The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 2, Winter 2019 | Page 52

The Aristotelian Philosophi
The Effect on Isotta Nog
ing with Platonism instead, and would
have, therefore, made her a target for
condemnation by her culture.
Isotta was also eloquent, which
was publicly acknowledged by Guarino
and other male humanists in Verona
and Venice. Since that was only a characteristic
acceptable in men, according
to Aristotle, that was a challenge for
Isotta. She knew her eloquence did not
follow the customs of her city but was
eloquent anyway; she told Ermolao and
Guarino that she could not “stay silent”
just to prove to everyone that she was
wrong. 49 Even though her eloquence
marked her as a highly intelligent humanist
scholar, in 1430s Venice she was
perceived as an aberration of female
nature, a threat to male propriety, a female
claiming power in a realm solely
reserved for men, and a threat to Venice’s
superiority.
Those notions did not change for
eloquent women in Northern Italy until
1480, when learned ladies were no longer
deemed a threat to society; civic humanism
had finally broken through the
barrier of Aristotelianism. 50 According
to Aileen Feng, a learned lady by 1500
“was a familiar and sanctioned enough
figure to have been [designated] as kind
of a national treasure, routinely boasted
of by compatriots as an honor to her
city and kin.” 51 For instance, Cassandra
Fedele (1465–1558) was considered an
exceptional woman and a symbol of
Venetian superiority in 1490 for her
success and intelligence as a humanist
scholar. Additionally, Laura Cereta
(1469–1499), who argued that all
women, as human beings, had a right
2