while her husband was absent, and the court of Mantua, a small state, was famed for its intellectual brilliance. Women’s writings revealed their conviction that they should have economic power, property and education to achieve an identity in a world dominated by men. Balthasar Castiglione, author and diplomat, wrote in his book The Courtier ( ): ‘I hold that a woman should in no way resemble a man as regards her ways, manners, words, gestures and bearing. Thus just as it is very fitting that a man should display a certain robust and sturdy manliness, so it is well for a woman to have a certain soft and delicate tenderness, with an air of feminine sweetness in her every movement, which, in her going and staying and whatsoever she does, always makes her appear a woman, without any resemblance to a man.
If this precept be added to the rules that these gentlemen have taught the courtier, then I think that she ought to be able to make use of many of them, and adorn herself with the finest accomplishments... For I consider that many virtues of the mind are as necessary to a woman as to a man; as it is to be of good family; to shun affectation: to be naturally graceful; to be well mannered, clever and prudent; to be neither proud, envious or evil- tongued, nor vain... to perform well and gracefully the sports suitable for women.’ ACTIVITY Compare the aspirations for women expressed by a woman (Fedele) and by a man (Castiglione). Did they have only women of a particular class in mind?
Isabella d’Este.