Download Woods Theresa Woods Men and Women in Renaissance Italy April

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Theresa Woods
Men and Women in Renaissance Italy
April 2009
Final Paper
The Education Revolution in Renaissance Italy
The Italian Renaissance is often regarded as the greatest period of cultural change in
European history. The time gave rise to some of history’s greatest artists: Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and Botticelli. Architecture saw great advancement with Andrea
Palladio’s works in Venice and Filippo Brunelleschi’s works in Florence. The literature of Italy
during the Renaissance also changed with humanist thinkers such as Petrarch, Ludovico Ariosto
and Boccaccio. These massive changes in culture and society paved the way for society as we
know it today.
One revolution from this time that is often overlooked, however, is the one that took
place in the ideology and practice of education. My paper will examine how the revolution in
education that changed the goals of learning in the Renaissance shaped modern education. The
revival in education during the Renaissance has its roots in the interest in the ancient Greeks and
Romans, as well as the widespread literacy in northern and central Italy during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. In Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, historian
Robert Black states that the Italian curriculum during the Renaissance has often-ignored roots in
the educational practices of the preceding Middle Ages. He states that in both eras, “teaching
was overridingly philological rather than moral,” and states that the methods of learning that
were used during the Renaissance, particularly how to read, were developed in the middle ages.i
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These firm roots allowed for a massive shift in educational goals that took men from being
statesmen and scholars to being courtiers, and women from exclusively being homemakers and
wives to being humanists.
By the turn of the fifteenth century, the wealthy and elite were searching for guidance in
the pursuit of a humanist education for themselves and their children. Boys were to be prepared
for lives as citizen leaders and businessmen, and few were to be raised as scholars. Girls,
however, were generally educated only with the goal of becoming competent mothers and
conversationalists for their husbands. Parents often turned to renowned teachers and tutors for
advice on what subjects their children should study.
Petrus Paulus Vergerius was one of the most renowned teachers in Italy, and taught in
Florence, Bologna and Padua and was well known for his teaching method in his time. Around
1400, he wrote a treatise on education for the son of Francesco de Carrara, Ubertino, who later
became a statesman. Vergerous systematically prioritizes the subjects that he suggested for
Ubertino’s consideration and study. The subject that Vergerius places highest in his liberal
studies curriculum is history, “on grounds of both its attractiveness and of its utility, qualities
which appeal equally to the scholar and the statesman.” This gives insight into the ultimate goal
of learning in the time (at least for Ubertino and others like him) – to become both a scholar and
a success in government and business. Vergerius follows history with moral philosophy, which
teaches men the secret of true freedom. Grammar and literature follow, along with poetry (which
he separates from literature). Before listing arithmetic, Vergerius lists music as an area to be
studied because the ancient Greeks refused to acknowledge anyone as being educated if they
could nor sing or play an instrument, which gives clear representation of how valued the
ancient’s teachings were in Italy. The subjects that Vergerius suggests were rooted in the studies
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of the revered ancient Greeks and Romans, to whom Renaissance educators often looked for
guidance.ii
This idea is also made clear by Leonardo Bruni, whose letter to Lady Baptista Malatesta
(which dates to the same time as Vergerius’s) suggested appropriate areas of study also implied
great importance on ancient culture. Lady Baptista Malatesta was one of the first, if not the first
woman to receive a treatise on humanist education, and the curriculum suggested by Bruni is
markedly different than the one Vergerius suggested for his male charge. Bruni states that the
“foundations of all true learning” were laid in knowledge of the Latin language before offering
Malatesta a list of authors and genres that she should look to. He first lists Christian authors,
followed by classical authors such as Cicero and Virgil, as well as Livy and Sallust. Bruni states
that arithmetic, geometry and astrology were not subjects “worthy to absorb a cultivated mind,”
and points Malatesta towards the study of religion and morals, chiefly because it is fitting of a
“Christian lady.” He ends his treatise with a short list of other subjects that is identical to the
beginning of Vergerius’s curriculum, telling Malatesta to study history, poetry and literature. iii
Mere decades later in 1442, a change in ideas regarding women’s education was visible.
The changing governments and nature of the elite class had created women were no longer those
wealthy and respected only for their names, but the daughters and wives of self-made men who
thrived under the rising oligarchies and stronger Papacy, which had returned to Rome in 1420.
iv
Lauro Quirini wrote a treatise on education in 1445 for Isotta Nogarola, the sister of a fellow
Veronian student. After congratulating Nogarola on her virtue, he states that the learning of
women should be glorified because the “ancients gloried in the learning of such outstanding
women.” Quirini, unlike Bruni, states that Nogarola should study not only philosophy
