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Moderata Fonte, pseudonym of Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi (or Zorzi), also known as Modesto Pozzo (or Modesta, feminization of Modesto), (1555–1592) was a Venetian writer and poet. Besides the posthumously-published dialogues, Giustizia delle donne and Il merito delle donne (gathered in The Worth of Women, 1600), for which she is best known, she wrote a romance and religious poetry. Details of her life are known from the biography by Giovanni Niccolò Doglioni (1548-1629), her uncle, included as a preface to the dialogue

Pozzo's parents, Girolamo da Pozzo and Marietta da Pozzo (née dal Moro), died of the plague in 1556, when she was just a year old, and she and her older brother Leonardo were placed in the care of their maternal grandmother and her second husband. She spent several years in the convent of Santa Marta where, thanks to her extraordinary memory, she was often displayed as a child prodigy. She was able to repeat long sermons she had heard or read only once. At the age of nine she was returned to her grandmother’s family where she learned Latin and composition from her grandfather, Prospero Saraceni, a man of letters, as well as from her brother, Leonardo. Her brother also taught her to read and write in Latin, draw, sing, and play the lute and harpsichord. (needs citation: ^[1])

On 15 February 1582, at twenty-seven years old, Pozzo (Modesta) wed Filippo de’ Zorzi. Their marriage appears to have been a particularly good one because (Consider editing phrasing to be more informative: seemed to reflect equality and mutual respect evidenced by) de’ Zorzi returneding her dowry a year and a half after their wedding. An official document dated October 1583 states that de’ Zorzi returns the dowry "thanks to his pure kindness and to the great love and good will that he has felt and feels for" Pozzo (her). needs a citation ( page 33 ^[1]) (include his life as a manager of Venetian water canal and it's prestige? Or the fact that she named him executor of her will instead of her brother, as is tradition? Also comment on the way that women having property under there own name is a large part of feminist advocacy throughout history...? ) Likewise, Madesta Fonte describes her husband in one of her writings as a man of "virtue, goodness and integrity" ^[2].

When she died in 1592 at the age of thirty-seven, Modesto Pozzo had four children according to her biographer and mentor, Giovanni Nicolo Doglioni: the oldest aged ten years, the second aged eight, the third aged six and the newborn, whose birth caused her death. Her husband placed a marble epitaph on her tomb which describes Pozzo as ‘femina doctissima’ [a very learned woman]. (needs a citation)

One of Pozzo (Moderata)’s first known works is a musical play performed before the Doge Da Ponte in 1581 at the festival of St. Stephen’s Day. Le Feste [The Feasts] includes about 350 verses with several singing parts. Also in 1581, she published her epic poem I tredici canti del Floridoro [The Thirteen Cantos of Floridoro] dedicated to Bianca Cappello and her new husband, Francesco I de' Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. This poem is perhaps the second chivalric work published by an Italian woman, after Tullia d’Aragona’s Il Meschino, which appeared in 1560. (needs a citation)

Pozzo (Fonte) wrote two long religious poems, La Passione di Cristo [Christ’s Passion] and La Resurrezione di Gesù Cristo nostro Signore che segue alla Santissima Passione in otava rima da Moderata Fonte [The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord, which follows the Holy Passion in octaves by Moderata Fonte]. In these works she describes in detail the emotional reactions of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene to Christ’s death and resurrection, illustrating her deep belief in the active participation of women in the events of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. (needs citation)

She is perhaps best known for Il Merito delle donne [On The Merit of Women], published posthumously in 1600, in which she criticizes the treatment of women by men while celebrating women’s virtues and intelligence and arguing that women are superior to men, but does not go as far as to appeal for sexual equality (needs a citation). (perhaps a for-runner of consciousness raising that attempted to bring awareness to the role of men in the women question or the quelles des femmes The woman question)

Giustizia delle donne was published after Fonte’s death along with Il merito delle donne. Both literary works are influenced by Boccaccio’s Decameron: they are frame stories where the characters develop their dialogues and exempla.

A group of women is talking in a venetian garden when Pasquale arrives and breaks the relaxed atmosphere by referring the last argument (S)he has had with her husband. It unchaines the most (an) inspiring conversation about "masculine behaviour" in which they complain about the unfair situations they have to face every day; they imagine twelve punishments (one per month) in order to raise awareness among men. That way, they’d have to suffer from public humiliation, they’d have to be self-sacrificing parents and be isolated from their friends and family. The most remarkable punishment is the one dedicated to silence: only women have a voice, a voice which finally lets them speak and organize society.

