TEXTS ON GENDER FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE 17TH CENTURY

Robert Baldwin
Connecticut College
rwbal@conncoll.edu

www.socialhistoryofart.com

March 2010 edition.

Ca. 5,610 pages in 280 thematic folders

This anthology began in 1997. It is a work in progress with 100 pages of material added yearly.
Most texts have been typed or scanned; some downloaded from the web. Texts are listed below
chronologically. Asterisked items have not yet been typed. i In 75 years, the copyright on this
material will run out and it can be freely distributed.

Along with the AUTHORS folder where most items have been placed, almost every text has
been placed in one or more of 280 thematic folders encompassing almost every important gender
theme from antiquity to the late 17th century. While shorter passages have been cut and pasted
into separate documents and distributed to other folders, I have not gone through every text and
done this as that would be a lifetime job. PC users can find all references to a particular woman
or any other keyword by right clicking on the AUTHORS folder, then clicking on SEARCH, and
typing a keyword in the 2nd window (the window labeled “A word or phrase in the file”). Mac
users have their own way of doing keyword searches through hundreds of documents at once.

In some cases, I have inserted some cross references in topic folders but these lists are
incomplete. My web site also has many essays on gender issues as these have been central to my
work since the late 1980s.

CLASSICAL WRITINGS
"Homer," Hymn to Earth; 8-7th B.C.
"Homer", Hymn to Aphrodite; 8-7th B.C.
*Homer, Iliad; Penthesileia; 8-7th B.C.
Homer, Iliad, V.265-269; XX.231-235, Ganymede
*Homer, Odyssey, Penelope; 8-7th B.C.
Homer, Odyssey, IV.550-560; V.63-228 (Calypso); 8-7th B.C.)
i

OTHER GENDER ANTHOLOGIES

Agonito, Rosemary, History of Ideas on Woman: A Source Book, New York: Paragon Books, 1977
Bell, Susan Groag, ed., Women from the Greeks to the French Revolution, Stanford, 1973
Blamires, Alcuin, Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1992
Kvam, Kristen, Linda Schearing, and Valarie Ziegler, eds., Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender,
Bloomington, Indiana Univ Press, 1998

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Homer, Odyssey, VIII.260-370 (Mars and Venus)
Homer, Odyssey, X.210-500 (Circe; 8-7th B.C.)
Homer, Odyssey, XI, (on divine rapes and world history; 8-7th B.C.)
Hesiod, Theogony, 1-114 (Muses; c. 725 B.C.)
Hesiod, Theogony, 189-206, Birth of Aphrodite
*Hesiod, Theogony 270-283 (Medusa; c. 725 B.C.)
Hesiod, Theogony, 294-306, Echidna, monstrous nymph, half woman, half serpent
Hesiod, Theognomy, 570-612 (Pandora; c. 725 B.C.)
Hesiod, Works and Days, 47-105 (Pandora; c. 725 B.C.)
Hesiod, Elegies, 1249-1388 (homoerotic pastoral, Venus, spring, marriage)
*Pindar, Pythian Odes, 4 (Medea; 470-460 B.C.)
Pindar, Pythian Odes, 9 (bridal rape of Cyrene by Apollo) 470-460 B.C.)
*Plato, Republic, V (active 385-347 B.C.)
Plato, Symposium, 179e, 195b-196b, 210b-212c (superiority of homosexual love; inner and
outer beauty, active 385-347 B.C.)
Plato, Protagoras, 309 a-d (Socrates, homoerotic love vs. love of wisdom; active 385-347 B.C.)
Plato, Timaeus, 49 (active 385-347 B.C.)
Plato, Laws, 636d (Ganymede)
Plato, Phaedrus, (Ganymede)
Aristotle, Generation of Animals I.2, 7, 16, 19-23; II.1, 3-6; III.2, 10; IV.1-6, 10; V.3, 7 (384-322
B.C.)
Aristotle, Parts of Animals III.1 (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle, Politics, I.5 (384-322 B.C.)
Xenophon, Oeconomicus (355-362 B.C.)
Xenophon, Banquet (Ganymede, Dionysius and Ariadne)
”Theophrastus,” Golden Book on Marriage
*Menander, Thais, active 321-c.290 BC
Theocritus, Idyll, VII, XI, XV, XXII, XXVII, before 260 B.C.
Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter; 270-240 B.C.
Callimachus, Bath of Pallas, 270-240 B.C.
*Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika, 3.7ff (Medea ca. 273-260 B.C.)
Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika, 2.500-513 (Apollo rapes Cyrene, ca. 273-260 B.C.)
*Terence, Eunuch, c. 190 - c. 160 BC
*Terence, Mother-in-Law, c. 190 - c. 160 BC
*Apollodorus, Epitome, 7.31-39 (Penelope; 145-110 B.C.)
*Apollodorus, Epitome, 5.1-2 (Penthesileia; 145-110 B.C.)
Moschus, Rape of Europa
Lucretius, The Nature of Things, I.1-42 (Venus and nature; before 55 B.C.)
Lucretius, The Nature of Things, IV.1030-1287 (sexuality, mad lust, men dominated by women,
blind love, marriage)
Lucretius, The Nature of Things, V.735-750, 780-836 (Venus, spring, Mother earth)
Catullus, Poems, XXXIV (Diana; ca. 60-20 B.C.)
*Catullus, Poems, LXI, Epithalamium (ca. 60-20 B.C.)
Catullus, Poems, LXII, Epithalamium (ca. 60-20 B.C.)
Catullus, Poems, LXIII (Cybele; ca. 60-20 B.C.)
Catullus, Poems, LXIV (Ariadne, ca. 60-20 B.C.)

