WOMEN AND MEN IN HISTORY
This Serie», piiMishcd for students, scholars and mi crested general reader*, will tackle themes in gender his lory from the early medieval period thmugh tu [tie present day. Gender issues are now »Ii illicit j■ -!r■ ni .ill lmli>ry m juries and yet many traditional text hook* do mil reflect this change. Much exciting work is nuw I wing done Ii» reihe» [he gender unbalances of the past, and we hupe i hui these hooks will HtaXe their iwn Mitotan tial contribution to dial proe ess. This is on open-ended scries, which means thai many new lilies c;m he included. We hupe that these will ho ill syi ithe M\d sh.nxr future developments hi gender studies,
'I"he General Editors of the series arc yarncia .Vfeiniirr (University id Southampton) for ihe medieval period; Pamela Skarpz tIFniversify tit Uriitol) for the early modern period; and Prnny Sutnvurßelä (University of Lancaster) for the modern period. Margaret Walsh (University of Nottingham) wis ihe I'oundin^ t'.ditor ul' Lhe series
Published booki
Gender. Church, and State in Early Modem Germany.
Kas.iv.s hy Merry F„ Wiesncr Meny E. Winner
Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy Judith. (1. Brown and flnturl C Davis (eds)
Women and Work in Russia. 1880^1950:
A Siuih in Guntlnuiry i <.....j.1!: (change
Jane MiDemiid and Anna ffilfyar
Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy
Ediied hy JUDITH C. BROWN and
ROBERT C, DAVTS
!1 Routledge i ay lor ^ Ftjih is G mu p
LÖNDOl AND NfW VÖKK
introduction
JUDITH C. BROWN
Modtin conceptions of tin- Renaissam e begin with the I860 I»11 kilit .11 Kill ůf Jaťob Bmrkhardl'x The (jvilisnlion óftOi RrtLimuinťf In tluly. For Hunkhardl, Italian* were the "firM-born among tin
......I KiiropeV Breaking the veil of laith and illusion under
which European* 11 id slumbered half awake lor more (han a mil-Iriiiiium, they emerged as self-conscious individuals - they were die hrst modem |>cople. l>cspiic ihe gendered metaphoi used by Hum khardl, in this process ol self-discovery, as in other aspects of Rruaissance life, 'women stood on a footing of [>crfec t equality with mi n'   flic discovery of 'man' also meant the discovery ul' 'woman'.
|u*t over a century after Bnrckhardl developed this conception • >i (he Renaissance, Joan Krllv fired the opening salvo id the cri-tMltieU mounted hv women's history. "One of the (asks of women's litMnry', she argued, "is to call into question accepted schemes of |h'imdi/ation. . . . Die Renaissance is a good case iti point.' Tlie economic and political development* 'lhal reorganized Italian ■i k u iv along model n hnrs ami opened the |HHsibilitie<i tor the mm j.iI ■nid rultural expression for which ihe age is known . aliened women adversely, so much so that I lit-re was no renaissance for women - at least tint during the Renaissance'.' Km Kelly, the two
i   1.11 nli Him kti.udt   l/tr ( tvttiiatum nf thr ftrnuuwitut IM llnh (I j.ihIimi, J'MHt; frtlR. ihmii. |>. <w ■i. Ibitt., [i. JEW).
I )<un KrJK, 'DhI wiiiiii'H tuvr j Kni.mMin c'-' 'ti Kriulr llnili-ntli.il j>i,l l J.nirh.. ►s««>iiř. nk Bftoming ViiMr: Winntti m Humpmn Hnian (Bo»(on, lt>77), |>|> 157-M; iriMUiinl in  Itrmrn, ill (fun, and Thrnty: 7"*r /\iuiyi vf Juan krlfr   i tin 1ÍBH;
lim-iltci Llir rdili.......fill, |>|)   Ji1 riH  HunUunli\ thr->is li;irj ln-fri iriunzid
Im(iKi  Ii. hi, mill : |.i niv -il mi « m -ii> .ll, i,k  n-ni'ii:ii. lull.....ril  tluHH IJ1K ill
■■• ii ni i .lint tii»mti,tiii ol it-ligimi. In tutiie .1 lew. For ,i mrliil ■niiuiiurv, vr. Ortlr V. Hiiiikrr. Urntiuitimr tlt<!\ Wai 11 III' IdrfAi^j. r    <>»■ \l*inv W/irili'' (NrwVor*. i'MtFtI
l  Kí-lliř. "Dili wirtiirn luvr it Kfimíuiik t->", \>  I'.I
i
2 Gmdn atui Sonrty in firnaiMants lUdy
sides of the Renaissance, male and female, were causally con-net ted Tlx development of the modem stale and die emergence of capitalism, which were essential for the creation of a largei range of opportunities for men, necessarily hail a negative effect on women.