The most significant literary devices (in this work) are irony, paradoxes and references to the reader (as it happened in ancient novels). She is clearly influenced by Plato dialogues’ rhythm and through all these procedures achieves to build up a precise portrait of the social concerns in the 16th Century.

The book is divided in 14 chapters: the first one works as an introduction or frame, the next twelve cover punishments and attacks to the masculine figure and in the last one they return to real life after their imaginary trip, but, as it happens in all trips, they come back wiser and filled with hope.

Moderata was a transgressive and completely Early modern author, and it could be the reason why the manuscript wasn’t published during her life. (source of information? influenced modern thinking or understanding of feminism in historical context. Manuscript was published after her death because she finished writing it the day before she died in childbirth...)

However, in the 20th century a group of intellectual women rescued her texts and transmitted her legacy: Eleonora Carinci, Adriana Chemello, Virginia Cox…

More recently, English and American theoreticians took inspiration from her ideas and formulated some concepts (man’s punishment, mansplaining (include link: Mansplaining) that are vital in current feminism.

(Needs Citations!!!!!)

Section on themes and outcomes of her works?

• Move section:
  • Moderata was a transgressive and completely Early modern author, and it could be the reason why the manuscript wasn’t published during her life. (source of information? influenced modern thinking or understanding of feminism in historical context. Manuscript was published after her death because she finished writing it the day before she died in childbirth...) However, in the 20th century a group of intellectual women rescued her texts and transmitted her legacy: Eleonora Carinci, Adriana Chemello, Virginia Cox… More recently, English and American theoreticians took inspiration from her ideas and formulated some concepts (man’s punishment, mansplaining (include link: Mansplaining) that are vital in current feminism.
• Move section on consciousness raising her?
• The themes of Moderata Fonte's works are literary spaces of reevaluation. One of the larger themes are love, freedom of speech and the worth of women.
• Some authors have suggested that Moderata Fonte's last work is meant to be a critic against Giuseppe Passi's, I donneschi difetti [Women's Defects].
• Other feminist poets and writers at the time:

Writing takes up arms in the disputes of the worth of women, however, the freedom of speech of the women characters of the renaissance often occur in the absence of men. ^[3] Literary dialogue often silenced or excluded women, however, Moderata Fonte breaks this tradition in creating the Worth of Women by the complete absence of men. In this dialogue the worth of women is not questioned, but rather the worth of men is put on trial in their garden debate. The women never come to a conclusion, there is no point that is made, but rather the space to speak freely is temporary and borrowed. The women in the end have to leave the garden to return home.^[4]

Read through ^{[3] [2] [1] [4]} Notes:

^[3]

• Love reveals the strength and wisdom of women when they are in love (greater than men)
• Theme of female mercy that when seen by men in love dispels the prejudice against women
• Freedom of speech is only found in the absence of men
• Humanist(link Renaissance humanism and humanist education) training a basis for reassessing social biases
• importance of comparing male heroes with the upstanding character of female protagonists
• Literature is a space of reevaluation?
• Writing is a form of taking up arms

^[2]

• Self-motivated learner
• Le feste --> virtue or pleasure (Venice's love of virtue)
  • advises moderation
• Religious poems --> extraliterary pressures by the Counter Reformation
  • active female participation in remarkable events
• La Resurrezione dedicated to the envoy of the Duke of Savoy (ruling over kingdoms and empires) virtue lost when women were removed from the political domain
• Floridoro
  • epic genre focused on woman's characterization (Risamante: warlike and moral)
    • Floridoro is the mockery of a true knight
  • nonconformist dedication (Duchess of Tuscany)
• Il Merito delle donne
  • critics Venice's "freedom" through use of a garden
  • critics the merits of marriage
  • display of female intellected
• critics as "feminist housewife"

^[4]

• Women's love of talk --> but only in rooms of their own
• Her household feminism lacking a room for herself created in the work of the worth of women?
• Commentary on how the "freedom" of Venice hasn't fully realized space for the female voice, but could?
• Literary dialogue often silenced or excluded women, however, Moderata Fonte breaks this tradition in creating the Worth of Women by the complete absence of men. In this dialogue the worth of women is not questioned, but rather the worth of men is put on trial in their garden debate.
• Women capable of education in the pestoring that Fonte did to learn from her brother.
• Similarity of Marjane Satrapi and Christine de Pizan (should include and link these Marjane Satrapi, Christine de Pizan)
• The dialogue never comes to a conclusion, there is no point that is made, but rather the space to speak freely is temporary and borrowed. The women in the end have to leave the garden to return home.

