Joan-Kelly-Renaissance

JO A N K EL LY

Women in Culture and Socie ty A Seri es Ed ited by Ca tharine R. Stimpson

WOM E N , HISTORY

&

TH EO RY

The Essays of Joan Kelly

The University of Chic ago Press Chicago & London

I The Un iversit y of Chicago Press, Chica go 60637

The Univ ersity of Chicago Press , Ltd .. Lond on

Š 1984 by The Un iversity of Chicago

All rights reserved . Published 1984

Paperback ed ition 1986

Prin ted in th e Unit ed States of Amer ica

95

6

Library of Cong ress Cataloging in Publi cation Data Kelly, Joan , 1928-1 982.

Wom en , history, and th eory.

(Wome n in cultur e and socie ty)

In clud es in d ex.

Con ten ts: The social relation of th e sexes- Did wome n have a Renai ssance?-The doubled vision of femi nist th eory- [et c.]

1. Feminism - Ad dresses, essays, lectures .

2. Women - History- Add resses, ess ays, lectures.

L Title. 11. Series .

HQ1l 54.K38 1984 305.4'09 84-2558

ISBN 0-226-43028-6 (pap er)

d edica te th is book to a ll my sis te rs, a n d to each of th e m

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Th e Social Relati on of th e Sexes

tion universall y, although th ey ha ve been und er ca pita lis m . I believe we mu st consi d e r sex uality an d socializa tio n in any study of th e sex ual orde r: what are the relation s a mong love, sex, a nd marriage in an y soc ie ty, for wo men and for men, hete ro sexu al and h om osexual, a nd wh o socia lizes w h ich gr oups of ch il­ d ren, by se x and by age, so th at th ey find th eir places in th e social or d e r- in­ cluding their sex ual places . I also believe , as Juliet Mitch ell d oes, th at the evi­ dence clearly wa rra n ts worki n g o u t relations between th e d om inant mode o f production in a socie ty an d th e forms o f rep rodu ctio n, sex uality, an d socializa­ tion . H ow ever, ce rtain d ifficu lties eme rge , not in usin g thi s sche me so much as in using its ter ms-esp ecially w he n we d ea l w ith p reca pita list socie ties . Neit her cu ltu ra l nor politica l act ivities have a clea rly d efin able place u nd er the heading of production, as th ey do , e .g., wh en we use th e terms d om est ic/public o r, more sim ply, fam ily and so cie ty. An other rea so n I pr e fer fa mily/soc iety or domes tic/ public, is th at th e terms p rod uctio nlreprod uction te nd to confou nd biological re­ produ ction w ith social re p rodu ction , a nd this obs cu res the es se ntia lly productive wo rk o f the family and th e p rop ert y relation be tw ee n hu sband and wif e . See m y rev iew of Rowbotham in Science lind Society 39, no . 4 (Win ter 1975/76): 471-74, and Lise Vogel's review ess ay on Juliet Mitch ell, "The Earth ly Family," Radical

America 7 (Fall 1973): 9-50.

23. Id eas alo ng th ese lines ha ve been d evelop ed by Rowbotham , Women's Consciousness, Ivuin's World; Bridge t O'La ug h lin, "Me d iation of Con trad iction : Why Mbum Wom en Do Not Ea t Ch icke n," in Rosald o an d La m p he re, pp . 301- 20 .

24. Dio n ysius of H alicarn assu S, The Roman Antiquities, tran s . E. Ca ry (Cam­ brid ge, Mass .: H arvard Uni ver sity Press), 1: 381-82. Milto n exten d ed th e pr op ­ erty relationship bet ween hu sb and and wife to th e Gard en of Eden where Ad am's possession of Eve con st itu tes th e firs t exa m ple of priva te prope rty: "H a il, wed ded Love, m yster ious law, tru e so u rce/O f h u ma n offsp rin g, sole pro­ priety/In Paradise o f all thin gs co m mo n else!" (Paradise Lost, p t. 4, lines 750 - 51).

Need less to say, wher e Eve se rves Ad am w hi le he se rves Go d , the "p ro p riety" is not a mu tual re lati on .

25 . For th e exam ples give n her e, see th e a rticles on th e periods in qu es tion in Brid e nth al a nd Koonz (n . 4 abo ve).

26 . Thi s is o ne o f Rowb otham 's points in Woman's Consciousness, Man's World.

I be lieve it s ho uld lead to d evelo p ment o f th e genre o f psycho his tor ical stu d ies and s tu d ies in fam ily h ist ory exe m plified by Ph ilip pe Aries, Centuriesof Childhood: A Social History of Fam ily Life (New York: Alfred A. Kn op f, 1965); Nancy C ho do row , "Fam ily Stru ctu re and Femini ne Pe rsonality," in Rosaldo an d Lampher e (n . 16), pp. 43 - 67; David llu nt , Parents and Children ·in History (New York: Harper & Row, 1972); th e Frankfu rt sc hool in Autoritiit und Familie, ed . Max H orkheim er (Paris: Alcan, 1936): Wilhe-lm Re ich, The M ass Psychology of Fascism (New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1':170); and Eli Za re tsk y, "Ca pitalism, the Fam ily and Per ­ sonal Life ," Socialist Revolut ifl/1 nos . 13, 14, 16 (1973) . See the excelle n t article on th is mode of hist or ical in qu iry by Lawr en ce Ston e, in th e Neio York Review of Books 21 (Nov ember 14, 1974): 25.

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Did Women Have a Renaissance?

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ne o f th e task s of wo me n 's hist or y is to call int o q ues­ lion acce p ted sch e mes of periodi zati on. To tak e th e e ma nc ipa tion o f women as a va nta ge po in l is to di s­ co ve r th at e ve n ts that fur th er th e hi st ori cal de velop­ ment of men , libe rating th e m fro m na tu ral. soc ia l, o r id eolog ical co ns traints, have qu ite dif fere nt , e ve n o p­ posit e, effects u pon wome n. Th e Ren aissan ce is a go od case in point. Italy was we ll in adva nce of th e rest o f Eu ro pe fro m rough ly 1350 to 1530 becau se of its ea rly consolid ation of gen uine states , th e mer ­ ca ntile a nd manufacturing eco no my that s u p po r ted th em , a n d its wo rking ou t o f postf eud al a nd e ve n p os tgui ld social relations . The se d e velopments re­ o rga n ized Ital ia n so ciet y alon g mo d e rn lines a nd ope n ed th e p ossibili ties for th e social and cu ltural ex­ pression for wh ich the ag e is kn own . Yet pr ecise ly the se d evelopments affected wom en adv e rsely, so much so that th ere was no ren aissan ce for women­ at leas t, n ot duri ng th e Renaissan ce . Th e s ta te, ea rly

Re printed from Becoming Visible: Women in European History . edi ted by Ren a te Brid enthal a nd Cla udia Koon z, © 1977 by Hou gh ­ ton Mifflin Co . Used by perm issio n.

1 first worked ou t the se id ea s in 1972-1973 in a co urse ;II S,II, d , Lawr ence College en titled "Women: Myth and Realit y" , 111.1 .uu ver y mu ch ind ebted to students in th at cou rse and rnv ("" II,·." ·" ,,,· Eva Kollisc h, Ge rda Lerner, and Sh er ry O rtne r. I thank h ',· 11, ·.·.10, • Ma rtin Fleisher, Renat e Brid en tha L an d Cla ud i.i K'"' " 1 I,,, I I " " valuab le cr iticis m of a n earli er ve rsion of th is 1',11" '1

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Did Women Have a Renaissance?

capitalism, and the so cial relatio ns formed by them im pinged on the lives of Renaissan ce wo men in different ways accordi ng to their different positions in society. But the st artling fact is that women as a grou p, es pecially amo ng th e class es th at domin at ed Italian urban life, experienced a contraction of social a n d p er ­ so na l op tio ns th at m en of their classes eithe r d id n ot , as was th e case with the bo urgeoisie, or d id n ot exp erience as m arked ly, as was th e case wi th the n obil ity.

Before d emonstrating this p oint, w h ich con tradicts the widely h eld n oti on of the equality of Renaissance wo me n wi th m en,' we n eed to conside r how to est abl ish, let alone m easure, los s or gain wi th re spect to th e libert y of wo men . I fou n d t he followi ng cr iter ia m ost u seful for ga uging the rel at ive con trac tion (or ex­ pa nsion) of th e p ow er s of Rena issance wo men and for d et er min ­ ing the qua lity of their h istorical experi en ce: 1) the regulation of female sexuality as compa red w ith male sex ua lity ; 2) wo men's economic an d political roles, i.e. , the kin d of wo rk they pe rformed as co m pared wi th men, a nd their access to property; po litica l power, an d th e ed ucation or trainin g n ecessa ry for w ork, pr op­ er ty, a n d power; 3) th e cultural roles of women in shaping the ou tlook of their so ciety, an d access to th e edu cati on and/or in­ stitu tio ns n ecessary for this; 4) ideology abou t women, in particu­ lar the sex-role system d isplayed or ad vocated in the sy mbolic products of the society, its art, literature, a nd p hilosophy. Tw o poin ts sh ould be m ade abou t this id eologi cal in dex . O n e is its ric h in ferential va lue . The literature, a rt, a nd p h ilosophy of a so­ ciety, which giv e u s direct kn owledge of th e attitudes of the domi na n t secto r of that society toward women, also yield in di­ re ct kn owledge abou t our other crit er ia: na mely, the se xual, eco­ n om ic, political, and cu ltural activities of wo men. Insofar as im­ ages of w omen relate to w h at reall y goes on , we can in fer from them something abo u t th at soc ial rea lity. Bu t, se con d, the rela­ tions betw een the id eol ogy of sex roles and the re alit y w e w ant to ge t at a re com plex an d difficult to es tablish . Suc h views m ay be p rescriptive ra ther than d escriptive; th ey ma y d escri be a sit­ u ati on that n o longer prevails; or they may use the relatio n of the sex es sy mbolically and not refer primarily to w omen and sex roles at all. Hen ce, to assess th e hi storical significance of chan ges in se x-rol e concep tion, we must bring suc h cha nges

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Did Women Have a Rena issance?

into con nection wit h all we know abou t ge neral d evelo p m en ts in the society at lar ge .

Thi s essay exa m ine s ch anges in sex-role concep tion, p ar­ ticul arl y wi th respect to sex ua lity, for w ha t th ey tell us abou t Re­ naissan ce so ciety and women 's place in it. At first glan ce, Re n ais­ sa nce th ought p resents a problem in this regard because it can no t be simp ly categor ized. Ideas abou t the relation of th e sexe s ra nge fro m a relatively complemen tary sense of se x roles in liter­ at ure d ealing w ith courtly man ners, love , an d edu cati on , to p a­ triar chal co nceptions in writings on marriage an d the fa mily, to a fa irly equ al p resentation of sex roles in early Utopian social theory. Suc h di ver sity need no t baffle th e attempt to recons tru ct a hi st ory of sex-rol e con ceptions, however, and to relate its co urse to the act ua l situa tion of women . Towa rd this end, one n eeds to sor t ou t this material in te rms of the so cial group s to which it respo nd s: to co urtly socie ty in the firs t case, th e nob ility of the petty de sp otic states of Italy; to the patr ician bou rge oisie in the secon d, par ticularly of republics suc h as Flor e nce . In the t h ird case, th e re lativ ely equal positio n accord ed wo men in Uto ­ pi an thought (and in those low er-class movements of th e rad ical Refor mation an alogous to it) res u lts from a la rger critiqu e of early mo dern society and all the re latio ns of d omina tion th at flow fro m p r iva te ow n ersh ip an d control of prop erty. Once di s­ tin guished, each of th ese groups of sources tells th e same s tory.