In the twenty vcais since Kefly's challenge to recomepiualiitr tin-way we organize history and evaluate historical periods, historians have confirmed, refuted, and modified diffeient aspects oi her diesis. In a powerful series of essays, Chris lianc Klapisch-Zuher has painted a bleak picture of the restrictions ini|>o*cd on patrician women in Florence hy a patriarchal .system intern on the preservation of male lineage.' To die contrary, Stanley Chojnacki has observed that some of the same phenomena dial appear to have had a negative impact on the lives of Florentine women, such as the increasing importance of ever-latter dowries, gave Venetian women power dicy had not hail l>efore die Renaissanceh Similarly, while David llcttihv and (.'hrishane Klapisc h-7.ubcr have argued dial in Renaissance Italy there was a progressive exclusion of women from the I .drum forte, Isabel Chalxjt. Samuel Kline (xdtu. and others have shown ili.tr women patticipatrd ui the economy in larger num-l*er» and more diverse ways than had In-en previously thought.' In an interesting and probably unintended synthesis', onr historian has claimed, in keeping with Kelly, that the deteriorating social and economic conditions faced by upper-class women in sixteenth century Italy, led, in keeping with Burrkhardt. to the emergence of the first modem, self-conscious women. According to this view, l.uiTc/.ia Marinella and Modcsia Pukzo WToie the first truly feminist tracts in European history as a reaction against the narrowing of options available to women in the sixteenth century. The former, sounding curiously Burckhardtian. argued that if women, as I hope, will wake ihemselves from die long slumber that has oppressed them, their ungrateful atid proud oppressors will Ik.-
'i. Cliiittianr Kiupiti l>/iibrr, Women, hamih, unit Ritual ■» Knwmuim* Itah (t hi raRCr. 1985),
é Stanlrv Otiitliatlii. Unworn and kimmrn in railv RrruUMnir Vruur . fiwrwtl of Inmditapttmiry Motors., '>. IM7S (571-000): and ' Ute piMxcr <*f love: wive* and hiistuiuU in late medieval Venice", in Mary Erlri ami Maryanne Kuwaleskt, i-ch,
7. IKivhI Hrrlihv and < IlniMiane Klapinh-Zaihrt. Is* Imutnt tt Irun fimtltr\ nnr ttude4» ,Mmla flotmttn <U H27 (Pali*. l'J"lii. prr. W is* Kilw-l Cli.ih..|. I., rn mi ii.iiss.hu r do travail de» (rmiiH-> dam la Hrneme du bas MmrM V;r nuiiair ídrvilngtipic rl lealilě'. in ,S Cavai loretu, ed.. la dtmna neOnanomia ut Xllf-XVIll (Flmrnrr. t'.H.HI), pp MM 76; Samurl Klinr tjihn in h» tliapirt in lliii volume
Introduction 3
■   mlili il .mil tamed'." Being realistic, and not wanting to rely only
.......I i mm suasion, however, I.ucreria also counselled women to
oiu id. niM-lves like the Ama/ons of antiquity and to battle men in noli i rn ,n hieve the degree of economic and political independ-i in i (hev needed and wanted.
