Female Sanctity in Counter-Reformation Italy

In early modern Italy, male authors of hagiographies were predominantly drawn to the male vita activa, focusing on early martyrs, church fathers, and mendicants and bishops who lived between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.Footnote ⁸ Even if Antonia Pulci (1452/54–1501) inaugurated the “trend of hagiographic plays centered on female protagonists who were chaste, heroic, and persecuted,”Footnote ⁹ and although several saintly biographies were dedicated to women,Footnote ¹⁰ few female authors penned hagiographies of non-biblical saints.Footnote ¹¹ Therefore, in Virginia Cox’s words, Marinella’s decision to initiate her career with the hagiographic poem La Colomba sacra (The sacred dove, 1595) shows her “determination to insert herself into a prestigious male literary tradition.”Footnote ¹²

In part, hagiographies established idealized exemplars, and have thus frequently been connected to the idea of imitability.Footnote ¹³ The Golden Legend (1481) and other collections of holy lives offered role models to emulate, fostering the belief that everyone should aspire to sainthood.Footnote ¹⁴ In addition to the theological question of intercession, then, the issues of exemplarity and imitability of saintly passiones were at the core of the humanistic debate on hagiography in the fifteenth century.Footnote ¹⁵

Women striving for holiness found motivation and guidance in hagiographies. Consider, for instance, the case of Saint Angela Merici (1474–1540), founder of the Company of Saint Ursula, who “drew her divine spirit” from the hagiographies she consumed,Footnote ¹⁶ or the early reading of Dimessa Maria Alberghetti (1578–1664), predominantly focused on the life of Catherine of Siena, whom she sought to emulate.Footnote ¹⁷ In like manner, the Venetian aspiring saint Cecilia Ferrazzi (1609–84) modeled her actions and composed her “inquisitorial autobiography”Footnote ¹⁸ after the exemplary lives of holy women that she had initially encountered “read aloud at her mother’s knee and many times thereafter.”Footnote ¹⁹ This kind of reaction was precisely what the authors of hagiographies intended, and it seems that Marinella was no exception. Her writings are populated by a succession of holy women engrossed in the act of reading about the virtuous lives of other female saints, expressing a desire to match their exemplary actions. For instance, the Virgin Mary admiringly reads the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 about a virgin who is destined to give birth to the Messiah—;unaware that she is designated to fulfill it.Footnote ²⁰ Similarly, Marinella’s Catherine of Siena immerses herself in the life of the Virgin Mary, aspiring to follow in her footsteps.Footnote ²¹ A passage from Marinella’s joint hagiography of Francis and Clare of Assisi, Le vittorie di Francesco il Serafico. Li passi gloriosi della Diva Chiara (The victories of Francis the Seraphic: The glorious steps of the Diva Chiara, 1643), which represents Saint Clare of Assisi in the act of reading martyrs’ lives, illustrates how early modern women may have interacted mimetically with these texts: “[Clare] made them read the lives of those who through torments and death acquired crowns of sempiternity; at times [the women] exhorted each other to new and unusual modes of penance; with holy emulation, each attempted to surpass the other in contemplations, beatings, and fasts.”Footnote ²²

Although, as Virginia Cox puts it, “hagiography was a relatively safe field”Footnote ²³ (unlike vernacular rewritings of the Bible) and “hagiographic epic was considered appropriate reading matter for women,”Footnote ²⁴ in the post-Tridentine years, their access to saints’ biographies was not always uncontroversial due to questions surrounding imitability. In 1601 Alessandro de’ Medici (1535–1605), Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, recognized the peril of allowing vernacular Bibles and hagiographic texts within the convent’s walls:Footnote ²⁵ “Care must be taken that they read suitable books, for the sake of both faith and honesty. I commend that they possess books, but they must be appropriate for religious women; therefore, the translated Bibles and all the dogmatic volumes should be removed because they do not understand them…;. Nor should they be allowed to have those works that deal with the lives of saints, because many are not fitting for them.”Footnote ²⁶ Tracing the vicissitudes of one of these compilations of saintly lives, the popular Legendario delle santissime vergini (Legendary of the most holy virgins), Carmela Compare observes that some female hagiographic models caused particular concern after the Council of Trent.Footnote ²⁷ The Legendario, one of the most widespread volumes in convents’ libraries,Footnote ²⁸ was a collection of stories about female martyrs. The protagonists usually came into the world by divine grace and consecrated themselves to God in their youth. If thwarted by family members, they faced persecution with courage. Some prophesied, others preached, others fought against the devil, and some had a mystical, unmediated relationship with God. Laura Benedetti has ascertained that the Legendario was the main reference for La Colomba sacra; therefore, it is likely that this text also influenced Marinella’s later hagiographies.Footnote ²⁹ It is not difficult to imagine why these tales of holy mavericks appealed to Marinella: their unconventional behavior, fighting, preaching, and prophesying posed a challenge to patriarchal hierarchical authority within the family and the church. After its first edition, in 1511, the Legendario was reissued multiple times with various cuts and additions throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—;in Venice, three editions were printed between 1520 and 1525 by Nicolò Zoppino.Footnote ³⁰ In the years that followed the Council of Trent, the collection was significantly amended: in the 1571 edition, three stories were expunged, only to be reinstated with substantial edits. Two of these, the legends of Domitilla and Febronia, reveal elements that might have caused concern: while Domitilla eloquently argued in favor of chastity by expertly citing an impressive array of sources, from Jerome to the scriptures to classical authors, Febronia enjoyed a continuous and private relationship with the Bible, at a time when women’s access to Holy Writ had been restricted. According to Compare, these hagiographic models aroused a certain mistrust and were accordingly censored because they promoted a female sanctitas that, inspired by the public, prophetic spirituality of earlier sante vive (living saints),Footnote ³¹ escaped ecclesiastical control.Footnote ³²

During the first decades of the Cinquecento, the mystical figure of the santa viva—;a charismatic, typically female prophet—;became an institutionally recognized feature of Renaissance courts. In the Italian context, Saint Catherine of Siena was the quintessential prototype for these holy women. The Sienese tertiary professed to have undergone several ecstatic visions, a mystical marriage and an exchange of hearts with Christ, and the reception of the stigmata. By virtue of her extraordinary experiences of mystical union with the divine, Catherine wielded tremendous authority in medieval society. An “ecclesiastical activist,”Footnote ³³ she tirelessly attempted to reform the church, facilitated peace between Pope Gregory XI and the Florentine coalition during the War of the Eight Saints (1375–78), wrote the Libro di divina dottrina (Book of divine doctrine), alongside hundreds of letters to popes, monarchs, and cardinals, and zealously advocated for a crusade.Footnote ³⁴ In her own writings, Catherine portrayed herself as an apostola, a designation that integrated her contemplative activities with her political calling.Footnote ³⁵ The Dominican tertiary is key to understanding Catholic female religiosity in early modern Italy, for she served, as Gabriella Zarri points out, as the model to which generations of women aspired, by imitating her asceticism while also taking on a commitment to the world.Footnote ³⁶ Like the Sienese visionary, the later sante vive were distinguished by their active commitment to society, operating as spiritual guides for the princes who sought their political advice and directing their attention toward the urgent need for church reform.Footnote ³⁷ Living saints such as Stefana Quinzani (1457–1530), Columba of Rieti (1467–1501), and Lucia Broccadelli (1476–1544) took on roles as “maternal” spiritual leaders, challenging expectations of female subordination.Footnote ³⁸

