Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender, and Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century

674 Pages·2008·5.58 MB·English

by  Jane Stevenson

WOMEN LATIN POETS
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W O M E N L A T I N
P O E T S
Language, Gender, and Authority, from
Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century
JANE STEVENSON
1
3
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Stevenson,Jane,1959–
WomenLatinpoets:language,gender,andauthority,fromantiquitytothe
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p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. (alk.paper)
1. Latinpoetry,Medievalandmodern–Womenauthors–Historyandcriticism. 2. Latin
poetry–Womenauthors–Historyandcriticism. 3. Women–Europe–Intellectuallife. 4. Feminist
andliterature–Europe. 5. Womenandliterature–Europe. 6. Authorityinliterature.
7. Sexroleinliterature. I. Title.
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CATHEDRATICAE ORNATISSIMAE
MARGARET J. M. EZELL
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Acknowledgements
The dedication of this book expresses my profound sense that, of all the many
scholarlyworkswhichIconsultedinitspreparation,thoseofProfessorMargaret
Ezell were the most profoundly original: though learned women per se have not
beenhercentralconcern,Ihavefoundherapproachdeeplyilluminating,andhave
come to feel that I owe her an intellectual debt which I am more than happy to
acknowledge.
Iamalsosincerelygratefulforthegeneroushelpandassistanceaffordedtothis
projectbyalargenumberofindividualsandinstitutions.
Myfirstdebtistothelibrarieswhichhaveallowedmetoconsultmanuscriptsand
rarebooksintheircare,andgrantedmepermissiontociteorquotetheirtexts:in
Belgium,theBibliothe`queRoyale,Brussels;inDenmark,theKongeligeBibliotek,
Copenhagen;inEngland,theUniversityLibrary,Cambridge,theCumbriaCounty
Record Office, Carlisle, the Public Record Office, Kew, the archive of Hatfield
House,theHertfordshireCountyRecordOffice,Hertford,theNorthamptonshire
Record Office, Northampton, the Nottinghamshire County Record Office, Not-
tingham,theLeicestershireCountyRecordOffice,Leicester,theBritishLibrary,
London,theLibraryoftheSocietyofFriends,London,theUniversityofLondon
Library,London,DrWilliams’sLibrary,London,theBodleianLibrary,Oxford,
andtheWarwickshireCountyRecordOffice,Warwick;inFrance,theBibliothe`que
de l’Arsenal, Paris, Bibliothe`que Mazarine, Paris, Bibliothe`que Nationale de
France,Paris,andBibliothe`queSainte-Genevie`ve,Paris;inGermany,theBayer-
ischeStaatsbibliothek,Munich,andtheHerzog-AugustBibliothek,Wolfenbu¨ttel;
inItaly,theBibliotecacivicaAngeloMai,Bergamo,theArchiviodistato,Biblioteca
comunale dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna, the Biblioteca universitaria, Bologna, the
Biblioteca comunale Ariosteia, Ferrara, the Biblioteca Laurentiana, Florence,
the Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Florence, the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence,
the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, the Archivio storico comunale, Modena, the
BibliotecaEstense,Modena,theBibliotecanazionale,Naples,theBibliotecamuseo
civico, Padua, the Biblioteca universitaria, Padua, the Biblioteca museo Bottacin,
Padua, the Biblioteca universitaria, Pavia, the Biblioteca Roncioniana, Prato, the
BibliotecaClassense,Ravenna,theBibliotecanazionalecentraleVittorioEmanuele,
Rome, the Biblioteca comunale Augusta, Perugia, the Biblioteca comunale degli
Intronati, Siena, the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, the Biblioteca comunale
Bertolina, Verona; in the Netherlands, the Koniglijke Bibliotheek, The Hague,
the Universiteitsbibliotheek, Leiden; in Scotland, the University Library, Aber-
deen,theUniversityLibrary,Edinburgh,theNationalLibraryofScotland,Edin-
burgh; in Spain, the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, the Biblioteca Universitaria,
Salamanca,theInstitutoInteruniversitariodeEstudiosdeIberoame´ricayPortugal,
viii Acknowledgements
Salamanca, the Archivio General, Simancas, and the Biblioteca del Colegia de
SantaCruz,Valladolid;inSweden,theKungligaBiblioteket,Stockholm,andthe
Universitetsbiblioteket, Uppsala; in the United States, the Houghton Library,
Cambridge, and the Newberry Library, Chicago; in Vatican City, the Biblioteca
apostolica.
I would like to record that the number of librarians and archivists in many
countrieswhohavegoneoutoftheirwaytobehelpfulisbothheartwarmingand
astonishing:inmanycasestheydidnotevengivemetheirnames,butIamgrateful
to them all the same, severally and collectively. I owe particular debts to the
always-helpful RareBooks andManuscripts librarians intheBritish Libraryand
tothe staff of Duke Humphrey’s library, to DrJayne Ringrose in particular, but
also to the other staff of the Cambridge University Library, the Rare Books
librarians at the Koniglijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, Dr Z. Jagodzinski at the
PolishLibrary,Hammersmith,amanuscriptslibrarianintheBibliotecauniversi-