m urii. ihe imphcii or explicit dialogue with Kelly's work prn-i ■ ■ il. il ilong the lines of women's history, whose goal was to restore toiwirn to historical accounts. In a sense, this was an arrheolog-
i' >l ip|.....n h - to uncover from die nibble of history the lives of
i".......who had been buried or consigned lo the margins by liistor-
■ «r| earlier generations. Al its simplest, thus meant uncovering '    lisi •, ol a stu,ill uumlx-i of famous women - Caterina Sforza, Im II i il isir, St Catherine of Siena, Vittoria Colo una and others who, I ty virtue ol (heir tole in pointed circles, as patrons of id* art*, or as well-known religious figures, were able to inllu-
..... niv Extending outward from this small circle, the project
. i-iniil Imdiug worthy women wtitets or artists who might be lii..ii,;hi irtio Ihe Illustrious company of greai men. Finally, it re-
l|l.....I i ombmg the historical documents - lax records, notarial
ioiiu.ii cs, family diaries, etc. - for the telltale signs of the activities .il rsiivd.iv women - the bakers, seamstresses, innkeepers, and ..il.. 11 whose work and social contributions enabled ordinary people In Miivrvr
' >n (hr heels of these efforts In discover thr rangr ol women's vines and influence, historians also began to concern them-i Ik   ssith ihe tuore i^implicated issue of ihe legal, | »oluk.il. eco-
.......... ami soi lal condilions lhal governed die lives of the vast
lit ijonty of women. If most of die wealth, for example, was in the hands ui men, what legal resirirtions on inheritance or property iiwik isliip cmm ihutcd lo dies unequal distribution? If there were
■ h women artists, what barriers kept women from receiving professional training and status? What educational opportunities were
■ ■ ul.il.tr, tu women? Did guild regulations Imul the range of occupational i hoices available to them? If so, how did these vary from ..... Renaissance tin lo another and lioni one teiuury to tin- next?
In ihr i otii.se of finding die answers to surh tpicsiions, it became ' i. .it lhal historians needed new theoretical categories to approach tin issue of die relation In'tween die sexes and new conceptions of die sell Women's history al its nesl could help us discover aspects
M Virginia Co*, Thr tingle w-tf IrtlliiiiM ihougbl and Ihr tnarriaKe niarkrl in i ,il   riHKlrifp Vmirr . Kmuiíiaiu r (iuartrrA. t^'i (Autumn lf,í^>l p W
4 dentin ami Sorvty in Hrnmv>anft Italy
of women's lives lhat were hidden fiom history. But if uot handled well, it could also isolate the history of women in an anachronism separate sphere. Ft eould deliistoricize women's past, turning it into an unchanging landscape of victimization, "Woman", timeless ami classless, eould thus Iwrome die ohjert of history rather than its subject.
Historians instead wanted to examine the ways in which women and men interpreted the meaning of being male and female, of what characteristics men and women in the past attached to what they coasidercd lemuiine', and 'masculine', how those attributes varied by time and place, and how both Women and men could apptopnate these categories for different purposes, If in wine places in Italy men allowed women to l>c guardians of their children, why did they not allow diem to represent themselves m a court of law? What was "male" and what was "female" about these two powerful functions that women could ami could not practise in one and tlie same place? Indeed, why could they do so in some Italian cities but not in others? Why, in the absence of obvious barriers in the law, did women in some cities, even in the same region, exercise greater independence in disusing of ibeir propeity compared to women in neighbouring cities? Given the theoretical equality ol (he spirit between men and women m Christian thought, why was it that the i i-ientonics of women's consecration to tlie religions life increasingly resembled [iiipti.il riirs .is opposed to the rites of military obligation in men's consecration? In short, what cultural constructs allowed women ami nun in tin- pa*l to attarh dilleietii meaning to similar circumstances?
