Moderata Fonte: Women and Life in Sixteenth-Century Venice (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Moderata Fonte: Women and Life in Sixteenth-Century Venice Karina Attar Paola Malpezzi Price Moderata Fonte: Women and Life in Sixteenth-Century Venice Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003. Pp. 175. In Moderata Fonte: Women and Life in Sixteenth-Century Venice, Paola Malpezzi Price's aim is to consider Venice's "various aspects from the position of a twenty-first-century woman interested in the role of women in the sixteenth century, as well as in the life and works of Moderata Fonte as a representative of the educated women of that century" (21). Moderata Fonte is [End Page 211] thus not only a cultural and social history of Venetian women in the sixteenth century, but also the first book-length study of the writer's life and literary concerns. Malpezzi Price initially posits Moderata Fonte as an early modern 'feminist' who, "from within the accepted social structures of patriarchal family and society and from within recognized literary genres of the epic and dialogue, was able to elaborate and divulge a non-conformist message which helped gradually to modify certain aspects of the prevalent social ideology with regard to women" (20–21). This thesis motivates the rest of the book, which is divided into two parts of four chapters each. The first part, entitled "The Woman, the Writer, and the City," concerns the sixteenth-century Venetian contexts surrounding Fonte's life. The second half of the book, "Moderata Fonte's Defense of Women," considers several representations of female identity in Fonte's works and the ways in which these reflect the author's own preoccupations about the position of women in a patriarchal society. The first chapter recounts the main episodes of Fonte's life, the most significant political and cultural events in contemporary Venice that she would have witnessed, and the positive and negative responses to Fonte's works on the part of both her contemporaries but also scholars. The second chapter, "Growing Up Female and Literate in Sixteenth-Century Venice," offers an account of treatises on the role of women within domestic life and discusses the ways in which the experiences of sixteenth-century women followed or departed from the teachings promoted by the treaties. Against this background, Malpezzi Price shows that Fonte's specific educational experience was "probably atypical" since the males in her entourage disregarded contemporary social norms by encouraging her to develop her intellectual skills (48). Chapter 2 concludes with an examination of the theme of education in Fonte's Il merito delle donne, thus providing an essential link between Fonte's social context, biography, and literary concerns. The next chapter, "Cultural and Social Life in Sixteenth-Century Venice," covers significant aspects of life in the Republic, including sections on the role of religion, economy, and welfare. This chapter also discusses the limited avenues open to women who wished to or were forced to work. Of particular interest are the examinations of prostitution and women's significant role in this trade, and on and the ways in which traditional Venetian feasts and carnivals were used to promote a perception of Venice as a just, rich, and powerful republic. Chapter 4 develops this latter theme with a fascinating [End Page 212] discussion of "The Myth of Venice and Sixteenth-Century Women." Here, Malpezzi Price shows how multiple and conflicting images of Venice combined to create "a powerful, just, attractive, and divine woman as incarnation of the spirit of the city" (89). As the author pointedly remarks, however, such images perpetuated a notion of powerful womanhood that did not coincide with reality as expressed by Corinna, the most important speaker in Il merito delle donne, who argues that men have conspired to stop women from developing their intellectual talents by limiting their education and confining them in powerless positions. The fifth and sixth chapters focus on the depiction of the figure of the "Woman Warrior" and of the "Enchantress" in Fonte's epic poem I tredici canti del Floridoro. A composite of Bradamante and Marfisa in both name and character, the female warrior Risamante emerges, in Malpezzi Price's reading, as "an alternative to the behavior displayed by the majority of women, both in...