Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T18:55:39.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Botticelli's Madonna del Magnificat: Constructing the Woman Writer in Early Humanist Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Susan Schibanoff
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While Botticelli's unusual figuration of the Virgin as writer in his Madonna del Magnificat (c. 1483) testifies to an important event in literary history—the appearance of the woman author in quattrocento northern Italy—it also testifies against her, employing a pictorial equivalent of the humanists' “rhetoric of impossibility,” which construes the female writer as a miraculous, hence ephemeral, phenomenon. At the same time, however, Botticelli's painting reveals the emergence of a competing imperative in the late quattrocento Latin and vernacular defenses of women by Laura Cereta, Bartolomeo Goggio, and others: the construction of the woman writer as ordinary, thus “possible.”

Type
Cluster on Early Modern Women
Information
PMLA , Volume 109 , Issue 2 , March 1994 , pp. 190 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

de Lille, Alain Anticlaudian. Trans, and introd. Hafner, William Cornog. Diss. U of Pennsylvania, 1935.Google Scholar
de Lille, Alain The Complaint of Nature. Trans. Moffat, Douglas M. New York: Holt, 1908.Google Scholar
Allen, Beverly, Kittel, Muriel, and Jewell, Keala Jane, eds and trans. The Defiant Muse: Italian Feminist Poems from the Middle Ages to the Present. New York: Feminist, 1986.Google Scholar
Angela of Foligno The Book of Divine Consolation. Trans. Steegmann, Mary G. New York: Cooper Square, 1966.Google Scholar
Barasch, Moshe Giotto and the Language of Gesture. London: Cambridge UP, 1987.Google Scholar
Bassanese, Fiora A Gaspara Stampa. Boston: Twayne, 1982.Google Scholar
Bäuml, Betty J., and Bäuml, Franz H. A Dictionary of Gestures. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1975.Google Scholar
Baxandall, Michael Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style. Oxford: Clarendon-Oxford UP, 1972.Google Scholar
Bell, Susan Groag “Medieval Women Book Owners.” Signs 4 (1982): 742–74.Google Scholar
Benson, Pamela Joseph The Invention of the Renaissance Woman: The Challenge of Female Independence in the Literature and Thought of Italy and England. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1992.Google Scholar
Bloch, R. Howard Etymologies and Genealogies: A Literary Anthropology of the French Middle Ages. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1983.Google Scholar
Boccaccio, Giovanni Concerning Famous Women. Trans. and introd. Guarino, Guido A. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1963.Google Scholar
Broude, Norma, and Garrard, Mary D., eds The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History. New York: Icon, 1992.Google Scholar
Bruni D'Arezzo, Leonardo De studiis et literis. Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators. Trans. and introd. Woodward, William Harrison. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1897. 119–11.Google Scholar
Burckhardt, Jacob The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Trans. S. G. C. Middlemore. Introd. Benjamin Nelson and Trinkaus, Charles. 2 vols. New York: Harper, 1958.Google Scholar
Burke, Peter “The Language of Gesture in Early Modern Italy.” A Cultural History of Gesture. Ed. Bremmer, Jan and Roodenburg, Herman. Introd. Thomas, Keith. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1992. 71–83.Google Scholar
Buschmiller, Robert J The Maternity of Mary in the Mariology of St. Albert the Great. Diss. U of Fribourg, 1959.Google Scholar
Cast, David “Humanism and Art.” Humanism and the Disciplines. Vol. 3 of Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy. Ed. Albert Rabil, Jr. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1988. 412–41.Google Scholar
Ciletti, Elena “Patriarchal Ideology in the Renaissance Iconography of Judith.” Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance. Ed. Migiel, Marilyn and Schiesari, Juliana. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991. 35–70.Google Scholar
Clanchy, M. T From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066–1307. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1979.Google Scholar
Dionisotti, Carlo Geografia e storia della letteratura italiana. Turin: Einaudi, 1967.Google Scholar
Ellis, Roger “The Word in Religious Art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.” Word, Picture, and Spectacle. Ed. Davidson, Clifford. Kalamazoo: Medieval Inst., 1984. 21–39.Google Scholar
Ettlinger, L. D., and Ettlinger, Helen S. Botticelli. London: Thames, 1976.Google Scholar