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Edits after shifting possible changes to live article Moderata Fonte

Moderata Fonte, pseudonym of Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi (or Zorzi), also known as Modesto Pozzo (or Modesta, feminization of Modesto), (1555–1592) was a Venetian writer and poet. Besides the posthumously-published dialogues, Giustizia delle donne and Il merito delle donne (gathered in The Worth of Women, 1600), for which she is best known, she wrote a romance and religious poetry. Details of her life are known from the biography by Giovanni Niccolò Doglioni (1548-1629), her uncle, included as a preface to the dialogue.

An early page in a 1581 edition of Fonte's poetry. Pozzo's parents, Girolamo da Pozzo and Marietta da Pozzo (née dal Moro), died of the plague in 1556, when she was just a year old, and she and her older brother Leonardo were placed in the care of their maternal grandmother and her second husband. She spent several years in the convent of Santa Marta where, thanks to her extraordinary memory, she was often displayed as a child prodigy. She was able to repeat long sermons she had heard or read only once. At the age of nine she was returned to her grandmother’s family where she learned Latin and composition from her grandfather, Prospero Saraceni, a man of letters, as well as from her brother, Leonardo. Her brother also taught her to read and write in Latin, draw, sing, and play the lute and harpsichord.

On 15 February 1582, at twenty-seven years old, Moderata wed Filippo de’ Zorzi. Their marriage seemed to reflect equality and mutual respect evidenced by de’ Zorzi returning her dowry a year and a half after their wedding. An official document dated October 1583 states that de’ Zorzi returns the dowry "thanks to his pure kindness and to the great love and good will that he has felt and feels for" her. Likewise, Moderata Fonte describes her husband in one of her writings as a man of "virtue, goodness and integrity" .

These actions were significant in this time period, since women did not typically have property under their own name with which they could govern. Furthermore, the appeal for women to own property has been a longstanding debate in feminist advocacy.

One of Fonte’s first known works is a musical play performed before the Doge Da Ponte in 1581 at the festival of St. Stephen’s Day. Le Feste[The Feasts] includes about 350 verses with several singing parts. Also in 1581, she published her epic poem I tredici canti del Floridoro [The Thirteen Cantos of Floridoro] dedicated to Bianca Cappello and her new husband, Francesco I de' Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. This poem is perhaps the second chivalric work published by an Italian woman, after Tullia d’Aragona’s Il Meschino, which appeared in 1560.

Moderata Fonte wrote two long religious poems, La Passione di Cristo [Christ’s Passion] and La Resurrezione di Gesù Cristo nostro Signore che segue alla Santissima Passione in otava rima da Moderata Fonte [The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord, which follows the Holy Passion in octaves by Moderata Fonte]. In these works she describes in detail the emotional reactions of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalen to Christ’s death and resurrection, illustrating her deep belief in the active participation of women in the events of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.

She is perhaps best known for Il Merito delle donne [On The Merit of Women], published posthumously in 1600, in which she criticizes the treatment of women by men while celebrating women’s virtues and intelligence and arguing that women are superior to men, but does not go as far as to appeal for sexual equality. Perhaps a for-runner of consciousness raising that attempted to bring awareness to the role of men in the women question or the quelles des femmes The woman question.

When she died in 1592 at the age of thirty-seven, Pozzo had four children according to her biographer and mentor, Giovanni Nicolo Doglioni: the oldest aged ten years, the second aged eight, the third aged six and the newborn, whose birth caused her death. Her husband placed a marble epitaph on her tomb which describes Pozzo as ‘femina doctissima’ [a very learned woman].

• The Worth of Women: Wherein is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men By Moderata Fonte (1997) translated by Virginia Cox. OCLC 44959387.
• Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo). Floridoro: A Chivalric Romance. Ed. by Valeria Finucci. Tr. by Julia Kisacky. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp xxx, 493 (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe). OCLC 614478182.

Giustizia delle donne was published after Fonte’s death along with Il merito delle donne. Both literary works are influenced by Boccaccio’s Decameron: they are frame stories where the characters develop their dialogues and exempla.

A group of women is talking in a venetian garden when Pasquale arrives and breaks the relaxed atmosphere by referring the last argument she has had with her husband. It unchaines an inspiring conversation about "masculine behaviour" in which they complain about the unfair situations they have to face every day; they imagine twelve punishments (one per month) in order to raise awareness among men. That way, they’d have to suffer from public humiliation, they’d have to be self-sacrificing parents and be isolated from their friends and family. The most remarkable punishment is the one dedicated to silence: only women have a voice, a voice which finally lets them speak and organize society.

