pietro Serina, a merchant in Rialto, Cereta was clearly devastated and attempted to find

comfort in the literary world. Writing to her departed husband she expressed grief and

her „injured mind‟ in his absence:

Ah me, battered and disconsolate, lamentation, for whom death though hoped

for, still waits in the wings: life, cruel and inexorable, does not withdraw. Oh

that I might at least die a pagan, since it is not possible according to Christian

dogma to elect not to live. Would that those charges of forms, the gods now

summoned so sorrowfully and humbly, comfort me in my misfortune.103

In another letter written five days later, to physician Felicio Tandino, a greater need for

consolation became evident as Cereta was moved both by the passions she otherwise

attempted to control, as well as by her „embittered heart‟:

Your letter has been a comfort to me though I drenched it with tears before I

read it: such is the tenderness of an embittered heart and so great the grief that

wells up in an anxious breast. I had scarcely come to the middle of the letter in

my short lived reading of it when I prompted a fresh flow of tears for my

mourning from my eyes already bleary. Thus weeping evoked more weeping;

and the floodgates were loosed in these eyes of mine.104

Stricken by grief, the comfort she received from her few male literate coresponders

seemed to be futile. Her inability to establish any meaningful bonds with these

individuals leads her to the borderline, where she almost renounces both her literary

pursuits and her literary career. In a message to Michel da Carrarra, Cereta verbalizes

her inability to draw solace from these sources:

For a long time now my all-night bouts of writing have been less important to

me, the one labor that remains for me is that of grieving….

103

Prudence Allen. The Concept of Woman. p998 104

Ibid, p 998

53

Now, so much sorrow is left in me that every effort at eloquence runs clumsily

aground among the reefs and sea. You, however, among the copiousness of my

style will not think ill of this letter, woven as it is of rather tiny pieces, and worn

away for so long a time now by the corrosive sobbing of a young girl‟s pen.105

The formal style embedded in the communication draws attention to her alienation,

while her mentioned concern regarding her lack of eloquence and technique, at such a

devastating time, suggests a distant repot between the correspondents, and not one of

friendship or companionship, which Cereta sought to establish.

In fact it is not until Cereta begins consoling another widow that a sense of

purpose begins to return and emanate from her spirit and writing:

Why, dear sister, do you weep with bitter sorrow for one who is dead? Do you

think the kings of the underworld care for human tears? I remember that last

year I was ceased and dragged through the perpetual ice of Orcus, the intense

flames of the Phlegheton, and the ashy chasms of the Acheron. And though I

believe I saw the realms of Tartarus with my own eyes, I might lie to myself in

my dreams. Still my trembling imagination did see men being cast down and

thrown into the furnace of Hades, drowning in eternal night. At the time in the

most profound state of terror, I was seized by my grief and fear.

I tore my hair and scratched at my pale cheeks, making myself unsightly; I

mourned my husband with disconsolate weeping, and I showed the incurable

wound in my heart, which felt lacerated and eaten away.

But in the end it was all for nothing. Cruel fate, ever more hostile, stood

in my path, while gluttonous Pluto, standing in front of me leading the way,

threatened me with incessant death and exile from my home…106

Although Cereta is writing to Martha Marcella only one month after having replied to

Michel da Carrarra, her tone is much more personal and relaxed. The use of the

subjective in the latter correspondence suggests an air of comfort and relativity, that is

contrasted and clearly absent in the previous letter. Conversely while Cereta is still

displaying traces of grief in her approach to Marcella, proximity exists between them.

Further, the return of Cereta‟s stylistic eloquence in the second note is also easily

perceived. However, while its presence was used to indicate knowledge and skills in the

letters she addresses to male literates, in this note, her allusion to Dante‟s Inferno

becomes a genuine attempt in expressing personal emotions.

Continuing with her letter, Cereta remains as genuine in her address as she

commenced in the opening lines, with „dear sister‟, lending Marcella her support and

requesting her friendship in these unfortunate and difficult times:

105

Ibid, p999 106

Ibid, p999

54

Adversity always fosters courage, and at the end of the play, constancy carries

the day. But whenever strength of mind goes into the middle of the storm,

though its sail might be torn, its ship may be damaged by perilous hail, and the

din of the whirlwinds may resonate everywhere, with still greater steadfast of the

heart it will not fear the yawning holes in the vessel.

Come, therefore, let us struggle in this deep sea of adversity with stronger oars,

and let us raise ourselves up in the midst of danger with steadfast hearts. For

wherever the danger is greater, there is more glory to attain and more palms. For

the roads to death lead men in many different directions, thus the ultimate end is

unequal and uncertain for each.