After the sante vive came their reversed doubles—;the finte sante (counterfeit female saints)—;who, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, strove to emulate their ancestors’ actions, but faced rejection from the post-Tridentine church. In fact, as testified by the amendments to the Legendario delle santissime vergini, the advent of the Counter-Reformation coincided with a redefinition of “distinct feminine and masculine zones of involvement.”Footnote ³⁹ Three synchronous trends characterized this period, according to Anne Jacobson Schutte: the ascent of the male spiritual director, an increasing obsession with the discernment of spirits, and a growing mistrust of women’s religious experiences that did not conform to the norm.Footnote ⁴⁰ Measures like Pius V’s apostolic constitution Circa pastoralis (1566), which mandated clausura for women, resulted in the ecclesiastical curtailment of the most transgressive and public facets of female religiosity in favor of a more private and moderate spirituality. Gabriella Zarri describes this shift as a “progressive eclipse of the ‘leadership’ roles achieved by women between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the establishment of a ‘male religion’ characterized by the internalization and rationalization of religious phenomena—;the direction of which was officially recognized by the Church as resting on the authority of Fathers, be these pastors, spiritual directors, inquisitors, or the male heads of families.”Footnote ⁴¹ Between 1618 and 1750, seven men and nine women were tried by Venetian ecclesiastical authorities on a charge of “pretense of holiness” because they claimed spiritual grace and revelations.Footnote ⁴² The finte sante convicted of heresy were women of modest social extraction who professed to have experienced visions and received communications from above; the men were typically the clerics who supported them, despite not claiming any mystical experience themselves.Footnote ⁴³ The inquisitional resistance to this prophetic-mystical paradigm of holiness sought to promote the cultivation of a model of sanctity grounded in obedient conduct rather than in a direct communion with God.Footnote ⁴⁴

Reflecting these tensions is Vincenzo Puccini’s printed Vita (Reference Puccini1609) of the Florentine Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi (1566–1607),Footnote ⁴⁵ whose lifetime coincided with the post-Tridentine backlash against expressions of mysticism and prophecy, and with the Catholic clergy’s growing unwillingness to recognize vatic powers in a woman. The biography, which simultaneously heavily borrowed and deflected attention from the original accounts created by the nuns of the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, was composed with the express purpose of expanding Maria Maddalena’s cult and igniting her canonization process. At a time when claims of communication with the divine among women were likely to attract the scrutiny of ecclesiastical authorities, Maria Maddalena “experienced visions, received intelligences, fell into abstractions of the mind, and was able to prophesy.”Footnote ⁴⁶ According to Clare Copeland, Puccini reported some of her raptures carefully, diminishing their frequency. These ecstasies were introduced gradually and interspersed with reminders of the spiritual guidance received by the Carmelite nun, in an effort to reassure readers that “her extraordinary experiences had been accompanied by signs of their divine origin.”Footnote ⁴⁷ Puccini’s anxiety about the reception of these visionary claims is most evident in his recurrent declarations that the original accounts of the mystic’s life had been approved by several clerics, and in his decision to draw parallels between Maria Maddalena and Francis of Assisi, rather than comparing her to Catherine of Siena, as was the case in the original records.Footnote ⁴⁸ Anna Scattigno and Chiara Vasciaveo concur that, despite the prominence of the Catherinian model in the Carmelite nun’s vocation, references to the Sienese mystic are decidedly rare in Puccini’s Vita and other reworkings, such as that by Don Anton Maria Reconesi (1629).Footnote ⁴⁹

Exemplary of this trend are also the lives of the Venetian holy women Angela Maria Pasqualigo (1562–1652), Graziosa Cecchini (1586–1655), and Maria Felice Spinelli (1621–83), who exhibited exceptional piety from an early age, made vows of chastity, practiced self-flagellation, and experienced ecstasies.Footnote ⁵⁰ These traits are to be found also in Marinella’s hagiographies of female saints. Unlike most of the protagonists of Marinella’s narratives, however, Pasqualigo, Cecchini, and Spinelli were nuns, whose adherence to the norms of clausura and obedience to spiritual directors were underlined in their biographies.Footnote ⁵¹

These post-Tridentine hagiographies reveal the clergy’s effort to regulate—;or stymie—;women’s unmediated access to God and the apostolic gifts that flowed therefrom, while also confining female spirituality to the private, enclosed dimension of the monastery. Yet the celebration of women’s intimate proximity to the divine and public religious leadership endures in the works of Lucrezia Marinella: her Justina of Padua presents the same insubordinate, non-cloistered, learned, and mystical female religiosity that characterized the lives of Catherine of Siena and the sante vive, and the stories of Domitilla and Febronia in the Legendario.

Reimagining Saint Justina of Padua: The Context and Sources of Holocausto d’Amore della Vergine Santa Giustina

No historically accurate version of Saint Justina’s life has been preserved. In fact, there is scant evidence that the Paduan martyr ever existed: her story is mostly medieval fiction, stemming from the discovery of her relics in 1177.Footnote ⁵² Saint Justina was often depicted in the company of Saint Prosdocimus, Saint Daniel, Saint Luke, or Saint Anthony, standing out as the only woman among the patrons of Padua.Footnote ⁵³ By 1648, she was both the patroness of the city, with a basilica erected in her honor, and the symbol of the Holy League’s military triumph in Lepanto on 7 October 1571—;her feast day. The saint was given credit for this victory, with works such as Celio Magno’s Trionfo di Cristo per la vittoria contra Turchi (Triumph of Christ for the victory over the Turks, 1571) or Valerio Moschetta’s Vita, e trionfo di Giustina vergine, et martire santissima (Life and triumph of Justina, virgin and most holy martyr, 1572) stressing the connections between the Republic of Venice, Padua, Saint Justina, and military success.Footnote ⁵⁴ In the post-Lepanto and post-Tridentine years, Justina rose significantly in the Venetian pantheon of heavenly intercessors and held greater importance within the Republic.Footnote ⁵⁵

