Tempi e spazi di vita femminile tra medioevo ed eta moderna.

Silvana Seidel Menchi, Anne Jacobson Schutte, and Thomas Kuehn, eds., Tempi e spazi di vita femminile tra medioevo ed eta moderna

Bologna: Societa editrice il Mulino, 1999. 577 pp. n.p. ISBN: 88-15-07234-9.

In the introduction to this essay collection, Seidel Menchi emphasizes the continuing need to validate and pursue the study of women's history. Three main lines of inquiry are suggested, which also serve as the three major divisions of the volume: the rethinking of historiography, the introduction of female figures into historical study, and research into women and the law. Accepting woman's alterity as a given, the editor posits historical study that focuses on the "active and constructive dimension of feminine identity" while illuminating "woman's capacity for negotiation" (16), thus demonstrating autonomy, initiative, and agency rather than victimization, even in the face of oppression. The essays in this volume generally integrate Seidel Menchi's perspective as their guiding ideology.

Tempi e spazi di vita femminile tra medioevo ed eta moderna emerged from the conference held in Trento in late 1997. However, the eighteen essays show none of the flaws associated with a proceedings. These are thoughtful, well-documented, and carefully crafted pieces, as befits the group of international scholars included. Many of the contributors are experts in their areas. Kirshner, Chojnacki, and Chabot are among several historians familiar to Americans, but the German and Italian representation is notable. All articles are in Italian; the original English, French, and German versions have been well translated. An array of approaches to, and interpretations of, the female condition are presented. In short, this book is a feast of information, documentation, methodology, and case studies.

From medieval Italy to eighteenth century Austria, the essays explore a cross-section of European society in the early modern period, focusing on issues particularly pertinent to women's lives. Geography, economics, and class, as well as gender, are considered. The book's title broadly incapsulates the major themes covered: the discussion of space and time is a significant aspect of each of the articles. In the first part, the essays encompass wider areas geographically, temporally, and thematically, such as an analysis of the definition of work in precapitalist and capitalist times, suggesting a kind of "immobility" in woman's history that needs to re-evaluated using different historiographical means (for example, Wiesner-Hanks). Gender identity is another recurring topic. While Zimmermann focuses on reconstructing the boundaries of the Querelle des femmes from its inception to contemporary feminism, Sorensen Zapalac does a fascinating analysis of cultural approaches to identity formation by comparing early Jewish and Christian tales centered on men exhibiting female attributes (lactation and pregnancy) and by demonstrating that the understanding of the rapport between body and soul and/or nature and behavior are radically different in the two religious traditions. In my opinion, the most interesting essay in Part I is Seidel Menchi's long piece on the cultural division of life into biologically connected stages or "ages," a division that had great influence on the perception of sexual roles. Stating that a woman's biography coincided with the parabola of her body (109), the author then shows how this belief was iconographically portrayed in writing and the arts. The great dissonance between the accepted rhythms of male and female life is dramatically rendered.

In part 2, titled "New Figures," the essays offer a sampling of feminine lives that challenges and unequivocally signals the decline of victimizing historiography (14). This gallery includes unhappy wives, aristocrats in Tudor England, spouses of protestant ministers, a Roman widow, nuns, and witches. Feminine strategies employed to achieve some measure of personal empowerment are detailed: for example, having been forced into marriage, wives seek annulments from the Venetian courts, thereby challenging familial authority (Hacke). Part III focuses on the legal position of women, primarily within Italian jurisprudence. Taken as a whole, the discussion of legal matters is inherently about social identity. Whether the focus is citizenship questions (Kirshner), juridical role (Kuehn), dowry ownership (Chojnacki), or remarriage and control of dowry (Chabot), it is clear that women maintained a subservient position in a society that favored patrilinear identity and power that they occasionally attempted to subvert . Sections 2 and 3 emphasize female roles in family life, from childhood dependency on paternal identification to spousal duties, motherhood, and widowhood and the legal determination of these roles. The essays in part 3 echo each other, functioning as variations on the legal motif, albeit with differing tones.

One of the qualities of this book is its essential cohesion. Essays often mirror each other, reinforcing their common themes. Having read Harris's depiction of aristocratic wives in early Tudor England, it is natural to compare the course of their lives to that of d'Amelia's seventeenth-century Roman noblewoman, only to discover connections of class and life experience, if not chronology. On the other hand, Schorn-Schutte's depiction of ministers' wives in post-Reformation Germany contrasts sharply with the fate of nuns in Counter-reformation Italy: while both were dedicated to God, the former lived actively in community, able to merge the demands of marriage, motherhood, and spiritual service alongside their husbands whereas the latter were marginalized in a walled space (Medioli). Zarri explores a "third state" for women, neither marriage nor the veil, but a "voluntary celibacy" (311) within dedicated but uncloistered institutions, which allowed for religious dedication and secular participation. Although the topics of the essays in Tempi e spazi di vita femminile are far-reaching, the book itself functions as a well-conceived whole, with few dissonant notes. It is a long, complex read, but well worth the effort.