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Encyclopedia of Women in the

Italy, France, and England

DIANA ROBIN, ANNE R. LARSEN, AND CAROLE LEVIN, EDITORS

Santa Barbara, California Denver, Colorado Oxford, England 04_WOMREN1C_M-R.qxd 1/18/07 11:37 AM Page 307

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Queens. See Power, Politics, and The Renaissance dispute about women was Women. a development of an already active medieval querelle but differed from it in the prowoman texts’ push toward a deep reconsideration of Querelle des Femmes the of woman. The earlier debate was (Controversy on Women) characterized by the production of matched Criticism of the vices and praise for the attrac- sets of arguments that did not upset fixed ideas tions of women are perennial topics in litera- about women’s natural inferiority. For exam- ture, but only at a few moments in history have ple, antiwoman scriptural texts were con- in favor of women engaged in formal fronted with prowoman scriptural texts; thus, debate with misogynists to challenge funda- Eve’s guilt was balanced by Mary’s virtue, but mental negative assumptions about women.The Mary was so exceptional a figure that misogy- European Renaissance was one such period. nists could counter that her behavior revealed From the late fourteenth century through the nothing positive about the nature of women in seventeenth century, traditional misogynist as- general.While retaining many of the medieval sertions that women were naturally weak, topics and continuing to rely heavily on scrip- tended to vice, and could not be trusted to be- tural quotation, the prowoman side of the Re- have well without male supervision in domestic naissance querelle introduced two innovations or social situations were answered by carefully in method that made it possible to make a reasoned, innovative arguments in favor of convincing case in favor of women: first, au- women’s capacity for moral virtue, physical en- thors used biographical evidence drawn from durance, and intellectual accomplishment and myth, legend, and, most important, history and by proposals for changes in the organization of contemporary life to support revisionist claims social and domestic life appropriate to the re- about the nature of woman; second, they used vised notion of women. During this period, the the formal philosophical paradox to break negative and the positive attitudes toward down negative assumptions. women were juxtaposed with each other in Biographical evidence was introduced into pairs or series of texts devoted exclusively to dis- the defense of women by the humanists Pe- cussing womankind and also appeared in tracts trarch and Boccaccio in Italy.The first exten- dealing with other topics related to women, sive collection of female biographies since such as marriage and domestic economy.Schol- Plutarch, Boccaccio’s De Mulieribus Claris was ars refer to this formal debate by the French enormously popular and influential. Originally term querelle des femmes (dispute about women), written in , it was translated into most of in part because the debate was very popular in the European ; it circulated widely France and in part because scholars first became in manuscript and was printed early and often; aware of the debate when examining French it was updated several times with additions of texts, but interest in the topic was pan-Euro- modern lives. In his , Boccaccio shows pean. Authors in every country participated in himself to be at a turning point in conceptual- the debate, and well over one hundred texts on izing women. Caught between his innovative the subject were produced. assembly of copious evidence that women have

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performed many actions worthy of admiration Women (1535) and the Italian Baldessare Cas- in the arts and sciences, government, and war tiglione’s extended debate about woman and and his acceptance of the opinion of authori- her role at court in Book III of Il Cortegiano ties who defined women as naturally incapable (The Courtier, 1528, translated into English by of heroic actions and as inclined to vice, he fre- Thomas Hoby in 1561), the prowoman speak- quently interprets women’s heroic behavior as ers argue that woman’s timidity,conventionally being due to a miraculous infusion of male seen as a weakness, is a strength that adapts her spirit that permits them to overcome their na- for her domestic role of preserving the goods ture in extraordinary circumstances. that the brave, but potentially profligate, hus- For the most part, later prowoman writers band brings home. Although the paradoxical in the querelle accepted Boccaccio’s evidence strategy of finding strength in weakness (used and rejected his interpretation; demonstrating by many in addition to Elyot and Castiglione) that women are naturally capable of virtue, in- did not lead to the opening up of new fields of tellectual activity,and heroic feats and that cul- activity,as a modern feminist might wish, it did tural restraints rather than natural inability lend dignity and value to the domestic work have held women back is at the heart of the that was the lot of most women in the period, Renaissance case for women. The French and it provided a basis for writers on household , one of the first au- management to advise that the wife be respon- thors to make this case and the first woman to sible for the direction of the household. Simi- enter the querelle, challenged Boccaccio on this larly, some Renaissance paradoxical texts do very point in her collection of female biogra- not take the obvious tack of defending Eve by phies, La Cité des dames (The City of Ladies). arguing that Adam rather than she bears ulti- She conspicuously borrowed Boccaccio’s ma- mate responsibility for the Fall but rather dis- terial but used it to demonstrate a notion of cover good in Eve’s apparently bad action. For woman completely opposed to Boccaccio’s example, the unpublished early paradoxical text extraordinary woman theory; she argued that, De laudibus mulierum (1487), by the Italian Bar- given the education and opportunity to act, tolommeo Goggio, asserts that many benefits women were the equals of men. came from Eve’s eating of the fruit—among Though all Renaissance defenses of women them, the opening of the eyes of the intellect incorporate biographical evidence of women’s for mankind. capacities, not all defenses are straightforward in Some texts supplement the strategy of their attack on misogyny. Many humanist and showing that qualities in woman that had pre- sixteenth-century defenses are written in a viously been seen as weaknesses were actually subtle and witty philosophical genre, the for- strengths with proof that, at least in the quality mal paradox.This has sometimes caused mod- of intelligence, the fundamental assumption ern readers to perceive them as a frivolous in- that the two sexes are naturally different (a po- tellectual game rather than recognizing them as sition now known as essentialism) is incorrect; making a serious challenge to the status quo. they assert that differences have a cultural Like Erasmus’s famous Praise of Folly (1511), cause—some even positing a golden age of these works discover valuable positive qualities equality that ended when men began to op- in something apparently indefensible—in this press women. A few authors who make this case womankind.They do not necessarily reject claim are the German Agrippa von Nettesheim conventional notions of woman’s nature, but in his much translated and highly influential De rather they challenge the negative valuation put nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus (1529), the on it. For example, in both the English Sir Italian Galeazzo Flavio Capella in his Della ec- Thomas Elyot’s brief dialogue Defence of Good cellenza et dignità della donna, Ludovico Ariosto 04_WOMREN1C_M-R.qxd 1/18/07 11:37 AM Page 309

