Women Interpreting Genesis in Early Modern Italy. Arguments Supporting Gender Equality

The essay examines how in and around Venice the defence of women’s dignity was inspired by biblical reading. In her “Women Interpreting Genesis in Early Modern Italy. Arguments Favouring Gender Equality”, she shows how the traditional judgement that assigned Eve greater responsibility for original sin was first opposed by Isotta Nogarola, a learned young woman who had received a refined classical education in Verona in the fifteenth century. Nogarola made use of various biblical passages to support her argument that Adam was equally responsible for the Fall. In the following century, Moderata Fonte used a similar interpretation of passages from Genesis to defend the worth and nobility of women. This interpretation of Genesis became even more significant when the praise of women, developed during the Renaissance, turned to misogyny in the seventeenth century, and women’s dignity was seriously threatened in an oppressive society. Arcangela Tarabotti’s arguments in her Paternal Tyranny were mainly taken from Genesis and opposed the anti-woman positions adopted in some novels written by members of the Accademia degli Incogniti concerning the story of Adam and Eve.