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Diodorus Siculus, World History, II.4-20 (Sardanapalus) ca. 60-30 B.C.
*Diodorus Siculus, World History, II.23-28 (Semiramis) ca. 60-30 B.C.
*Cicero, De Invent. II.1.1 (Zeuxis paints Helen of Troy)
Livy, History of Rome, I (Rape of the Sabines, 25-20 B.C.)
Livy, History of Rome, I.57-59 (Lucretia, 25-20 B.C.)
*Livy, History of Rome, III.44-58 (Death of Virginia; 25-20 B.C.)
Livy, History of Rome, 26:50 (Continence of Scipio; 25-20 B.C.)
*Livy History of Rome, 30:15 (Sophonisba; 25-20 B.C.)
Horace, Odes 1.23 (young woman as timid fawn)
Horace, Odes 1.37 (Cleopatra)
Horace, Odes, 3.27 (Jupiter and Europa)
Horace, Carmen saeculare (Augustan Rome as a fertile, pastoral earth mother)
Virgil, Aeneid, I.419-756; IV.1-705; VI.450-476 (Dido and feminized Aeneas; 26-19 B.C.)
Virgil, Aeneid, V.249-257
Virgil, Aeneid, VIII.608-641, 729-731 (Venus as Mother of Rome, Cleopatra; 26-19 B.C.)
*Virgil, Aeneid, XI:539-828 (Camilla; 26-19 B.C.)
Propertius, Elegies, III.9 Cleopatra
Ovid, Heroides, 5, Oenone to Paris
Ovid, Heroides, 9, Dejanira to Hercules
Ovid, Heroides, 10, Ariadne to Theseus
Ovid, Heroides, 16, Paris to Helen
Ovid, Heroides 17 “Helen to Paris”
Ovid, Metamorphoses, I (Apollo and Daphne, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, II (Zeus rapes Europa)
*Ovid, Metamorphoses, III (Zeus rapes Semele)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, III (Echo and Narcissus)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV (Pyramus and Thisbe)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV (Mars and Venus)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV.765-786 (Medusa; Perseus and Andromeda)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, V.572-641 (Arethusa)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, (Arachne and Athena, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, (Boreas rapes Orithyia, before 18 AD)
*Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, (Niobe, before 18 AD)
*Ovid, Metamorphoses, VII, (Cephalus and Procris, before 18 AD)
*Ovid, Metamorphoses, VII:162ff (Medea)
*Ovid, Metamorphoses, X (Atalanta)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, X (Ganymede)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, X (Orpheus)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, X (Venus and Adonis)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, X, (Galatea and Pygmalion, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XI, (Thetis Raped by Peleus, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIII, (Polyxena Sacrificed, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIII, (Galatea and Polyphemus, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIV, (Circe, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIV (Pomona and Vertumnus, before 18 AD)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIV: 130-153, (Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl, before 18 AD)

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Ovid, Metamorphoses, XV (Helen's fugitive beauty; before 18 AD)
Ovid, Fasti, I.390-440 (Priapus tries to rape Lotis)
Ovid, Fasti, II (Hercules and Omphale)
Ovid, Fasti, III.1-42 (Mars rapes Silvia, Mother of Romulus and Remus)
Ovid, Fasti, IV.85-132 (Venus, April, Nature)
Ovid, Art of Love I.89-134 (Rape of Sabines)
Ovid, Art of Love, II.460-487 (Venus as civilizing force in early human history)
Seneca, On Benefits I.3 (Three Graces, 35-65 AD)
Senece, Controversies, (effeminate, debauched youth)
Columella, On Agriculture, X (Venus, gardens, spring, Nature; ca. 60 AD)
Lucan, Civil War, 10 (Cleopatra)
Statius, Epithalamium, 45-96 AD
Statius, Tresses of Flavius Earinus, 45-96 AD
Statius, Achilleid, I (Achilless effeminized; 45-96 AD)
Plutarch, Antiochus and Stratonice (from his Life of Demetrius)
Plutarch, On Conjugal Duties (70-90 AD)
*Plutarch, The Virtues of Women (70-90 AD)
Plutarch, Life of Romulus, (Rape of the Sabines; 70-90 AD)
Plutarch, Life of Antony, (Cleopatra; 70-90 AD)
Plutarch, Life of Pompey, (ruler effeminized by younger wife; 70-90 AD)
Martial, Epigrams (active 70-103 AD)
Dio Chrysostom, 2nd Discourse on Kingship (effeminate lushly overgrown grotto of Circe and
palace of Menelaus vs. spartan palace of Odysseus; effeminate tyrant vs. manly
king's virtue; active 70-ca. 115 AD)
Dio Chrysostom, 4th Discourse on Kingship (Alexander Great as epitome of "feminine" luxuria:
greed, pride, and lust)
Dio Chrysostom, 5th Discourse on Kingship (man-eating, beautiful she-monster inhabits deserts
of Libya, allegory of dangerous female beauty and male lust; active 70-ca. 115
AD)
Dio Chrysostom, 11th Discourse on Kingship, (Judgment of Paris); active 70-ca. 115 AD.
Dio Chrysostom, 20th Discourse on Kingship, (Judgment of Paris) active 70-ca. 115 AD.
Dio Chrysostom, 62th Discourse on Kingship, (Sardanapalus) active 70-ca. 115 AD.
Tacitus, Annals, III.33-35 (defeat of argument warning against women's corrupt nature and its
impact on Rome; ca. 80-115 AD)
*Tacitus, Annals, XIII.45-46; (Sabina Poppea; ca. 80-115 AD)
Tacitus, Dialogue on Oratory, 28-29 (early virtuous Roman women nursed and educated their
own children; ca. 80-115 AD)
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 9.58-59 (pearls, foreign luxury, and Cleopatra)
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 35:36 (Alexander, Apelles and Campaspe; Zeuxis paints Helen
of Troy using 5 maidens as models; d. 79 AD)
Pliny the Younger, Panegyric on Trajan, (the ideal wife)
Juvenal, Satires, VI, (long attack on women; ca. 95-130 AD)
Apuleius, Golden Ass, V (Psyche and palace of Cupid; Pan); X (Ceres, Venus, Proserpina,
Mother Earth; Judgment of Paris) 160-170 AD
Lucian, The Dead Come to Life, or, The Fishermen, (False philosophy as a courtesan; ca. 160-
180 AD)

