Rose, Getty Museum (Gardens), Malibu, California, USA (photo (c) Ulrike Boehm; all rights reserved)
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Born into a wealthy Venetian family, Modesta Pozzo lost both of her parents within the first year of her life and was subsequently, but for a short stay at a convent school, raised by her grandparents, together with her elder brother. Her extensively-studied grandfather in particular took pains to impart his knowledge to both children alike. When she was 27 years of age (and by the standards of the time, almost an old maid already), Modesta married Filippo Zorzi, a government attorney three years her junior, who made the highly unusual decision to grant her control over her own dowry. – Well-read and endowed with the gift of eloquent written expression herself, Modesta was clearly familiar with the works of, among others, Giovanni Boccaccio and Christine de Pizan; and already before her marriage, she had published a narrative poem under the pen name Moderata Fonte, which she had adopted, as she explained in a 1580 letter to Francesco de Medici, "since my own true name I have not judged it well to expose to public censure, being a young marriageable woman and, according to the custom of the city, obligated in many respects." The poem, known under the title "Tredici canti del Floridoro" (Thirteen Songs of Floridoro), was apparently intended to include no less than 50 cantos, all but the published 13 of which are, however, lost. It follows the then-popular form of a chivalric romance, with the major distinction that its protagonist is not a man but a woman going out into the world in search of chivalric adventure, because "Women in every age were by nature endowed with great judgment and spirit, nor are they born less apt than men to demonstrate (with study and care) their wisdom and valor." "Floridoro" was followed the same year (1581) by a dramatic dialogue on the meaning of life ("La feste"/ "Celebration"), and in later years by further poems – four of which were included in a 1583 anthology, the only works by a woman writer thus distinguished – and two works based on the bible, "La passione di Christo" ("The Passion of Christ") and "La resurretione di Giesu Christo" ("The Resurrection of Jesus Christ"), the latter of which was published in 1592, the year Moderata died, shortly after having given birth to her fourth (surviving) child. Fonte's most notable work besides "Floridoro," however, is the vindication of women set down in "Il merito delle donne: oue chiaramente si scuopre quanto siano elle degne e più perfette de gli huomini" ("The Worth of Women: Wherein Is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men"). Probably written over a period of several years, and published posthumously in 1600, the book follows the example set by such works as Boccaccio's "Decameron," Christine de Pizan's "City of the Ladies," and Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," in that it is a dialogue among several women spread out over two days, but unlike other works in the "defence of women" tradition, it is not merely concerned with arguing for women's worthiness of education and moral and intellectual equality: Fonte's approach is rare (albeit not entirely unique) in that it also highlights the palpable social consequences of more than a millennium of mysoginistic ideas for many a woman's life, ranging from physical abuse all the way to prostitution – a subject normally held downright taboo in a female author's treatise – for all of which nevertheless, the book's speakers point out, women themselves were seen as responsible, thanks to the legacy of Mother Eve herself, Original Sin (on which topic Moderata Fonte again goes considerably further than prior authors in the "defence" tradition, in that she not merely defends Eve for having accepted the apple at all, but even turns the table on the traditional line of argument by pointing out that Eve, at least, had acted out of a desire to learn, whereas Adam merely ceded to a base physical instinct – greed – when he in turn accepted the apple). Shortly before coming to its end the book strikes a semi-conciliatory note, born out of the realisation that society expects all women to marry (in light of which, mothers should at least do their utmost to find "noble, sensible, and virtuous" husbands for their daughters, the mother among the book's speakers maintains); yet, not before another sharp accusation of men's cruelty do the women part – in style, to the tune of a madrigal celebrating women as the adornment of the world.
Women in every age were by nature
endowed with great judgment and spirit,
nor are they born less apt than men to demonstrate
(with study and care) their wisdom and valor.
And why, if their bodily form is the
if their substances are not varied,
if they have the same food and speech, must they
have them different courage and wisdom?
Always one has seen and sees (provide that a
woman wanted to devote thought to it)
more than one woman succeed in the military,
and take away the esteem and acclaim from many men.
Just so in letters and in every
endeavor that men undertake and pursue;
women have achieved and achieve such good results
that they have no cause at all to envy men.
If when a daughter is born the father
set her with his son to equivalent tasks
she would not be in lofty and fair deeds
inferior or unequal to her brother,
whether he placed her among the armed squads
with himself, or set her to learn some liberal art.
But because she is raised in other pursuits
for her education she is held in low regard.
[...]
Said the lady, "When I find a way
to expose myself to some dangerous undertaking,
I don't draw back; rather I enjoy it more
when it's held for an impossible thing."
