Discourse to Lady Lavinia His Daughter

“Here is a primary source that will offer fruitful ways for students and scholars to approach Joan Kelly's famous question: "Did women have a Renaissance?" It will also provoke students to think about the ways that family relationships were implicated in the cultural changes of the early modern era. . . . Like any good humanist, Guasco praises learning and exhorts his child to virtù. . . . Yet he also advises Lavinia on how to keep her small palace room neat, on how to deal with stubborn stains on silk dresses, and—more significantly—on how to interact with social betters and inferiors alike. The "how-to" aspects of Guasco's Discourse provide lively illustration of how Renaissance ideals might be translated into the everyday social practices of court life. . . . Much of the advice Guasco offers his daughter—to cherish her honor, control her tongue, regulate her gaze—may seem to rehearse conventional ideas about the importance of controlling women's sexuality. But, in many respects, similar advice was given to male courtiers; male or female, courtiers were expected to serve and to subdue their own wills. Her unusual education gave Lavinia Guasca singular opportunities to distinguish herself on the public stage of the court, and thus the possibility to exhibit virtù. . . . An excellent contribution to an important series.”