The Renaissance: Challenging traditional Periodization
Document #1
“...the renaissance marked a new era in thought and feeling, by which Europe and its institutions were in the long run to be transformed...What arose in Italy, in these surrounding was no less than a new
conception of man himself...that man was a frail creature, in need of god’s grace and salvation, thought perhaps said with the lips, was not felt in the heart. Instead, what captivated the Italians of the
renaissance was a sense of man’s tremendous powers, the rich potentialities of human nature, the free and unfettered creative play of human talent in every field.”
R.R. Palmer, A History of the Modern World, New York: A.A.Knopf, 1963, pp. 49,51
Document # 2
“...Italy was well in advance of the rest of Europe from roughly 1350 to 1530 because of it early consolidation of genuine states, the mercantile and manufacturing economy that supported them, and its
working out of postfeudal and postguild social relations. These developments reorganized Italian society along modern lines and open the possibilities for the social and cultural expression for which the
age is known. Yet precisely these developments affected women adversely, no much so that there was no renaissance for women-at least not during the renaissance... the startling fact is that women as a
group, especially among the classes were dominated Italian life, experienced a c contraction of social and personal options that men oftheir classes either did not, as was the case with bourgeoisie, or did
not experience as markedly, as was the case with the nobility”
Joan Kelly-Gadol, “Did Women have A Renaissance?” in Becoming visible: Women in European History,.ed., Bridenthal/Koons, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Co., 1977, p.139
The Court Lady
Document # 3
“I think that in her ways, manners, words, gestures, and bearing, a women ought to be very unlike a man; for just as he must show a certain solid and sturdy manliness, so it is seemly for a women to have soft and delicate tenderness, with an air of womanly sweetness in her very movement... and I do think that beauty is more necessary to her than to the courtier, for truly women lacks much who lacks beauty... I say that, in my opinion, in a lady who lives at court a certain pleasing affability is becoming above all else, whereby she will be able to entertain graciously every kind of man with agreeable and comely conversation suited to the time and place.. for the sake of appearing free and amiable she must not utter unseemly words or enter
into any immodest and unbridled familiarity or into ways such as might cause others to believe about her what is perhaps not true, but when she finds herself present at much talk, she ought to listen with a
slight blush of shame”
Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, in Not in God’sIMage, O’Faulin and Martines, ed., New York, Harper colophon, 1973, pp. 190,191.
Document # 4
The Merchant’s Wife
“(Husbands) who take counsel with their wives...are madmen if they think true prudence or good counsel lies in the female brain....for this reason I have always tried carefully not to set any secret of mine be known to a women. I did not doubt that my wife was most
loving, and more discreet in her ways that any, but I still considered it safer to have unstable, and not merely unwilling to harm me...Furthermore, I made it a rule never to speak with of anything but household matters or questions of conduct or the children...... I said, “Dear wife, listen to me. I shall be more pleased if you do just three things: First, my wide, see that you never want another man to share this but me. You understand.” She blushed and cast down her eyes.
Still I repeated that she should never receive anyone into this room but myself. That was the first point. The second, I said, was that she should take care of the household, preside over it with modesty, serenity, tranquility, and peace. That was the second point. The third thing, I said, was that she should see that mothering went wrong in the house....I could not describe ... hoe reverently she replies to me. She said her mother taught her only how to spin and sew, and hot
to be virtuous and obedient. Now she would gladly learn from me how to rule the family and whatever I might wish to teach her.”
Alberti, the Family in Renaissance Italy, ibid. PP. 189.