The most significant literary devices in this work are irony, paradoxes and references to the reader (as it happened in ancient novels). She was influenced by Plato dialogues’ rhythm and through all these procedures achieves to build up a precise portrait of the social concerns in the 16th Century.

The book is divided in 14 chapters: the first one works as an introduction or frame, the next twelve cover punishments and attacks to the masculine figure and in the last one they return to real life after their imaginary trip, but, as it happens in all trips, they come back wiser and filled with hope.

Writing takes up arms in the disputes of the worth of women, however, the freedom of speech of the women characters of the renaissance often occur in the absence of men. ^[3] Literary dialogue often silenced or excluded women, however, Moderata Fonte breaks this tradition in creating the Worth of Women by the complete absence of men. In this dialogue the worth of women is not questioned, but rather the worth of men is put on trial in their garden debate. The women never come to a conclusion, there is no point that is made, but rather the space to speak freely is temporary and borrowed. The women in the end have to leave the garden to return home.^[4] The garden setting displays the potential feminised society as all of Fonte's characters express the moral capacity of women and their deserving of material means to be autonomous, though from different arguments.^[5]

Moderata was a transgressive and early modern author, that influenced modern thinking and understanding of feminism in historical context. Her manuscript was published after her death, as she finished completing her writings on the day before she died giving birth to her fourth child. The themes of Moderata Fonte's works are literary spaces of reevaluation. One of the larger themes are love, freedom of speech and the worth of women. Some authors have suggested that Moderata Fonte's last work, along with other contemporaries like Lucrezia Marinella, were meant to be a critic against Giuseppe Passi's, I donneschi difetti [Women's Defects].

The subtle feminist perspective that is at stake in these literary works is the role of property in the devaluation of women. More recently women have been achieving political freedom as a result of the shift towards women managing their property.^[5]

Moderata Fonte shifts the narrative from simply equality with men to the role of women in society through a political rhetoric rather than a domestic one. The mantle is no longer equality with men, but the reality of women's rights being usurped by men. Marinella continued with economic injustice to women in marriages. Mary Beale takes up this notion of women's rights in the the discourse of friendship. Mary More carries on the thesis of imbalance in marriages and endeavours to dismantle male dominance to inspire equality in her usage of women's rights. Subsequently Mary Wollstonecraft would take up the idea o women's rights and carry it into the political realm. Historically the rhetoric of female education rather than biology lead to social and political marginalization of women and had now begun to be discussed as something that could be overcome.^[6]

However, in the 20th century a group of intellectual women rescued her texts and transmitted her legacy: Eleonora Carinci, Adriana Chemello, Virginia Cox. Virginia Cox and Valeria Finucci make the argument of gendered differences being nurtured in their analysis of Fonte rather than inherent in female biology. Patricia Labalme and Virginia Cox develop the early feminist critique of misogyny in the writings of Venetian women. Diana Robin exposes the role of women in intellectual life and the historical importance of women writers. She exposes the integrated role of men, women and their relationships in this movement of recognizing the woman as an intellectual.Fonte became very cited in other works of commentary on women including Pietro Paolo di Ribera and Cristofano Bronzini.^[6]More recently, English and American theoreticians took inspiration from her ideas and formulated some concepts (man’s punishment, mansplaining) that are vital in current feminism.

Secular humanism is an ethical framework that attempts to dispense with any unreasoned dogma, pseudoscience, and superstition. Critics of feminism sometimes ask "Why feminism and not humanism?". Some humanists argue however that the goals of feminists and humanists largely overlap, and the distinction is only in motivation. For example, a humanist may consider abortion in terms of a utilitarian ethical framework, rather than considering the motivation of any particular woman in getting an abortion. In this respect it is possible to be a humanist without being a feminist, but this does not preclude the existence of feminist humanism.

Humanism plays a significant role in protofeminism during the renaissance period in such that humanists made educated women a popular figure despite the challenge to the male patriarchal organization of society.^[6]

See also: Protofeminism Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria.

People and activists who discuss or advance women's equality prior to the existence of the feminist movement are sometimes labeled as protofeminist. Some scholars criticize this term because they believe it diminishes the importance of earlier contributions or that feminism does not have a single, linear history as implied by terms such as protofeminist or postfeminist.