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(particularly Aristotle), but metaphysics and mathematics, because “we can know nothing with
certainty unless mathematicians have demonstrated it.”v
What was the significance of the differences between Vergerius’s treatise for Ubertino,
Bruni’s for Malatesta and Quirini’s for Nogarola? After offering his prioritized list of subjects,
Vergerius tells that “the choice of studies will depend to some extend upon the character of
individual minds.” This shows that Vergerius felt students could have certain specialties, whether
or not they were in history or moral philosophy, the subjects that he ranked above all others. vi
Bruni was quite clear that only some subjects could be studied by women. Though he states that
the study of practical subjects (like mathematics) were “positively unbecoming” for a woman. vii
Quirini’s letter is respectful. He congratulates Nogarola on her virtue and thirst for knowledge,
and communicates a sense of respect that is absent from Bruni’s letter to Malatesta.viii
By the beginning of the sixteenth century, nearly every aspect of life in Italy had
changed. The economy had morphed into a machine centered on consumer consumption and a
market of luxury goods, for which Italy was a distribution center for the rest of the world.
Governments changed and oligarchies rose across the peninsula, shifting power from more
centralized governments closer to the hands of the people. An aristocratic society rose and
created grater class stratification, which necessitated a new kind of learning that was more
universal for the new elite class. Young men and women needed preparation for a court society.
Men were to be courtiers with modesty, eloquence and knowledge of ancient languages, and
women were implored to have skills to compliment these men.
Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier offered a detailed outline for any
young man who thirsted to become the ideal man of the court. It is, perhaps, from the ideas
presented in this text that the term Renaissance man was born, for Castiglione offers the ideal
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that a courtier have a universal, well-rounded education. Those who learned from Castiglione
were to be “bold, energetic, and faithful,” to whomever they served, for a man who faltered in
those pursuits were stained for life. The perfect courtier was to praise himself discretely and with
modesty, for “seldom does anyone of any worth refrain from praising himself,” and be
conversant in both Latin and Greek, “because of the abundance and variety of things that are so
divinely written therein.” Students were to be familiar with the great poets, orators and
historians, and be well versed in the writing of both poetry and prose to be more attractive to
women, “who are usually fond of such things.”ix
Unlike the previous writers, Castiglione offers insight on the education of women as well.
Over the course of the fourteenth century, the idea that women should not have the same
education as men had not changed, but if we are to judge by Castiglione’s writing, the reasons
behind the difference in education is far less sexist. In The Courtier, Castiglione states that “a
woman 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 woman to have a soft and delicate tenderness.” By the sixteenth
century, the concept that women should be limited to certain tasks and knowledge was not held
because women were less worthy or because the knowledge was “unbecoming,” but because
women were to focus on the ability to entertain men with engaging conversation and perform the
exercises that were more suitable for women. Castiglione advises women to study letters, music,
painting and dance to compliment the things he had suggested to his ideal courtier.x
The educational revolution was not a single change that took place at the start of the
Renaissance to define learning in the time, but was a evolution that took place during the
tumultuous and beautiful period in which culture flourished. From the earlier writing of
Vergerius to Castiglione’s authoritative The Courtier, we can see the alterations of education
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through time. The goals of learning changed from that of teaching the children of nobility to be
eloquent statesmen or appropriately educated women, to creating the ideal gentlemen and ladies
of the court. The educational ideals concerning women morphed from having sexist roots in
which women could not pursue certain subjects simply because they were “unbecoming” to a
lady, and evolved into a set of values that encouraged educated women to pursue more practical
knowledge to help them in life. These changing ideas influenced education throughout the ages,
and the learning revolution of the Renaissance can still be felt in halls of education today.
i
R. Black, Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press,
2001. Pgs. 23-24.
ii
P. Vergerius, “The New Education,” 1400
L. Bruni, “Letter to Lady Baptista Malatesta.” 1405
iv
SparkNotes, “Italian Renaissance (1330 – 1550) Timeline.” Barnes and Noble, 2009.
v
L. Quirini, “Letter to Isotta Nogarola.” 1442
vi
Vergerius, “The New Education.”
vii
Bruni, Letter to Lady Baptista Malatesta.” Christine de Pizan, a writer and educated woman of the early
Renaissance and daughter of a university lecturer would have most likely disagreed. “Just as women’s bodies are
softer than men’s,” Pizan stated, “so their undersanding is sharper.” [“Christine de Pisan Quotes,” thinkexist.com]
viii
Quirini, “Letter to Isotta Nogarola.”
ixix
B. Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier. 1508
x
Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier
iii
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Works Cited
Primary Sources
Alberti, Leon Battista. The Family in Renaissance Florence. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press,
1994.