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Lucian, Herodotus, 4-6 (Alexander and Roxana; ca. 160-180 AD)
Lucian, Essays in Portraiture, (perfect female beauty; ca. 160-180 AD)
Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods, "Triton and Nereids" (Athena, Perseus, Medusa,
Andromeda)
Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods, "West Wind and South Wind" (Zeus rapes Europa); "Zeus and
Hera" (Ganymede); "Zeus and Ganymede"
Lucian, Dialogues of the Courtesans,
Galen, On the Usefulness of the Parts, XIV (170-199 AD)
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistarum, VIII.335-336 (Sardanapalus); XII (60 pages on effeminate
luxury; ca. 192-200 AD)
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines II.18, “Polyphemus and Galatea” (late 2nd century)
Cassius Dio, The Roman History, 50.4-6; 24-28, 51:.13-15, 210 AD (Cleopatra)
Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon, I; II.35-37; III.7 (pastoral rape of Europa, Daphne, etc.;
debate on which sex is superior; homoerotic love; Perseus and Andromeda; ca.
250-300 AD)
Gellius, Attic Nights, III.1 (effeminate avarice); V.11 (dangers/virtues of marriage; c. 170 AD)
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Philosophers, IV.7 (Xenocrates vs. courtesans, Phyrne and Lais; ca.
220-250 AD)
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Philosophers, IV.48 (Bion on dangers of marriage; ca. 220-250 AD)
Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy, I (Penthesilea, Oenone) ca. 330-370 AD
Aristides Quintilianus, On Music, II.8, 10, 13, 16, 19; III.21, 25 (3rd or 4th AD)
Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, XIV.6; 380-390 AD (Semiramis)
Claudian, Panegyric on the Consuls Probinus and Olybrius (Minerva as imperial Rome; 395 AD)
Claudian, Against Eutropius, I (Lais of Corinth; eunuchs, Eastern "effeminacy"; c. 390-404)
Claudian, Fescennine Verses in Honour of the Marriage of the Emperor Honorius (Mars and
Venus, Toilette of Venus, Garden of Venus, bridal beauty, c. 390-404 AD)
Claudian, On Stilicho's Consulship, III, II.53 (Stilicho/Rome's cosmic power like a mother; c.
390-404)
Claudian, In Praise of Serena (encomium of female ruler)
Claudian, Epithalamium of Palladius and Celerina (sleeping Venus; c. 399 AD)
Claudian, The Magnet (Venus and Mars; c. 390-404 AD)
Nonnos, Dionysiaca, V.287-488 (Artemis-Diana and Actaeon; ca. 450-500 AD)
Nonnos, Dionysiaca, V.600-621 (Persephone raped by Zeus; ca. 450-500 AD)
Nonnos, Dionysiaca, VII.166-367 (Semele raped by Zeus; ca. 450-500 AD)
Nonnos, Dionysiaca,X-11 (Bacchus’s love for the youth, Ampelos)
Nonnos, Dionysiaca, XI.484-521 (Seasons dancing; ca. 450-500 AD)
Nonnos, Dionysiaca, XVI.1-405 (Nicaia raped by Dionysius; ca. 450-500 AD)
*Nonnos, Dionysiaca, XLVII (Ariadne, Theseus, and Dionysius; ca. 450-500 AD)
Nonnos, Dionysiaca, XLVIII.563-665 (Aura raped by Dionysius; ca. 450-500 AD)

