Dieci paradosse degli Accademici Intronati: il ruolo delle donne e l'uguaglianza tra uomini e donne

Abstract

Le Dieci paradosse degli Accademici Intronati ( Ten Paradoxes of the Intronati Academics ), 1564, is a still little-known volume in which twenty members of the Sienese academy dispute in pairs on various issues of great interest in the 16th century, using the technique of serious ludicrousness. This work illustrates in depth the ideas of the Sienese academicians that were widely accepted by the local high society and, in particular, by the women who were directly involved in the social activities of the academy and to whom the work was mainly addressed. The relevance of women in the text is confirmed by their presence, either explicitly or latently, in all the paradoxes in which the role of women in the Renaissance is widely discussed, gender equality is defended and female intellectual capacity is recognised. The main instrument is the formulation of a counter-discourse that confronts the fundamental ideas of Renaissance culture through a real micro-genre that is the paradox. This study will start from a reflection on the theoretical studies and literature of the Renaissance paradox, with particular attention to the role of the Accademia degli Intronati. Furthermore, the importance of women for the Intronati will be analysed, specifically we will examine paradoxes 7, 8 and 9, and the concept of virtue as a vehicle for equality between men and women.