Italian Women: Models for the Modern Woman

As an organization of Italian American educators, we were naturally proud to see Camille Paglia mentioned. But did you know that the deepest European roots of feminism were largely Italian as well?

The 14th-century writer Christine de Pinzan, Italian by birth, scandalized her adopted country of France with her ground-breaking attack on male chauvinism, Le Livre de la Cite des Dames" ("The Book of the City of Ladies"). In 1609, the Venetian poet Lucrezia Marinella responded to a popular anti-female tract, The Defects of Women, with her own essay, La Nobilità et l'Eccellenze delle Donne ("On the Nobility and Excellence of Women"). During the Renaissance, Isabella D'Este, the Marchioness of Mantua, embodied the very concept of a superwoman: scholar, linguist, dancer, musician, and skilled politician.

And in 1488, Laura Cereta of Brescia, the highly educated daughter of an engineer/physician father, might have been referring to today's egomaniacal feminist leaders when she wrote: "I might have forgiven those pathetic men, whose patient insanity I lash with unleashed tongue. But I cannot bear babbling and chattering women, glowing with drunkenness and wine, whose words harm not only our sex but even more themselves."

Bill Dal Cerro, President, Italic Institute of America, Floral Park, N.Y.Chicago