Each d iscloses in its ow n wa y cer tain ne w constrain ts su ffer ed

by Ren aissance women as the fam ily and po litica l life we re re­ structu red in the great tra n sition from medieval feu da l socie ty to the early m od ern s tate . Th e sources tha t represent th e int erest s of the n obility an d the bourgeoisie point to th is fact by a tellin g, d ouble in dex . Al most all suc h works-with cer tai n notable ex­ cep tions, such as Boccaccio and Ar iosto v-establish chas tity as th e female n or m an d res tructure th e re lation of th e sexes to one of fem ale d ependency an d mal e d om ina tio n .

Th e bo urgeois writings on education, do mestic life, an d so­ ciety constitu te the ext re me in this d enial of w omen's in depen ­ den ce . Su ffice it to say that th ey sharply distinguish an infe rior do m estic realm of women from the su pe rior public realm III men , ach ieving a veritable "renaissance" of th e 0 11 11(1(11·. . , /1 ,1 practices of class ical At h ens, w ith its d omestic im prisouu 10 ' 111 , d

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Did Women Have a Renaissan ce?

citi zen wi ves. " The co ur tly Renaissan ce liter ature w e will con­ sider wa s m or e grac ious . But even her e, by a na lyz ing a few of the representat ive works of thi s ge nre, we find a n ew re p ressio n of the nobl ew om an's affective experience, in con tras t to the lati ­ tude afforded her by m edi ev al literature, and so me of th e social a n d cultural reas on s for it. Dante an d Castig lione, who con­ tinued a liter ar y tradition that began w ith th e cour tly love litera­ ture of eleven th- and tw elfth-century Provence, tra ns formed medieval co nce p tio ns of love and n ob ility. In the love ideal they formed, w e can discern the inferior posit ion th e Renaissance no ­ blewoman h eld in th e relati on of th e sexes by com pa rison with her male cou n ter pa r t a nd with her m edi eval predecessor as well.

Love and the M edi eval Lad y M edieval co ur tly love, closely bound to th e d ominant values of feudalism a n d th e church , allowed in a s pec ial w ay for the express ion of se xual love by wome n. Of course, only a ris tocratic w omen ga ine d th eir sex ual and affec tive rights th ereb y. If a knight w anted a peasant girl, the tw elfth-century theorist of The Ar t of Courtly Love, Andreas Capella nu s, encouraged him " n ot [to] hesitate to take w ha t yo u se ek and to e mbrace her by force ." J Toward the lad y, h ow ever, "a true lov er cons iders n othin g good except w ha t he th in ks wi ll pl eas e his beloved" ; for if courtly love were to d efin e itself as a nobl e phenomenon , it h ad to attribu te an es sential freed om to th e relation between lovers . H ence, it m etaphorically ex te nded the social re lation of vassalage to the love relati on ship , a "co nce it" that Maurice Valency rig h tly called " the shapi ng pri nci p le of the w hole d esign " of cour tly love."

Of the tw o d ominant se ts of d ependent social rel at ions formed by feudalism-Ies liens de dependence, as Marc Bloch calle d them - vassalage, th e mi litary relati on of kn ight to lord , distinguished itself (in its ea rly da ys) by bein g freely e n tered int o . At a tim e when everyon e was so mebo dy's "ma n," th e righ t to freel y enter a rel at ion of s erv ice characte rize d a ristocratic bonds, w hereas he red itability m ark ed th e se rvile w ork re latio n of se rf to lord.

Th us, in med ieval roma nces, a parley typi cally follow ed a d ecla­ rat ion of love until love fre ely proffer ed was freely returned .

A kiss (like the kiss of h om age) sea led th e pledge, rings w er e exchanged, a nd the kni ght ente red th e love service of hi s lady.

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Did Wome n Have a Renaissa nce?

Representing love alo ng th e lines of vassalage h ad severa l liber­ a ting implicati on s for ar istoc ratic wo men . Most fu nd a me ntal, ideas of h omage a nd mutuality entered th e noti on of he terosex­ ual relation s along wi th th e idea of freed om. As sy m bo lized on sh ield s an d othe r illus tra tio ns that place th e kn igh t in the ritual a ttitu de of com me n da tion, kneeling before hi s lad y w ith hi s hands fold ed bet w een h ers, homa ge sig nified male ser vice, no t dom in ati on or subordi na tio n of th e lad y, a nd it sig n ified fid elity, co ns ta ncy in th at service. "A lad y must honor h er lover as a fri end, n ot as a mast er," w ro te Mar ie d e Ven tad our, a fem ale troubad our or i robair it z? A t the same time, h omage en tailed a reciprocity of rig h ts a nd ob ligations , a se rvice on th e lad y's part as w ell. In one of Ma rie de Fran ce's romances, a k nigh t is ab out to be judged by th e bar ons of Kin g Arth ur's court w he n his lady rid es to the cas tle to give him "succor" a nd plead s su ccessfu lly for him , as any overl or d migh t." Mu tu ality, or com ple me nta rity; marks th e rela tion th e lad y en tered into with her ami (th e favor ed na me for "lover" and, signi fica ntly, a sy non ym for "vassal").

This relat ion be tween kn ight an d lad y W ClS very m uch at va ri­ a nc e with th e pa tria rcha l famil y relations obtainin g in th a t same level of societ y. Awa re of its in com p atibility w ith p reva ilin g fam­ ily and m arital re latio ns , th e celebrants of cour tly love kept love d et ached fro m marriage. "We dare not op pose th e opinio n of th e Countess of Cha m pagne w ho rul es th at love ca n exe rt n o p ower bet w een hu sb and an d wife," Andreas wro te (p . 175). But in opting for a free an d reciprocal h et ero sexual relati on outside marria ge, th e poe ts an d th eorists of cour tly love ign or ed the al­ m ost unive rsal d em and of p atriarchal socie ty for female chas tity, in the se nse of th e wo ma n's s trict bondage to th e marital bed.

The re asons w hy th ey did so , and even th e fact th at th ey did so, ha ve lon g b een d isputed , but the id eas an d va lues that justify this kind of ad ulterous love are plain . Marriage, as a relation ar ­ ranged by ot hers, ca rried th e taint of soc ial necessity for th e ar is­ tocracy. An d if th e feuda lity d enigrated marriage by di sdaining ob lig atory se rv ice, th e ch urch d id so by regard ing it not as a "re­ ligious" sta te, but an inferior one th at res po nde d to natural n e­ cessity. M or eover, Christianity positively fos tered th e ideal of courtly love at a deep level of feeling . The cour tly relati on be­ tween lover s took vassalage as its s tructura l mo de l, but its pa s­ sio n was n ourished by Christianity's exa lta tion of love.

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Did Wom en Have a Ren aissan ce?

Christianity had acco m plishe d its elevati on o f love by purging it of sexuality, a nd in thi s resp ect, by reco mbining the tw o, courtly love clearl y departed from Chr istia n teaching. The toler­ ation of adulter y it fost er ed th ereb y was in itself not so grievous .

The feud alit y di sregarded any number o f church rulings that af­ fected th eir interest s, suc h as prohibitions of tournaments and repudiati on of spo uses (d ivorce) and remarria ge . Moreover, ad ultery hardly ne eded th e sa nc tion of cour tly love , which, if anything, acted rath er as a res training force by binding sexuality (except in marria ge) to love. Lancelot . in Ch re tien de. Troye ss twelfth-century romance, lies in bed w ith a lovel y woman be­ cause of a promise he has mad e, but "no t once does he look at he r, nor sho w her any cour tesy. Wh y not ? Because hi s heart do es not go ou t to her. . . . The kni ght has only one heart, and thi s one is no longer really his, but has been entrusted to someone else, so that he cannot best ow it else w he re. ?" Actually, Lancelot's chastity represen ted mor e of a th reat to Ch ristian d octrine than the fact th at his passion (for Guine ve re) was ad u lte ro us, bec au se his attitudes ju stified sex ua l love. Sexualit y co uld only be "m ere se xu alit y" for the med ieva l chu rch , to be cons ecrated an d di­ rected toward p rocreati on by Christian marriage . Love , on the other h an d , d efined as passion for th e good, perfects the indi­ vidual; hence love, accor d ing to Th om as Aquina s, properly di­ rects itself toward God. " Like th e ch u rch ma n, Lancelot sp u rned mere sexuality-but for th e sa ke of sex ual love . He d efied Chris­ tian teaching by reattaching love to sex; an d exp eri encing his lov e as a devout vocati on , as a passion, he found himself in utter ac­ cord with Christia n feeling. His love, as Chre tien's story makes clear, is sacra me n tal as we ll as sex ua l: .. . th en he com es to th e bed of th e Queen, w ho m he adores an d befor e whom he kneels, holding her m ore de ar than th e reli c o f any sa int. And the Q uee n ex ten ds her arms to him and , embracing him, pr esses him tightly aga ins t her bo som , drawing him into th e bed besid e her a nd sho wing him every possible satisfacti on . . .. Now Lan celot possesses all he wants . ... It cost him suc h pain to leave her th at he suffered a real m artyr 's ag o ny. . .. Wh en he leaves th e room, he bow s and acts pr ecisely as if he wer e before a shrine . (p . 329) It is difficu lt to assess Chr istianity's ro le in thi s accep tance of

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Did Wom en Have a Ren aiss an ce?

feeling an d this attentiveness to inner states that charac ter ize me d ieval lyric a nd ro ma nce, althou gh th e weeping an d wring­ ing of hand s, the inner troubles and turmoil of th e love ge nr e, we re to disappear with the restor ation of classical attitu d es of re­ stra int in th e Ren aiss an ce . What certainly bound cou rtl y love to Chr istianity, however, as id e from its posit ive attitud e toward feelin g, was th e cultiva tio n of d ecidedly "ro mantic" s tates o f feeling . In Ch ristia n Europe, passion acqu ired a positi ve, spir­ itu al meaning th at classical ethics and classical er otic feel ing alike d enied it. Religious love and co urtly love were bo th suf­ fer ed as a d estiny, wer e both submitted to and not de nied. Con­ ve r ted by a passion th at he nceforth dir ected and d ominat ed th em an d for which all manner of suffering co uld be borne, th e cou r tly lov er s, like the religious, sou gh t a hi gher e motional s tate th an ord inary life provided . They sou ght ecstasy; and thi s re ­ quired o f th em a he roic di scipline, an asce tic fort itud e, and sing le-m inded ne ss . Love and its ordeals alike removed th em from the d ail y, th e cus toma ry, th e ro u tine, se tting them a par t as a n e lite s u pe rior to the conve ntions of marri age and societ y.

Religio us feeling and feudal values thu s both fed in to a co n­ ce p tion of passionate love th at , beca use of its mu tu ality, re­ qu ire d th at wo men, too , partake of th at passion , of that ad ulter ­ ous sex ua l love . Th e lad y of medieval romance also s uffe red.

She su ffere d "more pain for love th an ever a woman s uffere d" in anothe r of Mari e d e France's romances. As th e jeal ou sly gua rded wife of an old man, ravished by th e beauty of her kni ght when she first saw him, she could not rest for love o f him, and "franc et noble" (i.e ., free ) as she was, she gran ted him her kiss and her love upon th e decl ar ation o f his- "and man y o ther caresses w hic h lover s kno w well" during th e tim e she hid him in her cas tle." So common is thi s sex ua l mutualit y to th e lit­ rratu re of co ur tly love that one cannot take se rious ly th e view of it as a form of Madonna worship in which a remote an d virgin al lad y sp u rns consu m ma tion. That s tage came later, as co ur tly love und erw ent its late medieval and Ren aissan ce tran sform a­ I ion . Bu t for th e twelfth century, typical concerns of Provencal iocs-partiiz, th ose po eti c "questions" on love posed at cour t (and reflecting th e soc ial reality of mock cour ts of love played ou t as a llversion ) were: "Mus t a lad y d o for her lover as mu ch as he for lu-r?": or, "A husb and learns th at his w ife has a lover. The w ife

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Did Wom en H ave a Ren aissance?