BIBLICAL AND MEDIEVAL WRITINGS

Old Testament: Genesis 1-3 Adam and Eve
*Old Testament: Genesis 19:14-38 Lot and His Daughters
*Old Testament: Judges 4; Jael and Sisera
Old Testament: Judges 15:14-16; 16:4-30 Samson and Delilah

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Old Testament: 2 Samuel XI David and Bathsheba
Old Testament: 1 Kings 11; Solomon and his Wives
Old Testament: II Kings 9:30-37; Jezebel
Old Testament: Proverbs 31:10-31
Old Testament: Canticles (conjugal sexuality)
Old Testament: Isaiah 3:9-26; 4:1-4; 5:11-15 (God punishes the proud daughters of Zion;
clothes, jewelry; insatiable female mouth of hell)
Old Testament: Jeremiah 3:1-14 (faithless Israel as an adulteress and whore)
*Old Testament: Daniel 13 (Suzannah and the Elders)
Old Testament: Book of Judith, Judith and Holofernes
New Testament: Matthew 5:27-32 (marriage, divorce, lust as adultery)
New Testament: Matthew 25:1-13 (parable of the wise and foolish virgins)
New Testament: Mark: 6: 16-28 (Salome, Herodias, and John the Baptist)
New Testament: Luke 7:36-50 (penitent Magdalen)
New Testament: John 20:13-18 (risen Christ and Magdalen)
New Testament: John 8:1-12 (Christ and the adulteress)
New Testament: Corinthians 6:9-20; 7:1-15, 25-40; 11:1-15; 14:34-35 (marriage better than
fornication but virginity best of all; wifely obedience, head covered in church; female
silence)
New Testament: Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-5 (obedience of wife, children, servants)
New Testament: Colossians 3:18-22 (wifely obedience)
New Testament: 1 Timothy 2:9-15 (female silence, obedience, Adam and Eve)
*New Testament: 1 Timothy 5:1-16 (widows)
New Testament: 1 Peter 3:1-9 (wifely obedience, weaker vessel)
New Testament: Revelations 2, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21
Clement of Rome, Two Epostles on Virginity,
Ephraim, On the Sinful Woman (Mary Magdalen)
Clement of Alexandria, Instructor, I.5-6 , ca. 190-195 AD (God as father and mother to
Christian “children”)
Clement of Alexandria, Instructor, II, III ca. 190-195 AD (200 page comprehensive discussion
of sexuality, gender roles, marriage and family, true beauty vs. female dress and
adornment, male embellishment, feasting, drinking, bathing, and laughter)
Philo, Allegorical Interpretation, II.8-20 (Adam as divine mind, Eve as sinful body/five senses;
ca. 180-215 AD)
Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women (190-220 AD)
Tertullian, On Modesty, (190-220 AD)
Tertullian, On Monogamy, (190-220 AD)
Tertullian, To His Wife, (190-220 AD)
Tertullian, On Chastity, (190-220 AD)
Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins, (190-220 AD)
Methodius, Banquet of Ten Virgins, (virginity; 290-310 AD)
Cyprian, The Discipline and Advantage of Chastity (no longer given to Cyprian)
Cyprian, The Dress of Virgins
Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity,
Lactantius, The Workmanship of God, 12 (medical body; 303-304 AD)

6
Eusebius, Life of Constantine, sections on: Ecclesia as Mystical Bride, on Christian Chastity
(resembling Lucretia), and Helena, the pious empress; sibyls
Ambrose, On Virginity (380-95 AD)
Ambrose, Concerning Widows,
John Chrysostom, Homily on Matthew, [Magdalen] 385-400 AD
Jerome, Against Jovinian, (active 380-420 AD)
Jerome, Letter on the Education of Paula, (403 AD)
Jerome, Letter to Marcella (widowhood)
Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, (active 385-430 AD)
Augustine, The City of God, *I.12, 14; I.18-20 (Lucretia); II.17, III.13 (Rape of Sabines);
XIX.16 (patriarchal family as bedrock of city and state); active 385-430 AD
Augustine, On Continence, On Virginity, On Good of Marriage, On Widowhood
Augustine, The City of God, XIV.22 (marriage)
Prudentius, The Origin of Sin, lines 298-339, (effeminate men; ca. AD 380-410)
Fulgentius, Mythologies, I.20 (Ganymede); I.22 (Admetus and Alcestis); II.1 (Judgment of
Paris); II.2 (Hercules and Omphale); II.8 (Ulysses and the Sirens); II.9 (Scylla);
II.11 (Minerva and Vulcan); ca. 480-520 AD
Deacon James, Pelagia Passing By (pagan actress repents and becomes desert hermit disguised
as man)
Sophronius, St. Mary of Egypt: (prostitute repents and becomes desert saint)
Anon. Greek author, Life of Thais (prostitute who repents, converts to Christainity, and lives
sealed up in a small room in a desert monastery)
Deacon Ephraim , Life of Maria, niece of Abraham (harlot repents and becomes hermit)
Procopius, The Secret History, (Empress Theodora as harlot)
Greek Anthology, V.60 (Bathing Diana), XVI.92 (sexual labor of Hercules; Vanitas epigrams on
female beauty)
Codex Justinianus, On Freedwomen Married to Servile Husbands, ca. 530 AD
Codex Justinianus, Children of Mixed Marriages, c. 530
Corpus Iuris Civilis, “Marriage Laws,” ca. 530s
Gregory the Great, Homily on Luke, XXXIII, 591 AD, (Mary Magdalen legend)
Leo III, Ecloga, “The Contract of Marriage”, ca. 726 AD
John of Damascus, (d. 749), Three Sermons on the Death of the Virgin
Anonymous, Judith, 9th century
Peter Damian, Liber Gomorrhianus, 1048-54 AD [homosexuality]
Heloise (from Peter Abelard, A Story of Misfortunes, VII, 1135; Heloise attacks marriage,
especially for scholars)
*Heloise (check new letters, The Letters of A & H, trans. Betty Radice / and The Lost Letters of
H & A, trans. Constant Mews)
*Abelard, writings on women, 1120-40
Bernard, On the Song of Songs, Sermon 9 (on the breasts of the Bridegroom, Christ), c. 1136
Gratian (d. ca. 1179), On Marriage
Marie de France, Guigemar, 1160-75
*Walter Map, Courtier’s Trifles, c. 1181-93 (Valerius advises a philosopher against marriage)
French Bestiary, Crow, (crow as good mother, borrowed from Ambrose, Hexameron)
Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love, 1170-74 (love garden; courtly love, misogyny)
French, Lay of Graelent, late 12th (courtly love, bathing)

