4:00 PM | Introductory Presentation, “Performing Feminism in Renaissance Venice”
Sarah G. Ross | Professor and Chair, History Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

5:00 PM | Performance

Seven women debate gender equality, the true worth of women and the responsibility of husbands, fathers, sons and lovers. From a 1600 book written by a Venetian woman writer.

The Worth of Women (Il Merito delle donne)

By Moderata Fonte | Translated by Virginia Cox (University of Chicago Press, 1997)

Directed by Jay Stern in collaboration with Laura Caparrotti

Kairos Italy Theater, the main Italian theater company, in residence at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo’ presents seven women dialoging about gender equality and the responsibility of husbands and fathers.

Moderata Fonte was the pseudonym of Modesta Pozzo (1555–92), a Venetian woman who was something of an anomaly. Neither cloistered in a convent nor as liberated from prevailing codes of decorum as a courtesan might be, Pozzo was a respectable, married mother who produced literature in genres that were commonly considered “masculine”—the chivalric romance and the literary dialogue.

Published in 1600, The worth of women takes the form of the latter, with Fonte creating a conversation among seven Venetian noblewomen. The dialogue explores nearly every aspect of women’s experience in both theoretical and practical terms. These women, who differ in age and experience, take as their broad theme men’s curious hostility toward women and possible cures for it.

Through this witty and ambitious work, Fonte seeks to elevate women’s status to that of men, arguing that women have the same innate abilities as men and, when similarly educated, prove their equals. Through this dialogue, Fonte provides a picture of the private and public lives of Renaissance women, ruminating on their roles in the home, in society, and in the arts.

A fine example of Renaissance vernacular literature, this book is also a testament to the enduring issues that women face, including the attempt to reconcile femininity with ambition.

UB Humanities Institute, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, HI Performance Research Workshop, HI Early Modernisms Research Workshop, Gender Institute, RLL Italian Language Program Fund.