Around 24 centuries ago, Plato, according to Elaine Hoffman Baruch, "[argued] for the total political and sexual equality of women, advocating that they be members of his highest class, ... those who rule and fight".

Italian-French writer Christine de Pizan (1364 – c. 1430), the author of The Book of the City of Ladies and Epître au Dieu d'Amour (Epistle to the God of Love) is cited by Simone de Beauvoir as the first woman to denounce misogyny and write about the relation of the sexes. Other early feminist writers include Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi, who worked in the 16th century, and the 17th-century writers Hannah Woolley in England, Juana Inés de la Cruz in Mexico, Marie Le Jars de Gournay, Anne Bradstreet, and François Poullain de la Barre. The emergence of women as true intellectuals effected change also in Italian humanism. Cassandra Fedele was the first women to join a humanist group and achieved much despite greater constraints on women.^[7]

Men have also played an important role in the history of defending that women are capable and able to compete equally with men, including Antonio Cornazzano, Vespasiano de Bisticci, and Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti. Castiglione continues this trend of defending woman's moral character and that traditions are at fault for the appearance of women's inferiority. However, the critique is that there is no advocacy for social change, leaving her out of the political sphere, and abandoning her to traditional domestic roles. Although, many of them would encourage that if women were to be included in the political sphere it would be a natural consequence of their education. In addition, some of these men state that men are at fault for the lack of knowledge of intellectual women by leaving them out of historical records.^[8]

One of the most important 17th-century feminist writers in the English language was Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her knowledge was recognized by some, such as proto-feminist Bathsua Makin, who wrote that "The present Dutchess of New-Castle, by her own Genius, rather than any timely Instruction, over-tops many grave Grown-Men," and considered her a prime example of what women could become through education.

Women who received an education often reached high standards of learning and wrote in defence of women and their rights. An example is the 16th-century Venetian author Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi.^[9]The painter Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532–1625) was born into an enlightened family in Cremona. She and her sisters were educated to male standards, and four out of five became professional painters. Sofonisba was the most successful of all, crowning her career as court painter to the Spanish king Philip II.

The famous Renaissance salons that held intelligent debate and lectures were not welcoming to women. This exclusion from public forums led to problems for educated women. Despite these constraints, many women were capable voices of new ideas.^[10] Isotta Nogarola fought to deconstruct such literary misogyny through defenses of women in biographical work and the exoneration of Eve. She made a space for Women's voice in this time period regarded as a female intellectual. Similarly, Laura Cereta reimagined the role of women in society and arguing that education is a right for all humans and going so far as to say that women were at fault for not seizing their own educational rights. Cassandra Fedele was the first to join a humanist gentleman's club, declaring that womanhood was a point of pride and equality of the sexes was essential.^[10] Other women including Margaret Roper, Mary Basset and the Cooke sisters gained recognition as scholars in their time by making important translating contributions. Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella were among some of the first women to adopt male rhetoric styles to rectify the inferior social context for women. Men at the time also recognised particular women intellectuals already existed with possibilities and began writing their biographies as Jacopo Filippo Tomasini did.^[11] The modern scholar Diana Robin has outlined the history of intellectual women as a long and noble lineage.^[12]

List of Renaissance humanists (missing female names)

• Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558)(Italian)
• Alessandra Scala (1475-1506)(Italian)
• Isotta Nogarola (1418-1466)(Italian)