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French, Lay of Guingamor, late 12th (courtly love, bathing)
Carmina Burana, written late 12th century, preserved in 13th century ms. (pastoral love, courtly
love, spring, rape, knights vs. clerics as lovers, “Sodomy,”)
Innocent III, On the Misery of the Human Condition, I.3; I.17; (marriage as lust and trouble;
disobedient, ostentatious wives; ca. 1195 AD)
Innocent III, Three Letters on Marriage and Women,
Wolfram von Eschenbach, II (motherhood, breast feeding); III (quasi-rape), 1200-1225 AD
Henri d’Andeli, Lay of Aristotle, ca. 1220 AD (Aristotle and Phylis)
Jaques de Vitry, tales about the Virgin from sermons, 1215-1240 AD
Anonymous, Ancrene Riwle (Ancrene Wisse), c. 1230 [Christ the lover-knight; mystical
marriage; dangers of five senses; scorpion of lust is like face-faced serpent-
woman]
Anonymous, The Quest for the Holy Grail, early 13th [male chastity]
*Robert de Blois, Advice to Ladies (ca. 1230-1260 AD)
Richard de Fournival, Advice on Love, (courtly love vs. conjugal love; ca. 1230-1260)
*Richard de Fournival, Bestiary of Love, (unicorn captured by virgin; Adam and Eve; c. 1230-
60)
*Aquinas, Summa Theologica, XIII, Part I, Q. 92 (1266-72 AD)
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose; ch. 3 (Lady Idleness); *ch. 27
(Virginia); ch. 40 (spring/erotic golden age, Flora, Zephyr); *ch 41 (Husband Who
Abuses His Wife); *ch. 42 (Heloise and Abelard); ch 43 (War Between Beauty and
Chastity); ch. 44 (Deceitful Women); *ch 45 (Jealous Husband Beats His Wife); *ch. 59-
60 (Old Woman’s lectures on love) *ch 61 (Dido, Phyllis, Oenone, Medea); **62 (how
women ensnare men) ch 63 (Venus, Vulcan, Mars); *64 (more female tricks) 75 (Venus
and Adonis); ch. 78 (Dame Nature); ch. 80 (Avaricious Wife – many dangers of women;
she-monster/serpent); ch. 91 Nature’s sexuality; ch. 97 (Pygmalion); chs. 98-100 (Lover
assaults Castle of Rose) 1237-1277 AD
Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan and Isolde, (13th century)
Guerin, Berangier of the Long Asshole, 13th century French fabliaux (rich commoner weds a
noblewoman and proves ignoble)
Mathéolus, Lamentations, mid 13th c., trans into French in mid-14th
Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), various writings on sex and marriage
Bonaventure, Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (no longer attributed to Bonaventure)
Jacopone da Todi, “On the Dangerous Charms of Women, (Lauds 8), c. 1270-95
Jacopus da Voragine, The Golden Legend, Mary Magdalen) c. 1260-90
Jacopus da Voragine, The Golden Legend, The Birth of the Virgin to Anne and Joachim
Jacopus da Voragine, The Golden Legend, The Presentation of the Virgin (Mary’s purity vs. the
impurity of all women)
Jacopus da Voragine, The Golden Legend, Annunciation (Mary’s purity vs. the impurity of all
women)
Jacopus da Voragine, The Golden Legend, “All Saints Day” (celestial chastity vs. terrestrial
marriage)
Jacopus da Voragine, The Golden Legend, Nativity (Christ assumes the flesh of a man only after
God killed all sodomites – one of the miracles of the birth of Christ)
*Eustache Deschamps, Miroir de marriage, (trans. Margaret Erhart)
*John Gower, Confessio Amantis, VIII

