Italian Renaissance Men And Women: An Analysis

The Italian Renaissance is typically viewed as a momentous period for growth in knowledge and advancements in society. The equality between men and women is one of the first things some historians, such as Bruckhardt and Kelly-Gadol use to display society from that time period. There were certain expectancies out of the people as described by Bruni in his letter to Battista Malatesta (c. 1405), and Vergerio in his letter to Ubertino (1392). Castiglione had a text called The Courtier, which gave views on both males and females during the Italian Renaissance. There were some renaissance artists and authors that had created documents, which show a possible representation of what was expected from both men and women. In both Bruni’s letter and Vergerio’s letter, one can find the societal views on both men and women. Bruni’s letter to Malatesta described what women should study and how they should essentially live their lives. The main idea discussed is how women should
In the first selection we had discussed, it was about what males should be like. The description was absolutely absurd; it suggested that males should be an expert warrior, brave/loyal, not cowardly, should be a scholar with knowledge of more than one language (suggested Greek/Latin/vernacular language), more than average in humanities, read/write poetry and the list goes on long after that. Castiglione’s view on women was different when compared to the male expectations. Women were supposed to be “soft” and “sweet”. He also suggests that women should be knowledgeable. (Document 3). Even though Castiglione suggests women should be knowledgeable, he then goes on to say that the knowledge is only for entertainment reasons; an example would be socialization between men and