Fahy, Conor “Three Early Renaissance Treatises on Women.” Italian Studies 11 (1956): 30–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferster, Judith “Writing on the Ground: Interpretation in Chester Play XII.” Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature. Ed. Wasserman, Julian N. and Roney, Lois. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1989. 179–17.Google Scholar
Fiore, Silvia R “The Silent Scholars of Italian Humanism: Feminism in the Renaissance.” Interpreting the Italian Renaissance: Literary Perspectives. Ed. Toscano, Antonio. Filibrary Series 1. Stony Brook: Forum Italicum, 1991. 15–27.Google Scholar
Garrard, Mary D “Leonardo da Vinci: Female Portraits, Female Nature.” Broude and Garrard 59–85.Google Scholar
Goggio, Bartolomeo De laudibus mulierum. Ms. additional 17415. British Library, London.Google Scholar
Graff, Harvey J The Legacies of Literacy: Continuities and Contradictions in Western Culture and Society. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991.Google Scholar
Grafton, Anthony, and Jardine, Lisa “Women Humanists: Education for What?” From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Europe. Ed. Grafton and Jardine. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986. 29–57.Google Scholar
Gundersheimer, Werner L “Bartolommeo Goggio: A Feminist in Renaissance Ferrara.” Renaissance Quarterly 33 (1980): 175–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gundersheimer, Werner L “Clarity and Ambiguity in Renaissance Gesture: The Case of Borso d'Este.” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 23 (1993): 1–18.Google Scholar
Hatfield, Rab Botticelli's Uffizi Adoration: A Study in Pictorial Contrast. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1976.Google Scholar
Herlihy, David “Women and the Sources of Medieval History: The Towns of Northern Italy.” Medieval Women and the Sources of Medieval History. Ed. Rosenthal, Joel T. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1990. 133–13.Google Scholar
Hirn, Yrjo The Sacred Shrine: A Study of the Poetry and Art of the Catholic Church. Boston: Beacon, 1912.Google Scholar
Horne, Herbert P Botticelli, Painter of Florence. Introd. John Pope-Hennessy. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980.Google Scholar
Houston, R. A Literacy in Early Modern Europe: Culture and Education, 1500–1800. New York: Longman, 1988.Google Scholar
Hughes, Diane Owen “Invisible Madonnas? The Italian Historiographical Tradition and the Women of Medieval Italy.” Women in Medieval History and Historiography. Ed. Stuard, Susan Mosher. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1987. 25–58.Google Scholar
Jardine, Lisa “Isotta Nogarola: Women Humanists—Education for What?” History of Education 12 (1983): 231–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jardine, Lisa Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare. Brighton: Harvester, 1983.Google Scholar
Jolly, Penny Howell “On the Meaning of the Virgin Mary Reading Attributed to Antonello da Messina.” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 40 (1982): 25–36.Google Scholar
Jordan, Constance “Boccaccio's In-famous Women: Gender and Civic Virtue in the De mulieribus Claris.” Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Ed. Levin, Carole and Watson, Jeanie. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1987. 25–47.Google Scholar
Jordan, Constance Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Joan “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” Women, History, and Theory: The Essays of Joan Kelly. Fwd. Catharine R. Stimpson. Introd. Blanche W. Cook et al. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1984. 19–50.Google Scholar
King, Margaret L “Book-Lined Cells: Women and Humanism in the Early Italian Renaissance.” Labalme 66–90. Rev. ed. rpt. in Humanism in Italy. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1988. 434–53. Vol. 1 of Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy. Ed. Albert Rabil, Jr. 3 vols.Google Scholar
King, Margaret L Women of the Renaissance. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Margaret L., and Rabil, Albert Jr., eds Her Immaculate Hand: Selected Works by and about the Women Humanists of Quattrocento Italy. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 20. Binghamton: State U of New York P, 1983.Google Scholar
Kristeller, Paul Oskar “Learned Women of Early Modern Italy: Humanists and University Scholars.” Labalme 91–116.Google Scholar
Labalme, Patricia H., ed Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past. New York: New York UP, 1980.Google Scholar
Lafontaine-Dosogne, J “Mary, Blessed Virgin, Iconography of.” New Catholic Encyclopedia. Washington: Catholic U of Amer., 1967.Google Scholar