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Dante, Purgatory, IX (Ganymede); XIX (sirens)
Dante, Paradiso, (texts on the smiles of Beatrice and other figures) c. 1302-20
Anon. French, La Contenance des Fames, (late 13th-early 14th)
Anon. French, Le Bien des Fames, (late 13th-early 14th cen.)
Anon. French, Le Blasme des Fames, (late 13th-early 14th cen.)
Anon, Verses on Paintings from "Distaff House," 1316
Petrarch, Rerum Familiarium libri, V.4 (female warrior from Pozzuoli)
Petrarch, Rerum Familiarium libri, XIII.8 (ugly virtuous peasant woman)
Petrarch, Rerum Familiarium libri, XXI.8; ("In Praise of Women")
Petrarch, Rerum Senilium libri, XV.3 (why scholars should never marry)
Petrarch, Rerum Senilium libri, XVII.3; (inner nobility of peasant maiden)
Petrarch, Chiare, fresche e dolci acque. (Canzoniere 14)
*Petrarch, Canzoniere
Petrarch, Africa, Scipio and Queen Sophonisba; Zeuxis and the five models
Catherine of Siena, Dialogues, mid 14th century
Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, (Incendium Amoris), 1343 (mystical marriage to Christ)
Boccaccio, Book of Theseus (Teseide), III, VII (gardens of love, Venus) c. 1340-42
Boccaccio, Nymph of Fiesole, (Diana)
Boccaccio, Ameto, c. 1341-1342 [female beauty, higher celestial beauty, boorish men]
Boccaccio, Elegy of Lady Fiametta, ch. 5 [rape] 1343-1345
Bocaccio, Decameron, 3, Intro (courtly garden)
Boccaccio, Decameron, 5.1 (Cymon and Iphigenia; c. 1348-53)
Boccaccio, Decameron, 5.8 (Nastagio degli Onesti)
Boccaccio, Decameron, 6.10; (greasy kitchen wench; pastoral bathing; c. 1348-53)
Boccaccio, Decameron, 10.6 (pastoral bathing; c. 1348-53)
Boccaccio, Decameron, 10.10 (Griselda the virtuous peasant wife of a Marquis)
Boccaccio, Il Corbaccio, c. 1353-56
Boccaccio, Concerning Famous Women, c. 1355-59
Dedication, Preface, Eve, Semiramis, Ceres, Minerva, Venus, Europa, Martesia and
Lampedo (Amazon Queens), Medea, Iole [Omphale], Sibyl Amalthea, Wives of
the Minyans, Penthesilea, Helen, Circe, Dido, Rhea Vestal Virgin, Sappho,
Lucretia, Thamyris, Courtesan Leaena, Athaliah, Veturia, Artemisia, Irene (artist),
Olympias, Verginia, Flora, Roman Woman (who nursed her jailed mother),
Marcia, Sulpicia, Busa, Sophonisba, Wife of King Dragiagon, Tertia, wife of
Scipio, Hypsicratea, Roman Sempronia, Wives of Cimbrians, Cornificia,
Cleopatra, Epicharis, Pompeia Paulina, Sabina Poppea, Triaria,Proba, Faustina
Augusta, *Zenobia, *Pope Joan
*Boccaccio, The Fates of Illustrious Men (Virgil)
Chaucer, Legend of Good Women (Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Medea, Lucretia, Ariadne,
Philomela, Phyllis, Hypermenstra )
Julia of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, 1371
Langland, Piers Plowman, II-III; (Lady Lucre; c. 1370-1395)
Evrart de Conty, The Chess of Love, ca. 1370-1400 (Venus; sirens, gardens of delight, the
virtuous woman, Diana)
Anonymous, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 1360-1400, (power of women, courtly love,
conversation)

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Anonymous, Cleanness, 1360-1400
Anonymous, Pearl [chastity, pastoral, nuptial piety, jewels]
French, The Goodman of Paris, 1392 (marriage manual for the good wife written by a French
merchant)
Dirck Potter, The Course of Love (Der Minnen Loep), ca. 1400 (courtly love)
*John Lygate, Examples Against Women, active 1390-1450
*John Lygate, Reson and Sensuality, (Athena vs. Venus and her many female followers and the
men they ruined, active 1390-1450)
*Deschamps, Mirror of Marriage, early 15th
*Christine de Pizan, A Medieval Woman's Mirror of Honor
*Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, 1405
Christine de Pizan, The Duke of True Lovers
Christine de Pizan, Letter of the God of Love
Margery of Kempe, The Book of Margery of Kempe, 1436

EARLY MODERN WRITINGS

Texts with uncertain dates not listed below include writings by Anna Bijns, Vittoria Colonna

