Public and Private in the Philogynist Writers of Italian Cinquecento

A series of galleries of illustrious women and Renaissance philogynous treatises by little-known and rarely studied writers – such as Antonio Cornazzaro, Bartolomeo Goggio, Vespasiano da Bisticci, Pompeo Colonna, Luigi Dardano, Lodovico Dolce, and Paolo Giovio – support the social and political utility and convenience of women projecting themselves and acting in the public sphere. With the intention of promoting new ideas about the roles they can play, these works provide new content to the traditional roles of mothers and wives and defend women’s ability to govern and pursue studies, as reflected in roles such as regents or public speakers. Although these texts take into account Boccaccio’s model, they turn to the classical source of Plutarch (On the Virtues of Women) to justify the transfer of traditionally masculine qualities to women, demonstrating through examples that they possess these qualities and have applied them in va- rious fields, such as war, politics, and the arts. Likewise, The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan serves as both an argumentative and symbolic model for many of them, particularly in the construction of a model of urbanity in whi- ch female citizens are identified with virtues but also with action.