Female Humanists in Renaissance Italy

Female Humanists in Renaissance Italy

Arcangela Tarabotti like many young girls in Renaissance Italy had parents who could not afford a sufficient dowry to purchase their daughter a good marriage. In order to protect their honor and her virginity they sent Tarabotti away to a convent against her will. Here she lived out the rest of her unhappy life as a nun. What sets her apart from other girls of similar circumstance is that she became one of the few female humanist writers#. The story of Tarabotti and the other female humanists I will discuss in this chapter demonstrates not only the oppression of women in Renaissance society but also how women found ways to work around their circumstances. To fully understand this aspect of Renaissance society it must be understood from many viewpoints. Therefore I will discuss family loyalty, sexuality, education, and finally the roles of these rare female humanists as daughters, nuns, and widows.

Family loyalty was one of the strongest influences in Renaissance society, because obligation to one’s family was considered a duty. It shaped the lives of women through manipulation of marriage which often oppressed their freedom. Women were often used as marriage pawns, serving as a means of creating ties and alliances between powerful families. Therefore prominent families married off only enough daughters as necessary to form business and political alliances. Since marrying off a daughter required a dowry, daughters were seen as taking away from the family’s wealth in contrast to men who received dowries through marriage. That is why most often the rest of the unmarried daughters faced the same fate as Tarabotti and were sent to convents. Convents were seen as a way to preserve virginity an...

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...on placed on them by family loyalty and marriage.

Bibliography

Arcangela Tarabotti “Writer and a Nun” (1604-1652)

Laura Cereta, Letter to Bibulus Sempronius: A Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women, (1469-1499).

Lauro Quirini “Greetings to the most noble and most eloquent virgin Isotta Nogarola”

1442

Isotta Nogarola “Of the Equal or Unequal sin of Adam and Eve” (ca.1453)

Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo) “Women’s Worth”.

Bibliography

Arcangela Tarabotti “Writer and a Nun” (1604-1652)

Laura Cereta, Letter to Bibulus Sempronius: A Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women, (1469-1499).

Lauro Quirini “Greetings to the most noble and most eloquent virgin Isotta Nogarola”

1442

Isotta Nogarola “Of the Equal or Unequal sin of Adam and Eve” (ca.1453)

Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo) “Women’s Worth”.