The answers to these questions undermine any timeless and cssentiah/ing notion of 'woman", l"hey lead us instead to the category of 'gender', which enables scholars to examine die v« ial construction of male and female identities and of the meaning attached to different social roles assumed by women and men, depending on age, social class, and other social rather than biological characteristics, liender can also point lis in the dheruon of examining aspects ol life - of which politics is perhaps die most obvious - from which women were excluded bin which were based on strong conceptions of gender that had powerful eflei Is on both women and men last but uot least, getider leads us in the direction of analysing the construction ol male identity rather than taking men as ihe undifferentiated norm and women as ihe other, tine might say lhai ihe discovery of 'wuman' has led to the discovery of 'man'. With this, the tight coupling of sex and gender has come
liifrttdurtion i>
,|, m.  hui.ha op|)osifiotis have weakened and it has become pos-■ i'i< liu (amine gender .is a process in which women and men situate ili* mvi Ives and are situated by others along a shifting continuum ii.H tains according to several characteristics, among them age. Mgian, and even, but by no means only, sex.'' i .1 mli i as a category of historical analysis is bv no means beyond miiiisiii | mi lull Bennett has warned that by iniellectuali/.ing the i|iiaht\ ol the sexes it can gloss over past injustices. Bv emphas-• m.   ili. ,igrnc> ol IhiiIi women and men, it can elide the power-1    in » ol women in the face of patriarchy. And by its concern i mi .ining and metaphot. it can steer historians away from the li ml n alines uf social history,'" At the other end ol the spec trum, III.mi,r. Kuihn. one of the loniribuiois to this volume, argues lor mi i.il ;m iMinbood' as a mote useful conceptual loo! than gender I 1 i ilv neutral though gender may sound lo scholars like Bcnnctl, Kn< tin (eels thai it cannot escape die limitations of 'natural' sexual Imagei%  'Social personhood instead points lo lelalions lietween individuals, or even between parts of an individual.'"
I he advantages and limiiations of gender as an analytical tool ten mull islanding the so< ieiv ol Renaissance Italy may be explored by 11.idrrs in the following chapters. The contributors have sought, uln ii possible, to transcend ihe limitations of women's Instorv and lo nlifiess issues of gender in order lo historici/e the conditions of both women and men as actors on die historical stage.
I'be mber limitation the authors have soughl to overcome is ilie local particularism lhat characterizes most scholarly work on Renaissance Italy. Because the Italian an hives are generally organized according to the jurisdiction of governmental institutions in the Renaissance and since Renaissance stales were organized according in titles, historians base concentrated on historical dcvclopincnis ui one particular plate, most often Florence, and secondarily Venice. After nearly three decades of research on women's history, however, it is clear that to understand tlie gender dimensions behind s|iecific local variations one must look at local experiences in a iiimpatative framework. It is also important to be atlenlive to iein|h>ral changes Social history's emphasis on structure over events has tended lo obscure change over time. As a consequence, the
9 I'iJii \V Vnli Crt-tiiU'i I iim'IhI ulrgctrv <ii lluluotal jiiuIvm^ Immnni //n t„n,„l Hrrim,, 'U llVi rirlbri JflWil. pj>  tOfi^ 7r.
Ml  (iiililli M lliiniiii ' hi-iniMi-uii ami liiium' . unrf Hntm\. 1:5 (Aulu.....
IUHM), |»|> 258-0.
i I   I In mm Kiirlm. %rr ("tlj|ilrf 'I IjcIoKi.
(ieniífr and Sorttty tn Rtnavtsanir Italy
family Indeed, it could be said that by treaung a public sphere, the Renaissance state also created a 'private' one. The principal means i J i j i ■ 11 ^ 11 which urn new institution. Hic stan-, confirmed ihc- public roles and confronted lbe private interests oi the elites wns gender New magistracies and new laws, starting in the late fourteenth century, asserted the prerogatives of patriarchy as a way to represent the slate and control tin- Ix-haviour of individuals within the family. Patriarchy, that is what it meant (o be a male capable of holding authority, was denned in these centuries. In die process, the divide lietwecu men and women widened, with the latter increasingly relegated u> the private sphere. But the distance between males who were deemed fit to rule and those who were not by virtue of their class, age, or position within the family also widened, and for some of the same reasons. The result was diat the conflicts revealed by state efforts to mediate between these different interests created the loom that enabled women to manoeuvre more effectively as notable agents in die social landscape. The Renaissance state, foi Chojnacki, marks a decisive turning point in the creation of notions about the public and the private; gender lines were ihc contested boundaries around which these notions developed.