• Isotta Nogarola
  • Humanist Renaissance
  • Woman's voice as the gendered 'other'
  • deconstructing literary misogyny
  • belong in the history of feminism
    • influential status as a female intelectual (defenses of women in biography)
    • exoneration of Eve (Bathsua Makin)
  • Laura Cereta
    • reimagining the role of women as a group in society
    • education is a right to humans
    • Republic of Women
    • Women's lack of schooling is their own fault
  • Contemporary humanists Francesco Filelfo, Niccolo Sagundino, Pietro Perleone, George of Trebizond
  • Diana Robin (scholar)
    • History of intellectual women is long and noble lineage
  • Cassandra Fedele
    • micro community of women intellectuals
    • equality of the sexes
    • womanhood a point of pride
  • English women
    • Mary Ellen Lamb
      • coded feminine in translating
    • Margaret Roper, Mary Basset, Cooke sisters (important by translating, recognition as scholars/participatory)
• Humanists made educated women a popular figure despite the challenge to the male patriarchal organization to society
• legacy of literary argumentation of female capability and leads to the acceptance of the feminist agenda
• not to eliminate the role of men in supporting the canon of women writers to lay a foundation for future generations from fathers educating their daughters
• Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella
  • Culturally normal and proper mothers
  • adoption of male rhetoric stances (proven credentials, stood on their own)
    • Marie le Jars de Gournay and Anna Maria van Schurman
    • Mary Beale, Mary More, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione
  • Legacy of Isabella and Francesco Andreini author-actors in promoted career
  • informed vernacular composition in wide variety
  • Virginia Cox and Valeria Finucci make the argument of gendered differences being nurtured in their analysis of Fonte rather than inherent in female biology.^[6]
  • role of shaping self-representation (political rhetoric instead of domestic)
  • exalting patrons on their merit established by society rather than focussing on the female attributes in descriptions of self and patron
• 'Proper women' allowed for the revitalization of the quelle des femmes
• Women's social roles a focus
  • rectifying women.s inferiority in a social context
• The mantle is no longer equality with men, but the reality of women's right being usurped by men
• Professional academics and recognized by male counterparts
• Shift of men writing women intellectuals biographies like Jacopo Filippo Tomasini
• Ideas of secular communities of women
• Worth of women a didactic work
  • intellectual and social self-realization
  • Women's rights stunted by men keeping women ignorant
  • Second part an offering of what it is to become a renaissance woman
  • solution of academics and the feminized friendship
  • exhortation to wake up and realize their dignity and become politically autonomous individuals
    • importance of female communities
  • Variety of lifestyles available, but to educate, think and share (consciousness raising groups figured in salon like literature narrative)
  • became very cited in other works of commentary on women including Pietro Paolo di Ribera and Cristofano Bronzini
• Marinella continued with economic injustice to women in marriages
• Mary Beale takes up this notion of women's rights in the the discourse of friendship. Mary More carries on the thesis of imbalance in marriages and endeavours to dismantle male dominance to inspire equality in her usage of women's rights. Subsequently Mary Wollstonecraft would take up the idea o women's rights and carry it into the political realm. Historically the rhetoric of female education rather than biology lead to social and political marginalization of women and had now begun to be discussed as something that could be overcome. Thus is the legacy that passes down into the modern era of feminist discourse.
• Renaissance feminism was revelatory in the emergence of the idea of 'Woman as intellectual'. This came about by 'participatory' feminism in Moderata Fonte and other contemporary writers like Lucrezia Marinella who prove equality by their standing in society as respected scholars. Female writers and male supporters made space for women voices possible through humanist education. The role of women writers and their biographies was an important shift in the manner that women regard themselves in self-representation in literature. These shifts in self-perception were important in laying a foundation that would lead to women's cognitive emancipation later on.
• Patricia Labalme and Virginia Cox develop the early feminist critique of misogyny in the writings of Venetian women. Diana Robin exposes the role of women in intellectual life and the historical importance of women writers. She exposes the integrated role of men, women and their relationships in this movement of recognizing the woman as an intellectual.

• Central claim of equality
• interdependant non-hierarchical feminized society
• the garden setting displays the potential feminised society
• all of Fonte's chracters express the moral capacity of women and their deserving of material means to be autonomous, though from different arguments.
• Renaissance defenses of women are present in a variety of literary genre and across Europe.
• feminizing society was for these women a way to also create possibilities for men.
• feminists began with an appeal to priniciples that guided them progressively to economic deprivation
• The subtle feminist perspective that is at stake in these literary works is the role of property in the devaluation of women. More recently women have been achieving political freedom as a result of the shift towards women managing their property.^[5]

• educated women already existed with possibilities
• Antonio Cornazzano, Vespasiano de Bisticci, Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti
• women as ccapable and able to compete with men on equal terms
• public display is a natural consequence of education (Sabadino, 42)
• admonishes men as those who have prevented the knowledge of capable women in leaving them out of the history books (Strozzi)
  • limits the feminist movement by also not including living women in his work
• Capella and Castiglione continue this trend of defending woman's moral character and that traditions are at fault for the appearance of women's inferiority. However, the critique is that there is no advocacy for social change, leaving her out of the political sphere, and abandoning her to traditional domestic roles.

• Cassandra Fedele was the first women to join a humanist group and achieved much.
• However, Fedele is not recognized as gendered, but only as humanist (critique)
  • role of political involvement still limiting at that time
• The emergence of women as true intellectuals effected change in Italian humanism.
• Women,s place in the renaissance is adverse towards women's liberation
  • greater constraints with a focus on chasity
•