La nobiltà et l’eccellenza delle donne co’ difetti et mancamenti de gli huomini. Discorso di Lucrezia Marinella, in due parti diviso. Nella prima parte si manifesta la nobiltà delle donne co’ forti ragioni, et infiniti essempi, et non solo si distrugge l’opinione del Boccaccio, d’amendue i Tassi, dello Sperone, di Monsignore di Namur, et del Passi, ma d’Aristotile il grande anchora. Nella seconda si conferma co’ vere ragioni, et co’ varii essempi da innumerabili historici antichi, et moderni tratti, che i diffetti de gli huomini trapassano di gran lunga que’ delle donne. Ricorretto et accresciuto in questa seconda impressione, con privilegio et licenzia de’ superiori. Venezia: apresso Giovanni Battista Ciotti sanese all’insegna dell’aurora, 1601.
Call number: PQ 4627 .M84 N63 1601 (Special Collections)
Case 2: “Illustrations of the Divine Comedy and its Legacy Throughout the Centuries”
[Translation of the title in English: “The nobility and excellence of women with the defects and shortcomings of men. A discourse by Lucrezia Marinella, divided into two parts. In the first part the nobility of women is manifested with strong reasons and infinite examples, and not only is the opinion of Boccaccio, of the two Tassi, of Sperone, of Monsignore di Namur, and of Passi destroyed, but of the great Aristotle as well. In the second part, it is confirmed with true reasons, and with various examples from innumerable ancient historians and modern ones, that the defects of men far outweigh those of women. Corrected again and increased in this second impression, with the privilege and dismissal of the superiors.]
Recently acquired by Special Collections, this edition represents the second issue of La nobiltà et l’eccellenza delle donne co’ difetti et mancamenti de gli huomini by Lucrezia Marinella (1571-1653), originally published in Venice by Giovan Battista Ciotti in 1600 and republished in 1621. This second edition, which was issued due to the work’s remarkable success, includes four new chapters in which the author discusses and dismantles the description of women as given in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Corbaccio (1395), Sperone Speroni’s Dialogo della dignità delle donne [Dialogue on the Dignity of Women] (1542), Torquato Tasso’s Discorso della virtù feminile e donnesca [Discourse on Female and Womanly Virtue] (1585), Ercole Tasso’s Dello ammogliarsi [On Taking a Wife] (1595), and Monsignor Arrigo di Namur’s La malvagità delle donne [Woman’s Wickedness] (c. 1428).
The item, bound in parchment, consists of four initial unnumbered pages plus three hundred and twenty-six numbered pages. It contains a dedicatory letter to philosopher Lucio Scarano; a list of all the topics explored in both the first and second parts of the book; a sonnet by Antonio Sabelli to Lucrezia Marinella; the first and second parts of the work; and a final list of the mistakes that occurred during publication. Marinella published this work with the goal of criticizing the misogynistic theses that Giuseppe Passi offered in his 1599 work, Dei donneschi difetti [On the Defects of Women]. Through a gallery of illustrious examples, she demonstrates the superiority of women vis-à-vis men. In the first part, Marinella celebrates women and their virtues, including their temperance, continence, prudence, military prowess, loyalty, and love for the nation and the family. In the second part, she highlights the defective nature of men and proves how they are more vicious than women.
Already the list of categories that the author uses in her work’s second part to classify the defects of men recalls Dantean vices: avarice, envy, gluttony, incontinence, laziness, negligence, arrogance, fraud, treason, heresy, hypocrisy, homicide, repudiation of God, and flattery. Moreover, Marinella makes use of a vast array of quotations from Dante, along with Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ariosto, Tasso, and many others, to illustrate female beauty, virtue, and courtesy. For instance, a quotation in chapter X on “Cruel Men, Unfair and Lethal” (pp. 194-96) references Dante’s canto 33 in Inferno, featuring Count Ugolino. After citing examples of Roman emperors renowned for their cruelty, Marinella refers to Archbishop Ruggieri, who starved Count Ugolino and his children to death in Pisa. She expressly admits that she will not recount the story but instead leave the description to Dante’s words. She quotes vv. 16-18 when Ugolino tells Dante how his trust of Ruggieri led him to death, as well as vv. 43-75 when Ugolino describes the deaths of his children. Finally, Marinella references v. 79 and vv. 86-87, including the first line of Dante’s invective against Pisa and the description of his pity for the victims of Archbishop Ruggieri’s cruel act.