Letters and orations

211 Pages·2000·12.327 MB·English, Latin

by  Robin, Diana Maury, Fedele, Cassandra

LETTERS
AND
ORATIONS
ASenesEdItedby MargaretL KIngandAlbertRahIl,Jr
OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES
HENRICUS CORNELIUS ACRIPPA LUCREZIA MARINELLA
Declamation on the NobIlIty and The NobIlIty and Excellence
Preeminenceof the FemaleSex of Women, and the Defects
and Vices of Men
Edited by Albert Rabd, Jr
EdIted and translated by Anne Dunhtll
LAURA CERETA ANTONIA PULCI
Collected Letters of a RenaIssance Florentine Drama for Convent
FemInist and Festival
Transcrtbed, translated, and edIted by Translated by James Wyatt Cook
DIana Robot Edited by James Wyatt Cook and Barbara
ColuerCook
TULLIA D'ARACONA SISTER BARTOLOMEA RICCOBONI
Dialogue on the InfinIty of Love Life and Death In a Venetian
Convent The Chronic!« and
Edited by Rlnald,na Russell and Bruce Merry
Necrology of Corpus Domini,
1395-1463
CECILIA FERRAZZI
Autobiography of an EdIted and translated by DanIel BornsteIn
Aspiring Saint ANNA MARIA VAN SCHURMAN
Edited by Anne Jacobson Schutte Whether a Christian Woman
Should Be Educated and
Other Writings from Her
MODERATA FONTE
The Worth of Women Intellectual Circle
EdIted by V,rgInia Cox EdIted and translated by Joyce L IrUJI1t
JUAN LUIS VIVES
The Education of a ChristIan
VERONICA FRANCO
Poems and Selected Letters Woman A Sixteenth-Century
Manual
EdIted and translated by Ann RosalInd Jones
and Margaret F Rosenthal EdIted and translated by Charles Fantazzl
Cassandra Fedele
LETTERS
AND
ORATIONS
Edited and translated by
Diana Robin
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
ChIcago and London
Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558)
Tnana Robtn IS professor of classics and director of comparative ltterature
and cultural studies at the l.Inrversrty of New Mexico She IS author of
CollectedLettersofaRenatssanceFemmist(Llmversrty of Chicago Press)
The University ofChicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University ofClucago Press, Ltd, London
©2000 byThe Uruversrty ofChicago
Allrights reserved Published 2000
Printed Inthe Uruted States ofAmenca
090807 06050403 020100 12345
ISBN 0-226-23931-4 (cloth)
ISBN 0-226-23932-2 (paper)
LIbrary ofCongress Catalogmg-m-Publrcatron Data
Fedele, Cassandra, 1465)-1558
[Selections Engltsh]
Letters and orations /Cassandra Fedele, edrted and translated by Diana RobIn
p cm -(The other VOlCeInearly modern Europe)
Includes brbliograplucal references (p )and Index
ISBN0-226-23931-4 (alk paper)-ISBN 0-226-23932-2 (pbk alk paper)
1 Fedele, Cassandra, 1465)-1558- Translanons Into English 2 Speeches,
addresses, etc, Latm (Medieval and modern)-Italy- Vemce-s-Translatrons
Into English 3 Authors, Latm (Medieval and modern)-Italy- VenIce-
Correspondence 4 Fedele, Cassandra, 1465)-1558-Correspondence 5
Humamsts-Italy- Venice-Correspondence 6 Ferrurusts-c-Italy-c- Vemce-
Correspondence I Robm, DIana Maury II Title III Senes
PA8520 F392A27 2000
875' 04-dc21 99-051321
This translation wassupported by agenerous grant from the NEH
@The paper used Inthis publrcation meets the rrummum requirements ofthe
Amencan National Standard for Information SCIences-Permanence ofPaper for
Pnnted LIbrary Matenals, ANSI Z39 48-1992
CONTENTS
Introduction to the Series
by Margaret L K,ng and Albert Rabll, Jr vii
Acknowledgments xxvii
Ed,tor's IntroductIon 3
One
Women Patrons 17
Two
Famtly Members 35
Three
Princes and Conrners 43
Four
AcademIcs and L,terary Frrends 63
Fioe
Men of the Church 104
S'X
Unknown Correspondents and
HumanIst Form Letters 125
Seven
The PublIc Lectures 154
Bibliography 167
Index 175