'Iliomas Kuehn examines the role played by law in this process. Legal scholarship has often poitrayed the law in Renaissance Italy as a prison Tot women. Kuehn concludes that if it was a prison, it was not an effective one; moreover, it was also increasingly one for men. ;ts local statutes elaborated new sets of laws to complement, supplant, or deal with new developments that had not been covered in the common law (nu r (immune) thai was the leg.d inheritance ol the Roman ,md the medieval worlds Ir ts.is these new lot at -t.it-tites, not common law, that "detracted most from the legal < oudition of women in the Renaissance'. Kuehn examines two types of stat-nies ih.ii dashed wuh common law - those governing inheritance and those imposing male guaidiauship over women's property lights. While Renaissance lawmakers mas have wanted to depart from iu\ communr and to limit inheritance to agnates, that is those relatives whose kinship was traceable exclusively through male lines, the reality of family life often dictated that property move through women. Similarly, in t ities like- Horettce. where male guanli-anship \muniluaiditi\ ovei women was most pronounced, women could be required to have a munduaUtu in court while at the same time having the right of printipal guardianship over their children as long as there was a male co-guardian somewhere in the scene.
Inttixlurtum
9
HptaM it tight that they had not had in Roman law. Kuehn argues i • iln>> was no single, uniform body of law, the discrep-'ii common law and local statutes led to a growing 1  i <ii legal disputes and court cases m which women asserted 1 ' mi Women, like some categories of men, may have had
i Ihniiiil |MMMiM in common law. but they did have persoiihood • i"* ii i 'i light* iln-i i mild assert. In this they were often aided by Ni*»« 4. i.in. hiLshands liihets. oi rhildtcu - whose iritercsis \Uu i| up with then s I bus women and men were able to manoeuvre t .m' ii| ihe legal harriers that went up around them. The i i !<-■  I "it h according to tyjie oi law and according to
>li>.I m considerable flexibility. The one common de-' i <a,»i that women could not have pntnn fxiirfttn L paternal
^Htf.......but neither could certain categories of males. The
<.....I- i in Renaissance law reveals that cleat-tin dichotomies
.....1« and It-male did not exist cither in legal theory t>r in
in i id i, |,i c in ■
j|i<  id m in i  n( ligul boundaries also extended to the world i     11    .•■■ni<d Kline Colin finds that the distribution of men
HjVl *"......       111 die labour force depended tin notions of gender-
i ,    |-ii m ".ak. not on hiolcigy. The historical documents that bear i     ion conceal as much as they reveal; however, they do
i .....111 it i itpalions requiring hcaw physical exertions, such
i mi-......bis. and stretchers in the wool industry. Die docu-
ii" m 'I n d tow women in ot c npaiioiis, siiih as sheep-herding tiver (twig <!> ' ">'1 '■ which put them away from home and in potentially
^^■ftf iiiii,n.....n thai had previously been thought (loved to them
lUi- iIn i  hi 11 .n 11vines were i ommoTi tor Ixiili women and men, or i  iln i ti-, m -x iní division oi labour vaneel bv region or time, is ■ i . i. u  Inn what Colin argues convincingly is that the cluo K*"K>aph> and causes liehind the shilts in labour-force g - ml- i |. mi ins aic- I ai from iK-ing understood. Some historians i-d i demographic model of labour panic ipation, with
n ■ n -in.' i.....t of the labour force during periods ol population
ih Winn sin h patterns are shown to have persisted after the
.......nit.u lions of population brought on bv the hl.uk
|ii nli iitln is base focused on the consolidation ol guilds as the m. -l< i< militant for the exclusion of women from the paid
i ili ......n >  U Inn this explanation seemed inadequate, yet others
im m d in i - • mount expansion as the key. Rut when this loo failed •   *  plam ílu iarm of male antl lemale workers in different cities
10
Gmdm ami Soarty in Rrnatssnncr flaly
of the Italian Renaissance or in certain occupations, some turned to a "Mediterranean" model. According to thin explanation, women were kept oul of the work place because of notions of honour and shame thai had deleterious effects not only for women hut lor the Italian economy, which tost ground to die hutgeoning economics ol northern Europe. Cohn's survey of the experience of riiflerent parts of Italy, however, suggests thai ihere was no such single model. Not only was there no steady deterioration in die participation of women in die world of work, as the Mediterranean model or the model proposed by Joan Kelly posit, but cycles of participation varied considerably from one place to another, from one set of decades to llie next, and even from one stage in women's lives to another. Much more detailed research will need to he done before we understand (he reasons for these patterns.
