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DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For EMBODYING DIOTIMA: CLASSICAL EXEMPLA AND THE LEARNED LADY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Quinn Erin Griffin Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2016 Dissertation Committee: Professor Frank Coulson, Advisor Professor Richard Fletcher Professor Jonathan Combs-Schilling Copyright by Quinn Erin Griffin 2016 ABSTRACT My dissertation topic was inspired by an exam field completed in Italian Humanism, a Renaissance movement characterized by a renewed attention to ancient literature. I found in my reading that female scholars were rarely included in the works dealing with the period as a whole. Rather, they are covered in separate volumes, usually catalogued under “women’s studies.” Femaleness, it seems, tends to “trump” other identifiers (humanist, scholar, philosopher, etc.) and to preclude belonging in larger movements. One manifestation of this trend is the catalogue of exemplary women, a genre often employed in the praise of learned women in the humanist period. Such catalogues rely primarily on ancient women as examples of conduct for the Reniassance woman, citing such characters as Lucretia, Hortensia, Sappho, Diotima, and Hipparchia. While such works ostensibly praise the learned woman, they also isolate her from her male peers, creating separate spaces and standards for male and female intellectualism. My dissertation demonstrates that both male and female authors of the period used such exempla to define the form and scope of female intellectualism, looking back to ancient learned women as a way of contextualizing the growing number of educated women. Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558) of Venice appears as a new entry into the traditional catalogue of exempla, her work obscured by the mythologization of her character; Laura Cereta (1469-1499) of Brescia, in contrast, reworks exempla to create a ii lineage of learned women in dialogue with one another; Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617) of Modena appears as a “New Diotima” in a work that relies on the audience’s understanding of the learned woman as exemplum to create false expectations for Molza’s character; and Clemenza Ninci (mid-17th century) of Prato chooses just one exemplum, Hipparchia of Maroneia, to construct a philosophical system allowing for increased female agency in the setting of the cloister. These findings suggest that the works presented here need not be restricted to the field of women’s studies. Each of these authors in fact represents a different approach to Classics as a discipline: where Fedele, for example, uses Classical texts to preserve the past, Cereta uses them to construct a vision of the future. Texts by and about early modern women can therefore be a valuable intermediary for students of Classics, as they demonstrate various attempts to relate the Classical tradition to the creation of one’s own scholarly voice and vision, expanding our understanding of what it means to do Classics. iii Dedication This document is dedicated to Hayes Griffin. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My deepest thanks to Frank Coulson for his eternal good humor, sage advice and continual support of my development as a human being and a scholar; to Richard Fletcher, for his creativity and spark, and the initial organization of this project; to Jonathan Combs-Schilling, for providing a new and enthusiastic perspective on my topic. Thank you to Julia Hawkins and Alison Beach for laying the groundwork for my interests in women’s studies; to Anne-Marie Lewis, Roger Fisher, and Jennifer and Terry Tunberg, for their generous support out in the Neo-Latin world; to Garrett Jacobsen, for his much-needed wit and wisdom during my undergraduate days and beyond. My sincerest appreciation goes out to Erica Kallis for her tireless work in support of the Classics Department; and to Kara and Wayne for their past work there. Thank you to my family for their love, encouragement, and patience. I see in myself and remain extremely grateful for P. Radziszewski’s “radar” insight and attention to detail; R. Radziszewski’s drive and intelligence; and Sisi’s imagination and inspiration. Finally, all of my love and thanks to Hayes, for enduring the ups and downs of the graduate school years, providing an endless supply of optimism and support, and ensuring that I never “get above my raisin.” Ti amo, ragazzo! v VITA 2006................................................................Dublin Jerome High School 2010................................................................B.A. Classics, Denison University 2010 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Classics, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Review. Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance, by A. Palmer. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 6 May 2015. BMCR 2015.05.06. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Greek and Latin vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Vita ..................................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 1 Renaissance Woman: Theory and Practice ..................................................................... 7 Cassandra Fedele ....................................................................................................... 19 Laura Cereta .............................................................................................................. 24 Tarquinia Molza ........................................................................................................ 29 Clemenza Ninci ......................................................................................................... 34 2. NON HUMANA, SED DIVINA: CASSANDRA FEDELE OF VENICE ...................................... 39 The Letters: Catalogues of Women ............................................................................... 54 The Letters: Fedele on Philosophy ................................................................................ 78 3. LAURA NOVIOR ALTERIOR: LAURA CERETA OF BRESCIA .............................................. 85 Dialogue on the Funeral of a Donkey ........................................................................ 99 vii The Letters ............................................................................................................... 121 4. NUOVA MUSA, NUOVA DIOTIMA: TARQUINIA MOLZA ................................................ 141 Francesco Patrizi's L'Amorosa Filosofia Book I: Patrizi’s Encomium to Molza......................................................................... 142 Book II: The Varieties of Love ................................................................................... 155 Book III: The Categories of Love ............................................................................... 159 Book IV: A Sophistic Twist ........................................................................................ 164 5. UN GRAN MIRACOL: CLEMENZA NINCI ....................................................................... 171 Texts and Contexts: Lo Sposalizio D’Iparchia Filosofa ............................................. 174 Pain and Pleasure ........................................................................................................ 179 Fortune and Free Will ................................................................................................. 187 Men and Women ......................................................................................................... 198 6. CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................. 209 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 216 APPENDIX A: CLEMENZA NINCI’S LO SPOSALIZIO D’IPARCHIA FILOSOFA ......................... 229 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Cereta's Women .................................................................................................. 90 Table 2: Associations of the Muses ................................................................................ 144 ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Assessments of the female humanist paint a rather bleak picture: She received no degrees. She wrote no truly great works. She exerted no great influence on emerging trends in the history of ideas. She was probably unhappy. But she was perhaps the earliest figure of the type of the learned woman who is still with us.1 Granted, the “type of the learned woman” had in fact existed in some form since the Classical period; her voice, however, was largely obscured, her works lost, her actions reported by male authors. The humanist period, in contrast, yields scores of learned women whose voices are more accessible to us, through their own letters, dialogues and poems; and yet
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