taria,Bologna,whogavemeanamazingamountofhertimebutrefusedtogiveher
name, Frau Dr Foohs and other staff of the Staatsbibliothek in Munich, A´ngel
Luis Redero Herna´ndez in the Instituto Interuniversitario de Estudios de Ibero-
ame´rica y Portugal in Salamanca, A. Ce´sar Castro of the Universidad Nacional
Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru, who kindly answered queries by email, the
Rare Books librarian in the Universitetsbiblioteket in Uppsala, Dottoressa Mar-
gherita Carboni, the manuscripts librarian at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice,
andDrJacobThomsenattheKongeligeBibliotek,Copenhagen.
TheUniversityofWarwickwasgenerouswithtravelgrants,creativesolutions,
andvariouskindsofassistanceduringmytimethere,whileseveralmembersofits
administrativestaffwentoutoftheirwayformeinonesenseoranother:Iwould
thereforeliketothankGilesCarden,NikkiMuckle,IreneBlood,andJanetBailey.
The AHRB generously supported travel and research assistance, enabling me to
visitItaly,France,Spain,Sweden,andGermany,aswellasenablingmetodraw
on the talents of research assistants in three different countries—they have also
beenpatientwhenitalltookmuchlongerthanitwasmeantto.
Thanksarealsoduetoanumberofprivateindividuals,friends,colleagues,and
fellow members of the respublica litterarum who have answered questions, dis-
cussedideas,sentreferences,offeredinsights,orhelpedinotherwaysoverwhatis
nowaconsiderableperiodoftime(includingseveralofOxfordUniversityPress’s
anonymouslearnedreaders).ThenetworksofsupportandfriendshipwhichIhave
suggested formed part of the experience of early modern learned women have
certainlyformedpartofmyowninwritingthisbook.Itisinvidioustodoanything
butlistthosewhohavehelpedmeinalphabeticalorder.Iamgratefulforallkinds
of reasons to Marianne Alenius, Maria Rosa Antognazza, Ros Ballaster, Susan
Bassnett, Jill Bepler, Titus Bicknell, Jim Binns, Louise Bourdua, Maisie Brown,
SylviaBrown,PatriciaBru¨ckmann,AbigailBrundin,VickiBurke,BernardCapp,
AnnaCarrdus,LaurieChurchill, Elizabeth Clarke,Marie-LouiseCoolahan,Ceri
Davies,RuthDawson,IngriddeSmet,StellaFletcher,EdFoster,PaulGehl,Joan
Gibson, Gilbert Gigliotti, John Gilmore, Elisabet Go¨ransson, Nick Graham,
Acknowledgements ix
Alastair Hamilton, Anthony Harvey, Yasmin Haskell, Fr. Bob Hendrie, Ma´ire
Herbert, Steve Hindle, Brenda Hosington, Howard Hotson, David Howlett,
Arnold Hunt, Lorna Hutson, Josef Ijsewijn, Stephen Jaeger, James Knowles,
Piotr Kuhiwczak, Margaret Lantry, Guy Lee, Henrique Leitao, Judi Loach,
RogerLonsdale,RichardMaber,Fr.RupertMcArdy,PeterMack,NoelMalcolm,
Michael Mallet, Jeremy Maule, Constant Mews, Shayne Mitchell, Dominic
Montserrat, Cornelia Niekus Moore, Clara Mucci, Penny Murray, Christina
Neagu, David Norbrook, Jane Ohlmeyer, Holt Parker, Georgina Paul, Frederik
Pedersen, Andrew Pettegree, Ursula Phillips, Lee Piepho, Yopie Prins, Alison
Rawles,DomDanielRees,JamieReidBaxter,AlisonSaunders,WolfgangSchibel,
Sabina Sharkey, Richard Sharpe, Alison Shell, Gabriela Signiori, Nigel Smith,
Fr. Pavel St Grigoriev, Anne Thompson, Laura Tosi, Piotr Urbanski, Pieta van
Beek, Lenka Vytlacilova, Mara Wade, Roger Walker, Michael Wyatt, Louise
Yeoman, and Carla Zecher—and there are doubtless others I have forgotten to
include,towhomIoffermyapologies.
I owe a particular debt to my research assistants: Janet Fairweather in Cam-
bridge, who also greatly improved the translations, Paul Gwynn in Rome, Carol
MorleyinLondon,andMariskaRoosinTheHague,andalsothepeoplewholived
withmeatvariousstagesofthisproject,whoofferedhelpandencouragementboth
academicandpersonal,AndrewBiswell,KateChegdzoy,Siobha`nKeenan,Dom-
inicMontserrat,DavidMorley,WinifredStevenson—andaboveall,PeterDavid-
son,thefirstpersontothinkthatthiswasaprojectworthtackling.MycatVenetia
contributedaccordingtoherlightsbypostingadeadrodentintoabox-filefullof
irreplaceable Xeroxes (filed under ‘A’; for ‘A mouse’?): all subsequent feline
intervention has thankfully been confined to quality assurance, which is to say,
thecreativerearrangementofpilesofpaper.
Parts of the thinking for this book were tried on a variety of audiences in the
formofpapers,andIwouldliketothanktheparticipantsfortheirresponses:the
Newberry Library, Chicago, seminar on Catholic culture in early modern Eng-
land,theCentreforEarlyModernStudies,UniversityofAberdeen,theeleventh
congress of the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies, held in Cam-
bridge, the Department of History, University of Edinburgh, the International
Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, the seventeenth-century group at the
UniversityofDurham,theWomen,TextandHistoryseminar,MansfieldCollege,
Oxford, the Boston/Tu¨bingen International Association for the Study of the
ClassicalTradition,Tu¨bingen,theNeo-LatinSeminar,UniversityofCambridge,
the European Universities and Elites in the Renaissance conference at the Uni-
versityofWarwick’sCentrefortheStudyoftheRenaissance,theFriendshipand
Friendship NetworksintheMiddle Agesconference atKing’sCollege,London,
andtheWarwickClassicsSeminar.