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Giotto and the Oratrix: Maddalena Scrovegni and Her Formation as a Writer in Fourteenth-Century Padua

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2025

Laura Jacobus Open the ORCID record for Laura Jacobus [Opens in a new window]
Laura Jacobus*
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Birkbeck College, University of London, England
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Abstract

This article considers the work of Maddalena Scrovegni (ca. 1360–1429), discussing her formation as a writer in the social and intellectual context of late Trecento Padua, and her changing reputation in early Renaissance humanist circles. It presents her best-known surviving work, a composition written for Jacopo dal Verme (ca. 1350–1409) in 1388, in a modern translation by Joseph Spooner. It discusses how this composition relates to the emergence of oratorical humanism in Padua, to contemporary developments in the city’s art, and to the early fourteenth-century frescoes painted by Giotto (ca. 1267–1334) in the Scrovegni family chapel. The article offers suggestions as to how Scrovegni’s creativity may have been shaped by her experiences of social privilege, gendered marginality, humanist scholarship, and art.

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Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 77 , Issue 4 , Winter 2024 , pp. 1049 - 1105
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by the Renaissance Society of America

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Joseph Spooner for his patient and insightful collaboration. This article could not have been written without him. I am also most grateful to Anna Lisa Somma, who brought Il manganello to my attention. I owe a special debt to all at the Musei Civici di Padova who have facilitated access over many years. Thanks too to Maria Grazia de Rubeis of the Biblioteca Estense; Roger Brock, John Dillon, Stephen C. Jaeger, and Max Schmitz for helpful pointers via [email protected]; Ephraim Levinson for useful conversations; and this article’s peer reviewers for their thoughts and bibliographic help. I would also like to acknowledge the kind support of the Murray Bequest.

References

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