Although she was born and spent most of her life in Venice, Lucrezia Marinella had personal ties to the nearby Padua, where she resided for a period of time after 1607.Footnote ⁵⁶ The subject matter of Holocausto d’amore della vergine Santa Giustina may therefore have been partly determined by personal devotion and geographical proximity to Justina’s relics.Footnote ⁵⁷ The primary factor in Marinella’s choice of topic, however, appears to have been politics. In fact, this vita of Saint Justina bears an ambitious dedication to Doge Francesco Molino, whose tenure, spanning the decade between 1646 and 1655, coincided with the War of Candia (1645–69), when the Republic of Venice battled against the Ottoman Empire for control of Crete.Footnote ⁵⁸ In the introduction to the text, Marinella asserts that the current war awakened her memories of Venice’s past victories, particularly of Lepanto, which attests to the protection of Holy Providence over the Senate of the Republic. Attributing the Turkish defeat at Lepanto not only to the government’s political sagacity and the might of its fleet but especially to Saint Justina’s intercession, Marinella resolves to write about her, in the hope that the martyr will intervene to grant another triumph to the Serenissima and call for the renewal of the church and society through warfare. Echoing the prophetic voices of female mystics and, at the same time, aligning herself with the Republic’s geopolitical interests, Marinella frames the narrative of Justina’s brave resistance against the atrocities committed by the “pagans” as a mirror image of Venice’s Christian victory over the Muslim Ottoman Empire. This paratext, tethering the volume to the Serenissima’s propagandistic and self-celebratory discourse, potentially acts as a defensive facade that facilitates the conveyance of feminist messages within the following narrative.

In writing her hagiography, Marinella was not burdened by the constraints that come from chronicling the existence of a more recently canonized or contentious figure—;such as Francis of Assisi or Catherine of Siena. The remoteness of the events proved liberating, enabling her to fill the gaps and invent a substantial amount of information, while remaining faithful to the essential components of Justina’s story. Holocausto d’amore della vergine Santa Giustina draws mainly from the Vita sancti Prosdocimi, the earliest known hagiography of Saint Prosdocimus, which is believed to have been written sometime between the tenth and eleventh centuries.Footnote ⁵⁹ According to this text, the proto-bishop was dispatched by Saint Peter to Padua to carry out an evangelizing mission. While there, he cured King Vittaliano of a serious ailment, and subsequently converted him and his wife to Christianity. The previously barren couple bore a daughter named Justina, whom Prosdocimus baptized and instructed in the faith. Upon the death of the monarchs, the emperor Maximian arrived in the city, determined to marry Justina. Despite the emperor’s advances, she refused to forsake her beliefs, and, as a result, she was executed by sword. Among the many elements that Marinella incorporates from the Vita sancti Prosdocimi are the significant role of Prosdocimus in Justina’s life and the king and queen’s struggle with infertility. Nonetheless, she also revises several details, for example presenting the queen as the first convert to Christianity and removing the emperor’s proposal of marriage to Justina.

Approximately ten different retellings of Justina’s life were published between 1570 and 1630, but it appears that Marinella was the only author to write about this saint in the middle of the seventeenth century.Footnote ⁶⁰ Some of the early modern lives of Justina that preceded Marinella’s account were in verse, others in prose; most were brief and unassuming; all were penned by men. These early modern accounts come in different formats, including dramatic or poetic renderings as well as brief summaries within larger collections of saints’ lives. They all narrate similar episodes: the protagonist is the aristocratic daughter of King Vittaliano, she converts to Christianity, she vows to retain her virginity, she is baptized by Saint Prosdocimus, she refuses to forsake her faith, and she is subsequently put to death by sword. Her martyrdom is usually placed within the period of Diocletian’s persecutions, though there are some exceptions, such as Cortese Cortesi’s Giustina Reina di Padova (Justina queen of Padua, 1608), which dates it to the reign of Nero. With approximately four hundred pages arranged into three main sections, Marinella’s hagiography is by far the longest, the most erudite, and the most experimental. While the earlier, more succinct narratives tend to feature only the most basic of plot points, at times providing little insight into the protagonist’s interiority, Marinella elaborates on the existing details and adds new information, delving into the heroine’s background, feelings, motives, and thoughts. Holocausto d’amore della vergine Santa Giustina deviates from prior early modern narratives in significant ways. First, Marinella elevates Queen Prepedegna (Justina’s mother), typically absent or marginal in previous accounts, to a central role as both a political and religious leader.Footnote ⁶¹ A related point is that while the existing narratives merely ascribed royal status to Justina, Marinella repeatedly dwells on her skilful decision-making as a stateswoman. Swerving from its sources, Marinella’s hagiography presents lengthy justifications of women’s right to rule and attributes their exclusion from public office to misogynistic prejudice. The saintly model of the martyr is altered to include mystical and visionary elements, as Justina frequently consorts with God and the angels. Marinella also celebrates the protagonist’s extraordinary intelligence and knowledge, which enable her to expound on the Bible and preach to large crowds. Justina’s courage is emphasized by her decision to walk to her execution “ablaze with a thousand rays of beauty…;formidable, almost like a strong, ordered army at war against her enemies,”Footnote ⁶² rather than hiding like a frightened “little sheep”Footnote ⁶³ fleeing from wolves, as was the case in previous iterations of the narrative.Footnote ⁶⁴ Indeed, she expressly desires self-immolation, and envies those who have died as martyrs: “blessed are you, who have demonstrated your love for the Savior by death and blood…;I would consider myself happy, if I could give such a display of my affection, and of my fidelity.”Footnote ⁶⁵ Furthermore, unlike its sources, Marinella’s hagiography repeatedly depicts the titular character being enticed by demons, seemingly to accentuate her fortitude in refusing to yield to Satan’s temptations.

In doing so, the author upholds the post-Tridentine paradigm of sanctity as the holy individual’s quotidian and victorious duel against SatanFootnote ⁶⁶ —;especially true for women, whose fights against the devil served as a model of heroic virtue that men could achieve through more public and institutional paths.Footnote ⁶⁷ Finally, the influence of the Vita sancti Prosdocimi is evident, as Saint Prosdocimus takes on the prominent roles of Justina’s teacher and spiritual guide to the royal family, with countless pages devoted to his sermons. The protagonist declares her submission to him—;“she was obedient to the Bishop’s teachings, almost like soft wax, into which every figure could be impressed.”Footnote ⁷⁰ This dynamic between Prosdocimus and Justina may have been developed by Marinella as a nod to the hierarchical relationship usually established between male spiritual directors and female mystics in the seventeenth century, reflecting the growing importance of obedience after Trent. But the analogy ends here. In fact, Prosdocimus is never presented in an authorizing, legitimizing, disciplining, or mediating capacity in relation to Justina’s religious practices: her visions are independent of his influence, and he is absent whenever she converses with angels and Christ. The proto-bishop reciprocates Justina’s admiration, recognizing her as a semi-divine being: on observing her luminous countenance, he “seemed to glimpse a divine form in her, and…;he saw sitting within her, like a King on his throne, that highness to which everyone bends.”Footnote ⁶⁹ In another instance, Marinella declares that “Prosdocimus, the wise women, and the maids…;revered [Justina], and loved her, as a celestial Deity.”Footnote ⁷⁰

As will be demonstrated in the following analysis, these deviations from the reference material share a common objective: to exalt women’s holiness and their aptitude for ministry and government. What should be the core and culmination of Justina’s story—;her martyrdom—;only comes after hundreds of pages that not only chronicle the holy woman’s heroic deeds and visions but also provide a rather forthright protofeminist commentary. Departing from her sources with additions and alterations that are chiefly philogynous in nature, Marinella’s vita makes the case that women can excel as preachers, theologians, and rulers.