Lightbown, Ronald Sandro Botticelli. 2 vols. Berkeley: U of California P, 1978.Google Scholar
Livius, Thomas S The Blessed Virgin in the Fathers of the First Six Centuries. London: Burns, 1893.Google Scholar
Luzio, Alessandro, and Renier, Rudolfo “La coltura e le relazioni letterarie di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga: 5. gruppo emiliano.” Il giornale storico della letteratura italiana 38 (1901): 41–70.Google Scholar
McIver, M. E “Magnificat.” New Catholic Encyclopedia. Washington: Catholic U of Amer., 1967.Google Scholar
Meiss, Millard “The Madonna of Humility.” Art Bulletin 4 (1936): 435–43.Google Scholar
Migliorini, Bruno The Italian Language. Trans. Griffith, T. Gwynfor. New York: Barnes, 1966.Google Scholar
Miner, Dorothy “Madonna with Child Writing.” Art News 64 (1966): 40–43, 60–63.Google Scholar
Minnis, A. J Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1988.Google Scholar
Ong, Walter “Latin Language Study as a Renaissance Puberty Rite.” Studies in Philology 56 (1959): 103–10.Google Scholar
Orth, Myra D “‘Madame Sainte Anne’: The Holy Kinship, the Royal Trinity, and Louise of Savoy.” Interpreting Cultural Symbols: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Society. Ed. Ashley, Kathleen and Sheingorn, Pamela. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1990. 199–227.Google Scholar
Panofsky, Erwin Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art. New York: Harper, 1969.Google Scholar
Parkhurst, Charles P. Jr “The Madonna of the Writing Christ Child.” Art Bulletin 23 (1941): 292–306.Google Scholar
Rabil, Albert Jr Laura Cereta: Quattrocento Humanist. Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1981.Google Scholar
Réau, Louis Iconographie de l'art chrétien. Vol. 2, pt. 2. Paris: PUF, 1957. 3 vols. in 6 pts.Google Scholar
Ricci, Corrado, and Lega, Alberto Bacchi della, eds Gynevera de le clare donne di Joanne Sabadino de li Arienti. Scelta di curiosità letterarie inedite o rare dal secolo XIII al XIX 223. 1887. Bologna: Commissione per i Testi di Lingua, 1969.Google Scholar
Robb, David M “The Iconography of the Annunciation in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.” Art Bulletin 18 (1936): 480–526.Google Scholar
Robbins, Rossell Hope, ed Secular Lyrics of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon-Oxford UP, 1955.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Margaret F The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992.Google Scholar
Saenger, Paul “Silent Reading: Its Impact on Late Medieval Script and Society.” Viator 13 (1982): 367–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salvini, Roberto All the Paintings of Botticelli. Trans. Grillenzoni, John. 3 vols. New York: Hawthorn, 1965.Google Scholar
Schibanoff, Susan “Criseyde's ‘Impossible’ Aubes.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 76 (1977): 326–32.Google Scholar
Schibanoff, Susan “Taking Jane's Cue: Phyllyp Sparowe as a Primer for Women Readers.” PMLA 101 (1986): 832–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiller, Gertrud Iconography of Christian Art. Trans. Seligman, Janet. Greenwich: New York Graphic Soc., 1971.Google Scholar
Sedulius, Caelius Carmen paschale. Patrologiae cursus completus … series latina. Ed. Migne, J.-P. Vol. 19. Paris, 1844–55. 221 vols.Google Scholar
Warner, Marina Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary. New York: Wallaby, 1976.Google Scholar
Wells, Caroline, ed The Book of Humorous Verse. Rev. ed. Garden City: Doubleday, 1947.Google Scholar
Wiesner, Merry E “Women's Defense of Their Public Role.” Women in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Literary and Historical Perspectives. Ed. Rose, Mary Beth. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1986. 1–28.Google Scholar
Wind, Edgar Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance. New Haven: Yale UP, 1958.Google Scholar
Wixom, William D “An Enthroned Madonna with the Writing Christ Child.” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57 (1970): 287–302.Google Scholar
Wofford, Susanne L “The Social Aesthetics of Rape: Closural Violence in Boccaccio and Botticelli.” Creative Imitation: New Essays on Renaissance Literature in Honor of Thomas M. Greene. Ed. Quint, David et al. Binghamton: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1992. 189–238.Google Scholar
Zambrini, Francesco Saverio, ed La defensione delle donne d'autore anonimo: Scrittura inedita dal secolo XV ora pubblicata. Scelta di curiosità letterarie inedite o rare dal secolo XIII al XVII 148. Bologna: Romagnoli, 1876.Google Scholar
Zirpolo, Lilian “Botticelli's Primavera: A Lesson for the Bride.” Broude and Garrard 101–10.Google Scholar