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Title: Isotta Nogarola as a Public Intellectual
Subtitle: A New Letter from Silvestro Lando Concerning her Defense of Eve
Author(s): HENDRICKSON, Thomas , TADEL, Alex
Journal: Humanistica Lovaniensia
Volume: 73    Date: 2024   
Pages: 65-98
DOI: 10.2143/HLO.73.0.3294193

Abstract :
This article presents a Latin text and English translation of a new letter from Silvestro Lando, chancellor of Verona, to the humanist Isotta Nogarola. In the letter, Lando urges Nogarola to publish her epistolary exchange with Ludovico Foscarini, governor of Verona, in which they had engaged in a disputation over the relative guilt of Adam and Eve. This disputation is the work now known as the Defense of Eve (De pari aut impari Evae atque Adae peccato). Lando’s letter provides valuable evidence about the Defense of Eve, regarding such fundamental issues as the text’s authorship, date, and the early reception of the work. The letter, which portrays Nogarola as a public intellectual and a source of civic pride, also adds to our understanding of the ways in which male support enabled the spread of women’s writing in Renaissance Italy, as well as of the limits of this supportive stance.

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