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in the Orlando Furioso, and Spenser in The ynist text, and Modesta Pozzo’s (pen name, Faerie Queene. Many authors, including the Moderata Fonte) much freer dialogue Il Merito Italians Capella and Castiglione and the En- delle donne (The Worth of Women, written ca. glishmen Thomas More and the author of the 1592) presented a group of women discussing Dyalogue Defensive of Women proposed that a very wide range of practical issues—hus- women could profit from education just as bands’ vices, the value of education, and do- much as men if they were given the opportu- mestic economy—as well as philosophical nity.In his dialogue The Defence of Good Women, ones. The Englishwoman Rachel Speght re- the Englishman Sir Thomas Elyot uses logic to sponded to a virulent misogynist attack in her demonstrate that women are capable of the bitingly satiric but rational and substantial same virtues as men—they are not timid by na- proof of “Womans excellency,” A Mouzell for ture but by upbringing—and, thus, if properly Melastomus (1617), and, most unusually,another educated they are capable of playing the same Englishwoman, Aemilia Lanyer, incorporated roles in society that men play. Elyot goes fur- elements of the querelle, including a defense of ther than most English authors, however, when Eve, in the passion poem and other writings in he endorses the political consequences of edu- the volume Salve Deus Rex Judeorum (1611). cation: the dialogue concludes with the entry Though it might seem reasonable to assume of Queen Zenobia, who explains that educa- that women would have argued clearly for tion made her capable of participating in poli- women’s equality or superiority, that is not so. tics. Most support intellectual activity by Rather, in the tradition of the paradox, they women, including writing and publishing, but often unsettle assumptions about women by find that political action by women is desirable setting their own skill as writers against the only in extraordinary circumstances, for exam- content of their works. In Nogarola’s dialogue, ple, when there is no male heir to the throne, the male sustainer of woman’s inferiority as was the case when Elizabeth I became queen makes the stronger case, but Nogarola, as au- of England. thor, simultaneously and paradoxically demon- Although the vast majority of defenses of strates a quality that he denies—women’s wit women were written by men, women authors and intelligence. Similarly, Lanyer defends Eve participated in the Renaissance querelle from its on the grounds that she was weaker and thus earliest days, as is shown by Frenchwoman cannot be held responsible, at the same time Christine de Pisan’s Cité des dames (ca. 1405) that she demonstrates her own command of a and Italian humanist Isotta Nogarola’s Dialogue complex literary genre and urges female read- (1451) on Saint Augustine’s doctrine that Adam ers to think for themselves. and Eve “sinned differently because of the in- An unusual feature of the English querelle is equality of the sexes, but that both sinned with the popular tone of many of the texts from the equal pride” (peccaverunt impari sexu sed pari mid-sixteenth century onward. Rather than, or fastu). Women’s greatest participation in the in addition to, the formal paradox and dia- early modern querelle was during the late six- logue, many English authors used older genres, teenth century and early seventeenth centuries. such as the bird debate, the dream vision, and The Frenchwoman Catherine des Roches the invective. Such works offered down-to- (1542–1587) incorporated elements of the earth praise for women’s successful fulfillment querelle into several of her dialogues. The year of their roles as mothers and homemakers, and 1600 saw the publication of two Italian works. they featured in general ad hominem argument Lucrezia Marinella’s On the Nobility and Excel- and disparagement of men nearly as often as lence of Women touched on the standard topics praise of women for accomplishments in tradi- of the querelle, in response to a specific misog- tionally masculine fields. English publishers 04_WOMREN1C_M-R.qxd 1/18/07 11:37 AM Page 310

