1 For a survey of work on literature on women in the Renaissance see Kelso, Ruth, Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance (Urbana, 1956)Google Scholar; Maclean, Ian, The Renaissance Notion of Woman (Cambridge, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Richardson, Lula McDowell, The Forerunners of Feminism in French Literature from Christine of Pisa to Marie de Gournay (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Studies in Romance Literature and Languages, XII, 1929)Google Scholar. For an analysis of three important treatises of the late quattrocento and a useful bibliography of all defenses of women published in Italy in the sixteenth century, see Fahy, Conor, “Three Early Renaissance Treatises of Women,” Italian Studies, II (1951), 30–55 Google Scholar. See also the wideranging collection of essays on women in political and intellectual life in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries: Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past, ed. Labalme, Patricia H., (New York and London, 1980)Google Scholar.

2 I use this term despite its apparent anachronism. In asserting that the vita activa is open to women, Boccaccio claims that they are the political equals of men by implication. His representative women are intended as proofs of this equality.

3 “Attamen visum est, ne omiserim, excepta matre prima, his omnibus fere gentilibus nuUas exsacris mulieribus hebreis christianisque miscuisse; non enim satis bene conveniunt, nee equo incedere videntur gradu. He quippe ob eternam et veram gloriam sese fere in adversam persepe humanitati tolerantiam coegere, sacrosancti Preceptoris tarn iussa quam vestigia imitantes; ubi ille, seu quodam nature muncre vel instinctu, seu potius huius momentanei fulgoris cupiditate percite, non absque tamen acri mentis robore, devenere; vel, fortune urgentis inpulsu, non nunquam gravissima pertulere. Preterea he, vera et indeficienti luce corusce, in meritam eternitatem non solum clarissime vivunt, sed earum virginitatem, castimoniam, virtutem et, in superandis tarn concupiscentiis carnis quam suppliciis tiramnorum invictam constantiam, ipsarum meritis exigentibus, singulis voluminibus a piis hominibus, sacris Uteris et veneranda maiestate conspicuis, descriptas esse cogniscimus, ubi illarum merita, nullo in hoc edito volumine speciali—uti iam dictum est—et a nemine demonstrata, describere, quasi aliquale reddituri premium, inchoamus.” De claris mulieribus, ed. Saccaria, Vittorio, in Tutte le Opere, X, ed. Vittore Branca (Verona, 1967), pp. 26–28 Google Scholar.

4 Christine de Pisan models her work on Boccaccio's De claris mulieribus, but she eliminates its humanist perspective. See Richardson, op. cit., pp. 13-32.

5 Elyot may have been sensitive to this fact when he wrote The Governor. Gordon Schochet remarks that, unlike many contemporary political theorists, Elyot does not justify the monarchy by reference to the patriarchal organization of the family. Patriarchatism in Political Thought (New York, 1975) p. 41.

6 Socrates defines the spoken word as “an intelligent word graven in the soul of the learner, which can defend itself, and knows when to speak and when to be silent.” Of this “the written word is properly no more than an image.” Phaedrus, 276; in The Dialogues of Plato, ed. Jowett, B. (London, 1892 Google Scholar; rpt. New York, 1939), I, p. 279.

7 Elyot, Sir Thomas, The Defence of Good Women (London, 1540)Google Scholar, sig. A3. Subsequent quotations from this work—in which I have written out abbreviations and modernized the use of i/j, u/v, and vv—will be noted in the text of this essay. My thanks to the Huntington Library for permission to quote from this edition of the Defence. The treatise is also available as edited by Edwin Johnston Howard (Oxford, Ohio, 1940).

8 “Io…ho…conosciuti…mold, li quali, vedendosi aver in vano tentato e speso il tempo scioccamente, rocorrono a questa nobil vendetta e dicono aver avuto abondanzia di quello che solamente s'hanno imaginato; e par loro che il dir male e trovare invcnzioni accio che di qualche nobil donna per lo vulgo si levino fabule vituperose… . “ Il libro del cortegiano, ed. Bruno Maier (Turin, 1964), III, lxii; p. 396.

9 “For anon as a woman is borne even from her infancy, she is kept at home in ydelnes, and as thoughe she were unmete for any hygher busynesse, she is permitted to know no farther than her nedle and her threede. And than whan she commeth to age, able to be maried, she is delyvered to the rule and governance of ajelous husband, orels she is perpetually shutte up in a close nounrye. And all offyces belongynge to the commonweale, be forbydden theym by the lawes… .And thus by these lawes the women being subdewed as it were by force by armes, are constrained to give place to men, and to obeye theyr subdewers, not by no naturall, no divyne necessitie or reason, but by custome, education, fortune, and a certayne tyrannical occasion.” Of the nobilitie and excellencie of womankynde (London, 1542) sigs. F8, F8V, Gi, Giv.