*Peter John Olivi, sermons on marriage

Lionardo Bruni, On the Study of Literature: Letter to Baptista Malatesta, (women's education, ca.
1405)
Jacopo Barbaro, On Wifely Duties, 1415
St. Bernardino of Siena, Two Sermons on Wives and Widows, 1427
Buonaccorso da Montemagno, On Nobility, 1428-29
*Alberti, Dinner Pieces
Alberti, On the Family, ca. 1434
Alberti, On Painting, (Apelles paints Helen using five models; written 1435; pub. 1540)
Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II), The Tale of Two Lovers (1444)
Gionnozzo Manetti, On the Dignity of Man, (body and sexuality, 1452)
Isotta Nogarola, Of the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve, 1453
Villon, The Legacy, 1456 (courtly love – lover imprisoned, abused, martyred by beloved)
René of Anjou, The Book of the Love-Smitten Heart, c. 1457 (love garden, love quest, power of
women, island of love, court of Venus)
Francois Villon, Poems, 1450-65 (Old Age, Power of Women, Ballads to the Virgin, (d. ca.
1463-5)
Ficino, De Amore (homoerotic love, Neoplatonic beauty, hierarchy of senses; written 1469,
published 1484; Italian ed., 1474, pub. 1544)
Ficino, Letters, "To Francesco Berlinghieri," 1479 (marriage); "To Antonio Pelotti," 14XX,
(marriage)
*Laura Cereta, Letters (1469-1499)
Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, I.1, I.8; 1482 (garden)
Lorenzo de' Medici, Song of the Village Lasses, 1480s
Lorenzo de' Medici, Corinto, 1483-7 [pastoral]
Lorenzo de' Medici, Ambra, [rape vs. chaste love]

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Politian, Orpheus, (misogyny in courtly love, Orpheus turns against all women and praises
homosexual love, written 1471, printed 1494)
Politian, Stanze Cominciate per la Giostra, verses 23-29, 70-93, 120 (courtly love, beauty of the
lady, garden of Venus, mythological rape; 1475-92)
Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum, 1486
*Bartolommeo Goggio, In Praise of Women, ca. 1487
Sebastian Brant, Ship of Fools, 1497; ch. 13. Of Amours; ch. 32. Of Guarding Wives; ch. 33. Of
Adultery; *ch. 49. Bad Example of Parents; ch. 50. Of Sensual Pleasure; ch. 52. Marrying
for the Sake of Goods; ch. 61. Of Dancing; ch. 64. Of Bad Women; *ch. 90. Honor
Father and Mother; ch. 92. Presumptuousness of Pride
*John Skelton, Bowge of Court, 1498
*John Skelton, Elynour Rummyng,
Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 1499 (carytids, nymphs, music, dance, sleep,
gardens, pastoral, mythological rape, dangerous beauty, Priapus, ship of love, triumph of
love)
Leonardo, Notebooks (nature as mother or cruel stepmother; gendered fables of ermine, unicorn,
pelican, turtle dove, siren; Helen of Troy’s fleeting beauty)
*Maria Esquiola, On Women, 1501
*Symphorien Champier, Le Nef des dames vertueuses, 1503
Sannazaro, To Trajan Cabanilius (1490s?, pastoral rape)
Sannazaro, Arcadia, 1504, ch. 3-4, pastoral rape
*John Skelton, Philip Sparrow, lines 835-1259; 1505-6
Pietro Bembo, Gli Asolani, 1505
Castiglione, Ecloque: Alcon, 1505
Machiavelli, The Prince, XXV, 1513 (fortune is a woman)
*Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, III.26 (dangers of women; also see conspiracies chapter in
III.6)
Thomas More, To Candidus: How to Chose a Wife, 1518
Thomas More, Poem Apologizing to an Overlooked Noblewoman, 1520
Juan Luis Vives, Instruction of a Christian Woman, 1523
Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, 1511
Erasmus, "Courtship," Colloquies, 1523,
Erasmus, "Gardens of Adonis," Adagia, 152
Erasmus, "Godly Feast," Colloquies, 1523
Erasmus, "Marriage," Colloquies, 1523
*Erasmus, "The Girl with No Interest in Marriage," Colloquies, 1523
*Erasmus, "The Repentant Girl," Colloquies, 1523
*Erasmus, "The Abbot and the Learned Lady," Colloquies, 1524
*Erasmus, "The New Mother," Colloquies, 1526
*Erasmus, "A Marriage in Name Only," Colloquies, 1529
*Erasmus, "The Lower House or the Council of Women," Colloquies, 1529
*Galeazzo Flavio Capra, On the Excellence and Dignity of Women, 1525
Castiglione, Book of the Courtier, I, III, IV, 1528
Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex,
1529
*Juan Luis Vives, The Duties of Husbands, 1529