This book was first written as a discourse on family life in Renaissance Florence.

It was originally written in the mid-1400s, but was not published until 1734

Alberti touches on the subject of education on pages 63-64 and offers a few lines on the
educational qualities of both city and country life.
Bruni, Leonardo. Letter to Lady Baptista Malatesta. 1405.

Bruni’s treatise on education was written as a letter to Lady Baptista Malatesta in 1405.

Bruni offers the subjects which he feels Malatasta would benefit from studying and gives
reasons why these subjects would be beneficial.

The piece offers insight into the suggested education of women in Renaissance Italy.
Castiglione, Baldassare. The Courtier. 1508.

The Courtier was regarded as the definitive instructions on how to be the perfect courtier
in Renaissance Italy.

In the book, Castiglione offers his views on what the perfect courtier should study,
including Latin and poetry as the most important studies in his curriculum.

Castiglione also holds confidence and fluency in articulation as important qualities for his
courtier.
Quirini, Lauro. Letter to Isotta Nogarola. 1442.

In Quirini’s letter to Isotta Nogarola, he gives his ideal curriculum for a woman to study.

Quirini felt that the learning of outstanding women should be glorified because it was
glorified by the ancients.
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
Nogarola was advised to study Latin and the works of Aristotle and Christian authors,
rather than arithmetic and more technical subjects.
Vergerius, Petrus Paulus. “The New Education.” Unpublished essay, 1400.

Vergerius’s treatise on education was written for Ubertino, the son of Francesco Carrara,
lord of Padua.

In his treatise, Vergerius prioritizes the subjects to be studied by importance.

History, moral philosophy, grammar and literature are some of the most important
subjects according to Vergerius.
Secondary Sources
Black, Robert. “Education and the Emergence of a Literate Society.”

Black states that the increase in literacy between the fourteenth and fifteenth century
aided the revolution in education.

The increase in literacy rates also lead to a rise in literature published in the vernacular
language.

Widespread literacy lead to new developments in the education system.
Black, Robert. Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. New York, NY.:
Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Robert Black examines the development of education in Italy between the Medieval and
Renaissance periods.

Black introduces his work with a quick summary of how education changed between the
end of the Medieval period and the beginning of the Renaissance.

Black states that education in both periods had a philological approach rather than a
moral one.
Jardine, Lisa. "Isotta Nogarola: Women Humanists -- Education for What?" History of
Education. Taylor and Francis Ltd., 1976. 231-244.
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
Lisa Jardine examines the curriculum that Lauro Quirini offered Isotta Nogarola at the
beginning of her article.

She examines the question of why women in the Renaissance were educated when there
was no real use for their knowledge.

Jardine states that education isolated women and confined them to “book-lined cells”.
"Christine de Pisan quotes." ThinkExist. 6 Apr. 2009 <http://thinkexist.com/quotes/
christine_de_pisan/>.

This site gives the de Pizan quote “Just as women’s bodies are softer than men’s, so their
understanding is sharper.”
"SparkNotes: Italian Renaissance (1330-1550): Timeline." SparkNotes. Barnes and Noble. 6
Apr. 2009
<http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/renaissance1/timeline.html>.

This site gives core dates during the Renaissance