Thursday, January 17, 2008

At left is that charming champion of ladies, Giuliano de Medici, called Il Magnifico, and main speaker for Book III. The arguments he marshalls in defense of women can be divided into three segments.

• First, he elucidates the differences between the ideal court lady and courtier, by creating as great a distance as possible between women and men;
• Next, he argues for female equality by taking head-on the most common arguments from the western philosophical and theological tradition and turning them to a different conclusion from the normal one of inferiority;
• Finally, he assembles a cataglogue of exemplary women, from the past and the present, to prove his point.

Throughout, Gaspar and occasionally other speakers serve as a foil for his position, by goading him on to ever more persuasive measures. Towards the latter part of the book, the two of them -- Gaspar and Il Magnifico -- reenact the querelle des femmes, the quarrel concerning women, giving us a chance to see how "feminists" and "antifeminists" of the 16th century articulated their positions. In what ways do the terms of this debate differ from the positions people take today? What is familiar, and what unfamiliar, about these arguments?

Erasmus of Rotterdam, at right, wrote a series of dialogues called colloquies as a pleasant way of teaching Latin to schoolboys. Here, a young man and woman debate aboout love and marriage. We see the suitor attempt to trick her into a declaration of consent, but she is too clever to take the bait, and expects him to go through proper channels, getting the consent of both families before contracting a marriage. This is what Juliet should have done, although Romeo was in a different position than Pamphilius, for in the case of Pamphilius and Maria, the families of the young people are friendly, and thus inclined to favor the match. We find in the reading from Castiglione for today however an example of just such a young couple who were not so lucky: even though everyone who knew them approved of the match, the girl's father exercised his authority in a manner that Il Magnifico describes as "cruel" by giving her to another man. She eventually died of heartsickness.

Further questions:

• What do you think people in the 16th century meant by the term "love"? There seem to be a number of different ways in which they refer to it, yet a common thread.
• What seems to be the basis for Gaspar's dislike of women? Do the types of behaviors he describes at the end of Book Three still seem to occur today?
• What impression do you have now that you have read these selections of the relationship between love and marriage in the early modern period?

Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: January 16, 2008

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