Hagiography and the Querelle des Femmes

Preoccupied with the question of women’s access to political and religious leadership, Holocausto d’amore della vergine Santa Giustina presents Queen Prepedegna as a sagacious woman, skilled in public service and apt at overseeing military operations.Footnote ⁷¹ In her plea to share the responsibilities of government with her spouse, Prepedegna deploys arguments from the querelle des femmes, echoing pro-woman statements from La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne and citing the same sources. The following excerpt from Holocausto d’amore would not look out of place in Marinella’s philogynous treatise:

Throughout La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne, Marinella refers to Plato’s and Socrates’s claims in support of female rule and praises them for nearly recognizing “that women are nobler and more excellent than men.”Footnote ⁷³ Like Prepedegna in the section quoted above, Marinella’s feminist treatise vehemently argues that, if properly educated, women would be capable of holding public office, ruling, judging, punishing, and commanding an army:

Prepedegna’s complaints, then, unmistakably restate Marinella’s views on women’s leadership as espoused in La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne.

Despite being barred from public office by her husband, Prepedegna acts as a leader, exerting significant influence on Padua. One key episode, which is Marinella’s invention, best exemplifies this: it is Prepedegna who first decides to convert to Christianity, thus influencing her husband and her people to follow suit. Following the king’s death, the queen ascends to the throne and invites Justina to join her—;perhaps in a parallel to Marinella’s previous dedicatees Christine of Lorraine (1565–1637) and Maria Maddalena of Austria (1589–1631), the mother and daughter-in-law duo who ruled Florence during the minority of Ferdinand II (1621–28). Prepedegna, who draws from her own expertise in political matters and is attuned to the needs of her realm, is esteemed by everyone “for her learning and sage judgments,”Footnote ⁷⁵ while Justina develops into an accomplished ruler who understands when to be strict and when to be clement, and whose authority is sanctioned and inspired by God.Footnote ⁷⁶ Political and religious leadership thus coexist in the early martyr, as was the case, albeit without royal titles and official roles, for holy women such as Catherine of Siena and the sante vive. Because of their skillful, equitable, and wise administration, Justina and Prepedegna’s joint reign is enlightened and fair. As the following description reveals, the prosperity and success of their rule confirms the veracity of Marinella’s protofeminist views, establishing that women are as capable as men of handling public affairs:

After Prepedegna’s demise, Justina assumes sole control of the government, thereby demonstrating that she “had nothing to envy the Wise Solomon; nor Queen Sheba”:Footnote ⁷⁸

The reigns of Justina and Prepedegna are distinguished by the virtues of temperance, justice, and wisdom, standing in stark contrast to clichés about the putative irrationality, weakness, cowardice, and fickleness of the female sex, which led to the prejudicial attitudes that excluded the vast majority of women from holding positions of authority during the early modern period. Marinella’s polemic had already articulated a sharp condemnation of these stereotypes in the section titled “Of Temperate and Continent Women,” which lists several female monarchs and noblewomen who exhibited sound judgment, careful consideration, and astute intelligence.Footnote ⁸⁰

Mirroring the sentiments expressed in La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne, Marinella’s hagiography condemns a culture that denies women the opportunity to exercise their abilities—;not only violating women’s liberty but also impeding the progress of society as a whole. In line with this theme, the narrative portrays Prepedegna as a competent ruler who is unjustly prevented from reigning due to the king’s insecurity. According to Marinella, Vittaliano’s apprehension might stem from his fear of being overshadowed by Prepedegna’s brilliance, which would expose his inadequacies.Footnote ⁸¹ In order to maintain his dominance, Vittaliano restricts Prepedegna’s powers, “so that she would remain ignorant, like the other women, who lack education and awareness.”Footnote ⁸² Following his demise, the prosperity of Justina and Prepedegna’s reign is met with hostility by several male rulers, who resent their success: “These queens’ just reign appeared so fair and right that it prompted more than one prince to blush;…;many disdained to be surpassed by the merit of these generous monarchs…;. Many criticized their notable deeds and could hardly stand women’s power; perhaps because they were unaware of Plato’s admiration for female rule, knowing that nature, which always operates rationally, had formed woman, as much as man, capable of rising to royal eminence.”Footnote ⁸³ These insights into male envy expand on a point made in Marinella’s protofeminist treatise, which adduces women’s lack of training and access to education to men’s envy: “the few women who are interested in learning become so skilled in the sciences that men envy them, as lesser people tend to envy greater ones.”Footnote ⁸⁴ Hence, an intertextual reading of La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne and Holocausto d’amore reveals that the author’s protofeminist convictions remain largely consistent across her publications, spanning several decades and encompassing both her religious literature and her secular treatise. In her last work, Marinella intertwines the hagiography genre with the querelle des femmes, boldly using the saint’s story to substantiate her pro-woman claims. She seems to be the only early modern female author to explicitly undertake this combination within a saint’s life.

Exegete and Preacher: The Spiritual Authority of Saint Justina (and Lucrezia Marinella)

In contrast to earlier accounts, which contain no mention of Justina’s education or activities beyond martyrdom, Marinella presents the saint as a learned religious leader, who teaches, preaches, and converts souls. In addition to qualities such as modesty and temperance, the protagonist stands out for her intelligence. A precocious student, Justina is “always eager to learn”Footnote ⁸⁵ and is admired “as an excellence of nature, a wonderful prodigy, with something divine within her.”Footnote ⁸⁶ Under Saint Prosdocimus’s guidance, the young girl becomes proficient in “political doctrines”Footnote ⁸⁷ and effortlessly absorbs “the law of Christ”Footnote ⁸⁸ and “theology.”Footnote ⁸⁹ This enables her to interpret and teach the Bible in expert fashion:

The idea that women may possess epistemic authority only as passive vessels of infused wisdom is a well-worn patriarchal trope that Marinella both reflects and subverts: on one hand, the text exalts the singularity of Justina’s God-given knowledge; on the other, it affirms the value of theological and political education in equipping Justina to serve as a witness to divine truth.