Did Wom en H ave a Ren ais san ce?

and the lover perceive it-which of the three is in the greatest strait?" 10 In the same vein , Andreas Cap ellanus perceived differ­ ences between so-called " pure" an d "m ixed" love as accide ntal, not subs ta n tial. Both cam e from th e sa me feeling of the heart a n d o ne cou ld re adily turn int o the o th e r, as circumst ances dic ­ tated . Adultery, after all, required cert ain precautions; but that did n ot alt er the essen tially er otic n ature ev en of "p ure" love, which went "as far as th e kiss a nd th e e m brace and the m odest contact with the nude lov er, omitting the final solace " (p . 122).

The sex ua l nature of cour tly love, co nside red together wi th its voluntary ch aracter a n d the n onpatriarchal s tructure of its rela ­ tion s, makes us qu estion wh at it signifies for the ac tu al co n di­ tion of feud al w omen . For clearl y it represents an id eologic al lib­ eratio n of th eir sex ua l a n d affect ive powe rs th at must have so me soc ial reference . This is n ot to rais e the fruitless question of whether suc h love relationships actua lly existed or if they were mer e literary convention s. The real issue regarding id eol ogy is, rather, what kind of society cou ld posit as a social ideal a love re la­ tion ou tsid e o f marriage, one th at wo men freely e n te red a n d that, d esp ite its rec ip roc ity, mad e women the gift give rs w h ile men d id th e service . What wer e the social con di tions that fos­ tered these particular co nven tio ns rather th an the more co m­ mon ones o f fem ale chas tity and/or d ependence?

No on e d oubts that co u rtly love spread widely as a conven­ tion . All ranks a nd both sex es of the aris tocracy wrote trou­ bad our p oet ry and cou r tly rom ances an d heard th em sung a n d recited in co u r tly ga thering s throughout most of medieval Eu­ rope . But thi s could h appen only if such id eas supported the mal e-dominated social orde r ra the r than subverted it. The love motif cou ld, an d w ith Gottfried of Str asbourg's Tristan (c. 1210) did , s ta n d as an ideal radically op p osed to th e ins titu tions of the ch urch and e me rg ing feud al kin gship . But in its be ginnings, a nd gene ra lly, co urtly love n o more threatened Christian feeling or feud alism than did ch iva lry, which br ou ght a cer tain "sacra men ­ tal " moral va lu e a n d re straint to th e p ro fessi on of w ar fare. While co u r tly love celeb ra ted sexuality, it enriched an d d eepened it b y means of the Christi an n oti on of p assi on. Whil e the kni ght of te n betrayed hi s lord to ser ve his lord's lad y, he transferred to t hat rela tionsh ip th e feudal ide al of freely com m itte d, mutual se r­ vice. And w h ile passiona te love led to ad u ltery, by that ver y fact

it reinforced, as its necessary premise , th e p ractice of p oliti cal m arriage . Th e literature of courtly love su p p ressed rathe r th an exaggera te d tensions between it an d other social values, an d the reason for this lies deeper than literature. It lies at th e in sti tu ­ tional level , where th er e was real ag reeme n t, or at least n o co n­ tradicti on, between the sex ua l and affective needs of women a nd the int er est s of the a ristoc rat ic famil y, w hich the Ie ud ality a n d ch ur ch alike regarded as fu nda mental to th e soci al ord e r.

The fact ors to consider he re are prop erty an d p ower on th e one h and, a n d ill 1~itim a c y on th e oth e r. Feu da lism, as a syste m of p rivate [urisdict ions. bound power to landed prope rly; a nd it permitted b oth inh eritance an d admi nistratio n of feudal p ro p­ erty by w 0o/en. ll In he ritan ce by wo me n often su ited the needs of the great landh olding fami lies, as their u nr e mittin g e ffort s to se cu re su ch rights for th eir fe male me m be rs attes t. Th e au­ thority of f~ u d a l wome n owes little to any ga lla ntry on th e p art of feu d al society. Bu t t he fact th at wome n could h old b oth ord i­ nary fiefs a~ d va st collect ion s of cou n ties - an d e xercise in their ow n right ,th e seigniorial powe rs th at we n t with the m- cer­ tainl y fos te red a ga llant attitud e . Eleanor of Aqu itain e's ad ulte ry as w ife ofthe king of Fra nce could h ave had d ire consequen ces in another place at an other time, say in th e En glan d of Henr y VIII. In h er cas e, s he moved on to a n ew marriage w ith th e fu­ / lure Henry II of En gland or, to be more e xact, a n ew allian ce conn ecting his Plantagenet int er est s with her vast domains ce n­ tering on Provence . Wom en als o exercise d p ow er during th e ab­ sence of w ar r ior hu sbands. The lady p resided over th e court at such times, ad mi nis tere d the est ate s, took ch ar ge of the vassal se rvices due th e lord . She was the lord - alb eit in his n ame rather than her ow n- u nless wid owed an d without mal e ch il­ dren . In th e re ligious realm, abbesses exe rcise d ana logous tem­ poral as well as spi ritua l jurisdiction ove r grea t territories, an d always in their own right , in virtue of th eir office .

Thi s socia l reality accou n ts for th e ret ention of matronymics in medieval socie ty, th at is, a com mo n use of th e maternal n am e, which refl ects th e po sition of w omen as land owners an d man a­ ge rs of gr eat es tates , particularly during th e crusad ing pe riod ."

It al so acco u n ts for the husband's toler ati on of his wif e's di ver­ sions, if di screetly pursued . His primary aim to get and maintain ~ fief re qu ire d he r su p port, p erh aps eve n her in he r itance . As

28

Did Wom en Have a Ren aissanc e?

Emily James Putnam put it, " It would , perhap s, be p aradoxical to sa y that a baron would prefer to be sure that his tenure w as secur e than that hi s son w as legitim ate, but it is certa in that the rel ative value of th e two things had shifted ." 13 Courtly literature, indeed, reveals a marked lack of concern abou t illegitimacy. Al­ though the ladies of th e roma nce s are almost all married, the y se ld om ap pear with children, let alone appear to h ave th eir lives an d loves complicat ed by th em. Mu ch as the tenet th at lo ve thrives onl y in adulte ry re flecte d and rein forc ed the s tability of arra nged marriage , so th e political role of women, a nd the indi ­ visibility of the fief, pr ob abl y underlies thi s ind ifference to ille­ gitim acy. Especiall y as forms of inheritan ce favoring the eldest so n to ok h old in the course of the tw elfth century to pres er ve the great h ou ses, the claims of younger so ns an d d au ghter s p osed n o threat to family estates . Moreo ver, the ex pansive, ex­ pl oitative ari stocratic families of th e eleven th and tw elfth cen­ turies co uld w ell afford illegitimate members . For the feudalit y, they w er e no drain as kin but rather a so urce of strength in mari ­ tal allia nc es an d as w arriors .

For all these rea sons, feudal Ch ristian soc iety co uld promot e the id eal of courtly love . We could pr obably maintain of an y id e­ olog y th at tolerates sexua l parity that: 1) it can threaten no maj or in stitution of the p at riarchal soc ie ty from which it e me rge s; and 2) men , the ru lers w ith in th e ruling ord er, mu st benefit by it.

Co ur tly love surely fit th ese requirements . That s uch a n id eol­ ogy did actua lly d evelop, however, is due to an other feature of medieval so ciet y, n amely, the cultural activity of feudal wo men .

For re sponsive as courtly love might seem to men of the feudality whos e e ro tic n eeds it obj ectifi ed an d re fine d, as well as objec­ tifyin g their conscio usness of th e social self (as n oble), it did this a n d m ore for w omen. It gave wom en lovers, p ee rs rather than m asters; and it gave th em a justifyin g id eolo gy for ad u ltery which, as th e more custom ary d ouble sta n da rd indicates, men in patriarchal so cie ty seld om require . Hence, we s hou ld exp ect what w e indeed find: w omen actively sh ap ing these id eas and v alues th at correspon d ed so well to th eir particular interests .

In the first place, wom en participated in creating the literature of cour tly lov e, a m ajor literature of th eir er a . This role they h ad not bee n abl e to assu m e in th e culture of clas sical Greece or

29

Did Wom en Have a Ren aissanc e?

Rome . The n otable exce p tion of Sappho only proves th e point: it took women to give p oeti c v<'!ce an d sta tus to fem ale sex u al lov e, an d on ly m edieval Europ e, accepted that voice as integral to its cu ltural ex p ression . Th e tw'ent y or more kn own Prove ncal trob airitz, of whom th e Countess Beatrice of Die is th e mo st re­ nowned/ celebrated as fully an d freely as any man th e love of the troubadour tradition : I H and some friend , ch arming an d kin d ,

w h en sh all I have yo u in m y power?

If on ly I could lie beside yo u for an hou r

a n d e m brace yo u lovin gl y~

kno w thi s, th at I'd give alm os t an ything

to see yo u in my husband's place,

but only und er the con d ition

th at you swear to d o my bidd in g."

M arie de Fran ce vo iced simila r e rotic se nt ime nts in her loi s. H er sho r t tale s of romance, of te n ad ulterou s and always se xua l, have ca used her to be ranked by Fried rich Heer as one of the " three poets of ge n iu s" (along with Chre tie n d e Tro yes and Ga u tie r d ' Arras) who created th e roman courtois of the twelfth cen tury."

These tw o ge nres, th e romance and the lyric, to which women made such signif ican t con tribu tions, m ake up the corp us of cour tly lov e lite rature .

In ad d ition to di rect liter ar y exp res sion, women pr omot ed the ideas of courtl y love by w ay of patronage a nd th e di ver sions of their cour ts . Th ey su p po rte d an d/or participated in th e recita­ tion a n d sin ging of p oems an d romances, an d they played ou t those mock s uits, usually presided ove r by "quee ns ," th at settl ed questions of lov e . This hold s for lesser ar istoc ra tic w om en as well as the grea t. But great noblew om en , su ch as Eleanor of Aquitaine an d M arie of Champagn e, Elean or's d aughter b y her firs t marria ge to Louis VII of Fra nce , could make th eir cou rts maj or cultu ral a n d social center s an d pl ay th er eb y a d ominant role in forming th e outlook and mores of th eir class. Eleanor, her­ self gran d da u gh te r of William of Aquitain e. known as the first troubadour, su p po r ted the p oets an d sentiments of Pr ovence at her co urt in Anj ou. When she became H enry II's qu een, sh e

30

Did Women Have a Ren aissanc e?

brought th e literatu re and manners o f courtly lov e to En gland.

