Woman Humanists...Other Notes of Interest

Although I enjoyed what I have read (both in the book and the blogs), I felt the women during this time period needed a quick "shout-out." The four noted in BH are Isotta and Ginevera Nogarola, Cassandra Fedele, and Laura Cereta. They all broke into their respective intellectual circles through the men they knew by writing to them. Although their ideas were accepted it was only when they were younger, or virginal, as BH noted, "hence no threat to mature men." It's this repitition of history that I always find interesting; first with Aspasia, these four, and now many others are relegated to obscurity due to gender. I was raised in a rather matriachal setting so I am always curious as to why males in power become so insecure over female intelligence. Why does this happen? A good example of obscurity is Cereta's existence who wrote letters to other humanist during her marriage (1484-1486). She tried to publish her letters in 1488 but received little or no recognition, after the rejection from the literary world and after the death of her father, she devoted herself to sacred studies. If Augustine can do the same thing, devote a part of his life to manicheasm and then convert to christianity, and still be widely noted as a rhetorician then why can't Ceretta?