Traditionally, classes and textbooks on Western history have had little to say about the lives of women in Western civilization. This lack of attention was largely due to the fact that women were officially excluded from politics and the military in such formative civilizations as Classical Greece and Rome, as well as being excluded from official positions within the early Christian Church. In fact, when women did draw the attention of historians in the Classical and Medieval eras, it was usually because these women were transgressing accepted norms in these male-dominated, hierarchical societies. However, as we now know, women contributed to these early societies in very important ways, not just as wives and mothers but, occasionally, as political leaders and even military figures. In this class, we’ll examine the political, social, and cultural forces that shaped women’s lives, and we’ll examine the lives of a few of the remarkable women who challenged these forces, both successfully and unsuccessfully.

1. NO GIRLS ALLOWED!!:
Women and the Renaissance
Statue of Dante Aligheri, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
• Women who inspired the Renaissance
• Scholasticism
• The chivalric literary tradition
• Dante Aligheri, 1265-1321
• The Divine Comedy
• Beatrice Portinari
• Petrarch, 1304-1374
• Laura, the muse for his sonnets
• Boccaccio, 1313-1375
• Maria, his “fiametta”

2. NO GIRLS ALLOWED!!:
Women and the Renaissance
Statue of Niccolo Machiavelli, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
• Women excluded from the Renaissance
• Coluccio Salutati, 1330-1406
• “The active life”
• Leonardo Bruni, 1370-1444
• Humanism, from humanitatis
• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, 1463-1494
• Oration on the Dignity of Man
• Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527
• The Prince
• Baldassare Castiglione, 1478-1529
• The Book of the Courtier

3. NO GIRLS ALLOWED!!:
Women and the Renaissance
Portrait of a man and a woman at a casement, Fra Filippo Lippi,
c. 1444, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Marriage and/or love in Renaissance Italy
• Dowries and dowry funds
• Monte delle Doti of Florence, est. 1425
• Architecture of enclosure
• Women as managers of the household and family
• Alessandra Strozzi, fl. 1400-1450
• Affair of Giovanni di Ser Ludovico della Casa and
Lusanna, 1442/3-1454/5

4. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy, built 1489-1538.

5. NO GIRLS ALLOWED!!:
Women and the Renaissance
Miniature of Christine de Pizan presenting a book to Queen Isabeau of France,
c. 1414, British Library.
• Women as writers and patrons
• Christine de Pizan, 1365-1430
• The Book of the City of Ladies, 1405
• The Book of the Body Politic, 1404-1407
• TheTale of Joan of Arc, 1429
• Isotta Nogarola, 1418-1466
• Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua,
1474-1539
• Vittoria Colonna, 1492-1547

6. NO GIRLS ALLOWED!!:
Women and the Renaissance
The Chess Game, by Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1555, National Museum, Poznań, Poland.
• Women as artists
• Sofonisba Anguissola, ca. 1532-
1625
• Lavinia Fontana, 1552-1614

7. Sofonisba Anguissola: left—Self Portrait at Easel, 1556, Łańcut Palace, Poland;
right—Three Children with Dog, by Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1580,
Collection of Lord Methuen, Corsham Court, Bath.

8. Sofonisba Anguissola: Portrait of Philip II of Spain (the Prado Philip),
1565, the Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

9. Lavinia Fontana: Left—Self Portrait at theVirginal with a Servant, 1577, Academia
Nazionale di San Luca, Rome; right—Portrait of a Noblewoman, 1580, National
Museum ofWomen in the Arts.

10. Lavinia Fontana: left—Portrait of the Gozzadini Family, 1584, Pinacoteca
Nazionale, Bologna; right—Minerva Dressing, 1613, Galleria Borghese,
Rome.

11. NO GIRLS ALLOWED!!:
Women and the Renaissance
Veronica Franco, a 16th centuryVenetian courtesan, byTintoretto, 1575, Worcester Art Museum.
• Honored courtesans (cortigiana onesta)
• Veronica Franco, 1546-1591