FONTE, Moderata.

First edition of this important work from the early modern ‘querelles des femmes’. Moderata Fonte (Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi, 1555–92) was a Venetian writer and aristocrat, known for her numerous poetic works. She is most renowned for ‘Il Merito delle donne’, published after her death by childbirth. Contemporary feminist scholars consider her as one of the early feminist authors, upholding, first of all, that differences between men and women are not natural but nurtured and cultural. ‘Il Merito’ is a dialogue between 7 aristocratic Venetian women, prefaced by a life of Moderata Fonte, by her uncle, the author Giovanni Niccolò Doglioni. The refreshing conversation, employing traditional themes in new ways, offers a snapshot of what it was like to be a woman (albeit educated middle-class or aristocratic) in the early modern period. Cornelia, one of the speakers, makes the pun ‘marito’/‘martirio’ (husband/martyrdom) and decries husbands who turn themselves into ‘hateful guardians’ by keeping their wives so segregated, ‘like animals, confined within walls’. They discuss courtesans, sleepless nights awaiting for husbands returning after gambling losses only to have them take their anger out on them, and how, more generally, ‘one cannot find any men, young, middle-aged or old, able to love truly and honestly’; they also talk about medical remedies for men and women, education, and love generally. ‘Unlike previous “defenders of women”, Fonte contemplat[es] ways in which women might […] use their energies to free themselves from their dependence on men. The theme of emancipation recurs […] in different contexts and with different inflections, from the fantastic to the quotidian, the deliberately utopian to the tantalizingly attainable. At one extreme-self-consciously fantastic but nonetheless expressive of real tensions-is Leonora’s proposal in “Il merito delle donne” for an armed uprising by women against men’ (Cox, p.521). An important work.