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Erasmus, Council of Women, 1529
Alciati, Emblemata, 1531(Ganymede)
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, I.33-54; 58-59; 1516/1532 (ironic speech on female chastity as a rose
which must not be plucked except by the one whose true love allows him to deflower,
ignoring female tears and resistance)
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, VII.9-32, 70-74; 1516/1532 (Alcina the beautiful enchantress who
uses magic to conceal her true, hag-like ugliness)
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, VIII.48-50; 1516/1532 (sleeping Angelica and rapacious hermit);
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, X.91-99; 1516/1532 (Ruggiero frees Angelica)
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, XIX.16-37; 1516/1532 (Angelica and Medoro)
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, XIX.57, 67; XX.56-57, 65; 1516/1532 (beauty of the bound, naked
Olimpia)
Paracelsus, Volumen Paramirum, 1533-34
*Aretino, Ragionamenti, 1534
*Gratien DuPont, Controverses des sexes masculine et feminine, 1534 (a misogynist treatise)
Helisenne de Crenne (Margeurite de Briet), Personal and Invective Letters, 1539 (Invective
Letters 2-4; rejects arguments against women; defends women’s right to education and
literary pursuits)
Sir Thomas Elyot, Defence of Good Women, 1540
Secundus, Epithalamium, 1541
Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 1540s
Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book 3, 1546 (on marriage)
*Giovan Battista Gelli, La Circe, 1549
Firenzuola, On the Beauty of Women, 1541; pub. 1548
Ringhieri, Cento Giuochi Liberali, 1551 (musical cosmos/musical woman)
*Tullia d'Aragona, Dialogue on the Infinity of Love (ca. 1550?)
Thomas Wyatt, My Lute Awaken, 1557 (courtly lover woos lady)
Marguerite de Navarre, Heptameron, 1558 (written 1540s)
John Knox, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, 1558
George Buchanan, Epithalamium on the Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin of
France, Later Francis II
Ronsard, Bergerie, 1565 [pastoral poetry prize: goblet carved with satyr raping nymph]
Tasso, The Father of the Family,
Veronica Franco, Letters and Poems, 1560-90
Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection
Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle
Teresa of Avila, Life
Vittoria Colonna, poem on St Catherine of Alexandria
Torquato Tasso, Aminta, 1570
Camoens, The Lusiads, Canto IX, 1572 (Venus stocks love island with nymphs to reward heroic
Portugese explorers)
Tasso, Jerusalem Liberated, X, XIV, XV, XVI, XVIII; 1575/1581
Brantome, Oeuvres, 8: 29-30 (Margeurite de Valois, Queen of France, dancing, 1570s?)
*Giordano Bruno, Heroic Frenzies, 1585 (love)
Giambattista Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, 1590
*Robert Southwell, Marie Magdalens Funeral Teares, London, 1591

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*Robert Southwell, "Marie Magdalens Complaint at Christes Death"
*Moderata Fonte, The Worth of Women, 1592
Samuel Daniel, Sonnets to Delia and Complaint of Rosemunde, 1592
*Samuel Daniel, Tragedie of Cleopatra, 1594
Tasso, Creation of the World, 7th Day, 1592-4 (nature-woman; Adam and Eve)
*Rémy, Nicolas, Daemonalatrie, 1595 (witchcraft)
Mary Sidney, Tragedie of Antonie, 1595 (translation of Robert Garnier, Antoine, 15 )
Spenser, Faerie Queene, VI.10; 1596 (Garden of Love, Venus, dancing Graces)
*Lucrezia Marinella, The Nobility and Excellency of Women, 1600
Thomas Campion, When to Her Lute Corinna Sings, 1601 (musical lady)
Thomas Campion, Rose-Cheeked Laura, 1602 (musical lady)
Thomas Campion, There’s a Garden in Her Face, 1617 (lady-garden)
Daniel, Ulysses and the Siren, 1605
Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 1606
Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece
Shakespeare, Tempest, IV.1; 1611 (Venus, Ceres, Juno, marriage, nature’s fertility, farming)
*Guazzo, Srefano, Compendium maleficarum, 1608 (witchcraft)
Thomas Coryat, Crudities, 1608
Giambattista Marino, Magdalen by Titian, 1592-1600
Giambattista Marino, The Shepherdess
Giambattista Marino, Song of the Kisses
Giambattista Marino, Adonis, 1623 (Judgment of Paris, Venus and Adonis, etc.)
Richard Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, III.2 (music-love); 1628
Donne, Elegies
Donne, "A Defence of Woman's Inconstancy," Paradoxes, 1590-1608; pub. 1633
Donne, "That Women Ought to Paint," Paradoxes, 1590-1608; pub. 1633
Donne, Sermon for Lady Danvers, 16
Milton, Comus, A Masque, 1634 (chaste courtly lady fends off debauched Comus)
George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes, 1635 (Bk 1.7, “A fickle woman wanton growne,”
women, music, love)
Jacob Bidermann, poem on the Magdalen before the Cross, 1636
Thomas Carew, Poems, 1640
Crashaw, A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa, 1646
Crashaw, The Flaming Heart Upon the Book and Picture of Saint Teresa,1646?
Crashaw, St. Mary Magdalen, or The Weeper (two poems), 164?
Crashaw, An Epitaph Upon Husband and Wife, 164?
Crashaw, Wishes to His Supposed Mistress
Herrick, Upon the Nipples of Julia’s Breast; 1648
Milton, Paradise Lost, XI, 1667 (dancing, musical women as false, sinful beauty of the world)

Fell, Women Speaking, 17th c.

17th Century Poems on the Madgalen

Biderman
Herbert, Marie Magdalen,

13
Crashaw, Weeper,
Marvell, Eyes and Tears,
Maria Tesselschade, "Mary Magdalen at the Feet of Christ"
Marino, Magdalen by Titian
*Henry Vaughan,

18th Century
Defoe, On the Education of Women, 1719
Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloïse, 1761 (letter XI on gardens)
Olympe de Gouge, Declaration of the Rights of Women, 1791
Mary Woolstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792
Mary Woolstonecraft, Maria, 1798

19th Century
Balzac, Splendor and Misery of Courtesans

20th Century
Lawrence, White Stocking (dance)

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