Renaissance notions of what was masculine and what was lein inine were to a large extern rooted in Renaissance notions about hum.in biology. Part Three of this volume, "The Social Body', explores some of these ideas, Katharine Park notes thai while many anatomists and natural philosophers adhered to die Aristotelians' conceptions of women as defei live males, whose colder ami moisler humours affected everything from menstruation to intelligence to sexual lK-havioi.tr, most medicaJ practitioners and their patients held a variety of opinions that weie more gender-neutral. The emphasis of medical practice was on evacuating die substances that impacted and corrupted die humours. Ihis could be ui * omplishcd through urination, menstruation, bleeding, sweating, and so on, with the process being analogous in men arid women. Indeed, so close were these systems that some physicians discussed them wiih reference to 'menstruating men'- Because physicians did nol have a clearly dichoinmous view ol the bodies of women and men, ihcy tended to interpret female inferiority to behaviour patterns radier than to corporeal imperatives,
If in everyday practice, views of the human body were less gendered than the theoretical literature suggests, gender nonetheless figured prominently in the practice of medicine. Women healers did not exclusively treat women patients, as conventional wisdom would have it. hut they tended 10 rely on different types of healing methods. Women medical practitioners and magical healers relied more heavily than their male counterparts on bodily fluids to compose medicines for their patients. Male healers. |ierhap\ because they had a greater level of education, leuded to rely more frc«|uendy on the written word to compose remedies and amulets.
hitmdwtimt
II
Women practitioners also clustered more frequently in the ranks <<1 empirics and magical healers. Much has been made in modem M hularship about Renaissance women being edged out of the iiiciIk al and other professions that they had practised in the Middle Ak1'*1 I'a'k argues that while there is some truth in this, the reason
i i mii thai women were excluded from medical prat tire as such, bur that Ihe professionalization of medicine, with its emphasis on university-trained and learned physicians, worked against informal Iii.li iiooueis and magiral healers where women figured prominently. I he professionalization of medicine and the increasing concern >>l the Church widi establishing the limits of orthodoxy in the six-n "n lb < < limn undoubtedly had a negative elfect, and in the case ol soucrers an even lethal effect on women. Yet ihe essence of I'.n k'\ analysis suggests a greater degree of flexibility in Renaissance 1» luis, a plurality of medical approaches, an eclectic set of ideas about (he effects of sexual difference on die body, and a need for gte.tu-i subtlety in ihe interpretation of the evidence.
llii.s call for a more nuanced interpretation is echoed in Michael Koike's chapter on sexuality Kocke looks al how gender diflet-cmes entered into die prescriptive discourse about sexual hehavi-..ni and how gender ideology shaped the sexual behaviour of men awl women m a range of cross-sex and same-sex activities. As in many of the other chapters in this volume Rocke finds that social irainy departs considerably from prescripuve statemenis. While sex muside mamage was in ihrory prosrnlx-d lo men and women alike, tin n was greater flexibility and toleration towards it on the pan of men than of women. Chastity was the central component of women's honour and its toss had serious social consequences. The dillii nils was thai women were less prone to reason and hence mint- vulnerable to sexual temptations. A lot rested on a very weak base. This may he one reason thai male adulterers were hardly ever punrslied, whereas lemaleswere prosecuted and punished publicly. Public shaming may have been seen as a preventive measure lor women m ihe audience who may have Iweu contemplating similar transgressions.
