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Women in the Renaissance

Monday, 1 Oct. 2012

Announcements

•  Link to Joan Kelly, “Did Women Have A Renaissance” now at online syllabus

•  For Wed, 10/3: •  Boccaccio, Barbaro, Cereta, Strozzi (all in

Gouwens’ book)

•  I. Women before the Renaissance •  Classical •  Christian •  Medieval

•  II. Women During the Renaissance •  Joan Kelly, Margaret King •  Diversity of experience: wives, mothers, widows, nuns,

scholars, court ladies

•  III. Women After the Renaissance •  Prot. Reformation •  Catholic Reformation

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Women: The Classical legacy

Aristotle: “imperfect men”

•  Plato: Republic’s female guardians

•  Xenophon: women suited for indoor tasks

•  Rome: paterfamilias

Women: The Christian legacy •  Old Testament •  Jesus & parables & M.

Magdalene •  St. Paul: the “weaker vessel” •  St. Augustine, Confessions •  St. Thomas Aquinas •  Vincent de Beauvais

(Dominican), in Speculum: “she is the confusion of man, an insatiable beast, a continuous anxiety, an incessant warfare, a daily ruin, a house of tempest, and a hindrance to devotion.”

Women: the Medieval legacy

•  Courtly love •  Bocaccio: De mulieribus claribus &

Griselda •  Christine de Pizan, Book of Ladies

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Women of the Renaissance

•  Joan Kelly, “Did Women Have a Renaissance?”

•  Courtly Love •  Contraction •  Renaiss. of Chastity

•  Margaret King, Women of the Renaissance

•  Daughters of Eve •  Daughters of Mary •  Virgo et Virago

Mothers and Wives

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Nuns

Court Lady

Castiglione

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Scholar/Humanist

Family in the Renaissance

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Leon Battista Alberti

Family in the Renaissance