When livin g apar t fro m Henry at her court in Poitier s, she and her d au ghter, Marie, tau ght th e ar ts of cou rtesy to a number of you ng wom en and men w ho later di sp ersed to va rious parts of France, England, Sicily, and Spa in, where th ey co ns titu te d the ruling nobility. So me of th e most not able authors of th e liter­ ature of co urtly love belon ged to th ese circles . Bern ard of Ven­ tadour, one of th e ou ts tand ing troubad ours, sa ng his po ems to none o ther than th e lad y Eleanor. Mari e d e France had con n ec­ tions with the En glish co ur t of Elea no r and Henry II. Eleanor's d au ghter, Marie of Cha m pag ne, was patron both of Andreas Ca pe llan us, her ch apl ain, and C hre tie n d e Troyes. and s he m ay well be respo nsible for much of th e ad ultero us , frankly sexua l behavior th e ladies enjoy in th e famou s wo rks of both . Ch re tien claim ed he owe d to his "lady of C ha mpagne" both "the mat eri al and tre atm ent" of Lan celot , which differ s consid erabl y in pre­ cise ly thi s rega rd from his earlier and later rom an ces . And An ­ dreas's De remedio, th e baffling final se ction of his work th at re­ pudiates se xua l lov e and wome n, may represent not me rely a rhe torical tribute to Ovi d but a reaction to the pressu re of Mar ie's patron age ."

At th eir courts as in th eir literatu re, it would seem th at feud al women co nsciously exe r ted pressure in sha pi ng th e cou r tly lov e ideal and makin g it prevail. But th ey could d o so on ly be cause they had ac tua l power to exert. Th e wo men w ho ass u med cul­ tural roles as ar tists and patrons of cour tly love had alrea dy been assigned polit ical rol es th at assured th em some measure of ind e­ pendence and power. Th ey could and did exercise au thority, not merely over the su bjec t lab oring populat ion of th eir lands, but over th ei r ow n and/or th eir hu sbands' vassals. Co u r tly lov e, which flourished outsid e th e institution of pat riarch al marriage, owed its possibilit y as well as its mod el to the d om in ant politi cal inst itution of feudal Europe that permitted actual vassa l h om age to be paid to women .

The Renaissan ce Lad y: Politics and C ulture Th e kind of eco no mic and polit ical power th at support ed th e cu ltural activity of fe uda l noblew omen in th e eleve n th and

31

Did Wom en Have a Ren aissan ce?

twelfth cen tu ries had no cou n terpa rt in Ren aissan ce Italy. By t he fourteen ce n tu ry, th e polit ical u n its of Italy were mostly sover­ eign s ta tes th at re gardl ess of legal claim s, recogni zed no over­ lords and s u p por ted no feudat ori es . Th eir nobilit y h eld property but n o se ign iorial power, estat es but not jurisdiction . In deed , in northern and cen tra l Italy, a nobilit y in the Eu ro pean sense hardly existed at all. Down to th e coro na tion of Charles V as Holy Rom an Em peror in 1530, th ere was no Italian king to sa fe­ guard th e interest s of (and thereb y limit and con tro l) a "le­ g itimate" nobility .that maintained by inheritance traditiona l prerogatives . H en ce.swhere the ur ban bourgeoisie di d not over­ throw th e claim s of nobilit y, a d espot d id, usually in the na me of nobility but always for him self . These signorie, unlike th e bour­ ge ois republics, con tin ue d to maintain a lan d ed , m ilitary "class" w ith nobl e pretensions, but its me mbers increasin gl y became m erely th e warriors and orn amen ts of a cour t. Hence, the Re­ naissance aristocra t, who enjo yed neither the in de pend en t po­ litical pow er s of feudal jurisd iction nor legally guarant eed status in the ruling es tate, either se rve d a despot or beca me one .

In this soc iopolitical con tex t, th e exe rcise of politi cal power by wom en was far more ra re th an und er feuda lism or eve n u nd er th e tradition al kind of mon ar ch ical s ta te that developed ou t of feudali sm . The tw o Giova n nas of Naple s, both qu eens in their ow n right, exe m p lify th is latt er typ e of rul e . The first , who be­ ga n her reign in 1343 over Naples and Provence, becam e in 1356 queen o f Sicily as well. Her gra ndfa ther, King Rob ert of Na ­ pl es-of th e sa m e hou se of An jou and Provence th at hearken s back to Elea nor and to Henry Plantagen et - could a nd d id desig­ nate Giovanna as hi s heir. Sim ilarly, in 1414, Giov anna II became queen of Naples upon th e d eath of her brother. In Naples, in sho r t, wom en of th e ruling house co uld ass u me power, not be ­ caus e of th eir abilities alone, but becau se the principl e of legit­ imacy continued in force along wi th th e feuda l tr aditi on of in ­ h eritance by wom en.

In n orthern Italy, by contras t, Ca ter ina Sforza rul ed her petty principalit y in typical Ren aissance fashi on , su p po r ted only by the Machiavellian principl es of fortuna and virtu (historica l situa­ tion and wi ll). Her career, like that of her famil y, follow s the Re­ naissance pa ttern of per son al and politi cal illegitimacy. Born in

32

Did Women Have a Ren aissance?

1462, she was an iJlegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, heir to the Duchy of Milan. Th e ducal power of the Sforzas w as ve ry recent, dating only from 1450, when Francesco Sforza, ille­ gitimate so n of a condottiere and a great condottiere himself, as­ sumed control of the duchy. When his son and heir, Caterina's fath er, wa s assassinated after ten yea rs of tyrannous rule, an­ other son, Lodovico, took control of th e duchy, first as regent for his nephew (Caterina's half brother), th en as ou trigh t usurpe r.

Lodovico promoted Caterina's interests for the sake of his own .

He married her off at fifteen to a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, th er eby strengthening the alliance between the Sforza s and the Riario family, who now controlled the papacy. The pope carved a state out of papal domains for Caterina's husband, m aking him Count of Fo rli as well as the Lord of Imola, which Caterina brou ght to the marriage . But the pope died in 1484, h er husband died by assassination four years later-and Caterina made the choice to d efy th e peculiar obst acles posed by Renaissan ce Italy to a woman's assumption of power.

Once before, with her husband se riously ill at Imol a, she had ridden ha rd to Forli to quell an incip ie nt coup a da y be fore g iv­ ing birth. N ow at twenty-six, after the assassination of her hus­ band, she and a loyal castellan held the citadel at Forli against her e ne m ies until Lodovico sent her aid from Milan. Caterina won; she faced down her opp one nts, who held her six children hostage, th en took com ma nd as regent for her you ng son . But her title to rule as regent w as inc on sequential. Caterina ruled be­ cause she mustered superior forc e and exerci sed it per sonall y, and to the end s he had to exert repeatedl y the skill , forceful­ ness, and ruthless ambition that brought her to power. How­ ever, e ve n her martial spirit did not su ffice . In the despotisms of Renaissance Ital y, where assassinations, coups, and invasions were the order of the da y, power stayed closely bound to mili­ tary force . In 1500, deprived of Milan's su p po r t by her uncl e Lod ovico's d eposition, Caterina succumbed to th e ove rwhelm­ ing forces of Cesare Borgia and was di vested of power after a heroic defense of Forli .

Bec ause of this p olitical situation, at once statist and unstable, the d aughter s of the Este, Gonzaga, and Montefeltro families

33

Did Women Have a Ren aissance?

represent women of their class much more than Cate rina Sforza did . Their access to power was indirect and provisional, an d w as exp ected to be so . In his handbook for the nobility, Baldassare Ca stiglione's description of the lady of the court makes this dif­ fer ence in se x roles quite clear. On the one h an d , th e Rena is­ s ance lad y a p p ea rs as the equivalent of the courtier. Sh e has the same virtu es of mind as he and her ed u cation is sym me trical with his . She learns everything-well, almos t eve ry th in g- he doe s: "kn ow led ge of letters, of music, of painting, and . . . h ow to dance and how to be festive. " 17 Cu lture is an accom pli shme n t for noblewoman and man alike , used to charm others as much as to develop th e self. But for the woman, char m h ad become the primary occupation and aim . Whereas the courtier's chief task is defined as the profession of arms, "in a Lad y who lives at court a certain pleasing affability is becoming above all else, w he reby she will be able to entertain graciously ev ery kin d of m an" (p . 207).

One notable consequence of th e Ren aissa nce lad y's need to charm is th at Castiglione called upon he r to give up ce rtain "u n­ be comin g" physi cal acti vities such as rid in g and ha nd lin g we a p­ ons . G ra nted , he concerned himself with the court lady, as h e say s, not a queen who ma y be called upon to rul e . But his aestheticizing of the lad y's rol e, his conception of h er female­ ness as centered in charm, meant that activities such as riding and skill in weaponry would seem unbecoming to women of the ruling famili es, too. Elisab etta Go nzaga, the idealized duch ess of Ca stiglione's Courtier, came close in real life to his n ormative portrayal of her type . Riding and skill in wea ponry h ad , in fact , no sig nifican ce for her. The heir to her Duchy of Urbino was d e­ cided upon during the lifetime of her husband, a nd it w as this adoptive heir-not the widow of thirty-s even with no ch ild re n to compete for her care and attention-who assumed power in 1508. Removed from any direct exer cise of power, Elisabetta als o di sregarded the pursuits and pleasures associated with it. H er letters expres s none of th e sense of freed om and d aring Caterina Sforza and Beatrice d 'Este experienced in riding and th e hunt."

Altogether, sh e lacks spirit. Her corresp on den ce shows her to be as d ocile in ad u lth oo d as her early teachers trained her to be. Sh e

34

Did Wom en Have a Renaissance?

met ad ve rsity, marital an d political, with fortitud e but never op­ p osed it. She placated father, brother, and husband , and eve n in Castiglione's depiction of her court, she complied w ith ra th er than sha ped its conventions .

The differences between Elisab etta Gonza ga a nd Cat erina Sfo rza a re grea t, ye t both per son alities were respond in g to th e Renaissance situati on of emerg ing sta te hood and social m obil ity.

Elisa be tta, neither p er son ally illegitimate nor s pringing from a freeb ooting condottier e famil y, was schooled, as Casti glione w ould h ave it, away from th e martial attitudes an d sk rlls re qu i­ site for despotic rule. She w ould not be a prince, she w ould marry one. Hence, her ed uca tio n, like that of most of the daugh­ ters of the ruling families , dir ect ed her toward the cultural a n d soci al fu n ction s of th e court. Th e lady who marri ed a Renai s­ sance prince became a pat ron . She com miss ioned w orks of a r t and gave g ifts for literar y w orks dedicated to he r; she drew to her a r tists an d literati . But th e co u r t th ey came to orna me n t w as he r husband's, a nd th e culture th ey represented magnified hi s p r in cely being, especially when his or igins could n ot. Thus, the Ren aissan ce lady ma y pl ay an aesth etically significant role in Ca­ st iglion e's idealized Court of Urb ino of 1508, but even he clearly re moved her from that equal, to say nothing of su perior, po­ sition in social discourse th at medieval courtly liter ature h ad gra n te d her. To the fift een or so male members of the court wh ose name s he carefully listed, Cas tiglion e admitted only four w omen to the ev en ing co nve rsa tio ns th at were the second major occu pa tio n a t co u r t (the pro fession of ar ms, from w hic h he co m­ pletely excluded women, being th e first ). Of the four, he d ist in ­ g uis hed on ly two w omen as particip ants. The Du ch ess Elisab etta a n d h er companion, Emili a Pia, at least speak, w hereas the o the r two only do a d an ce. Yet they sp eak in ord er to m oderat e an d "d irect" discussion by proposing questions an d ga m es .

They d o not themselves con trib ute to the discussions, and at one p oint Castiglione reli eves th em even of their ne gligible role: When signor Gasparo had spoken thus, signora Emil ia mad e a sig n to m adam Co st anza Fre gosa. as she sat next in orde r, that she sho uld speak; a n d she was makin g ready to d o so, w h e n s ud d e n ly the Du ch ess sai d : "Since signora Emilia does n ot ch oose to go to the tr ouble of devising a ga me , it w ould

35

Did Women Have a Ren aissanc e?

be quit e right for the other ladi es to share in t his ease, a nd thus be exempt from such a burd en this evening, esp ecially since th er e are so many men her e that we risk no lack of ga mes ." (pp . 19-20) Th e men, in sh ort, do all th e talk in g; an d th e ensu ing d ialogue on manners and love, as we might ex pe ct, is not on ly develo ped b y men but directed toward thei r in teres ts.