VVhIiiii marriage, Inith partners wen- supposed to render llie conjugal debt, bin here again there were contradictions. On die one hand, women were subject lo die auihoniv of their hudwniLs; on the other, ihey were supposed to lie informed about and refuse • Hit it, that is non-procreative. sexual acts considered sinful by the Church. As Rocke points out. Renaissance moralists tended to divciii|Miwer women as autonomous sexual subjects and to place
IS
Cruder and Society m Rmausancr Itnty
greater lesponsihiluy on them to act as guardians not only of tiieir c hastily, bin <>( the sexual morality of their husbands as well.11'
For Rockc. same-sex relation* between males are a particularly useful vantage point front which to examine the construe lion of gendered identities in Renaissance Italy because they so clearly separate untions ol gender from the sex of the body. Same-sex erotic activities among males were quite widespread and frequently punished. In Florence alone, between 1432 and 1502 roughly 3.000 males were convicted and more than live limes thai many were incriminated lot such behaviour. Homosexual acts, however, were not related lo any sense ol homosexual identity, hut rather were part of a common life stage thai saw young males taking on 'passive', receiving sexual roles tns-a-vii older men as pari of a wider sei <>J social relations, lit these exchanges, the passive partner was seen as feminine, and what made him so was not his appearance, but his receptive role in the sexual act. 'Sodomite', a term that did not have gendered connotations, was leservcd lor die 'active' pari ner who penetrated his younger companion. Mom vouihs made the transition from one role io the other around the age of eighteen. Once they became adults, most of these men. even those who engaged in same-sex erotic relations with younger males, also had sexual relations with women. Because diminished capacity W'as in a sense associated with women and the young, opprobrium was attached, not to passive young males, but to the lew oldei men who did not manage to cross over into accepted roles. Gender identity then was not fixed, but was commuted along age and iiehavtour patterns. The sex of the body had little to do with il.
Xodiing would seem mote removed from lite bodv than questions of spirituality. Yet the chapters in Pari Four reveal die strong links as well as the affinities in the handling ol gendei issues. Daniel Boinslein examines (he tensions between the religious ideal of ccltliaey and the social pressures to reproduce in an age haunted bv the ravages of the Black Death lu trving lo negoiiate these tensions, individuals did not remain quiedy and passively in their predicted roles. While male theologians, preachers and humanists increasingly wrote about faimlv and the religious life in tracts addressed to women, it is clear that their audience, in die process <it assimilating then messages, lealK modified then ,ntd Often reversed the roles assigned to them. Catherine of Siena is perhaps (he most famous example of litis, Hoi nsiciu shows how site 'untied
12. Scr Mem. pp. JS5-IV
fttttttdurtitm
13
• I imdv home inio a sacred plare" and how she replaced her
■ i ilogifft] (amity witli a spiritual one. In ihis new environment, a
ii ii il voting nobleman Incomes a 'bride' of Christ and her
' ......i< smii l.n omes hei son and spiritual spouse
Holt leversal was not confined m women. Kornsteiu also exarn-in i spenence of men, such as the friar Giovanni Dominiri.
