The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Chicago Series

by Lucrezia Marinella, Anne Dunhill (Translator), Letizia Panizza (Introduction)

A gifted poet, a women's rights activist, and an expert on moral and natural philosophy, Lucrezia Marinella (1571-1653) was known throughout Italy as the leading female intellectual of her age. Born into a family of Venetian physicians, she was encouraged to study, and, fortunately, she did not share the fate of many of her female contemporaries, who were forced to join convents or were pressured to marry early. Marinella enjoyed a long literary career, writing mainly religious, epic, and pastoral poetry, and biographies of famous women in both verse and prose. Marinella's masterpiece, The Nobility and Excellence of Women, and the Defects and Vices of Men was first published in 1600, composed at a furious pace in answer to Giusepe Passi's diatribe about women's alleged defects. This polemic displays Marinella's vast knowledge of the Italian poetic tradition and demonstrates her ability to argue against authors of the misogynist tradition from Boccaccio to Torquato Tasso. Trying to effect real social change, Marinella argued that morally, intellectually, and in many other ways, women are superior to men.

Genres: Philosophy, Feminism, Nonfiction, Classics, Renaissance, History, College

227 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Lucrezia Marinelli (c.1571–1653), also known as Lucrezia Marinelli Vacca and Lucrezia Marinella (pen name), was an Italian author, poet, and one of the early advocates of women's rights in Italy.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Cecile · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s 1600, women have barely any political, social, or economic rights, and Lucrezia Marinella decides to respond to various misogynists, arguing that women are not just equal to men, but are clearly far more noble, excellent and superior. In 1600?! How cool. So cool. So so cool. This is a pretty remarkable piece of political philosophy and proto-feminist writing, but also such an incredible piece of history.

Some of my favourite quotes:

“I have never wanted nor do I want nor will I ever want to be a man”.

“So if women are more beautiful than men, who, as can be seen, are generally coarse and ill-formed, who can deny that they are more remarkable?” (Lucrezia has some chef’s kiss insults throughout this)

“They (men) mistakenly seek to make women love them by saying that women are cruel, ungrateful and wicked.” (Apparently the “if he’s mean to you it means he likes you” flirting tactic was also popular over 400 years ago)

“Who could ever praise you enough, rich treasure of the world?” (At a time when women were so shamed just for being women, I find this so beautiful)

“If they (women) do not show their skills, it is because men do not allow them to practice them, since they are driven by obstinate ignorance, which persuades them that women are not capable of learning the things that they do.”

“I have avoided the fatigue of reading every history book available, knowing that their authors, being jealous of women’s noble deeds, have not recounted women’s most noble actions but have remained silent about them.”

“Women’s proper purpose is not to gratify men, but to understand, govern, generate, and adorn the world.”

“In order to demolish this opinion, I deny that woman is her husband’s servant.” (Excellent use of the word demolish)

[Julia (Shakespeare and Such) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.6/5 stars, full review to come! so mostly it’s really just several long lists of names, BUT it was a really interesting read and there were a few quotes that are absolutely savage and I love lucrezia for it

Organization : 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Enjoyment of subject/ideas: 4/5

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire series continues to amaze me - and it is so important that these works are found and made available to the public in general.

[Huck Lanier · Rating 4 out of 5]

She spitting, (at men's feet), and serving in her writing. Hope she's alright.

[Nikolai Rura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The syle of argument is basically going through the classics and listing every example of a woman who did something good (in response to anti-woman tracts written by others who do the same thing with every example of women doing something bad.) Read this book if you need to pick out a name for your daughter

[Cara (Wilde Book Garden) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

The format of this kind of argument in the 1600's means this wasn't always the most "readable" nonfiction, but I'm really glad I read it and I marked SO many lines. It's fascinating to note the differences in feminist thought here compared to today's, but also the many similarities.

And though most of this argument is based on long strings of quotations and examples, some of the feminist analysis is really brilliant and modern. Get wrecked, Giuseppe.

CW: Misogyny, misanthropy, sexism, suicide, abuse, classism; period: racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia; references to: animal death, torture, sexual abuse and rape

[María RP · Rating 2 out of 5]

No trato, aquí, del contenido de la obra de Lucrezia Marinella, en sí, sino que la terrible puntuación que acompaña a esta reseña se corresponde, pues, con la calidad de la edición. La introducción a la misma es aceptable, y se hallaba dentro de mis expectativas. Sin embargo, en el interior, solo podemos encontrarnos con dos de los capítulos que conforman su obra: "De la Nobleza de los Nombres con los que es adornado el sexo Femenino"; y "De las causas de las que dependen las Mujeres". Habrá que acudir a la edición en inglés...