10 The female child is the result of a “deviation” from the human norm which is male, Gen. An. IV, iii, 767b; trans. A. L. Peck (Cambridge, Mass., 1943), pp. 400-401; and she is “as it were a deformity, though one which occurs in the ordinary course of nature,” Gen. An. IV, vi, 775a; pp. 460-61. Cf. Gasparo to the Magnifico: “quando nasce una donna, è diffetto o error della natura e contra quello che essa vorrebbe fare.” Il libro del cortegiano, III, xi, p. 352. For a study of the views of Aristotle on women see Okin, Susan Moller, Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton, 1973), pp. 73–96 Google Scholar; and Horowitz, Maryanne Cline, “Aristotle and Woman,” Journal of the History of Biology, 9, 9 (W9), 183–213 Google Scholar.

11 Hence woman is more compassionate than man, more easily moved to tears, at the same time more jealous, more querulous, more apt to scold and to strike. She is, furthermore, more prone to despondence and less hopeful than the man, more void of shame and self-respect, more false of speech, more deceptive, and of more retentive memory. She is also more wakeful, more shrinking, more difficult to rouse to action, and requires a smaller quantity of nutriment.” Hist. An. IX, i, 608b; trans. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (Oxford, 1910), no pagination.

12 “Hence there are by nature various classes of rulers and ruled. For the free rules the slave, the male the female, and the man the child in a different way. And all possess the various parts of the soul, but possess them in different ways; for the slave has not got the deliberative part at all, and the female has it, but without full authority, while the child has it, but in an undeveloped form… .Hence it is manifest that all the persons mentioned have a moral virtue of their own, and that the temperance of a woman and that of a man are not the same, nor their courage and justice, as Socrates thought, but the one is the courage of command, and the other that of subordination, and the case is similar with the other virtues.” Politics, trans. H. Rackham (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), I, v, 5-8; 1260a; p. 63. See also the pseudo-Eomomia: “[In matters outside the family] let it be her aim to obey her husband; giving no need to public affairs, nor desiring any part in arranging the marriages of her children… .a woman of well-ordered life should consider that her husband's uses are as laws appointed for her own life by divine will, along with the marriage state… . “ trans. G. Cyril Armstrong (Cambridge, Mass., 1947), III, i, pp. 400-403. See also the Deanima, III, 5; 430a21.

13 See Okin, op. cit., pp. 83-86. Schochet, however, notes that Aristotle distinguishes between the organization of the polis and¬¬¬¬¬¬ the household, and also between politicaljustice and household justice, op. cit., pp. 21-24.

14 very frutefull and pleasant boke called the instruction of a Christen woman (London, 1540), sigs. E2, E2^V, U2^V.

15 “And so with this purpose in view Divine Providence has fashioned the nature of man and of woman for their partnership. For they are distinguished from each other by the possession of faculties not adapted in every case to the same tasks but in some cases for opposite ones, though contributing to the same end. For Providence made man stronger and woman weaker, so that he in virtue of his manly prowess may be more ready to defend the home, and she, by reason of her kind nature, more ready to keep watch over it; and while he brings in fresh supplies from without, she may keep safe what lies within.” Ec. I, iii; op. cit., pp. 332, 333. For the general influence of the Economics on Renaissance treatises on women see Maclean, op. cit., 4.5.5, 4.5.6,4.5.7.

16 “Quello in che l'uno dall'altro son differenti è cosa accidentale è non essenziale… non e dubbio che le donne, per esser più molli di carne, sono ancor più ate della mente e de ingegno piu accommodato alle speculazioni che gli omini.” Op. cit., III, iii, p. 353.

17 Meno 71-72.

18 Rep. 454-57. See also Okin, op. cit., pp. 40-43.

19 Plutarch sets a precedent in his introductory remarks to the Mulierum virtutes. On the importance of historicism in demolishing the authority of paradigms of femininity see Maclean, op. cit., 6.2.3.

20 Whether a woman could wage a war was obviously a critical question. Cf. Machiavelli: “Uno principe non avere altro obietto, nè altro pensiero, ne prendere cosa alcuna per sua arte, fuora della guerra e ordin e discipline di essa; perchè quella è sola arte che si espetta a chi comanda… . “ Machiavelli's The Prince, ed. and trans. Mark Musa (New York, 1964), I, xiv, p. 120.

21 “Howe moche doo the Frenchemen prayse a yonge damsell, whiche beinge descended of a lowe image, toke upon her after the manner of the Amazons, to leade the forward of the army; and she fought so valiantly, and hadde soo good chaunce, that the French men beleved verily, that by her prowesse, they recovered the relm of France out of the Englisshe mens handes.” Of the nobilities, sig. F2, F2^V.

22 “A lei sola si po dar l'onore del glorioso acquisto del regno di Granata; ché in cosi lunga e difficil guerra contra nimici ostinati … mostrò sempre col consiglio e con la persona propria tanta virtù, che forse a'tempi nostri pochi principi hanno avuto ardire non che di imitarla, ma pur d'averle invidia.” Op. cit., III, xxxv; p. 386.

23 Instruction of a Christen woman, sig. U2^V.

24 ” ‘Silence gives grace to woman’ though that is not the case likewise with a man.” Politics, I, v, 508; 1260a, ed. cit., p. 65.