Like Justina, all the other holy women in Marinella’s pantheon are represented as enlightened and authoritative readers of the scriptures. Within La vita di Maria Vergine, imperatrice dell’universo, Marinella’s studious Mary is endowed with an innate talent for scriptural exegesis: “Her mind’s eye bore the light of the splendors to which the tongues and pens of God’s scribes had access in dark prophetic passages.”Footnote ⁹¹ The emphasis is placed on the intellectual facet of the Virgin’s faith, as she is envisioned in moments of intense concentration, surrounded by a crowd of “virgins, priests, and high priests” who are “overcome by wonder on hearing her interpretations of the obscure meanings of the Holy Scriptures and the way she sweetly unlocked confused interpretations in the arcane subjects, arching her brows and pursing her lips together.”Footnote ⁹² Similarly, Marinella’s De’ gesti heroici, e della vita meravigliosa della serafica S. Caterina da Siena (On the heroic deeds and wonderful life of the seraphic St. Catherine of Siena, 1624) represents Catherine as a “source of sacred and holy knowledge,”Footnote ⁹³ whose understanding of sacred texts elevates her to the same level as Saint Paul, Saint John, Saint Dionysus, and Saint Dominic. The full significance of Mary’s, Justina’s, and Catherine’s theological education and autonomous readings of the Bible only surfaces in the context of women’s restricted and contested engagement with the Holy Writ and theological study in Counter-Reformation Italy:Footnote ⁹⁴ while they were exhorted to read devotional materials and to practice religious meditation such as that advised by rosary manuals, the independent intellectual engagement with the biblical text pictured by Marinella would have been a matter of concern.Footnote ⁹⁵ Furthermore, women were denied access to the magisterium: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646–84) was precluded from pursuing a doctoral degree in theology by Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo on grounds of Catholic orthodoxy, which forbade women from assuming instructional roles in matters of faith. Instead, she was admitted to the University of Padua as a student of philosophy, graduating on 25 June 1678.Footnote ⁹⁶ Marinella’s erudite holy women, therefore, present propitious mimetic opportunities for female readers: if they can study theology and the Bible, so should any woman who wishes to model her behavior after them. By showing that the virgin martyr Justina, the apex of perfection, excelled at theological reflection and scriptural exegesis, the hagiography provides an important assertion of women’s epistemic authority, valorizes literate devotion, and promotes biblical study as a significant component of girls’ education. Turning Justina’s unmediated and authoritative reading of the Bible into an exemplum, Marinella also challenges the church’s patriarchal control over the sacred text.

While lengthy sermons pronounced by Saint Prosdocimus are interspersed throughout the text, Justina is equally committed to the propagation of Christian faith through the practices of teaching and preaching. The martyr’s evangelistic mission begins in her childhood, with her female peers, whom Justina exhorts to pray,Footnote ⁹⁷ to worship the Virgin Mary,Footnote ⁹⁸ and to join her in pronouncing vows of chastity.Footnote ⁹⁹ Justina’s eloquent speeches soon attract the attention of noblemen, who “were drawn to her like…;a magnet toward iron. They assembled around her like the disciples around the teacher.”Footnote ¹⁰⁰ Her audience is not solely comprised of ladies in waiting but also of princesFootnote ¹⁰¹ and noblewomen,Footnote ¹⁰² who are mesmerized by her persuasive words: “Like the Primum Mobile that seizes the planets tenderly and not violently, in the same way she grasped the hearts of noblewomen.”Footnote ¹⁰³ Drawing a parallel to the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31), where the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ’s followers and imbues them with the power to preach the Gospel in different tongues, Justina beseeches God to grant her the ability to convert individuals beyond the court: “Deliver over me, O Lord, a ray refulgent with your eternal light, whose brightness might illuminate people to see how right and true your law is.”Footnote ¹⁰⁴ This occurrence mirrors a passage in Marinella’s hagiography of Catherine of Siena, wherein the transmission of divine wisdom into the saint’s mind is likened to a golden shower, utilizing the image of the Pentecostal flames shining over the heads of the disciples.Footnote ¹⁰⁵ When Justina’s plea is answered, she leaves the palace to disseminate the divine word, “following in the apostles’ footsteps:”Footnote ¹⁰⁶ “she beckoned several noblewomen who were previously against the true faith, and now came to her, not only from local towns but also from distant, heathen, and enemy lands, that were rebellious to Christ.”Footnote ¹⁰⁷ The saint’s sermons attract a devout following, and her words are sought and revered mostly by crowds of women: “Justina was pleased to see not only the shepherdesses from the Euganean Hills, but also noblewomen and young virgins, who all came to serve and honor her. To them, both rural and aristocratic, she preached the Christian faith with graceful sermons…;. Her reasoning was endowed with such divine virtue…;that it elicited veneration and reverence…;. She would not return from her journey without an abundant harvest of many virgins’ and matrons’ souls…;. Justina taught them the doctrine of Christ.”Footnote ¹⁰⁸ For her holy didacticism, active ministry, and missionary efforts, Justina is repeatedly compared to the apostles: her nature “was similar to that divine grace that descended from Jesus’s breast and was diffused above the simplicity of his twelve followers.”Footnote ¹⁰⁹

While public preaching was a feature of Catherine of Siena’s apostolate,Footnote ¹¹⁰ in the midst of the Counter-Reformation this practice was the prerogative of religious women like Maria Alberghetti, who conducted it privately and ex officio in front of her sisters.Footnote ¹¹¹ The type of public ministry performed by Justina, delivering sermons in open spaces and in front of mixed audiences, would have been highly contentious in seventeenth-century Italy.Footnote ¹¹² The saint’s itinerant preaching may have struck a Counter-Reformation readership as particularly disquieting, given the emphasis on the enclosure of women religious. Notably, moreover, her preaching is not always mitigated by Marinella through the emphasis on a narrow, all-female audience of young peers, as was the case in works by other women writers.Footnote ¹¹³ Employing the topos of divine inspiration and attributing her protagonist’s public sermons to a blend of personal erudition and supernatural illumination, the author implicitly invokes authoritative female predecessors like the powerful mystics and sante vive of the previous centuries. Marinella thus defies the Pauline injunction and instead asserts women’s right to learn and impart instructions through the figure of Justina.

It is likely that Marinella’s portrayal of Justina as a female apostle, as well as her emphasis on her holy women’s intelligence and learning, was partly motivated by a self-legitimizing aim. In fact, the author embraced an evangelizing roleFootnote ¹¹⁴ from her early treatise Discorso del rivolgimento amoroso verso la somma bellezza (Discourse on the loving turning toward the highest beauty, 1597) to her later works, particularly Holocausto d’amore, which extensively incorporates, paraphrases, and interprets numerous scriptural passages, as well as citations from theological authorities such as Saint Paul, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint Augustine, Albertus Magnus, and Marsilio Ficino.Footnote ¹¹⁵ Although Marinella did not produce full-length theological treatises or biblical commentaries, she did integrate elements of these genres into her writings, to the point that her theological acumen was recognized by her contemporaries: Barezzo Barezzi’s introduction to her hagiography of Catherine of Siena proclaims that the work “abounds in theological wisdom,”Footnote ¹¹⁶ and the publisher’s preface to Le vittorie di Francesco il Serafico. Li passi gloriosi della diva Chiara describes it as a “theological and philosophical book.”Footnote ¹¹⁷ Additionally, it should be noted that Marinella engages in religious discourse also by ventriloquizing the male clerical voice of Prosdocimus and crafting his lengthy sermons. By granting such a significant space to learned holy women in her literary corpus, Marinella may have sought to authorize her own intellectual engagement with sacred matters and to establish her credibility as a writer of religious texts.