The con trad iction b etw een th e p rofe ssed parity of nob le­ w omen an d men in The Courtier an d th e me rely decorative ro le Castig lione unwittingly assig ne d th e lady proclaims a n im por­ tant educational and cultural ch an ge as well as a poli tical one.

N ot on ly did a male ruler pr eside ove r the courts of Re naissan ce Ita ly, but the court no lo nger ser ve d as arb iter of th e cu ltu ral fun cti ons it d id retain . Alth ou gh res tricte d to a cultural an d so ­ cia l role, she lost domina nce in th at role as secular education came to req u ire special skills which we re claimed as the preroga­ tive of a class of professional teach ers . The so ns o f the Re nais­ sanc e nobility still pursu ed their milita ry a nd diplom ati c tr ain in g in th e se rv ice of so me great lord , bu t as youths, they tra nsferred th eir n o nmilitary training from the lady to the humanist ic tu lor or boa rd in g school. In a se nse, humanism represen ted an ad ­ va n ce for women as well as for the cu lture at large. It b rou g ht Latin literacy and classical learning to daughters as well as so ns of the n ob ility. But this very development, usually tak en as an in d ex of th e equality of Renaissance (no b le) women wi th men," spelled a fur ther decline in th e lad y's influ ence ov er courtly so­ cie ty. It placed her as we ll as her br others under male cultura l au t hority. The girl of th e medieval aristocracy, althou gh un­ schooled , wa s brought up at the court of some great lad y. No w he r b rothers' tutors shaped h er ou tloo k, male educators w ho , as hu m an ists, su p p ressed roman ce an d chivalry to further classical cu lture, with all its patriarchal an d mi so gynous bias.

The humanistic education of the Renaissance noblewoman help s expl ain why she cannot com pare w ith her mediev al pred­ ecessors in sha pi ng a culture respon sive to her own in tere sts. In .iccordance wi th th e new cu ltu ra l va lues, th e patronage of th e Es te, Sforz a, Gonzaga , a nd Montefeltro wo men extended far bey on d th e lite rature and a rt of love an d manners, but th e works Ihey com mi ss ion ed, bou ght, or had d edicated to th em do not

ill

36

Did Wom en Ha ve a Renai ssance?

37

Did Women Ha ve a Ren aissan ce? /

sh ow any con sis tent corresp onden ce to their concerns as wom en . Th ey did not even give n oticeable su ppor t to women's educa tion , with th e sing le impor tant exception of Battist a da Montefelt ro, to whom one of the few treati ses advoca ting a hu­ manisti c education for women was dedicated . Ado p ting th e universalist ic outlook of th eir humanist teachers, th e n oble­ women of Renaissance Ital y se em to have lost all consc iou sness of th eir par ticul ar interests as women, whi le male au tho rs s uc h as Cas tiglione , wh o articulated th e mores of th e Renaissance aris tocracy, wrote th ei r works for m en . Cultural and political de ­ pendency thus combin ed in Italy to reverse th e roles of women and men in developin g th e new nobl e code. Medi eval cou rt esy, as se t forth in the earliest etiq uette books, ro mances, and rules of love, sha pe d the man pri mar ily to plea se th e lad y. In th e th ir­ teenth and fourteenth centuries , rul es for women, and stro ngly pat riarchal ones at th at , entered French and Italian eti qu ette bo ok s, but not until th e Renais sance refo rmulati on of courtly manners and love is it evide nt how th e ways of th e lad y cam e to be d et ermined by men in th e contex t of th e ea rly modern s tate .

Th e re latio n of th e sex es here ass u med its modern form, and no­ where is thi s made more visible th an in th e love relat ion .

Th e Renaissance of Chas tity As Soon as the literature and value s of courtl y love mad e th eir way into Italy, th ey we re modi fied in the di rection of asexua lity.

Dante typifies thi s initial rece ptio n of cou rtly love . Hi s Vita Nu oua, written in th e "swee t new style" (dolce stil nuovo) of late­ thirteenth-century Tuscany, still celebrates love and th e n oble heart: "Amore e 'I cor gentil sono una cosa." Love s till appea rs as homage and th e lad y as so meo ne else 's wife . But th e lover of Dante's po ems is curiously arrested . He fru strates his own de­ sire by rejecting even the aim of union with his beloved. "What is th e point of yo ur love for your lad y since you are unabl e to en d ure her presence?" a lady as ks of Dante . 'T ell u s, for s urely the aim of suc h love mu st be unique [novissimo]!" 20 And novel it is, for Dante con fes ses th at th e joy he on ce took in his belo ved's gree ting he s ha ll henceforth seek in himself, "in words w hic h praise my lad y." Even thi s underst ates the case, since Dante's

wo rd s neither conjure/ p Beatri ce nor seek to melt her. She re­ mains shadowy and /rern ote. for th e focu s of his poetry has shifted entirely to th ~ su bjective p ole of love. It is th e inner life, his inner life, th at Dante ob jectifies. His love poems present a sp iritua l contest, w hic h he w ill soon ontologize in the Divine Comedy, amo ng competing s tates of the lover poet's sou l.

Thi s dream -world qu ality expres ses in its way a ge neral change that cam e over th e literature of love as its social foundatio ns crum bled . In the north , as th e Romance of the Rose reminds us, th e tradition began to run dry in th e late -thirte enth-centu ry pe­ riod of feudal di sintegrati on -c-or tran sformati on by the bour­ geois eco no my of th e towns and th e emergenc e of the state .

And in Prov ence , after the Albigens ian Crusade and the su bjec­ tion of th e Midi to ch u rch and crow n, C uiraut Riquier sign ifi­ cantly called h imself the last tro ubadour. Comp laining th at "no cra ft is less estee me d at court th an the beautifu l ma stery of song," he renounced sexu al for celesti al love an d clai med to e n­ ter the service of th e Virgi n Mary." Th e reception and rewo rking of th e troubad our tra d ition in Florence of the late 1200s conse­ que ntly appear s somewha t archaic. A con servati ve, aristocratic n os talgia clin gs to Dante's love po et ry as it does to h is polit ical id eas . But if th e new social life of th e bou rgeois com mune found little positi ve representati on in his poetry, Flore nce did drain from his poems th e social content of feud al experience . The lover as kni ght or trob airitz thu s gave way to a poet scholar. The exp erience of a wandering, questing life gave way to sch olas tic int er est s, to di stingui shing and classifyin g states of feeling . And the cou r tly celebra tion of romance, modeled upon vassa lage and en joyed in secret meetings, became a private circulatio n of po ems an alyzing th e spiritu al effects of unrequited love .

Th e actu al d isappear ance of th e socia l wo rld of th e cour t and its presid ing lady underlies the d isappearance of sex and the ph ysical ev ap or ation of th e woman in th ese poems. Th e ladies of th e romances an d troubad our poet ry may be ste reo ty pically blond, candi d , and fai r, but thei r authors meant th em to be tak en as physically and soc ially "real." In the love poetry of Dante, and of Petrarch an d Vittori a Colonna, who contin ue his tradition, th e beloved may just as well be de ad-and , indeed , nil th re e au thors mad e th em so. Th ey have no meaningful , oh it"

':~I

38

Did Wom en Have a Renais sa nce?

tive ex iste nce, a n d n ot mer ely becau se th eir affec tive exp e rience lacks a vo ice . Thi s wo u ld hold for troubad our p oetry too, since the lyri c, unl ike th e ro ma nce, ar ticu lates on ly th e feelings of th e lov er. The unreality of th e Renaissance beloved ha s rather to d o w ith th e quality of th e Renaissance lover's fee lings . As form er so­ cial re latio ns th at sus taine d m u tua lity an d int er action am ong lover s va nished , th e lover fell bac k on a nar cissist ic exper ience .

Th e Dantesqu e beloved m erely inspires feelin gs th at have n o oute r, physical ai m; or, th ey have a tran scendent aim th at th e bel oved mer ely med iates. In either case, love cas ts o{f sexu ality.

Indeed, th e ro le of the beloved as med iator is asexua l in a d ouble se nse, as th e Divine Comedy shows. Not only does the bel oved ne ver respon d sex ua lly to th e lover, bu t th e fee lings she arouses in him turn into a spiri tua l love th at ma kes of thei r entire rela­ tionship a me re sy m bo l or alleg ory.

Inte re st even in thi s sha dowy kind of roma nce dropped off markedly as the work of Da n te, Pe tra rc h, an d Boccaccio led into the fiftee n th-cen tury renaissa nce of Craeco-Rorna n a rt a nd let ­ ter s. Th e Floren ti ne huma n ist s in pa rticul a r ap prop r iate d o n ly the classical side of t he ir predecessors' th ou ght, th e side that serv ed public co nce rns . They rejected th e d ominance of love in h u m an life, along w it h th e in wardnes s an d secl us ion of the reli­ gious, th e scholar, a n d the lovesick p oet. Da n te, for example, figured prim arily as a citizen to h is biograp he r, Lionardo Bruni, who, as humanist cha nce llor of Florence, mad e h im out as a m odern Socrates , at once a polit ical figure, a fami ly man, and a rheto r: a n exe m p lar for th e new polis." O n ly in re lation to the in stitu tion of th e famil y did Florentine civic humanism tak e up quest ions of love an d sex ua lity. In thi s con tex t, they d eveloped the bourgeois sex-role sys tem, p lacing ma n in the public sp he re and the pat rician woma n in th e hom e, requirin g so cial vir tues from h im a n d chastity and mo therhood fro m her. In bourgeois Flo ren ce , the h umanist s wou ld have n othin g to do wi th the old aristoc ra tic trad ition of re lative soc ial an d sex ua l parity. In the petty Italian d espotisms, however, an d even in Florence under the p rin cely Lore nzo de' Medici late in th e fifteenth cen­ tury, the trad itions an d culture of th e n obil ity re ma in ed m ean­ ingfu l. 2J Cas tig lione's Courtier, an d th e cor pus of Renaissan ce w orks it h eads, took u p the th emes of love an d courtesy for th is

39

Did Wome n Have a Renaissan ce?

co ur tly soc iety, adapti ng them to co nte m po rary soci al a n d cu l­ tural needs . Yet in thi s milieu, too , wi th in th e very trad ition of cour tly lite rature, ne w con straints upon fema le sex ua lity e merged . Castig lio ne, th e single mo st importa n t s pokes ma n of Renaissan ce love an d manner s, ret ained in h is love theory Da n te's tw o basic fea tu res: th e d et achment of lo ve fro m sex u ality an d the allegorization of th e love th em e. Mor eover, he in tro ­ d uced in to th e aris toc ra tic conce p tion of sex roles some of the patriar chal n ot ion s of wo men's con finem ent to th e fa mi ly tha t bourgeo is humanist s h ad been restorin g.