THE OTHER VOICE IN
EARLY MODERN EUROPE:
INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
Magaret L King and Albert Rabil, ir
THE OLD VOICE AND THE OTHER VOICE
In western Europe and the LlruredStates women are nearmg equality In
the professions. In business. and In POlttICS Most enjoy access to edu
cation. reproductive rights, and autonomy In fmancial affairs Issues vital
to women are on the public agenda equal pay, child care, domestic abuse,
breast cancer research, and curricular revision WIth an eye to the mclusion
of women
These recent achievements have their origrns In thmgs women (and
some male supporters) sard for the first trrne about SIXhundred years ago
Theirs ISthe "other VOIce;'Incontradisttnctton to the "firstVOIce,"the VOIce
of the educated men who created Western culture Coincrdent WIth a gen
eral reshaping of European culture In the period 1300 to 1700 (called the
Renarssance or early modern period), questions of female equality and op
portunity were raised that still resound and are still unresolved
The "other VOIce"emerged against the backdrop of a three-thousand
year history of rmsogyny-c--the hatred of women-rooted In the civrlrza
tions related to Western culture Hebrew, Greek, Roman, and Chnstian
MIsogyny mherited from these traditrons pervaded the Intellectual, rnedi
cal, legal, relIgIOUS,and SOCIalsystems that developed during the European
MIddle Ages
The following pages describe the rrusogyrustrc traditron mherited by
early modern Europeans, and the new tradition which the "other VOIce"
called Into being to challenge rergrung assumptions ThIS review should
serve as a framework for the understanding of the texts published In the
senes "The Other VOIceIn Early Modern Europe" Introductions specific to
each text and author follow this essay In all the volumes of the sertes
vii
viii Introduction to the SerIes
THE MISOGYNIST TRADITION, 500 BeE -1500 C E
Embedded In the philosoplucal and medical theories of the ancient Greeks
were perceptions of the female as mfenor to the male In both mmd and
body Srmilarly, the structure of crvil legrslation mherited from the ancient
Romans was biased against women, and the VIewson women developed by
Christran thmkers out of the Hebrew BIble and the ChnstIan New Tes
tament were negative and disabling LIterary works composed In the ver
nacular language of ordinary people, and WIdely recited or read, conveyed
these negative assumptions The SOCIalnetworks wrthm which most wo
men ltved-those of the farruly and the mstrtutions of the Roman Cath
olrc Church-were shaped by this misogyrust traditron and sharply hrruted
the areas Inwhich women might act In and upon the world
CREEK PHILOSOPHY AND FEMALE NATURE Greek biology assumed
that women were mferror to men and defined them merely as childbearers
and housekeepers ThIS VIewwas authoritatrvely expressed In the works of
the philosopher Anstotle
Anstotle thought In dualmes He considered action superior to In
action. form (the Inner design or structure of any object) supenor to matter,
completion to mcornpletion. possession to depnvation In each of these
duahtres. he associated the male pnnciple WIth the supenor qualtty and the
female WIththe mferior "The male pnnciple Innature," he argued, "rsaSSOCI
ated WIth active. formative and perfected characteristics. while the female
ISpassive, matenal and depnved, desmng the male Inorder to become com
plete"l Men are always identrfied WIth vmle qualrties. such as Judgment,
courage, and stamma, women WIth their opposttes-c--rrratronaltty, coward
Ice, and weakness
The mascultne prtnciple was considered to be superior even In the
womb Man's semen, Anstotle belteved, created the form of a new human
creature, while the female body contnbuted only matter (The existence of
the ovum, and the other facts of human embryology, were not established
until the seventeenth century) Although the later Greek phYSICIanGalen
belteved that there was a female component In generation. contributed by
"female semen," the followers of both Anstotle and Galen saw the male role
In human generation as more actrve and more Important
In the Anstoteltan VIew,the male prmciple sought always to reproduce
Itself The creation of a female was always a mistake, therefore, resultrng
from an Imperfect act of generation Every female born was considered a
"defective" or "mutilated" male (asAristotle's termmology has variously been
translated), a "rnonstrosrty" of nature 2
Introduction to the Series ix
For Greek theonsts, the biology of males and females was the key to
their psychology The female was softer and more docile, more apt to be
despondent, querulous, and deceitful Being Incomplete, moreover, she
craved sexual fulfillment in Intercourse WIth a male The male was Intellec
tual, active, and In control of hrs passions
These psychological polantres denved from the theory that the uni
verse consisted of four elements (earth, fire, air, and water), expressed In
human bodies as four "humors" (black bile,yellow bile.blood, and phlegm)
considered respectively dry, hot, damp, and cold, and corresponding to
mental states Cmelancholtc;' "choleric," "sanguine" "phlegmatic") In this
schematrzation. the male, shanng the principles of earth and fire, was dry
and hot, the female, shanng the pnnciples of arr and water, was cold and
damp
Female psychology was further affected by her dominant organ, the
uterus (womb), hysteraInGreek The passions generated by the womb made
women lustful, deceitful. talkative. irrational, Indeed-when these affects
were In excess-"hystencal "
Anstotles biology also had social and poliucal consequences If the
male pnncrple was supenor and the female mferior, then In the household,
as In the state, men should rule and women must be subordmate That hier
archy did not rule out the comparuonship of husband and wife, whose co
operation was necessary for the welfare of children and the preservation
of property Such mutuality supported male preernmence
Aristotle's teacher, Plato, suggested adifferent possibility that men and
women rrught possess the same virtues The setting for this proposal ISthe
imagmary and Ideal Republtc that Plato sketches In hIS dialogue of that
name Here, for a privileged eltte capable of leading wisely, all drstmctions
of class and wealth dissolve, as do consequently those of gender WIthout
households or property, as Plato constructs hrsIdeal society, there ISno need
for the subordmation of women Women may, therefore, be educated to
the same level as men to assume leadership responsrbtlttres Plato's Republtc
remarried imagmary, however In real socreties, the subordmatron of women
remained the norm and the prescnption
The views of women mhented from the Greek philosophrcal traditron
became the basis for rnedieval thought In the thirteenth century, the su
preme scholastic philosopher Thomas Aquinas, among others, still echoed
Aristotle's VIews of human reproduction. of male and female personahties.
and of the preeminent male role In the SOCIalhierarchy
ROMAN LAW AND THE FEMALE CONDITION Roman law, ltke Greek
philosophy, underlay medieval thought and shaped medieval SOCIetyThe