The Gender Politics of Female Martyrdom and Mysticism

Marinella’s choice of an early martyr as her subject matter is in line with post-Tridentine sensibilities, which, in response to the Protestant Reformation, brought to the forefront a heroic paradigm of commitment to Christianity both in liturgical celebration and hagiographic literature.Footnote ¹¹⁸ The exaltation of the martyrs in the wake of Trent was directly linked to the recognition of the Catholic Church as the sole legitimate heir of the Primitive Church.Footnote ¹¹⁹ Correspondingly, in a survey of Counter-Reformation sacred literature, Cox found that narratives about martyrs loom large, accounting for twenty-one out of forty-four hagiographic poems.Footnote ¹²⁰

Published five decades apart, both Marinella’s first and last literary works—;respectively, the poem in octaves La Colomba sacra and Holocausto d’amore della vergine Santa Giustina—;are hagiographies of early female martyrs. The virgin martyrs were frequently presented as symbols of female strength in early modern “defences of women,”Footnote ¹²¹ and La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne adheres to this tradition. The section “Of Strong and Intrepid Women,” featured in the 1600 edition, demonstrates the appeal of female martyrs for Marinella: in this category several such women are listed, including the saints Felicitas and Columba, who, in Marinella’s words, “unconcerned about their lives, have achieved great and wonderful things…;putting themselves in all kinds of dangers.”Footnote ¹²² The heroic bravery of female martyrs is held up against men’s cowardice: “Who would not tremble and turn pale upon learning of his impending demise? Yet these courageous women were delighted and joyful, for they did not fear death.”Footnote ¹²³ The fourth book of Marinella’s Vita di Maria chronicles Mary’s vision of a crowd of female virgins who offer their bodies “to swords, arrows, razors, flames, scourges, and poisonous serpents, to the savage talons of wild lions, to the darkness of prisons, to hooks and cords, to the tenacity of hard chains,” welcoming these torments, so that “it appeared…;that they desired more than feared such martyrdoms.”Footnote ¹²⁴ In this instance, five of the seven major saints who appear to Mary are female, including four martyred women: Columba, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Ursula, and Saint Felicitas. In Marinella’s Rime sacre, six out of nine female saints are martyrs. Moreover, in Le vittorie di Francesco il Serafico. Li passi gloriosi della Diva Chiara, Marinella describes Francis of Assisi’s vision of a multitude of martyrs, among whom the towering figure of Justina stands out:

Within the same text, Clare of Assisi delivers a spiritual call to arms in front of her sisters, comparing the female martyrs crowned in heaven to the Amazons:

As it transpires from Clare’s words, to construct the figure of the martyr Marinella combines the attributes of the Amazon and of the warrior with those of the saint, mixing religious zeal and military prowess, and merging epic and hagiography. As Justina, like an epic heroine, is compared to an unassailable fortressFootnote ¹²⁷ and a formidable army,Footnote ¹²⁸ her martyrdom is accordingly recounted with the martial language of the volume’s paratext.

The fusion of traditionally secular genres under the umbrella of religious subject matter typical of Counter-Reformation “spiritual riscrittura”Footnote ¹²⁹ serves the text’s protofeminist ends. It is evident that for Marinella the ancient tale of Justina’s martyrdom acquired fresh, even urgent relevance, not only in view of the Counter-Reformation and the Ottoman-Venetian wars but also because it shed light on female fortitude, courage, and devotion: its martyred heroine disproved stereotypes about feminine weakness by fearlessly embracing self-sacrifice and asceticism, refusing to be submissive, publicly speaking up for her convictions against powerful men, and sacrificing her life in defense of her beliefs. In this case, then, the merging of hagiographic and epic genres in the figure of the martyr serves to “emphasize the possibilities for female power to exercise itself in a way that is beneficial to both Church and state,” as Michael Subialka observes with regard to Marinella’s hagiography of Catherine of Siena.Footnote ¹³⁰

While Marinella’s glorification of martyrdom is in tune with her time, this work exhibits the persistence of an earlier model of “mystical and prophetic sanctity.”Footnote ¹³¹ As with the author’s previous hagiographies, Holocausto d’amore assigns a central place to ecstasies, visions, and other conspicuous mystical phenomena.Footnote ¹³² The text contains multiple references to the protagonist’s desire for her beloved Christ, conveyed in a typically mystical fashion: “Here she attracted the divine beauties to her bosom; here she became a Citizen of Heaven and ran through the celestial Jerusalem, seeking the cherished footsteps of her Beloved; here she found him and led him in domum matris sua; there, with delicate amusements, she experienced the bliss of eternal life, she dissolved, and, filled with heavenly nectar, she cried out in the halls of Paradise. Cupio dissolvi, et esse tecum.”Footnote ¹³³ In the margin, the Latin annotation “Salom. Cant. Cantis. Inveni qne [sic] diligit anima, tenui illum, nec dimittamon” denotes this passage as a paraphrasis of the Song of Songs (3:1–5), which recounts the maiden’s restless quest for her beloved, until she finds him and brings him to her mother’s chamber. The poetic dialogue between two lovers constitutes the Bible’s “mystical book par excellence”Footnote ¹³⁴ and the epithalamium “on which seventeenth-century mystics exercised themselves in a precarious balance between carnality and spirituality.”Footnote ¹³⁵ Like the mystics Hildegard of Bingen, Clare of Assisi, Camilla Battista da Varano (1458–1524), and Battistina Vernazza (1497–1587), Marinella portrays the amorous relation between the female saint and the Savior evoking the bride and bridegroom of the Song of Songs.Footnote ¹³⁶ The in-text citation “cupio dissolvi, et esse tecum,” from Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, indicates the desire to be dissolved in a sort of “metaphysical suicide”Footnote ¹³⁷ in order to become one with the divine. The images of loving chase, of the secret chamber, and of annihilation contained in this segment correspond to the lexicon and imagery of divine epiphany typical of women’s mystical writings.Footnote ¹³⁸ In another instance, Justina enters a rapture while contemplating the “beauty of her Lover”:Footnote ¹³⁹ “With the fire that inflamed her, she kindled the heart of her beloved, who, with the arrows of his beauty, wounded the bosom of the happy maiden. She, sending back the thunderbolts covered in the excellence of her perfections, wounded the heart of the eternal Good, who, overwhelmed by too much desire, said, ‘Oh how beautiful you show yourself, beloved of mine, how gentle and dear.’”Footnote ¹⁴⁰ During this theophany, the union between the saint and God is erotically charged, echoing the language and imagery forged by mystics who communicated their visions with sensually vivid terminology. The verb impiagava (wounded) to describe the beams piercing Justina’s flesh may imply a potential stigmatization—;a grace not previously documented in any hagiography of this saint. Resonating with both the bestowal of sacra signa on Catherine of Siena and the transverberation experienced by Teresa of Ávila in 1559, this occurrence establishes Justina not only as a mystic but also as a female Christic figure.Footnote ¹⁴¹