O ve r tly, as we saw, Castig lione and h is class supported a com­ ple menta ry co nce p tion of sex roles, in part becau se a nobility th at d id n o work at all gave little thou gh t to a sex ua l d ivision of labor. He co u ld thu s ta ke up the late med ieval querelle des femmes se t off by th e Romance of the Rose a nd deba te th e que s tion of wo m e n 's di g ni ty much to their favor. Castiglion e p laces A ris­ lo tle 's (an d Aq uinas's) not ion of woma n as a d e fective man in I he mou t h of an aggrieved mis ogyn ist, Caspa ro: he cri ticizes l' lato's low regard for women , even though he di d pe rm it th e m 10 govern in The Republic; he rejects Ovi d's th eo ry of love as not "ge n tle" e no ugh . Most sig ni fican tly, he opposes Gasparo's bou r­ )'," (lis not ion of women 's exclusively domesti c role . Yet for all I h is, Cas tig lione es tablishe d in The Courtier a fatefu l bo n d be­ I wee n love a n d marriage . O ne index of a heightened pa tria rc ha l «u tlook among th e Renaiss an ce n obility is th at love in the usual , n u rl ion al a n d sex ua l se nse must lead to marriage a n d be co n­ 1Illl'd to it-for wome n, that is. l'h c iss ue gets co uche d, like all other s in th e book, in the form II I . t ck-bate . There are pros a nd cons; but th e p revailing view is 1I 11 1 " i ~ ; ta kabl e. If the idea l court lad y loves, she sho u ld love IIII lI'o ne w hom sh e can m arry. If married , and th e mis hap be­ I, ll . lu-r "tha t h e r hu sband's hate or a no ther's love shou ld brin g III I t" love, I wo u ld have h er give h er lover a spiritual lov e on ly; r u u 1I 11 1st she ever give him any sure sign of h er love, C'illll'l' I .\,

" ,, 1 111 ge s tu re or by other means th at ca n m nk « h illl " , , 1.11 11 , "

I I I' ' fl3) . The Courtier thus takes a s l r . II I)'," , 1" ,,, .. 11 11111 ,I ,'" I

11" '1 ,, 11 the relat ions a rno n i; 111 \', ' ",,, " "I ' " 11 11'" Itl ' I I ' '' h,'p h.; Europ e would 1.11 ,', Il l .' " ,1. , 01 ',. 1 11 •• 111 tI I I I , ,, ' d i ll )', to a Sitll,lli" l1 ,01 I ' " ' , ,I I ' "' ,I , I I

40

Did Wom en Have a Ren aissan ce?

the nobility, and to th e rest oration of patri ar ch al fam ily values , at once clas sical an d bourgeois, Castiglione, like Renaissance lov e theorists in ge nera l, con nected love an d marriage . But fac­ ing the same realiti es of p oliti cal marr iage and clerical celibacy that beset th e med ieval aris toc racy, he still focu sed upon the love that takes place outsi de it. On th is p oint, too, h owever, he broke with the cou rtly love tradition . He p ro posed on the one hand a Nee -Plat onic n oti on of spiritual love, an d on the other, the double s ta ndard ."

Castiglione's image of th e lover is int eresting in thi s regard .

Did he think hi s s u p p ression of fem ale sex ua l love would be more ju stifi abl e if h e had a ch ur ch ma n, Pietro Bembo (eleva te d to cardinal in 1539), e nu nc iate the new theor y an d had him di s­ course upon the love of a n ag ing co ur tier rather th an that of a young knight? In a n y case, ado p ting the Platonic definition of lov e as desire to en joy beauty, Bembo locat ed th is lover in a metaphysi cal a nd physical hier ar ch y between sense (" be low") a n d intellect ("a bove") . As reason mediat es betw een the physi­ cal and the spiritual, so man , a roused by th e visible be auty of his beloved, ma y d irect h is d esire beyond her to the true, intel­ ligibl e source of h er beauty. He may, howev er, also turn toward sense . Young men fall in to thi s error, a nd we sho u ld ex pe ct it of them, Bembo exp lains in th e Neo-Plat on ic language of the Flor­ entine philosopher Mar silio Ficino. "For find in g itself deep in an earthly prison, a n d d eprived of spiritua l contemplation in e xer ­ cising its office o f govern in g th e bod y, the so ul of itself cannot clearly per ceiv e the truth; w he re fore, in order to h ave knowl­ ed ge , it is oblige d to turn to th e se nses . .. a n d so it believes them . . . and let s itself be guided by th em, especially when they ha ve so much vigor th at th ey almost force it" (p p . 338-339).

A mi sdirecti on of th e so u l leads to se xua l un ion (though ob­ viousl y not w ith th e court lad y). Th e preferred kind of union, achieved by way of as cent, uses love of th e lad y as a st ep toward love of universal beauty. Th e lover her e ascen d s from awa re ness of his own human spirit, whi ch resp onds to beauty, to awarenes s of that universal in te llect that com p re he n ds universal beauty.

Then , " tra ns formed into an ange l," his sou l finds su p re me h ap­ p in ess in divin e lov e . Love may her eby soar to an ontologically noble e n d, a n d the beauty of th e woma n w ho inspires such as ­

41

Did Wom en Have a Ren aissance?

ce n t m ay acqu ire metaphysical s tatus an d di gnity. But Love , Bea u ty, Woman , aesthe ticize d as Botti celli's Venus a n d given cosmic im po rt, we re in effect denatured , robbed of body, se x, a n d pas sion by thi s eleva tio n . The sim ple kiss of love-service be­ ca me a rar efied kiss of th e sou l: "A man delights in joinin g his m outh to th at of his bel oved in a kis s, not in or de r to bring him­ se lf to any un seemly desire, but because he fee ls th at tha t bo nd is th e openi ng of mutual access to their so u ls" (p p . 349-350).

A nd in st ead of in itiat in g love, th e kiss now terminat ed phys ical co n tac t, at least fo r th e ch u rch ma n and/or ag ing cou rtie r w ho sou ght an en nobling expe rience- an d for th e woman obliged to p lay her rol e as lady.

Respon sive as he still was to medieval views of love , Cas­ tiglione a t least d ebat ed th e issue of the d ouble sta nda rd . His spokes me n p oint ou t that men make the rul es permitting the m ­ se lves an d n ot w omen se xua l freedom, a nd that con ce rn fo r leg it­ im acy d oes n ot ju st ify th is inequality. Since th ese sa me me n cla im to be m ore vir tuous th an w omen, they could more easily re­ s train .the m selves . In th at cas e, "th ere w ould be n eith e r more nor less cer tainty abo u t offs pring , for even if wo me n we re un­ ha ste, th ey co u ld in no way bear children of the mse lves . . . p ro ­ vided men we re continent and did not take par t in th e un­ ch astity of wome n" (p p . 240- 241). But for all thi s, th e book su p p lies a n excess of hortat or y tale s ab out fem ale cha stity, an d in th e sec tio n of th e d ialogu e gra ntin g you ng m en indulgence in ~H . · n su a l l ove , n o one spe a ks for young women , w ho ough t to be .lou bly " p ron e," as yo u ths and as women, accord ing to the IL'WS of the time , T his is theory, of co urse. Bu t one th inks of th e exa m ples : l'l c'dnor of Aquitain e cha ng ing bedm ates in th e midst of a cru ­ 01 d 1..' ; Elisa be tta Gon zaga, so constrained by th e conven tion s ." 1\('1' ow n cou rt th at she wo u ld not take a lover eve n thou gh 111'1" hu sb and wa s impotent. She , needless to say, fig u res as I 01 1'0 1 ig lion e's prime exe m pla r: "O ur Du chess w ho has lived w ith I " ,! h usband for fifte en years like a widow " (p . 253). Bernbo, on i1 '1- II I he r h and, in the ye a rs before he became card ina l, lived \ d " ' 1l1e1 had three ch ild ren by Donna Moro sin a . Bu t howeve r I II , \' .ul ually lived, in the n ew ideology a spiritualiz ed n obl e 1,, \ ,. w l'/J/t'l1Icnted th e experien ce of men w hile it defined ex tra­

42

Did Wome n Have a Ren aissanc e?

marital ex perience for th e lad y. For wom en, cha stity had becom e th e co nve ntio n of th e Renaissance co u r ts, signa ling th e tw o fold fact th at th e d ominant ins titu tions of sixteenth-century Italian soc iety would not su p po rt th e ad ultero us sexua lity of co urtly love, and th at women, suffe ring a re lative loss of p ower w ith in these ins titu tio ns, co uld not at firs t m ake th em respons ive to their needs. Legitimacy is a sig nifica nt factor her e . Even courtl y lov e had paid so me d eference to it (an d to th e d esire of women to avoi d co ncep tion) by restrain ing int ercourse while promo ting roma nti c and sex ua l play. But now, with cultural an d 'po litica l power held almost en tirely by m en , th e norm of fema le chastity came to exp ress th e conce r ns of Renaissan ce nobl emen as th ey moved into a new situa tion as a hereditary, depen de nt class .

Thi s changed situatio n of th e ar istoc racy acco u nts both for Cas tig lione's widespread a p pea l a nd for his telling transfor m a­ tion of th e lo ve relatio n. Because Tile Courtier crea ted a man ­ nered way of life th at could give to a dependent nobility a se nse of se lf-s ufficie ncy, of inner pow er and co n tro l, which th ey had lost in a real eco no m ic and political se nse, the book's po p ularity s pread fro m Italy through Europe at large in th e six tee n th and seven tee n th cent u ries . Altho ug h se t in th e Urbino co ur t of 1508, it w as actually begun some ten yea rs aft er th at a nd published in 1528- aft er th e sa ck of Rom e, and at a tim e when th e princely s tates of Italy an d Europe were coming to resem ble eac h other more clos ely th an they had in th e fo ur tee nth and fiftee n th ce n­ turies . The m on archs of Eu rope, consolida ting and cen tra lizing their sta tes, were at once protecting th e privil eges of th eir no­ bility a nd su ppressing feuda l power." Likewise in Italy, as th e en tire co un try fell und er th e hegem ony of Cha rles V, th e no­ bilit y began to be sta bilize d. Th rou ghout sixtee n th-century Italy, new laws began to limit an d regulat e member ship in a heredi ­ tary aristo cra tic clas s, prompting a new co nce rn w ith legit im acy an d pu rit y o f th e blood . Castiglione's demand for fema le chas­ tit y in part res po n ds to th is part icular con cern. His theory of love as a w hole respon d s to th e ge nera l sit ua tion of th e Rena is­ sa nce nobility. In the di scourse on love for w hic h he mad e Bembo the spokes ma n, he brou gh t to th e love relati on th e sa me psychi c attitu des wi th w hich he co nfro nted th e political situa tion . In ­ de ed, he used th e lov e re lation as a sy m bo l to con vey his se nse of p olitica l re latio n s.

43

Did Wom en Have a Ren aissance?

The cha nged times to w hich Cas tiglione refers in his in tro d uc ­ tion he experience d as a co nd ition o f servitude. The do minant pr obl em of the sixtee n th-cen tur y Italian nobility, like that o f the English nobil ity under th e Tudo rs, had become one of obed ience .

As one of Cas tiglio ne's courtiers expressed it Go d had better gra n t th em "good m aster s, for, once we have them, we have tc e nd u re th em as th ey are" (p. 116). It is th is transfor matio n o f ar istoc ra tic se rvice to statism, which gave rise to Ca s tiglio ne's lead ing idea of nobil ity as cour tiers, tha t shaped hi s theory of love as well. Bembo's agin g courtier, passionl ess in his rat ional love, sums up th e th eme of th e en tire book : how to main ta in by d et achment th e se nse of se lf now th reaten ed b y the loss o f ind e­ pendent powe r. Th e so ul in its ea r th ly prison , the courtier in h is soc ial one, re no unce th e power of self-de ter mi na tion th at has in fact been d enied th em . They ren ounce wanting such po wer; " If th e flam e is ex tinguis hed, the da nger is also ex ting uis hed" (p . 347). In love, as in se rvice, th e cou rt ier p reser ves indepen­ d ence by avoid ing d esi re for real love, real p ower. He do es not touch or allow h imself to be tou ched by eithe r. "To en joy beau ty wi t hou t su ffering, the Cour tier, aide d by reason , must turn his d esire en tirely away from th e bod y and to beaut y alo ne , [to] con ­ templat e it in its sim ple and pure self" (p . 351). He may gaze at th e object of hi s love-service, he may list en , but there he rea che s th e limits of th e actua l p hys ical relation and transforms her beauty, or the prince's power, int o a p ure idea . "Sp ared th e bit­ terness an d calamities" of thwarted passion th er eb y, he loves an d serves an im age o nly. The court ier gives obe isance , but o nly to a rea lity of his ow n makin g: "for he will always car ry his pre­ cio u s tr easure with him, shut up in his heart, and will also, by th e force of his ow n imagina tio n, make her beauty [or th e p rince's po we r] much m ore beautiful th an in rea lity it is" (p . 352).