In the mean time, if fortune should take away any of the things it has granted us,

let us bear it with an unwounded mind.107

Though historians, such as Jordan Constance, argue for Cereta‟s deep alienation

from society and the male theological domain, one could also lay claims to the opposite.

Cereta‟s dissatisfaction with her male correspondences and ultimate withdrawal from

the academic sphere could also be an indication of her being misunderstood, and of a

personal search for something more meaningful. Her ability to better comprehend and

connect with learned women stemmed from personal tragedy and incidents, as well as

from a profound understanding of the female condition. Although Cereta ceases to

publish and loses interest in male literate validation, she never renounces literacy or her

pursuit for truth and ultimate good. In contrast, she continues to use her intellectual

abilities in founding a female intellectual order, encouraging women to write about their

experiences, from a personal, female standpoint.

On November 30, 1486, Cereta continues to comfort those in grief by giving a

public funeral eulogy for the unexpected death of one of the Trosoli family members.108

In her eulogy Cereta mourns the young child‟s death and touchingly contemplates the

“unforeseen mortality of life” and the “unutterable wound of bereavement” death leaves

behind.109

In further attempts to console the young mother, Cereta advises her to use

writing as a healing tool. Cereta invites those parents mourning the death of a child, to

write about their experience, so that others facing a similar loss might draw strength

from their words and struggles:

Now let those parents whose excellent sons and daughters have met the day of

their death speak themselves of the cause of their tears. I, childless and

wretched, will feel your terrible sorrow, though I sense not the toils of your

suffering in my innermost being. Alas, this is a parent‟s love; ponder these

107

Laura Cereta in Constance Jordan. “Listening to “The Other Voice” in Early Modern Europe”. Renaissance

Quarterly. Vol.51, No.1. (University of Chicago Press: Spring, 1998), p189 108

Laura Cereta in Prudence Allen. The Concept of Woman. p1002 109

Ibid, p1002

55

things in your heart, and may you who survive your children have compassion;

intractable fate has snatched from you the sweet promise of your lineage.110

This advice is telling, as it indicates Cereta‟s ability to rise above the cultural

gender constrains imposed by her society. Through her invitation, Cereta demonstrates a

deeper understanding of the usefulness of writing. For Cereta, unlike her male

contemporaries, validation and meaning can no longer be gained from the empty words

of male approbation, Latin letters, the blind repetition of ancient scripts, or

manifestations of stylistic sophistication, but rather from application and the usefulness

of personal compositions, which have the ability to alter, aid, and bring about the

ultimate good in individuals and situations. In this sense, Cereta could retreat from the

pursuit of recognition from the male literate community, as it no longer had the same

connotations. Cereta was able to redefine what literate success entailed, and as a result

was able to establish meaningful dialogues outside the academic circles that rejected

her.

Interesting to note and worthy of consideration, is the fact that despite the

personal blows and alienation Cereta suffered from the scholastic world she never

sought to place the capabilities of one gender above the other. This resonates especially

in the concluding phrases of the eulogy she gives. When Cereta advises the mourning

mother to “rise above the circumstances owning to which your humanity has

overwhelmed you with emotion”, Cereta unpretentiously reminds the reader not only of

afflictions that are universal, but also of capabilities that can be manifested by both

genders.111

Cereta‟s use the term „humanity‟ as opposed to „womanhood‟, not only

denotes a rejection of stereotypical gender traits, but also implies that, as grief is a

collective emotion women as well as men can overcome it. Controlling the passions

through reason, as she continuously advised, was one way this could be achieved.

Practicing her own philosophy, Cereta controlled her feelings of anger and

frustration towards the scholastic world that constantly sought to dismiss her, and as a

result was able to refrain from retaliation, and find personal validation in more

constructive and meaningful ways. Establishing literary channels of communication

beyond the margins of what mainstream academic conventions deemed acceptable,

allowed Cereta to institute a unique female presence and voice. Further, her advocations

110

Ibid, p1002 111

Ibid, p1002

56

for the exercise of personal will, in ascertaining and demonstrating the possibility of the

learned woman, called into question cultural perceptions and the pedagogical

inequalities that aimed to suppress her.

When keeping in mind the literary inequalities present in quattrocento Italy,

Cereta‟s rhetoric of equality becomes that much more impressive. Acting in the

background of male talent and literates, Cereta was able to bring to the foreground an

expression of femininity unique in her time, while all along establishing literary

discourses that sought to reach an ultimate good and benefit both genders equally.

57

Drawing Lines of Demarcation

The lives and woks of Isotta Nogarola and Laura Cereta provide a snapshot of

quattrocento Italy along with its political, social, and cultural outlooks. The words of

these two humanists present the reader with a dialogue through which their

understanding of patriarchal society emerges, and through which in retrospect,

society‟s measurement and comprehension of the literate woman can be better

understood.