I>.....less than a decade after the Black Deadi. Aldiough Giovanni was
1 It htirviving son of a widowerl mother and joined the religions hii monst her wishes, thus dooming the family line to extinction, I., .lul inn hesitate to counsel secular women lo serve Cod outside iIk motiasm life, ihus fulfilling iheir obligations simultaneously
imI and then families. Neither did he hesitate to offer them .tlxml i hildrearing, even though as a celibate friar, he had ... . ■ |.■ itent e in the matte:. In linn, however, the Florentine hotise-Mh l«i whom he proffered the advice did not hesitate to offer spiritual i OUIUCl in return, While his letters were lull ol the details of tin ■l.niusTit life, hers sounded like the products of the male ipiniii.il advisei ol a convent Neither hiologv nor tamilv ties seemed
In li<j.....u ol women in (hen plate
I In IiikI ot gendft tonlltuniui anil lole reversal observed bv in n\s all the contributors to this volume became more difficult i" maintain in many areas of social life after the mid-sixteenth
......tr\ < .abjtclla Zarri explores efforts lo impose gendered social
ill • iplmr in religions life in the wake ot pressures brought ahoiu i". ili< I'roiesiant Reformation and bv internal reform currents within ili. i alholir Church. The new norms lot used on die reform of trllglous orders in general but they hail different effects on men and women. The metaphor of spiritual marriage thai had sha|>c<l
■ Ii- life of nuns and ihe military metaphor that had influenced die hie of monks grew in importance and were now exemplified In in w iv|k-.s of religions orders, the litsulines and the Jesuits. M.iin.igc became the unifying status for women, both inside and outside the consent. With this came a heightened sense that women in i •led to submit to male authority - the father, the husband, (lie loufessor, or the bishop After the Council of Trcni in the mill sixteenth renlury. women's independent e was .dsn <in!»cd bv in H ut rules of enclosure in convents, litis affected a growing pmportion of women as more of them were sent lo convents by iln ii I am i lies, which were inteni on keeping ihe family patrimony irtt.n i rather than dividing it up into multiple dowries. To be sure, pin sts and monks were also held to tighter standards than before bin die latter could lease the monastery for cause. As soldiers of
GendfT and Saaŕty in Renaisiancr Ital\
Christ, engaged in missionary activity, many men did just diat, expcn-encing (he freedom (and the hardship) of spreading the gospel to pans of the world thai were far removed from the restraints and the comforts of European society.
Yei even within the confines of die convent, women were producer* of culture. In the last chapter of this volume, the art historian Karen-edis Rarzmuti examines how gender affected cultural production. She begins with the question that animated Linda Nochhn's essay, 'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?' She gno on to explore ihe scholarship on women as artists and patrons of the arts and the gendered institutional limitations on both. She also examines ihe meaning of images of women for men and women and rhe problematics of looking ai Renaissance art as a timeless aesthetic contribution 10 culture. More importantly, she broadens ihe focus from art, as traditionally dc-lined {pauiung, sculpture, architecture}, to "cultural production*, that is (he production, use and appropriation of meaning in images and everyday objects. Bar/man uses as her example ihe life of the sixteenih-century Florentine nun. Maria Maddalrna de' Pa«i, who used die religious images that were the common currency of net time to fashion herself as a work of ari. Her self-fashioning gave her an authoritative voice that at times subverted die intent of the images and that made her the kind of Renaissance woman thai Lucreria Manuel la and Modes ta Po/./o may have had in mind.
To conclude, the chapters that follow challenge us with a more complex view of ihe interplay between gender and society (ban was possible to imagine when women's studies Ijcgan several decades ago. All of the authors suggest that the relationships between men and women in the society of Renaissance Italy do not hi dichotnm-ous categorizations. Because the meaning ol gender was culturally produced, it had no fixed boundaries; classifications of gender had to fx- constantly reinvented and reinforced. To l>c sure, some clear patients emerge. In the course of the Renaissance, the stale, religions institutions and the professtonalizalion of knowledge all worked to harden gender categories. The emergence of capitalism, on the other hand, had no such obvious results, There were also enonnous regional variations whose causes and ramifications need to }>r explored further. Most important, the men and women of Renaissance Italv found ways to undermine the social restriction* imposed on them by custom and by die emergence of new sets oi beliefs. Their ability lo do so often required ihem to marshal all dieir imaginative capacities and to incur considerable risks. Nothing
híírmíurmm
15
In iii i illustrates dun achievements and the price paid for them • d m t be ambiguous praise hea|>ed by l-iuto <_>urnni on the learned Isotu Nugiirola: 'The greatest praise is justly bestowed upon you. Illustrious Isotta, since you have ... overcome your own nature. Im you have sought with singular zeal that true siriue. which is fMeuitally male ... as befits die whole and perfect wisdom ■ ti.it im m iti.iui '" In short, by overcoming the limitations of her sex, Iii .11,1 had constructed herself and was perceived by others as a male mu 11« i iii.il. Hei predicament encapsulates the complications of grmlei in the society of Renaissance Italy.
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<y IV > tt».fmn Pa« (Ni-w Ynik, IMBOi, pp. 7ft. (W,