Research Catalog

Title

The merits of women : wherein is revealed their nobility and their superiority to men / Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo) ; edited, translated, and abridged by Virginia Cox ; with a new foreword by Dacia Maraini.

Author

Fonte, Moderata, 1555-1592

Publication

• Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Cox, Virginia
• Maraini, Dacia

Description

xxix, 98 pages : portrait; 18 cm

Summary

You would as well look for blood in a corpse as for the least shred of decency in a man . . . Without help from their wives, men are just like unlit lamps . . . Just think of them as an unreliable clock that tells you it's ten o'clock when it's in fact barely two . . . A man without a woman is like a fly without a head . . . These are but a small selection of the quips bandied about at this lively gathering of women. The broad topic at hand is the relative pros and cons of men, and the cases in point range from pick-up artists to locker-room talk, and from double standards to fragile masculinity. Yet this dialogue unfolds not among ironically misandrist millenials venting at their local dive bar, but rather among sixteenth-century women--variously married, widowed, single, and betrothed--attending a respectable Venice garden party. Written in the early 1590s by Moderata Fonte, pseudonym of the Renaissance poet and writer Modesta Pozzo, this literary dialogue interrogates men and men's treatment of women, and explores by contrast the virtues of singledom and female friendship. As the women diverge from their theme--discussing everything from astrology to the curative powers of plants and minerals--a remarkable group portrait of wisdom, wit, and erudition emerges. A new introduction by translator Virginia Cox and foreword by Dacia Maraini situate The Merits of Women in its historical context, written as it was on the cusp of Shakespeare's heyday, and straddling the centuries between the feminist works of Christine de Pizan and Mary Wollstonecraft. Elegantly presented for a general audience, this is a must-read for baby feminists and "nasty women" alike, not to mention the perfect subtle gift for any mansplaining friend who needs a refresher on the merits of women . . . and their superiority to men -- Provided by publisher.

Uniform Title

Merito delle donne. English

Alternative Title

Merito delle donne.

Subjects

• Women > Social conditions
• Women > History > Renaissance, 1450-1600
• Women > Social conditions > Early works to 1800
• Early works
• 1450-1600
• History
• Women > Renaissance
• Women > Early works to 1800

Genre/Form

• Early works.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Language (note)

• Translated from the Italian.

Call Number

JFC 18-232

ISBN

• 9780226550633
• 022655063X

LCCN

2017043482

OCLC

1002128997

Author

Fonte, Moderata, 1555-1592, author.

Title

The merits of women : wherein is revealed their nobility and their superiority to men / Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo) ; edited, translated, and abridged by Virginia Cox ; with a new foreword by Dacia Maraini.

Publisher

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Language

Translated from the Italian.

Chronological Term

1450-1600

Added Author

Cox, Virginia, translator, editor.

Maraini, Dacia, writer of foreword.

Translation Of:

Translation of: Fonte, Moderata, 1555-1592. Merito delle donne.

Research Call Number

JFC 18-232