"This pre-eminence is something [men] have unjustly arrogated to themselves. And when it's said that women must be subject to men, the phrase should be understood in the same sense as when we say we are subject to natural disasters, diseases, and all the other accidents of this life: it's not a case of being subjected in the sense of obeying, but rather of suffering an imposition, not a case of serving them fearfully, but rather of tolerating them in a spirit of Christian charity, since they have been given to us by God as a spiritual trial. But they take the phrase in the contrary sense and set themselves up as tyrants over us, arrogantly usurping that dominion over women that they claim is their right, but which is more properly ours."
"Men were created before women. ... But that doesn't prove their superiority – rather, it proves ours, for they were born out of the lifeless earth in order that we could be born out of living flesh. And what's so important about this priority in creation, anyway? When we are building, we lay foundations on the ground first, things of no intrinsic merit or beauty, before subsequently raising up sumptuous buildings and ornate palaces. Lowly seeds are nourished in the earth, and then later the ravishing blooms appear; lovely roses blossom forth and scented narcissi. And besides, as everyone known, the first man, Adam, was created in the Damascene fields, while God chose to create woman within the Earthly Paradise, as a tribute to her greater nobility. In short, we were created as men's helpmates, their companions, their joy, and their crowning glory, but men, thought they know full well how much women are worth and how great the benefits we bring them, nonetheless seek to destroy us out of envy for our merits. It's just like the crow, when it produces white nestlings: it is so stricken by envy, knowing how black it is itself, that it kills its own offspring out of pique."
"For if we are inferiors in status, but not in worth, this is an abuse that has been introduced into the world and that men have then, over time, gradually translated into law and custom; and it has become so entrenched that they claim (and even actually believe) that the status they have gained through their bullying is theirs by right. And we women, who, among our other good qualities, are eminently mild, peaceable, and benign by nature, are prepared to put up with even an offense of this magnitude for the sake of a peaceful life."
"But we should not think that they behave like this only towards our sex, for even among themselves they deceive one another, rob one another, destroy one another, and try to do each other down. Just think of all the assassinations, usurpations, perjuries, the blasphemy, gaming, gluttony, and other such vicious deeds they commit all the time! Not to mention the murders, assaults, and thefts, and other dissolute acts, all proceeding from men! And if they have so few scruples about committing these kind of excesses, think of what they are like where minor vices are concerned: just give a thought to their ingratitude, faithlessness, falsity, cruelty, arrogance, lust, and dishonesty."
"Do you really believe ... that everything historians tell us about men – or about women – is actually true? You ought to consider the fact that these histories have been written by men, who never tell the truth except by accident. And if you consider, in addition, the envy and ill will they bear us women, it is hardly surprising that they rarely have a good word to say for us, and concentrate instead on praising their own sex in general and particular members of it, as a way of praising themselves. But, even accepting that there have been many men who have gone wretchedly to their deaths while flaunting their love for a woman, do you believe that the real reason for their downfall is the overwhelming passion they feel for the woman? Not on your life! The cause of death is their overwhelming rage at not having been able to achieve their end and not having enjoyed the victory they so longed for: the triumph of deceiving and ruining these women whom they purported to love. As evidence of this, you'll find that very few men, if any, have died for love after achieving the supreme end of love."
"You aren't going to find [wise and virtuous] men often: they are like patterns of virtue that God sends into the world for others to imitate (though few manage to get anywhere near the mark), and that's the reason why historians pick them out for special mention ... . By contrast, there have been endless good and virtuous women. But where shameless women are concerned – and I am not trying to deny that such women exist (would that they didn't!) – ... the source and the true course of that great evil lies in the men who trapped, tempted, solicited, and lured on these women while they still had their honour, leading the most naïve and easygoing of them to fall head-over-heels to their ruin. Bur for all that, these women, wretched as they are, preserve a little more dignity than the men they consort with, because at least they aren't the ones paying the men; whereas men fall into their traps like animals and pay for them, however corrupt, vile, and wretched they are. Which is something that certainly wouldn't happen if they kept their heads and showed some of that modesty and virtue we find in women."
"And besides this, those poor women only have one sin (and that one caused by men, as I have said), whereas most men have endless vices. So why should so much blame be heaped on our sex? I'm not denying that [prostitution] is a most shocking and shameful thing, but it is unfair that all women should be blamed for the transgressions of a few, or that their vice should reflect on women in general. Though even those few do not deserve to get all the blame while men stand by smugly congratulating themselves, because I have not come across any divine law that absolves men of this sin and punishes women alone. ... Both human and divine law demands that wicked men should receive the same opprobrium and punishment as wicked women – indeed more, since they are the cause and the instigators of women's errors."