Another episode of particular significance in this regard is Justina’s otherworldly ascent in the company of an angel, who guides her to admire the thrones and crowns reserved for martyrs in heaven and grants her a glimpse of the earth from above. Marinella had already incorporated visionary journeys in prior narratives, including the pastoral romance L’Arcadia Felice (Happy Arcadia, 1605), among others. Supernal travels had a long tradition and were particularly in vogue at this time, yet Shannon McHugh observes that “as a rule, women writers participated in neither Christianized nor classical versions of the trend.”Footnote ¹⁴² Justina’s otherworldly voyage is therefore particularly daring, for it has a manifestly theological aim and features a heroine on a quest for truth that can be attained only from the Creator. Shining with sparks of divine love, Justina’s soul grows wings and soars heavenward, stating, “The beauty of eternal Truth lit up my soul, who, I can feel, unfurls her wings to…;rise up in contemplation.”Footnote ¹⁴³ Heaven presents itself as a bright landscape, pervaded by the musica universalis produced by the rotation of the celestial spheres. Surrounded by stars are a resplendent throne and two bejeweled crowns, “signs of virginity and martyrdom,”Footnote ¹⁴⁴ which are destined for Justina. The holy woman then beholds the mortal world, which appears to her as a distant dot, marred by violence. Looking down, Justina is unable to fathom why anyone would forego the sweetness of paradise for the cruel pleasures of the earthly plane: “Stunned, she saw at once regions, realms, cities, rivers, mountains, and everything that is contained in these lowly places: she marveled at how humankind could place confidence in such ephemeral glories and groundless hopes. Human souls are blinded in a dark vale; like filthy beasts, they are content of enjoying their indignities…;among fights, arrogance, injustice, ambition, and diabolical pleasures, they squander their unhappy days: and for the brief, fleeting gratification of a mortal face or appearance, they lose eternal delights.”Footnote ¹⁴⁵

MARINELLA’S RELIGIOUS PROTOFEMINISM

Justina’s flight through the cosmos to see the crown and throne destined for her illustrates some of the key beliefs that permeated Marinella’s religious protofeminist thought since 1595. Chief among them is the idea that women can obtain such glorious rewards and eternal recognition in heaven that nothing in the fallen, patriarchal world could compare. Indeed, a dialectic between two gendered forms of authority is articulated throughout Marinella’s sacred works, and particularly within her martyrs’ hagiographies: the first kind of power is masculine, institutional, temporary, and terrestrial; the second is feminine, divinely authorized, external to institutions, eternal, and celestial. Although women struggle to gain worldly power and have their authority respected on the earthly plane, they can wield a greater, heavenly force, acquired directly from God. In La Colomba sacra, this conflict unfolds between the virgin martyr Columba and the pagan emperor Aurelian. In exchange for her renunciation of Christianity, the antagonist offers to Columba his son in marriage, and, thus, the possibility of becoming an empress.Footnote ¹⁴⁶ However, the martyr scorns the meager institutional authority that she could wield in that role compared to the higher accolades she would attain as bride of “the supreme Chief”:Footnote ¹⁴⁷ “I do not yearn for mortal fame, or mortal life,” she declares, “but I desire eternal life, eternal honor: Christ is showing me the certain path to Heaven, so that I may delight in its splendor; where I will be happy, dressed of the sun, tied in glory, distant from harsh suffering, crowned with lively stars, a beautiful virgin among beautiful virgins.”Footnote ¹⁴⁸ As Cox observes, in Marinella’s first hagiographic poem there is a clear emphasis on “the power reversal that occurs…;between the young female saint and the emperor.”Footnote ¹⁴⁹ Union with Christ invests the holy woman with superior glory and the promise of “eternal honor”—;all of which are unsurpassable and non-negotiable by human standards.Footnote ¹⁵⁰ This motif permeates Marinella’s religious works: in the conflict between men’s institutional authority and women’s divine might, the latter prevails.

The saint’s ascent to heaven also suggests that women do not require any male intermediaries to unite with God—;rather, they can do so independently, for they are naturally closer to transcendence.Footnote ¹⁵¹ This idea is developed through other works by Marinella, beginning with her short doctrinal treatiseFootnote ¹⁵² “Discorso del rivolgimento amoroso, verso la somma bellezza” (Discourse on the loving turn, toward supreme beauty), published in an appendix to Vita del serafico et glorioso S. Francesco (Life of the seraphic and glorious St. Francis, 1597), a poetic hagiography of Saint Francis of Assisi. The volume, written in Marinella’s youth, is dedicated to Christine of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, who features in the guise of a catechumen-dedicatee, while the author assumes the instructive tone of the magistra. Steeped in visual language, the meditation expounds on Marinella’s Neoplatonism, which holds that beauty offers a means of direct contact with the divine. In the words of Ferrari Schiefer, Marinella espouses a “theology of beauty”: “beauty, according to her, leads us to deeper knowledge, it is vision that beatifies and raises us to God.”Footnote ¹⁵³ Redemption, then, occurs through the eyes; hence, the Discorso proposes the observation of beautiful sensible objects as a path toward suprasensible revelation. In conclusion, Marinella describes the state of communion with the divine in mystical terms:

In several respects, this text foreshadows La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne (published three years later, in 1600), which develops the Discorso’s mysticism into a metaphysical protofeminist argument. Proposing that women are endowed with a greater proportion of physical attractiveness, Marinella suggests that their beauty—;a sign of the grace that emanates from their souls—;is the most concrete evidence of the ontological and spiritual superiority of the female sex. Against the Aristotelian mas occasionatus, Marinella posits woman as the fullest reflection of the divine, having been created in the “imago Dei” (Genesis 1:27) as the humanae naturae exemplar—;the highest manifestation of the human.Footnote ¹⁵⁵ For this reason, and in Neoplatonic fashion, the beautiful female physique is considered a window through which men can ascend to their maker: women’s pulchritude, Marinella concludes, “can raise men’s minds to God.”Footnote ¹⁵⁶ Although the polemic halts before making any explicit pronouncements on a feminine pathway to the divine, the inevitable ramifications of Marinella’s line of reasoning have been deftly examined by Lisa Shapiro: as a natural conclusion to her argument, the Venetian author seems to suggest that if women possess self-awareness and self-knowledge, they might also apprehend their own cause—;that is, God.Footnote ¹⁵⁷ Since in women the nexus between humanity and divinity is more immediate, Marinella would be claiming, in effect, that the female sex enjoys a lead in the journey toward transcendence: unlike men, women are not obliged to ascend to God by contemplating the physical beauty of others; rather, they can apprehend the divine by realizing the noble nature of their own souls. There is no need for male intermediaries in this process. Shapiro’s hypothesis is supported by Marinella’s hagiographies, particularly Holocausto d’amore della vergine Santa Giustina, which depict mystical experiences such as the saint’s ascension to heaven and her encounter with Christ as interior and intimate occurrences that do not require the mediation of a clergyman or an institution.