25 Bruni, Lionardo, De studiis et litteris, trans. Woodward, William Harrison in Vittorino de Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (Cambridge, 1897), pp. 124, 126.Google Scholar

26 The instruction of a Christen woman, sig. E2, E2^V. Later he reverses himself and declares he will not condemn eloquence, E2^V. But the tenor of the treatise as a whole is negative.

27 “et si multa sit virtus adscendenti tunc quoque cadendum est. A quo nee Zenobia immunis evadere potuit.” “[Aurelius] indignum ratus foeminam Romani partem Imperii possidere in Zenobiam arma convertit.” De casibus illustrium virorum, a facsimile edition of the Paris edition of 1520. (Gainesville, Fla., 1962), VIII, p. 192.

28 “Ex quo non aliter quam si maximum superasset ducem et acerrimum rei publice hostem, Aurelianus gloriatus est eamque triumpho servavit et aduxit cum filiis Romam.” Op. cit., C, p. 414.

29 See Hyrde's preface to Margaret More's translation of Erasmus’ Precatio domenica, A devout treatise upon the pater noster (London, n.d.), sig. A4, A4V. This preface was written in 1524 for Frances Brandon, daughter of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and his wife Mary, daughter of Henry VIII.

30 See “Letter to his daughters,” 1524; quoted in Watson, Foster, Vives and the Renascence Education of Women (New York, 1912), p. 179.Google Scholar

31 Erasmus praises More's “school” for young women in a letter to John Faber; quoted in Watson, op. cit., p. 178. He also praised Catherine for her learning on several occasions; see Mattingly, Garrett, Catherine of Aragon (Boston, 1941), pp. 181-84Google Scholar, who cites Allen III, 602; IX, 401.

32 Ec. Ill, 4; ed. cit., p. 414.

33 “perù se esso vi comandasse che faceste un tradimento, non solamente non sete obligato a farlo, ma sete obligato a non farlo, e per voi stcsso, c per non esser ministro della vergogna del singor vostro.” Op. cit., II, xxiii; pp. 225, 226.

34 A ryght frutefull epystle devysed by the moste excellent clerke Erasmus in laude andprayse of matrymony (London, n.d.), D2^V. This is a translation of the De matrimonio christiano, by Rychard Tavernour, published in 1534. Erasmus’ words are echoed by Agrippa: “for an evill wife never happeneth but to an evil husband” who further counsels “And let not [thy wife] be subject unto the, but let her be with the in all trust and counsayle, and let her be in thy house, not as a drudge, but as a maistresse of the house… . “ The Commendation of Matrimony, (London, 1534), sigs. C3, C6^V. This is a translation, by David Clapham, of the De Sacramento matrimonio declamatio, 1526. For a different view see Vives, The office and dutie of an husband (London, n.d.) sig. N6. The theological and philosophical background to the rule of obedience for a wife is briefly presented in Maclean, op. cit., 2.7.5, 2.8.1, 2.9.1

35 In his article “Politics and the Praise of Women: Political Doctrine in the Courtier's Third Book,” in Castiglione: the Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture, ed. Robert Hanning and David Rosand (New Haven, 1982), pp. 29-34, Dain A. Trafton argues that in Book III Castiglione actually evolves a basis for the political life of the courtier who is represented there in the collective image of the numerous ladies celebrated by the Magnifico.

36 See Stanford E. Lehmberg, op. cit., p. 176; also Foster Watson, op. cit., pp. 308- 13.

37 Garrett Mattingly, op. cit., pp. 137-41; 157-62; 174-75; 203-19.

38 Op. cit., p. 335; 374-75.

39 “It is clear that Elyot sympathized with Catherine's cause, and he continued to give Chapuys information and support for a number of years. In 1534, Chapuys went so far as to include Elyot among those who would join a Spanish-led conspiracy to rid England of her ‘heretic’ king. Elyot's policy was dangerous; had Chapuys not kept his secrets unusually well, Elyot might have been tried for treason, and another head might have rolled on Tower Green. No man could safely serve two masters if one of them was Henry VIII.” Lehmberg, op. cit., p. 108. The fullest account of the conspiracy is given in Mattingly, op. cit.

40 “For Chapuys’ contacts with Elyot see Friedman, Paul, Anne Boleyn (London, 1884), I, p. 151 Google Scholar; he cites Vienna Archives, P.C. 227, iii fols. 42 and 50

41 Mattingly (op. cit., p. 405), who cites Cal. SP Span. V, 430.

42 Mattingly (op. cit., p. 362), who cites Cal. SP Span. IV, ii, 688 (V.A.). See also pp. 404-405; Cal. SP Span. IV, ii, 291, 554, 596.

43 Vives came to England in 1523 and remained for five years, lecturing at Oxford and gracing Henry's court. Catherine had commissioned him to write the De institutione which he brought with him to England. Mattingly guesses that Catherine, having realized that Mary might one day rule, was concerned to have her trained to her part, op. cit., pp. 186-89. But if so, the treatise itself, with all its prohibitions against women in government, would have disappointed and perhaps alarmed her.