The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 2, Winter 2019 | Page 38

The Saber
Ermolao Barbaro (1410–1471), a clergyman,
at the same time she wrote to
her intellectual family. Writing to men
not related to her was a bold act and the
first indication that Isotta did not care
to conform to the conventional rules of
her society. No matter who she wrote to,
however, Isotta demonstrated from the
start that she had intellectual prowess.
The correspondence within and outside
her intellectual family was laced with
classical references from Cicero, Petronius,
Plutarch, and Virgil. 5 Moreover,
she wrote in Latin. Those were characteristics
of male intellectuals more than
half her senior, not an eighteen-yearold
girl. 6
Then, Guarino Veronese (1374–
1460), the distinguished humanist
scholar of Verona, heard of Isotta’s remarkable
intelligence and eloquence in
letters from her brother-in-law in 1436,
praised her as a prodigy and knowledgeable
in the classics, compared her to the
heroines of antiquity, and said Verona
should be proud of producing such an
intelligent daughter. 7 Other prominent
Veronese humanists also became aware
of Isotta’s remarkable intelligence and
eloquence and praised her for it, even
going so far as to say that “the whole female
sex should rejoice and consecrate
statues to Isotta as the ancient Egyptians
had to Isis.” 8 Then later in 1436,
Isotta was invited to correspond with
Guarino himself. Margaret L. King and
Diana Robin stress that “by engaging
in this correspondence with [Guarino]
and his circle, Isotta became known to
the leading humanists of northeastern
Italy and also to groups beyond.” 9 That
would have been very important for
1