Holocausto d’amore betrays Marinella’s longstanding attachment to the mystic mode of female sanctity, indicating the persistence of her belief in women’s superior proximity and direct access to God. “Deep within the mystical tradition lie rich resources for social critique,” writes Sarah Apetrei, noting that “mysticism acts consistently as a source of inspiration for dissent within patriarchal structures, and opens up the channels for a highly critical and destabilising encounter with religious custom.”Footnote ¹⁵⁸ Catherine of Siena, to mention the most pertinent example in relation to Marinella’s oeuvre, “violated expectations of both secular and religious women, transgressing the gendered borders of social space and mixing conspicuously in the world of men.”Footnote ¹⁵⁹ The ascendancy of the mantellata is apparent throughout Marinella’s writings: Catherine is lauded as a paragon of learning in La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne;Footnote ¹⁶⁰ she then appears to the Virgin in a vision among the major figures who will glorify the church within the Vita di Maria Vergine, imperatrice dell’universo,Footnote ¹⁶¹ and features prominently in the Rime sacre.Footnote ¹⁶² In her vita of the Sienese saint, Marinella emphasizes the protagonist’s eloquence and mystical powers, proving that women can preach, unite with the divine, and participate in worldly affairs. Marinella’s Justina bears a strong resemblance to Catherine, sharing spiritual traits and experiences such as asceticism, ecstatic encounters with Christ, and a balance of contemplative and political activities. A reading of Saint Justina’s hagiography alongside Marinella’s prior works and in conjunction with women’s religious history, then, reveals the role of mysticism in the earliest configurations of Italian feminist thought.

In closing, I wish to suggest that the overlooked Holocausto d’amore may offer a novel angle from which to approach Marinella’s ideological trajectory, prompting a reappraisal of her contiguous literary creation, the disconcerting Essortationi alle donne et a gli altri se a loro saranno a grado (Exhortations to women and to others if they please, 1645), published three years earlier. At first glance, this treatise supports traditionalist rules for women’s conduct—;an apparent recantation of La nobiltà;’s protofeminism. Gone is Marinella’s plea for equal access to education and public life, replaced by reactionary maxims. The sobering message of the Essortationi appears to be an abjuration of Marinella’s past: women must put aside their books to focus on protecting their reputations, by remaining secluded in the home, serving husbands, and minding children. Despite their patriarchal leanings, however, the Essortationi do not forsake Marinella’s enduring belief in female superiority; instead, they issue a novel corollary that, precisely for this reason, women are bound to a withdrawn life: retreat and isolation befit their deific nature, Marinella argues, for they are “kept like something sacred and divine.”Footnote ¹⁶³ Reiterating La nobiltà;’s claims on the semidivine nature of the female sex, Marinella associates women’s domestic seclusion with the concealment characteristic of superior beings, such as deities, who are veiled “under marvelous guises,”Footnote ¹⁶⁴ or God, who “refuses to be known by us, except in the effects of his clemency.”Footnote ¹⁶⁵ Far from crowds and distractions, women “can enjoy the rewards of contemplation and lift their minds to God.”Footnote ¹⁶⁶ Emphasizing once again the dialectic between male terrestrial power and female heavenly might, Marinella maintains that although women’s deeds will be ignored on earth, their fame will flourish in heaven.

In their ostensible endorsement of the misogynistic ideas that La nobiltà; et l’eccellenza delle donne had so persuasively opposed, the Essortationi have presented a quandary to modern scholars. To what extent Marinella’s patriarchal volta face should be taken literally is the main question that drives research on this work.Footnote ¹⁶⁷ The treatise’s bitter, disenchanted tone led Françoise Lavocat to interpret this enigmatic volume as a chronicle of unfulfilled dreams, a record of the plights Marinella faced while pursuing a literary career, and a final warning to other women.Footnote ¹⁶⁸ Cox points out that “while the formal conclusion of this pitiless analysis is defeatist…;[it] read[s] less as the traditionalist apologia it claims to be than a kind of extended j’accuse.”Footnote ¹⁶⁹ According to Laura Benedetti, the Essortationi never suggest that women “cannot reach or surpass men in their studies”; what Marinella offers, rather, “is advice on how women might operate in a world that does not accept their learning.”Footnote ¹⁷⁰ It is my conviction that an adequate interpretation of the development of Marinella’s pro-woman thought can only be provided by taking into account the protofeminist commitment that permeates Holocausto d’amore and erupts in passionate vindications of women’s aptitude for leadership that are reminiscent of some of the most scorching passages of La nobiltà;. The pro-woman vita of Saint Justina of Padua problematizes the hypothesis that in her old age, Marinella completely relinquished the protofeminist advocacy of her youth. Another element supporting this point is the very title of the Essortationi, which suggests that they are only the parte prima (first part) of what we can assume will be a series of books. But the parte seconda (second part) was never published, and instead Marinella issued Holocausto d’amore. Despite her disillusionment with earthly life in a patriarchal society, this hagiography demonstrates that Marinella’s hope for recognition of women’s excellence persisted. Perhaps, however, while her philogyny remained steadfast, its horizon progressively shifted from the earthly to the heavenly plane. Ultimately, as Holocausto d’amore confirms, Marinella remained faithful and dedicated to her protofeminist ideals until her death.

As noted by Eleonora Cappuccilli, the lives and reasoning of early modern women reveal the profound interpenetration of theological and political spheres: a “specificity of women’s political thought in the protomodern moment,” she writes, “lies in its…;connection with theological discourse, in the light of that hardly distinguishable interweaving of politics and religion, spirituality and rationality.”Footnote ¹⁷¹ This observation certainly finds resonance in the writings of Marinella, who, in her quest for a public voice, intersects sanctity and warfare, religion and politics, articulating a protofeminist reflection through the genre of the hagiography and by way of the composite figure of the martyr-Amazon-queen Justina. In the wake of Trent, Marinella’s portrayal of powerful womanhood may have been facilitated and tolerated due to her adherence to the hagiography genre and her embrace of the Venetian Republic’s military objectives. Limiting the study of Marinella to her lay works and considering her piety as a mere cover for a secular agenda means overlooking some of her most significant feminist insights and failing to notice their development across her writing career.