Thus, th e cou rti er can serve and not se rve , love and not love.

H e can eve n attain th e re lief of s ur re nde r by makin g use of thi s in ner love-service "as a step" to mount to a more sublim e se nse of service . Co nte mp lation of th e Id ea th e co ur tier has discover ed within his ow n so u l excites a purified desire to love , to se rve, to unite w ith int ellectu al beauty (or power ). Ju st as love g uided his sou l from the part icula r beauty of his beloved to th e uni versal co nce p t, love of th at intelligible beauty (or power ) glim ps,'c1 wi thin tran sport s th e so ul from th e se lf, th e particular illl"II, ·, I

44

Did Women Have a Renaissance?

to the universal intellect. Aflame with an utterly spiritual love (or a spiritualized sense of service), the soul then "understands all things intelligible, and without any veil or cloud views the wide sea of pure divine beauty, and receives it into itself, enjoy­ ing that supreme happiness of which the senses are incapable" (p. 354). What does this semimystical discourse teach but that by "true" service, the courtier may break out of his citadel of inde­ pendence, his inner aloofness, to rise and surrender to the pure idea of Power? What does his service become but a freely chosen Obedience, which he can construe as the supreme virtue? In both its sublimated acceptance or resignation and its inner de­ tachment from the actual, Bernbo's discourse on love exemplifies the relation between subject and state, obedience and power, that runs through the entire book. Indeed, Castiglione regarded the monarch 's power exactly as he had Bembo present the lady's beauty, as symbolic of God: "As in the heavens the sun and the moon and the other stars exhibit to the world a certain likeness of God , so on earth a much liker image of God is seen in ... princes." Clearly, if "men have been put by God under princes" (p. 307), if they have been placed under princes as under His im­ age, what end can be higher than service in virtue, than the pu­ rified experience of Service?

The likeness of the lady to the prince in this theory, her eleva­ tion to the pedestal of Nee-Platonic love, both masks and ex­ presses the new dependency of the Renaissance noblewoman.

In a structured hierarchy of superior and inferior, she seems to be served by the courtier. But this love theory really made her serve-and stand as a symbol of how the relation of domination may be reversed, so that the prince could be made to serve the interests of the courtier. The Renaissance lady is not desired, not loved for herself. Rendered passive and chaste, she merely me­ diates the courtier's safe transcendence of an otherwise demean­ ing necessity. On the plane of symbolism, Castiglione thus had the courtier dominate both her and the prince; and on the plane of reality, he indirectly acknowledged the courtier's actual domi­ nation of the lady by having him adopt "woman's ways" in his relations to the prince. Castiglione had to defend against effeminacy in the courtier, both the charge of it (p. 92) and the ac tu ality of faces "soft and feminine as many attempt to have wh o n ot only curl their hair and pluck their eyebrows, but preen

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Did Women Have a Renaissance?

themselves . . . and appear so tender and lan guid .. . and utter their words so limply" (p. 36). Yet the close-fitting costume of the Renaissance nobleman displayed the courtier exactly as Cas­ tiglione would have him, "well built and shapely of lim b" (p. 36). His clothes set off his grace, as did his nonchalant ease, the new manner of those "who seem in words, laugh ter, in po s ­ ture not to care" (p. 44). To be attractive, accomplished , an d seem not to care; to charm and do so coolly-how conc e rned with impression, how masked the true self. And h ow ma nipula­ tive: petitioning his lord, the courtier knows to be "d iscre e t in choosing the occasion, and will ask things that are pro per and reasonable; and he will so frame his requ est, omitting those parts that he knows can cause displeasure, an d will skillfully make easy the difficult points so that his lord w ill always gra nt it" (p . 111). In short, how like a wo man - or a dependent, for that is the root of the simi le .

The accommodat ion of the sixt ee nth- and se venteenth ce n ­ tury courtie r to the ways and dress of women in no w ay b e­ speaks a greater parity between them . It reflects, ra th e r, that general restructuring of social relations that entailed for th e Re­ naissance noblewoman a greater dependency upon men as feu ­ dal independence and reciprocity yielded to the state. In this new situation, the entire nobility suffered a loss . Hence, the courtier's posture of dependency, his concern with the pleasing impres­ sion, his resolve "to perceive what his prince likes , and .. . to bend himself to this" (pp. 110-111). But as the state overrode aristocratic power, the lady suffered a double loss . Deprived of the possibility of independent power that the combined inter­ ests of kinship and feudalism guaranteed some women in the Middle Ages, and that the states of early modern Europe would preserve in part, the Italian noblewoman in particular entered a relation of almost universal dependence upon her family and he r husband. And she experienced this dependency at the same time as she lost her commanding position with respect to the secular culture of her society.

Hence, the love theory of the Italian courts developed in ways as indifferent to the interests of women as the courtier, in his self-sufficiency, was indifferent as a lover. It accepted, as medi­ eval courtly love did not, the double standard . It bound the lady to chastity, to the merely procreative sex of political marria ge,

46

Did Women Ha ve a Renaissance?

just as her weighty and costly costume came to conceal and con­ strain her body while it displayed her husband's n obl e rank. In ­ d eed, the person of the woman became so inconsequential to this love relation that one d oubted whether she cou ld love at all. The qu estion that em erges at th e end of The Courtier as to "whether or n ot women are as capable of di vine love as men" (p . 350) belongs to a love theory structured by mediation rather than mutualit y. Woman's beauty inspired love but th e lover, th e agent, was man. And the question sta nds unresolved at th e end of The Courtier-because at heart th e spokesmen for "Renais­ s ance love were n ot really con cerned ab ou t women or lov e a t all.

Where courtly love had us ed th e social relation of vas sa lage to work out a genuin e concern with sexual love , Castiglione's thou ght m oved in exactly the op posite dir ecti on . H e allegorized lo ve as full y as Dante did , using th e relati on of th e sexes to sy m­ b olize the new political order. In this, his love theory reflects th e social realities of the Renaissance . The d enial of the right and power of women to love, the tran sformati on of women into pas­ siv e "others " who ser ve, fits the se lf-image of th e courtier, th e one Ca stiglione sought to rem edy. The sy mbo lic relation of the se xes thus mirrors the new social relation s of the s tate, much as courtly love di sp layed the feud al relations of reciprocal personal d ependence . But Renaissance love reflect s, as well, the actua l condition of dependency suffered by noblewomen as the s tate ar ose . If the courtier who charms the prince bears th e same re­ lat ion to him as the lad y bears to th e courtier, it is be cau se Castiglione understood the relation of the sexes in the sa me term s that he used to de scr ibe the political relation: i.e ., as a re­ lati on between se rva n t a nd lord . The n obl eman suffer ed this re­ lation in the public d omain only. Th e lad y, denied access to a freel y ch osen, mutually satisfying love rel ation, suffered it in the pe rs ona l d omain as w ell. Mor eover, Ca stiglione's th eory, unlike the courtly lov e it su persed ed , subordinated love its elf to the public concerns of the Renaissance n oblem an. He set forth the re­ lati on of the se xes as on e of d ependency an d dominat ion, but he d id so in order to express and deal with th e pol itical rel ation a nd its problems. Th e personal values of love , which the e n tire feudal ity on ce prized, w ere henceforth increasin gly left to the lady. The cour tier formed his primary bond with the modern prin ce .

Did Wome n Have a Renaissance?

47

In sum, a new d ivisi on between personal an d public life mad e its elf felt as the st ate came to organize Ren ais sance society, and w ith th at di vision the modern relation of th e sexes mad e its ap­ paarance;" eve n among the Renai ssance n obility. No b lew om en, to o, were increa singly removed fro m public con cerns- eco­ nomic, p olitical, and cu ltu ra l-an d although they d id n ot d isap­ pear into a private realm of famil y and domestic concern s as fully as their siste rs in th e p atri cian b ourgeoi sie , th eir loss of public p ow er mad e itself felt in new cons train ts placed u p o n th eir personal as well as th eir social lives. Renaissance ide as on lov e and m ann er s, m ore classical th an medieval, and almost ex­ clusivel y a male product, exp res se d thi s new subo rd inatio n of women to the interests of husbands a nd mal e-dominated kin groups and served to justify th e rem ov al of wome n fro m a n "u n­ lad ylike" p ositi on of po we r and e ro tic in depe ndenc e . All th e advances of Renaiss a nce Ital y, its protoca pitalist econom y, its st ates , an d its hu manistic cultur e, w orked to mo ld the n obl e­ woma n int o an aestheti c objec t: decorous, ch aste, a nd dou bly de pe n d e nt- on h e r hu sband as well as th e p rince .

N otes 1. The trad itio n al view o f th e eq ua lity o f Rena issance women w ith men go es ba ck to jacob Burck ha rd t's clas sic, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860).

It h as fo u nd its way in to most genera l h ist o ries o f women , s uch as Ma ry Bear d 's Women as Force in History (1946), Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949), a n d Emily jame s Putnam's The Lady (1910), altho ug h th e latt er is a se ns itive a nd so ­ phisticat ed treat m ent. It also d o minat e s mos t h istories of Ren aissa nce w om e n , th e bes t of w h ich is E. Rodocana ch i, La femme italienne avant, pendant et apres la Renaissance, H achet te . Pa ris, 1922. A no tab le exce pti o n is Ru th Kelso , Doctrinefor the Lady of the Renaissance, University of Illin ois Press, Urb ana, 1956, w ho dis cov­ e red th e re was no s uch pa rity .

2. Th e m ajor Ren aissa nce s ta teme n t of the bourge ois d ome st icati o n of wo m en was made by Leon Battist a Albe rti in Book 3 o f Della Famiglia (c. 1435), w hic h is a free ad a ptation of th e A the nian situa tio n d escr ibed by Xen opho n in the

Oeconomicus.

3. A n dreas Ca p ella n us , The Art of Courtly Love, tran s. john j . Pa rry, Col umbia Un iversity P ress, New York , 1941, p p . ISO- l SI. 4. M aurice Val enc y, In Praise of Love: An Introduction to the Love-Poetry of the Renaissance, M acm illan , N ew York , 1961, p . 146.

5. "E il dompna del' a son drui far honor/Cum ad al1l ;c, mas non cum a seignor."

Ibid., p . 64.

111

I.~

48

D id Women Have a Rena is sance?

6. Lanval (Sir Launfal ), Les lais de Marie de Fran ce, ed . Paul Tuffrau, L'Ed ition d' Art H. Piazza , Par is, n .d ., p. 41. English ed. , Lays of Marie de Fra nce, J. M. Dent and E. P. Dutton, London and New York, 1911 .

7. Excellent tra ns . and ed. by W. W. Comfort , Arthurian Romances, Den t an d Dutton Everyman 's Library, London and New York, 1970, p. 286.