"When you hear men talking," said Cornelia, "all they ever do is speak ill of women. ... And they can keep up these curses and these insults all day without once looking down at themselves and seeing that they may need to take some of the blame. And I don't quite know how they managed to make this law in their favour, or who exactly it was who gave them a greater license to sin than is allowed to us; and if the fault is common to both sexes (as they can hardly deny), why should the blame not be as well? What makes them think they can boast of the same thing that in women brings only shame?"
"Oh, let them get on with it," said Corinna. "They think they have shamed and lowered us by introducing this convention into the world, but in fact it works to our advantage and their disadvantage, because it teaches us to avoid their company, which, in any case, is beneath us."
"[A] woman, when she is segregated from male contact, has something divine about her and can achieve miracles, as long as she retains here natural virginity. That certainly isn't the case with men, because it is only when a man has taken a wife that he is considered a real man and that he reaches the peak of happiness, honour, and greatness. The Romans in their day did not confer any important responsibilities on any man who did not have a wife; they did not allow him to take up a public office or to perform any serious duties relating to the Republic. Homer used to say that men without wives were scarcely alive."
"[I]t was with a good end in mind – that of acquiring the knowledge of good and evil – that Eve allowed herself to be carried away and eat the forbidden fruit. But Adam was not moved by this desire for knowledge, but simply by greed: he ate it because he heard Eve say it tasted good, which was a worse motive and caused more displeasure. And that is the reason why God did not chase them from Paradise as soon as Eve sinned, but rather after Adam had disobeyed him – in other words, he didn't respond to Eve's action, but Adam's prompted him to give both the punishment they deserved, which was and is common to all humankind. And, besides, how about the woman chosen above all others to redeem that sin? God never created any man (a man who was simply a man, that is) who could match that woman who was entirely a woman. Just you try finding me a man in all the annals and chronicles of ancient times, however wise and virtuous, whose merits stretch to the thousandth part of the rare excellencies and divine qualities of our Lady, the Queen of Heaven. I don't think you're going to have much luck there!"
"There are countless other examples of our love for our husbands, but it would be superfluous to tell you them all" [said Lucretia after a lengthy conversation about women who have suffered for love.]
"It's men who should be told them," said Leonora.
"Oh, they know them well enough," added Corinna. "They just pretend not to."
"Women aren't as aware of men's failings as they should be, or else they'd know how to protect themselves from men better than they do."
"[I]t's good for us [women] to learn about diets and their effect on the body, so we can look after ourselves without needing help from men. In fact, it would be a good thing if there were women who knew about medicine as well as men, so men couldn't boast about their superiority in this field and we didn't have to be dependent on them."
"Men say that all this finery we wear betrays a corrupt heart underneath, and often endangers our virtue. But they're quite wrong ... women's dress could hardly endanger their virtue if men would only stop pestering them."
"[All women should be taught to read and write.] For it's obvious that an ignorant person is far more liable to fall into error than someone intelligent and well read, and we see from experience that far more unlettered women slide into vice than educated women who have exercised their minds."
"How many illiterate maidservants, how many peasant girls and plebeian women give into their lovers without putting up much of a fight! And the reason is that they are more gullible than women like us, who have read our cautionary tales and have learnt our moral lessons and developed a love for virtue: we may still feel some pricking of the senses, but we know how to discipline our desires, and it's only very rarely that an educated woman allows herself to be carried away by her appetites."
"It really is something ... that men disapprove even of our doing things that are patently good. Wouldn't it be possible for us just to banish these men from our lives, and escape their carping and jeering once and for all? Couldn't we live without them? Couldn't we earn our living and manage our affairs without help from them? Come on, let's wake up, and claim back our freedom, and the honour and dignity that they have usurped from us for so long. Do you think that if we really put our minds to it, we would be lacking the courage to defend ourselves, the strength to fend for ourselves, or the talents to earn our own living? Let's take our courage into our hands and do it, and then we can leave it up to them to mend their ways as much as they can: we shan't really care what the outcome is, just as long as we are no longer subjugated to them. And then, having achieved equality, we'll be in a sufficiently strong position to mock them as they now mock us; and we'll have a thing or two to say about how they spend a thousand years combing and setting the few paltry hairs they have on their heads and their chins; and how they wear their cravats so long and drooping one minute that they can easily be taken for napkins or kerchiefs, and so tight around their necks the next that they make them look like so many puppets; or how they sometimes wear their breeches so tight with their long doublets that they look like frogs, and sometimes wear them so loose that they could easily jump around inside them. And what's more, many of them have now taken to wearing platform shoes almost as high as the ones they are always criticising women for wearing. And there are endless more silly fashions and crazes of theirs – far too many to go into."
"You make me laugh," said Helena, "with all this talk about how men jeer at us for our concern with dress. That's not my impression. What they would find ridiculous, I'd think, is hearing us talk about some of the things we've been discussing today, which they think only men should talk about."