Their works avidly demonstrate that relations between the sexes were a social

rather than a natural construct, and bring to light the impact societal conventions,

family, and the public domain had in governing and shaping ones life in this time

period. For contemporary scholars, their efforts have drawn emphasis to the importance

of sexual order, and of the need to take such hierarchies into consideration when

examining historiography. Women‟s independence of thought and authority of

expression were effectively curtailed by prohibitions of gender. Their presence in the

public and intellectual sphere lacked not because of their proper academic incapacity

but rather because of explicit rhetorics that sought to censure their participation.

The pretexts of virtue and chastity, with reference to Nogarola for example,

were incompatible with the authoritative, autonomous character dialectic expression

demanded, and thus were used to silence women into the roles of wives and mothers,

society had assigned. Likewise the lack of concrete pedagogical programs for women

that promoted originality of thought, as emphasized by Cereta, denied females the

rudimentary skills needed for scholastic expression, limiting their educational

involvement to religious imitation or private correspondence.

The barriers at hand, in the fifteenth century female pursuit of educational

acquirement, attest to a complex reality not often evident in male interpretations of

historical accounts. Mainly, that women‟s educational participation fascinated, while at

the same time deeply disturbed male humanists. Their fascination is best witnessed

through texts such as Boccaccio‟s De Mulieribus Claris and personal correspondences,

58

which laud women‟s virtuous potential while simultaneously marveling at their

accomplishments. On the other hand, male unease becomes detected from works such

as Giorgione‟s Portrait of a Woman and Botticelli‟s Madonna del Magnificat, where a

covert need to control female intellectual pursuits is made visible. As the toleration of

female scholastic participation would have implied social and intellectual autonomy, it

was only natural that men, fearful of social hierarchies overturning, adopted attitudes

that denied women any real participation.

The ramifications of these actions are readily identified in the lives of female

humanists such as Isotta Nogarola and Laura Cereta. The fact that both women were

unable to establish literary careers, in the conventional sense of the word, speaks

volumes on the intertwines of gender politics and the entity of woman in fifteenth

century Italy. These women‟s inability to divorce themselves from the very notions

they were attempting to diffuse indicates the magnitude of gender norms and social

perceptions, while accentuating the impact these had on women‟s sexuality, identity

and potential.

Drawing lines of demarcation, and taking into consideration modern day

culture, the inequalities voiced through Isotta Nogarola and Laura Cereta, allow us to

reflect more deeply on our own -conscious and subconscious- relations and

contributions to discrimination in general. By examining their lives and works, one

comes to realize the impact social perceptions and authoritive institutions can have

upon an individual‟s relations to his or her social surroundings and more importantly,

the impact these can have on his or her fashioning of self. As personhood emerges from

negotiations between cultural norms, gender propriety and personal autonomy, the

impact negative stereotypes and personal biases can have on an individual become

accentuated. In this sense, we are beckoned to be more tolerant when interacting with

another, and forced to take accountability for the impact our negative thoughts and

actions might have upon that individual.

Our culture‟s recognition of the subordination these women faced in the public

and private domains, indicates a new consciousness with a more evolved social and

political value system than that assigned in the fifteenth century. However, despite this

recognition, inequalities continue to persist, suggesting perhaps a need for a cultural

reevaluation. Though reexamination has been proven to be quite difficult, as it

59

challenges one‟s intrinsic and learned values, the female humanists examined in this

paper have also proven it to be a worthwhile process, endowing one with a different

lens through which to view society and ultimately providing them with the means

through which to improve it.

60

Apendix

Fig.1

112

112

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Inc., Last modified Nov.23, 2008).

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61

Fig.2

113

Fig.3

114

113

“Historical Overview”.(Feb, 2005). In University of Oxford Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics:

Venus Express Group. Retrieved Nov. 29, 2008 from University of Oxford Venus Express Group Online:

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Raphael Sanzio. The School of Athens. c.1509-1512. Vatican City. Apostolic Palace, Rome. (Photo:

Wikipedia). Obtained online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens. Retrieved Feb./07/09.

62

Fig.4

115

Fig.5

116

115

Giorgione: Portrait of a Woman (“Laura”). c.1506. Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Museum (Photo:Museum).

Obtained from Junkerman Christine Anne. “The Lady and the Laurel”. p50 116

Sandro Botticelli‟s, Madonna del Magnificat, c.1483. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. (Photo: Alinari/ Art

Resource, New York). Obtained from Schibanoff Susan. Botticelli‟s Madonna del Magnificat. p191

63

Fig.6

117

117

Ibid, p192

64

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