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often artificially stimulated a sense of crisis in Elyot,The Defence of Good Women (1545); Hen- the definition of woman by commissioning ricus Cornelius Agrippa, Female Pre-Eminence texts on both sides of the debate.This is true of (1670). Delmar, NY: Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reports, 1980. the pamphlets that form the Schoolhouse Fonte, Moderata (Modesta Pozza). The Worth of Controversy (1541–1542 and 1557–1560) and Women:Wherein Is Clearly Revealed Their Nobil- the Swetnam Controversy (1615–1620); each is ity and Their Superiority to Men. Edited and named for a misogynist text that provoked nu- translated by Virginia Cox. Chicago: Univer- merous prowoman responses: Edwarde Gosyn- sity of Chicago Press, 1997. hyll’s (?) The Scholehouse of Women (1541, 1560, Henderson, Katherine Usher, and Barbara F. McManus, eds. Half Humankind: Contexts and 1572) and Joseph Swetnam’s The Araignment of Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, lewd, idle, froward and unconstant Women (1615 1540–1640. Urbana: University of Illinois and many editions thereafter). As in the more Press, 1985. highly philosophical texts, however, the popu- Lanyer,Aemilia. The Poems of Aemilia Lanyer: lar misogynist texts were compendia of age-old Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. Women Writers in English, 1350–1850. Edited by Susanne arguments, while the companion prowoman Woods. New York:, publications, though full of entertaining invec- 1993. tive, often exhibited original thinking and Marinella, Lucrezia. The Nobility and Excellence of made a persuasive case for women’s virtue. For Women and the Defects and Vices of Men. The example, A Mouzell for Melastomus, the young Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Edited Englishwoman Rachel Speght’s satiric defense and translated by Anne Dunhill. Introduction by Letizia Panizza. Chicago and London: Uni- of women, is noteworthy for its skillful deploy- versity of Chicago Press, 1999. ment of scriptural evidence to refute the out- Nogarola, Isotta. Complete Writings: Letterbook, Dia- rageous claims of the misogynist Araignment of logue on Adam and Eve, Orations. The Other Women. The popular appeal of the controversy Voice in Early Modern Europe. Edited and in England can be seen in Shakespeare’s Taming translated by Margaret L. King and Diana Robin. Chicago and London: University of of the Shrew, in which the final speech by Chicago Press, 2003. Katherine, the female protagonist, explores the O’Malley, Susan Gushee, ed. Defences of Women: most modern ideas about woman’s social role. Jane Anger, Rachel Speght, Ester Sowernam, and Pamela Benson Constantia Munda. The Early Modern English- woman, Part 1, Printed Writings, 1500–1640. See also Education, Humanism, and Women, par- Vol. 4.Aldershot, UK: Scholars Press; Brook- ticularly The Humanist Curriculum; entries field,VT:Ashgate, 1996. for the women mentioned in this article; Pizan, Christine de. The Book of the City of Ladies. Feminism. Translated by Earl Jeffrey Richards. New York: Persea , 1982. Primary Works Secondary Works Benson, Pamela Joseph, ed. Texts of the Querelle des Benson, Pamela Joseph. The Invention of the Re- femmes, 1521–1640. The Early Modern En- naissance Woman:The Challenge of Female Inde- glishwoman:A Facsimile Library of Essential pendence in the Literature and Thought of Italy and Works, 1500–1750, series 3.Aldershot, UK: England. University Park: Pennsylvania State Ashgate, 2006. University Press, 1992. Boccaccio, Giovanni. Famous Women. The I Tatti Fenster,Thelma, and Clare A. Lees, eds. Gender in Renaissance Library. Edited and translated by Debate from the Early to the Renais- Virginia Brown. Cambridge, MA, and Lon- sance. The New Middle Ages. New York:Pal- don: Harvard University Press, 2001. grave, 2002. Bornstein, Diane, ed. The Feminist Controversy of Jones,Ann Rosalind.“Counterattacks on ‘the the Renaissance: Guillaume Alexis,An Argument Bayter of Women’:Three Pamphleteers of the betwyxt Man and Woman (1525); Sir Thomas Early Seventeenth Century.” In The Renaissance 04_WOMREN1C_M-R.qxd 1/18/07 11:37 AM Page 311

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Englishwoman in Print: Counterbalancing the Malcolmson, Cristina, and Mihoko Suzuki, eds. Canon. Edited by Anne M. Haselkorn and Debating Gender in Early Modern England, Betty S.Travitsky.Amherst: University of 1500–1700. New York:Palgrave Macmillan, Massachusetts Press, 1990. 2002. Jordan, Constance. Renaissance Feminism: Literary Mclean, Ian. Woman Triumphant: Feminism in Texts and Political Models. Ithaca, NY: Cornell French Literature, 1610–1652. Oxford: Claren- University Press, 1990. don Press, 1977. Larsen,Anne R.“Paradox and the Praise of Woodbridge, Linda. Women and the English Renais- Women: From Ortensio Lando and Charles sance: Literature and the Nature of Womankind, Estienne to Marie de Romieu.” Sixteenth Cen- 1540–1620. Urbana: University of Illinois tury Journal 28 (1997): 759–774. Press, 1984.