Women and Humanism: Nine Factors for the Woman Learning

Abstract

This article attempts a survey of the phenomenon of the learned woman in the Renaissance to 1600. It singles out and examines nine factors that increased the possibility of a girl receiving a humanist education; each modifies the notion of humanism exclusively as preparation for men in public life: 1) It helped to be royal. 2) It helped to be noble. 3) It helped to be magnificent. 4) It helped to be at court. 5) It helped to have a humanist father. 6) It helped to have a brother. 7) It helped to have parents who believed in the moral value of humanitas. 8) It helped to be Protestant. 9) It helped to love learning.