Humanism was a new philosophy that developed during the beginnings of the Italian Renaissance. It was defined by a new focus on humans, and their place I the universe. Humanism was dominated by men, but some women desired to seek out a humanistic education. Opinions on whether women should be allowed to be educated in humanism differed greatly. Some believed that women could receive the education (albeit with a limited curriculum), while others believed that women shouldn’t have any formal humanistic education. Taken together these documents show the differing viewpoints on women during the Renaissance.
The next document is one written by a women named Laura Cereta. Cereta was a highly educated woman born in the 1400s in Brecia. She was taught Latin, Greek and Mathematics. She studied humanism and faced hostility from some male humanists who didn’t believe that a woman could, or should be a humanist. In response she wrote a letter rebutting the criticism and…show more content… She says that his idea that women as learned as her are extremely rare is completely wrong. Saying in regards to that idea that he “[has] clearly clearly strayed from the path of truth and disseminate falsehood.” She goes onto to discuss how his praise of her is insincere and that he secretly desires to destroy her. Then she begins to defend all of women saying that if he had only attacked her, then she wouldn’t have done anything, but that fact that he attacked her entire sex is what caused her to write the letter. This is very important because it shows Cereta as a spokesperson for women. While we can’t know from this document how many woman also held Cereta’s views, we can know from this document that Cereta viewed herself, at least to some extent, as a defender of women. While this isn’t equivalent to feminism today, it is very interesting to see that at least some women during the Renaissance viewed women as equal to