"Well, the shouldn't find anything to laugh at in our having discussed various different subjects either," Corinna said. "For one thing, we've talked about them (or rather, touched on them) just casually and in passing, not because we consider ourselves experts. And, for another, we have just as much right to speak about these subjects as they have, and if we were educated properly as girls (as I've already pointed out), we'd outstrip men's performance in any science or art you care to name."
"Well, that's it!" said Virginia. "I've heard so many fine things about men yesterday, and I've heard so many more today, that I'm beginning to feel almost converted to the position of Leonora and her companions. They've made me inclined to think I'd prefer not to subject myself to any man, when I could be living in peace and liberty alone."
"Don't say that, daughter dear!" said the Queen. "Because I have no choice but to find a husband for you. But I do promise that ... I shall strive to find someone noble, sensible, and virtuous, rather than someone rich, spoilt, and unreliable."
"Oh, but please, mother dearest!" said Virginia. "I'll be much happier staying with you. What if he turned out to be proud and arrogant man: what would I do then?"
"You'd be as humble as you could in return," said the Queen. "Because, since we must needs be subject to them, the only thing to do is to flatter them and spoil them. ... [I]f women play their cards right, they can be brought around. And besides, if this husband we're talking about is noble, as I've said (I mean noble in his soul and his bearing, if not by birth), then there's nothing to worry about, because humility is the mark of true nobility."
"But what if he were stern and terrifying, what should I do then?" asked Virginia.
"You'd be patient and silent and long-suffering," said the Queen. ... "But we've said that he's a sensible man..., so he will soon calm down and see reason – all the sooner if you don't stoke up the fires of his anger by answering him back."
"And what if he were jealous, how should I behave then?" her daughter asked.
"You wouldn't give him any occasion for jealousy," said the Queen. "And, since it wouldn't be your business to be attractive to anyone apart from him, if he didn't want you to dress up and adorn yourself, then you'd stop doing so; and if he didn't want you to leave the house, you'd stay in to please him. And by doing this, you'd win him over and gain his trust to such an extent that after a while he'd let you do just as you liked. ... In any case, if he is a noble and a sensitive man, as we've said he is, he is bound to change, for the sake of his honour, and because good sense dictates it."
"But if he didn't," said Virginia, "then what a miserable life I'd have."
"If the thought of that life doesn't appeal to you," the Queen replied, "just imagine what will happen if I don't marry you off. You'll still have to stay within four walls all day and dress soberly, without any of the finery and fripperies you're allowed now, because that's what happens to young girls who don't want to get married. And, what's more, you'll be deprived of that companionship that could be the joy of your life."
"But what if my husband turns out to be given to vice, then what could I do about it?" asked Virginia.
"If that were the case," the Queen replied, "you'd have to try, as cautiously and tactfully as possible, to wean him away from his vicious habits, by reminding him of God's wrath and the world's judgment, offering the example of other men who behave decently, and reproaching his defects obliquely by criticising them in other people. ... If he's essentially a decent man..., then his vices will not be able to hold out against his basic decency, and ... he will succeed in shaking off any vicious tendencies he may have in his nature. And if that's the case, and you end up a happy woman, then you can thank the Lord; if not, you have the consolation that a husband like yours may still be better than some others you could have had, and that you're better off than many wives."
"And I say," said Lucretia, "that even admitting that men are as flawed as we've been saying, with things the way they are in the world, it's still preferable to have their protection and company than to be without it. For we poor women are constantly being assailed and abused, and cheated of our money, our honour, our lives; so it seems better to have one man at least as a friend, to defend us from the others, than to live alone with every man against us."
"[M]any men see the world in a blinkered way, and are so firmly convinced by the unwarrantable fallacy that they are created women's superiors, and so incapable of seeing past that lie, that they believe themselves fully justified in treating women as tyrannically and brutally as they like."
[Finally] the women arose from their seats, for the sun was on the point of setting, and as they walked through the garden in the cool of the evening, Corinna and Virginia started to sing a madrigal:
'S'ornano il ciel le stelle
Ornan le donne il mondo,
Con quanto è in lui di bello e di giocondo.
E come alcun mortale
Viver senz'alma e senza cor non vale,
Tal non pon seza d'elle
Gli uomini aver per sé medisimi aita;
Che è la donna de l'uom cor, alma e vita.
If the stars adorn the heavens, women adorn the world,
with all that is lovely and pleasant in it. And just as no
mortal can live without a soul and a heart, so men cannot
get by without women, for woman is man's heart, his soul,
and his life.
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Copyright 2002 – 2009: Ulrike Böhm, all rights reserved.