Isotta Nogarola - Early Intellectual Life

Early Intellectual Life

Nogarola's mother, a widow, allowed her and her sister to be educated and therefore received an education from one of the finest teachers of the time. Her first tutor was Martino Rizzoni, who had been taught by the famous Guarino da Verona, one of the most forward humanist thinkers. Nogarola and her sisters received relatively the same education that a boy in a well-to-do-family would have received, excluding rhetoric, which was considered irrelevant for a woman to learn considering their lack of importance in the male-dominated society.

Isotta proved to be an extremely able student, with literary works that began to gain acclaim throughout the region. Her eloquence in Latin was well respected. It concerned her that her fame did not come from the sheer volume of intelligence she seemed to possess, but from the novelty of her gender. At the time a common way to start a humanist career was to write to an established academic and publicise their priase or other feedback. She did this in 1437, choosing Guarino da Verona himself, a lofty goal. This news spread throughout Verona, which inspired much ridicule from women in the city. A year passed without a reply, and she furiously wrote a second letter to Guarino, in which she said

"Why...was I born a woman, to be scorned by men in words and deeds? I ask myself this question in solitude...Your unfairness in not writing to me has caused me much suffering, that there could be no greater suffering...You yourself said there was no goal I could not achieve. But now that nothing has turned out as it should have, my joy has given way to sorrow...For they jeer at me throughout the city, the women mock me."

This time, Guarino da Verona wrote her back saying "I believed and trusted that your soul was manly...But now you seem so humbled, so abject, and so truly a woman, that you demonstrate none of the estimable qualities I thought you possessed."