Edited by Franco Minonzio, translated by Margaret L. King
Iter Press
ISBN: 978-1-64959-113-5
An early 16th-century text arguing for equality between men and women. Colonna sets out to show that “women are absolutely perfect and wholly capable of attaining all the virtues, and on that account they are not to be barred from public offices and magistracies.”
Excerpt:
Colonna’s Apologia deserves attention for several reasons. First, its author, amid a coterie of warriors, courtiers, princes, high-ranking ecclesiastics. poets, humanists, and writers, belongs to the highest stratum of Renaissance figures who stood at the center of culture and power. Second, the Apologia is one of a pivotal set of densely interrelated early-sixteenth-century pro-woman texts – conspicuous among them Baldassare Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (1528), one of the key products of Renaissance intellectual discourse in any language. Third, while Colonna repeats many of the tropes and parables common to male-authored pro-woman genre, he also interjects some startling and unique arguments supporting the claim of the parity of male and female.
Who is this book for?
Those interested in women’s history will find this work useful, not only for the text and translation, but also for the essay-length section describing similar works in the genre. Those studying Renaissance intellectual writings will also find this to be a good read.
The editor and translator
Franco Minonzio is an Italian classical philologist, historian of science, and author. Margaret L. King is professor emerita of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
In Defense of Women: A Bilingual Edition
By Pompeo Colonna
Edited by Franco Minonzio, translated by Margaret L. King
Iter Press
ISBN: 978-1-64959-113-5
An early 16th-century text arguing for equality between men and women. Colonna sets out to show that “women are absolutely perfect and wholly capable of attaining all the virtues, and on that account they are not to be barred from public offices and magistracies.”
Excerpt:
Colonna’s Apologia deserves attention for several reasons. First, its author, amid a coterie of warriors, courtiers, princes, high-ranking ecclesiastics. poets, humanists, and writers, belongs to the highest stratum of Renaissance figures who stood at the center of culture and power. Second, the Apologia is one of a pivotal set of densely interrelated early-sixteenth-century pro-woman texts – conspicuous among them Baldassare Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (1528), one of the key products of Renaissance intellectual discourse in any language. Third, while Colonna repeats many of the tropes and parables common to male-authored pro-woman genre, he also interjects some startling and unique arguments supporting the claim of the parity of male and female.
Who is this book for?
Those interested in women’s history will find this work useful, not only for the text and translation, but also for the essay-length section describing similar works in the genre. Those studying Renaissance intellectual writings will also find this to be a good read.
The editor and translator
Franco Minonzio is an Italian classical philologist, historian of science, and author. Margaret L. King is professor emerita of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
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