8. Thomas Aq uina s, Summa Theologiae, p t. 1-2, q. 28, art. 5.

9. Lan val, Les lais, p . 10.

10. Th omas Fred erick Crane, Italian Social Customs of the Sixteenth Century, Yale Un iver sity Press, Ne w Haven , 1920, pp . 10-11.

11. As Marc I3loch poin ted out, th e grea t French p rincipalities th at no lon ger required personal military se rvice on th e part of their ho lde rs we re am on g th e firs t to be passed on to wom en whe n male heirs we re wan ting . Feudal Society, tran s. L. A. Many on, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1964, p. 201.

12. David Herlih y, "Land , Family and Wom en in Con tinental Europe, 701­ 1200," Traditio, 18 (1962), 89- 120. Also, "Wome n in Medieval Society," The Smith History Lecture, Un iversity of St. Thomas, Te xas, 1971. For a fine new work on ab besses, see Joan Morri s, Tile Lady Was a Bishop, Collier and Macmillan , New York and London, 1973. Marie de France may have been an abbess of Sha ftesb u ry.

13. Emily James Putn am , The Lady, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London , 1970, p. 118. See also the chapter on the abbess in the same book.

14. From The Women Troubadours, trans. an d ed . by Meg Bogin, Paddi ng ton Press, New York/London, 1976.

15. Friedrich H ee r; The MedievalWorld: Europe 1100-13 50, Mentor Books, New York, 1963, pp. 167, 178-179.

16. This was Amy Kelly's sur mise in "Eleanor of Aquitaine and He r Co urts of Love," Speculum, 12 (Janu ary 1937), 3- 19.

17. From The Book of the Courtier, by Bald esar Castiglione, a new tran slati on by Charles S. Singleton (New York: Doubleda y, 1959), p. 20. Copyright © 1959 by Cha rles S. Singleton and Edgar d e N. Mayhew. Th is and othe r quo tatio ns throu ghout the chapt er are reprinted by permi ssion of Doubl eday & Co. , Inc. 18. Selection s from the corresp ondence of Rena issa nce noblewomen can be found in the biographi es listed in the bibliograph y.

19. An in teres ting exce p tion is W. On g's "Latin Lan guage Study as a Re nais­ sance Pu ber ty Rite," Studies in Philology , 56 (1959),103- 124; also Margaret Leah King's "The Religious Retrea t of lsotta Nogara la (1418-1466)," Signs, Summe r 1978.

20. Dan te Alighie ri, La Vita Nuova, trans. Barbara Rey nolds, Pen guin Books, Middl ese x, Engla nd and Baltimo re, 1971, poem 18.

21. Frederick Gold in, tran s., Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouocres, Dou bleda y, New York , 1973, p . 325 .

22. David Thom pson and Alan F. Nagel, eds . and tran s., The Three Crowns of Florence: Humanist Assessments of Dante, Petrarca , and Boccaccio, Har pe r & Row, New York, 1972.

23. For Renaissanc e hum ani stic and cou rtly literature, Vittorio Rossi, II quattroccnto, F. Vallard i, Milan, 1933; Ruth Kelso, Doctrine for tile Lady of the Renais­ sance, University of lllino is Press, Urban a, 1956. On erotic life, interestin g re­ mark s by David Herlih y, "Some Psyc hological and Social Roots of Violence in th e Tuscan Cities," Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities, 1200- 1500, ed . Lau ro Martines, Univers ity of Californ ia Press, Berkeley, 1972, p p. 129-154.

49

Did Women Have a Renaissance?

24. For hist orical context, Keith Th omas, "The Dou ble Standa rd ," Journal of the History of Ideas, 20 (1959), 195 -216; N. J. Perella, The Kiss Sacred and Profane: An Interpretive History of Kiss Symbolism, University of Californi a Press , Berkeley, 1969; Mor ton Hun t, The Natural History of Love, Funk & Wagnalls, New York , 1967.

25. Ferna nd Brandel. The Mediterranean World, Routledge & Kegan Paul , Lon­ do n, 1973; A. Ventura , Nobilta c popolo nella societa Veneta, Laterza, Bari, 1964; Lawren ce Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558- 1641, Clarendon Press, Ox­ ford , 1965.

26. Th e s tatus of wom en as related to the dis tinction of public and private sphe res of activity in vario us societies is a key idea in most of the an thro pologi­ cal stud ies in Women, Culture, and Society, eds . Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamph ere, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1974.

Su gg estions for Further Reading On Renai s sance wome n: Stanle y Choj nac k i, "Pa tricia n Women in Earl y R enaissance Venice ," Studies ill the Renaissance, 21 (1974), 1976 ~ 203 ; Susan Groa g Bell, " C h ris ti n e d e Piza n," Feminist Studies, 3 (Sp ri ng/Su m ­ mer 1976), 173-184; Jo an Kell y-Gad o\, "No tes on W ome n in th e Rc n ai s­ sance, " Conceptual Frameworks in Women's History (Sa ra h La w re n ce Pub­ lications, Bronxvill e, N .Y., 1976); Margaret Leah King, "Th e Re lig io us Retreat o f Isotta N ogarola." Signs, Su m m e r 1978; Ka th leen Casey, "Reco n­ structing the Experience o f M edie val Woman," Liberating Women's Hi s­ tory, ed . Berenice Ca rro ll (Un ive rs ity o f Illinois Pr e ss , Urbana, 1976), 224-249 . With the ex ce p tio n of Ruth Kels o , Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance (U n ive rs ity o f Illin oi s Pr ess, Urbana , 1956), a n d Ernst Breisach, Caterina Sforza: A Renaissance Virago (U n ive rsity of C hicag o Press, Chica go, 1967), a ll other se riou s s tu d ie s s te m from the fir st w ave o f the feminist movement. The y form a n ece s sary basis , although they concern themselves a lm o s t exclusivel y w ith "exceptional" w o m e n and are not se nsitive to so cioe co nom ic factors. Am o ng th em, Marian Andrews (p s eud . Christopher H are ), The Most Illust rious Ladies of the Italian Renaissance (Scr ib n e r's, N ew York, 1904); Julia Ca rtwrig h t (Mrs .

Ad y), Isabel/a d'Este, 2 vols . (D u tto n , New York, 1903) a n d Beatrice d' Este (1899); Ferdinand G regoro v ius , Lucrezia Borgia (810m, 1968 reprint o f 1903 e d .); E . Rodocanach i, La femme italicnne avant , pendant et apres la Renaissance (H ac h e t te, Paris, 1922); T. A. Trollope. A Decade of Italian Women, 2 v o ls . (Ch a p man & Hall, London, 1859).

The most s ig n ifica n t s tu d ies in demog raphic a n d socia l history bear­ in g u pon Renaissance w o m e n ar e those of David H erlihy, among wh o se seve ra l articles are "Mapping Households in Medieval Italy," The Catho­ lic Historical Review, 58 (Ap ril 1972), 1-24; " Viellir a Florence au Quat­ trocento ." Annales, 24 (Nove m be r - D ecembe r 1969), 1338-1352; "T h e Tu s can Town in the Quattrocento," Medievalia et Humanisiica, I (1IJ7()),

50

Did Women Have a Renaissan ce?

81- 110; also , a forthcoming book on the Tusca n fami ly. Two de m o­ gra p h ic stu di es on in fanticide and fou n d lings in Flor ence by Rich ard C. Trexler ar e in History of Childhood Quarterly, 1, nos . 1 and 2 (1973); Ge n e Brucker h a s excelle n t se lec tion s from w ills, marriage co n trac ts , gove rn ­ m e nt minutes, legal ju dgm ent s, e tc.. in The Society of Renaissance Flo r­ ence: A Documentary St udy (Harp er, New York, 1971).

H ist ories of fam ily life an d ch ild rearing amo ng the courtly a ris to c­ rac y of ea rly mod ern Fra nce supp leme n t very ni cel y Ca s tig lione's p or­ trayal of the courtier an d court lad y. Amon g th em, Phi lip p e Aries , Cen­ tur ies of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (Knopf, New York, 1965), an d Davi d Hunt, Paren ts and Children in History (Ha rpe r, N ew York, 1972). Alt ho ug h h e does not dea l wi th Renaissa nce Italy, Lawre nc e S tone's The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558 - 1641 (Clarendo n Press, Oxford , 1965) is indisp ensable readin g for inform ation ab out a ristocra tic so­ cia l life .

P rima ry so u rces o n medieva l a nd Ren aissance love used in th e text in English tra nsla tion are: Andreas Capella nus, The Art of Courtly Love (trans. Joh n J. Pa rry, Co lu mb ia Un iversity Press, N ew York, 1941); Lays of Marie de Fra nce 0. M . Dent a nd E. P. Dutton , Lond on an d New York , 1911); Chre tie n de Troyes's Lan celot from /srthurian Romances (tra ns . a n d ed . W. W. Comfort, De n t and Du tto n Eve ry m an's Lib rar y, Lon d o n an d New York, 1970); Bald assare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (tra n s.

Charles S. Single ton , Do ubleday, Ne w York , 1959); Dante Alighier i, La Vita Nuova (tra n s . Bar bara Rey nolds, Pen guin Books , M idd les ex , En­ gland and Balt im ore , 1971). See , too, F. X. Newman , The Meaning of Courtly Love (The Sta te Un ive rs ity of N ew York Pr es s, Alba n y, 1967), for co n tem p o rary o pi nion a n d a good bibliogra phy. The so u nd es t an d m ost sensitive s tu d y is sti ll Maurice Valen cy's In Praise of Love (Macmilla n , N ew York , 1961). Tw o fine ar ticles on th e literature of love, sex, and m arriage in ea rly m od ern Europe a re by William H aller , " H ail Wedded Lo ve, " A Journal of English LiteranJ Histonj, 13 (Ju ne 1946), 79-97, a n d Pa u l Siegel , "The P etr archan Sonneteers and Nco- Plat on ic Lo ve," Stud­ ies in Philology , 42 (1945),164 -1 82.

T H R EE

The Doubled Vision of Feminis t Theory A Postscript to the "Women and Power" Co n ference

~m in ist

th eor y is today br in gin g abou t a ma jo r ad­ L v(an ce in so cia l vision . If we take as an in dex o f the reemergence of feminist th eor y Juli et Mitch ell's 1966 ess ay on th e fou r stru ctur es by wh ich to asses s "w o ma n's es tate," I we ca n a p preciate how o u r un de r­ stan ding of women a nd so ciety has d e velo ped . Fo r m or e than a decade, th e wom en 's move m ent has been co n fro nting se x o ppression in th e doma ins sh e h el p ed nam e for u s- production, rep rod ucti on , se x­ uality, an d socia lizati on. Since 1966 we have stru ggled p ers on ally, int ellectually, a n d politi cally aga ins t th e socia lizing of girls /women into th e se rvici ng , m othe r rol e, an d a gai nst th e socia lizing of boys/m en int o re­ qui ri n g it. We h ave m oved in th ou ght, feeling, and ac tio n agains t th e re s triction of female se xu a lity to ph allus and fa mily. We have s truggled to underst a n d how an d why male-d ominant in stitutions co ntro l bio­ logical an d s ocia l rep roduction , a n d we have bee n fig h ting th at co n tro l. A nd we have moved in seve ral w ays agains t a n orga n ization of work that fosters a nd profits from th e sex ua l d ivision of labor and th e un ­ eq ua l relat ion of th e sexes th at flows fro m it. In prac­ tice an d co nscious n es s, thi s phase of th e w om en's m ov ement is no longer wher e it wa s w h en Juli et Mitche ll m arked ou t th e paths alo ng w hic h we did inRe prin ted from Feminist Studies 5, no. 1 (Sprin g 1979): 216-27. © 1979 Fem inis t Stu d ies, In c.

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